No Post-COVID School Crime Spike, CA Privacy Law Ruled Unconstitutional

This is our biweekly briefing on the latest school safety news, vetted by Mark Keierleber. Sign up below.

As the pandemic came to an end and students returned to in-person learning, the national sentiment around school safety and security grew dire.

After more than a year of learning from home and away from their friends, frenemies and rivals, educators reported that children brought back to school with them newfound behavioral challenges.

But new federal data — including on-campus assaults, bullying and thefts — complicate that narrative. Even as students’ mental health needs surged, the numbers suggest that school crime continued a downward trend that’s been ongoing for more than a decade.

These 10 charts explain how schools have grown less violent since COVID.

In the news

• Benched: A district court judge in Detroit has been temporarily barred from hearing cases after he ordered a teenager visiting his courtroom to be handcuffed after he caught her sleeping. Turns out, the girl struggled to stay awake during the field trip because she lacked a permanent home. | The New York Times

• A California student privacy law approved in 2022, which prohibits social media companies from using children’s personal information, likely violates the First Amendment, a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals panel ruled. | The Sacramento Bee

• Not liable: A Texas jury found the parents of the gunman who carried out the 2018 school shooting in Santa Fe, which killed 10 and injured 13 others, could not be held legally responsible for the mayhem. Victims’ families alleged the parents acted negligently when they failed to prevent the attack. The shooter was found mentally unfit to stand trial and remains hospitalized. | Houston Public Media

• A failure by the San Diego school district to protect kids from sexual harassment and abuse led to “serial perpetration,” a federal civil rights investigation found. | Axios

• ‘ Juvenile Crime, Adult Time’: Florida children charged as adults for felony crimes get longer sentences on average than older, adult offenders, a Miami Herald investigation found. | Miami Herald

• ZeroEyes, an AI-powered gun detection company, announced a partnership with the New York Boards of Cooperative Educational Services that gives school districts across the state access to “pre-negotiated, discounted prices.”  | PR Newswire

• Calendar invite: The National Center for Youth Law will host an Aug. 27 webinar on youth voting rights, where experts will “share their insights into empowering 16 and 17 year olds to participate in our democracy.” | National Center for Youth Law

• In Las Vegas, a weapons detection system caused substantial delays at a high school football game, frustrating dozens of students and parents who were left waiting away from the field well past kickoff. | News 3

• Gaggle, a surveillance tool that monitors students’ online communications, has been rolled out in Ohio’s biggest school district. | Ohio Capital Journal
  • Read my Gaggle investigation : Meet the Gatekeepers of Students’ Private Lives

• A new Tennessee law lets teachers carry guns to class, but so far there haven’t been any takers. | Chalkbeat

• Google Classroom “undermines children’s privacy and data protection, potentially infringing children’s other rights,” according to new research. | ScienceDirect

• The Department of Homeland Security is out with a new guide designed to help educators spot the warning signs of online child sexual exploitation and abuse. | DHS

• Between 2020 and 2022, the number of youth locked up in juvenile justice facilities fell by a staggering 75%. | The Sentencing Project

• Hooray for heroes: A Colorado school bus driver is being credited with saving the lives of more than a dozen kids after the bus went up in flames during the commute home. | NY Daily News

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ICYMI @The74

• My colleague Amanda Geduld caught up with teen activist Rhea Maniar to discuss how abortion could prompt a surge in youth voter turnout .

• The Supreme Court won’t stop states that refuse to enforce new Biden administration Title IX rules that sought to protect LGBTQ+ youth from school-based discrimination.

Who Wrote Texas’s Million Dollar, Bible-Infused Curriculum ? The State Won’t Say.

Opinion: Fifty years after the passage of FERPA,  the primary federal student privacy law needs a refresh for the AI era.

Emotional support

I hope you find my roundup on the latest school crime stats to be stimulating.

Matilda did not.