OKPOLICY.ORG
Steve Lewis served as Speaker of the Oklahoma House of Representatives from 1989-1991. He currently practices law in Tulsa and represents clients at the Capitol. You can sign up on his website to receive the Capitol Updates newsletter by email.
You can probably look for some attention to the issue of school discipline next session in the wake of a lawsuit filed in Kentucky after a “school resource officer” handcuffed an 8-year old, 52-pound boy. The handcuffs were too big for the boy’s wrists so the officer handcuffed him around the biceps. In the video of the incident that went viral the officer looks to weigh at least 200 pounds. The boy, diagnosed with ADHD, was unruly in the classroom. The principal’s office called in the officer after the teacher’s efforts to “deescalate” the situation failed and the boy tried to leave the principal’s office. The officer took the boy to the restroom where the boy “elbowed” the officer. Kentucky school regulations prohibit restraining students in a public school unless the “students’ behavior poses an imminent danger of physical harm to self or others.” The officer’s boss, the county sheriff, defended the officer’s actions.
In Oklahoma use of mechanical restraints is regulated by statute in various juvenile and mental health facilities, but I found nothing in the school code or regulations dealing with the situation. (That’s not to say it’s not there, but I didn’t find it). Probably no one foresaw the need to regulate the use of handcuffs in schools before the relatively recent presence of law enforcement officers. This is one of those political thickets that most policymakers tread lightly. It’s a no-win situation. If a violent tragedy occurs at a school and there’s no law enforcement presence to “protect” the students, administrators are subject to criticism. The irresistible tendency is to err on the side of safety. But once officers are placed in schools, absent a threat to security, they need work to do.
What has happened is that the officers have in many places become a fixture in the continuum of student discipline. The officers busy themselves investigating “cases,” searching lockers and cars, breaking up arguments and fights, writing “police reports” and recommending or in some schools actually determining some punishments. None of this has much to do with the original purpose of preventing some nut with a weapon from crashing into a school and killing people. But it creates an atmosphere of law enforcement in the school. Teachers and administrators that once were expected to handle discipline problems turn them over to the police. But if a serious crime does happen at the school such as a rape or assault are these the officers best qualified to investigate? One wonders.
“Probably no one foresaw the need to regulate the use of handcuffs in schools before the ** relatively recent ** presence of law enforcement officers.”
This is not a recent event for police officers to be in schools. I graduated from Oklahoma City Public Schools in 1972, and there were “off duty” police officers at all three high schools I attended in Oklahoma from 1971-1974.