St. Cloud Sen. Putnam Joins Call for Special Session

(KNSI) – A St. Cloud area lawmaker is joining Republicans in calling for a solution to the school resource officer crisis as a result of a bill passed last legislative session.

The changes took effect August 1st, which police say limits or prohibits an SRO’s ability to physically intervene, de-escalate situations, separate fighting students, restrain/control fighting students or hold aggressors on the floor.

Several police departments across the state have pulled out of their SRO agreements with schools due to the ambiguous nature of the law. The Champlin and Plymouth Police Departments are the most recent to announce an end to their respective programs.

Democrat Senator Aric Putnam says he’s in favor of a special session. “We definitely need to do something about this that’s definitive to bide us over until we get back in February. If that’s calling a special session to fix it now. If it’s some other kind of order or some other kind of statement. Those things are all things that we can do, but we have to do something because simply saying it’s not a problem is not a solution.”

Putnam says an executive order or legally binding statement from the attorney general’s office could also clear up confusion. Governor Tim Walz has said he will not call a special session, and Attorney General Keith Ellison referred some of the ambiguous languages to the legislature to fix.

Sen. Putnam says SROs can’t do their job if they are constantly worried about being sued or facing criminal charges. “Which is why we just need to make sure that the language is clear. So that there aren’t any kind of unintended consequences that create this difficulty, I don’t want an SRO having to consult a lawyer before they pull a kid off another kid.”

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