(KNSI) – A central Minnesota lawmaker says Democrats were trying to eliminate the state’s school resource officer program when they passed the education bill in May.
School districts and police departments, including St. Cloud, have cut ties and pulled SROs from buildings due to what police call ambiguous language in school discipline laws in the bill governing SROs. The law limits or prohibits school resource officers from physically intervening in fights or restraining an aggressor.
Little Falls Republican Representative Ron Kresha is on the education finance committee and told KNSI’s Dan “The OX” Ochsner this has been on the Governor’s wish list for a long time. “They had numerous bills to pull officers out of schools, and Governor Walz just accomplished that with intentful language. This language, and I want people to be very clear, was very intentful to remove school resource officers.”
Police say the change opens them up to criminal prosecution, and they can’t do their jobs with that fear hanging over their head.
Kresha says Minnesota needs a special session to do something now because SROs do more than just police the halls. “Let’s get us back to where school officers and police departments are comfortable being in the schools because frankly, they do a lot of good. They’re working with students…there’s so many good things happening there and to remove that relationship building opportunity is just bad.”
Governor Walz previously refused to call a special session to deal with the problem but walked back his earlier comments now, saying he’s open to anything that provides a solution to the issues, even if it means summoning lawmakers back to St. Paul.
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