Clay County Sheriff suspend SRO’s 2 schools

[admin]

Due to the recent change in the Department of Education law 121A.582, the Sheriff’s Office met with school officials from Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton and Ulen-Hitterdal to discuss the School Resource Officer (SRO) program. We mutually agreed that at this time, it would be best to temporarily suspend the SRO program until we receive clarity from our legislators and state agencies.

Minnesota State Statue 121A.582 regulates the use of force towards students by school employees and agents of the school. Before the recent law change, the law permitted reasonable use of force to “restrain a student or to prevent bodily harm or death of another.”

With the recent change in the law, it has stricken the word “or” and the authority to use reasonable force to restrain a student has been removed from law. With the change, reasonable force cannot be used to control a student who is damaging property, causing a disturbance, or acting out in a way that does not pose a threat of death or great bodily harm to another. For example, this would mean an SRO would not be able to use reasonable force to remove an already suspended student from the building if the student chooses to come back and cause a disturbance. In effect, this change has removed the SRO’s ability to restrain or to make an arrest on a student that is not threatening bodily harm or death.

The Sheriff’s Office will continue to work with and meet with our legislators to work through this very important and significant change. We are hoping this will be a temporary suspension to our SRO program and we will reinstate the program as soon as we are able.

The Sheriff’s Office continues to remain committed to our Schools and will be having our Patrol Deputies stopping in the schools throughout the day to ensure our students and staff are safe within our schools.

Thank you to Dilworth-Glyndon-Felton and Ulen-Hitterdal School Districts for your continued support of the SRO Program and your assistance to ensure we can reinstate the SRO program as soon as possible.

Also, thank you to Senator Rob Kupec and Representative Jim Joy for your assistance with this important and significant issue.

Sheriff Mark Empting