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Legalize crime in schools? It’s on track to become a reality if Colorado’s SB-182 passes and is signed into law by Governor Jared Polis.
What are the intentions of this legislation?
“A school resource officer or other law enforcement officer shall not arrest a student of the school, or issue a summons, ticket, or other notice requiring the appearance of a student of the school in court or at a police station for investigation, for conduct that constitutes any of the following offenses allegedly committed on the school’s grounds, in a school vehicle, or at a school activity or sanctioned event.”
What are those offenses that a student cannot be disciplined or even arrested for as found in Section 6 of the bill?
Physically attacking staff or students
Disorderly conduct
Theft
Trespass or criminal trespass
Criminal mischief including vandalism
Harassment
Drugs and drug possession
Causing bodily injury that isn’t serious
Read the above again, out loud. Yes, it says exactly what you think it says. According to Leslie Herod, one of the supposed authors of the bill, this effort will end the school-to-prison pipeline and will ensure all disproportionate discrimination against blacks or hispanics will magically stop.
“We introduced Senate Bill 182 in the Colorado General Assembly this year because school discipline does not have to only result in a punitive outcome like tickets and arrests. We believe schools need strong mental health services, trauma-informed approaches, and discipline codes that reflect age-appropriate discipline. Evidence-based inclusionary approaches to discipline like restorative justice programs can help students process disciplinary incidents and develop the tools they need to help ensure that infractions don’t happen again as they did for us. Kids need to be kids, they need to make mistakes and have the room to learn from those mistakes without jeopardizing their entire future.”
Gosh. That sounds wonderful doesn’t it?? Discrimination will stop, as will any violence in schools. Teen gangs will keep all mischief and violence off school grounds, and once a student has had counseling, no more bullying or drugs! This will stop the epidemic!!
However, as Dan Caplis notes here, and the attorney for Boulder Valley school district note, the bill has some gaping flaws in it. BIG ONES.
“In response to a school board question, Boulder Valley legal counsel Kathleen Sullivan noted police would not be able to arrest a student who committed a similar assault in school as the one committed years ago by the suspect in the mass shooting at the south Boulder King Soopers.
The suspect was convicted of misdemeanor assault in 2018 while he was a student at Arvada West High School and given probation, according to police reports. Sullivan said an assault at a school would need to result in serious bodily injury for an arrest to be made under the bill.
The third degree assault that the Boulder shooter was convicted of? The victim was throwing up, bleeding from nose and mouth, and had his right eye swollen shut. This horrendous piece of legislation would keep the school and especially law enforcement from bringing charges against the perp for the same thing. That’s right, if this law had been in place then, the Boulder shooter would’ve walked.
New from me, on a bill seeking to ban handcuffing of Colorado elementary school students (it happens more often than you might think) and limit the school-to-prison pipeline. All 9 members of the Black caucus will sponsor it. https://t.co/rBLkBSLxKy
— Alex Burness (@alex_burness) March 12, 2021
No, this bill isn’t as simple as that. It’s way more complex and dangerous. This legislation is eerily similar to what was in place, still is for that matter, in Broward County schools. If that name doesn’t sound familiar, it should. That county and school district were all about canceling the school-to-prison pipeline as well. As with Broward County, this school discipline bill will ensure that there is zero consequences for any type of crime committed on school grounds. ZERO. It will legalize crime, just as it did in Broward County.
Beat someone up? Get sent to the alternative school. Perform well there? Back into the mainstream school you go with teachers left unaware and eventually blindsided by that student’s dangerous behavior. Drugs? No big deal, let’s just have a stern talking to from the designated teacher who is now to be trained in how to utilize some acceptable law enforcement practices to “fix” the issue, but no handcuffs!
Oh yes, that’s correct. This school discipline bill purports to have designated teachers trained to do the SRO’s (School Resource officer) job. SRO’s will only be involved if things get super serious as in more awful than beating a kid to a pulp, physically attacking a teacher, or sexually assaulting another student. Oh and forget about reporting bullying, there will be zero consequences for that as well.
The leniency baked into this legislation will essentially legalize crime in Colorado schools. All in the name of being woke. All in the name of pandering to activists who don’t care about the students, nor the teachers.
At Parkland, teachers were left criminally unaware of how dangerous the Parkland shooter really was to them and the students there. All because of the leniency baked into the school-to-prison pipeline lunacy.
Colorado doesn’t need this. School districts NEED to be able to hold students accountable for dangerous behavior. This school discipline bill will do the very opposite.
Welcome Instapundit Readers!
Feature Photo Credit: School hallway via Pixabay, cropped and modified
Art the Nerd says: If the activities are legalized, in what sense are they “crimes”? At worst they seem to be “discouraged behaviors.”
Shawn Franklin says: Discouraged behavior = attending school!
GWB says: The actions will still be crimes, according to statute.
They’ll just be exempted when committed within the sanctuary of school grounds.
NTSOG says: Restorative justice? The only response possible to the use of this ‘intervention’ is the old joke: ‘How many social workers does it take to change a light bulb?’ Answer: ‘One, but the light bulb has to want to change.’
Certainly positive intervention is required to teach and reinforce appropriate behaviour, though I’m sure that the majority of offenders in schools already know how they should behave, but they choose to be take advantage and misbehave – as some young groups/gangs do. However there also needs to be the possibility of serious sanctions. In other words both the proverbial ‘carrot’ and the ‘stick’ both need to be available. In my 40 years working with behavioural problem children in schools I prepared many positive behavioral intervention plans, but each program also had a section called Reactive Interventions which detailed punitive sanctions including physical restraint as required and referral to Police in serious cases of assault. Aside from the individual children who misbehave in serious ways, there is the collateral damage to the other children and the staff in schools when the behaviour problem children are allowed to run amok. It appears though that the welfare of the majority is of less importance to the SJW fools in their self-proclaimed virtue.
GWB says: And, in cases of the sorts who will grow up and become problems to society in general, I can guarantee that the “punitive sanctions” won’t mean much if they don’t include actual pain and suffering for the individual. A belt to the behind will work wonders for a budding sociopath if done early and often enough.
Scott says: Why are people so stupid that they don’t realize that this is exactly what you get, each and every time, when you vote to put democrats in control?
Scott says: Oooh, and one more reason to homeschool, as if you needed any more..
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robert krzeminski says: Maybe the next best step is mandatory neutering of all students when they enter the 1st grade. Then they won’t have to worry about their sex choice, what they have or don’t have, or how to use, or who to use it on, concerning their sex choice and chosen or not chosen sex choice or equipment….but this will also make them all more docile and better robot Democrats! Though they may be potentially, “greater whiners” and more prone to temper tantrums, especially if they lose a contest, or do not receive a trophy for their efforts, in which case we can make, “lying” and accusing others of their own evil deeds, acceptable and allow all ,”Democrat” students a free pass to do any damn they please, without consequences!
Bevo Francis says: Sadly the “indoctrination” people are at it again. The fact is that there is are a great many people who are violating laws committing many different crimes every day who never face the consequences of their actions.
Think back to your school yard bully. Unless and until the “people” in the school yard stand up and take action with real consequents against the bullies such as a two by four along the side of their heads we will never see a peaceful society.
The most recent examples are of cities and states being over run by so called “peaceful protestors” burning, rioting and destroying personal properties. They refuse to use “SERIOUS AND PAINFUL CONSEQUENCES” TO STOP THE CRIMINALS.
GWB says: ^^THIS^^
Bob dobolina says: Are white kids going to be allowed to gang up and beat on ethnics? Because we know the reverse will happen. You fight one beaner you fight the whole burrito.
Cameron says: Maybe the white kids should look in to starting branches of the Soldiers of Odin in their school to counter that problem.
Strelnikov says: The fact that all these crimes are routinely committed at schools argues in favor of doing away with compulsive school attendance. As a former teacher back in the 70s, I can tell you that 90% of these problems are the result of forcing near adults to attend against their wishes. Let them leave if they want.
BonHagar says: Up next, Colorado legislature will pass a law to nullify ‘mistakes’ kids make at school.
GWB says: because school discipline does not have to only result in a punitive outcome like tickets and arrests
Well, yes, it shouldn’t normally result in tickets and arrests. But it shouldn’t result in that because it should not rise above the level of the school disciplinary tools. Of course, when you’re a progressive and have thrown all of those tools out, you’re left with… police action.
they need to make mistakes
These aren’t mistakes, they are willful acts against their fellow students and the staff. Therapeutic language is absolutely wrong when dealing with crimes. A mistake is giving the wrong answers on a math exam (for now); beating up the nerdy kid is NOT.
without jeopardizing their entire future
Well, it wouldn’t jeopardize their future if you dealt with it ‘in house’ and didn’t call police for something that a solid board to the backside might stop. Progressives have no grasp of the concept of consequences reinforcing or de-incentivizing behavior.
result in serious bodily injury
And note that “serious bodily injury” will be determined at least partly by the skin colors of the people involved. Because Progressives and CRT.
that the Boulder shooter was convicted of
As if that mattered! It didn’t get treated harshly enough to flag his NICS record.
handcuffing of Colorado elementary school students
Mind you, this IS a serious problem. If you can’t handle a 9yo without handcuffs, then you’re doing something seriously wrong. Of course, if you can’t handle a 9yo without involving the cops then you’re already doing something very, very wrong.
will ensure that there is zero consequences for any type of crime committed on school grounds
But the only reason that matters is because there are already zero consequences for bad behavior on school grounds. It’s why they have to call the police. Can we see the slippery slope, yet?
designated teachers trained to do the SRO’s (School Resource officer) job
Except for the gun thing. No guns, because teachers are not adequately authoritative figures in the totalitarian state. We have to leave that to the cops because they are trained SO well when it comes to use of force. [deletes rant on how lousy of a shot most cops in CA are]
School districts NEED to be able to hold students accountable for dangerous behavior.
And they should be doing it internally. I guarantee that the Parkland shooter would have been a different person if he had actually received discipline for some of his earliest misbehaviors, instead of therapeutic efforts.
Progressivism is a cult of suicide for a society, though its adherents think otherwise. But that’s because they believe that man can be made pure and perfect and thereby usher in heaven on earth. Shorter: they’re idiots about human nature.
NTSOG says: “Punitive sanctions”: yes, they have to suffer some real and serious consequence for their bad behaviour that scares the daylights out of them and shows them that such behaviour is absolutely not negotiable before they start to change their behaviour.
“If you can’t handle a 9yo without handcuffs, then you’re doing something seriously wrong.”
I would bet that many of those acting aggressively at school are also beating up their mothers at home. The number of assaults on parents, especially mothers, is escalating in Western society. As school staff are predominantly women they are also targeted. 9 YO children who would not dare test the authority of a reasonably fit and strong adult male will go after women knowing that the majority aren’t strong enough to take them down.
GWB says: When, in Ye Olden Dayes, any halfway decent father would have beat the tarnation out of a child who hit their mother.
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