Minnesota Youth Council Issues Statement on School Resource Officer Guidance

(KNSI) — The Minnesota Youth Council has issued a statement regarding suspending School Resource Officer programs across the state in light of a new law limiting or prohibiting how an SRO can physically intervene in certain situations.

A provision in the education bill signed into law by Governor Tim Walz prevents putting students in the prone position, which subjects them to “comprehensive restraint on the head, neck and across most of the torso.” Some law enforcement officials say that effectively bans common tactics for breaking up fights and other dangerous situations.

The council is made up of a “legislatively-created group of young people tasked with providing guidance to the state legislature and the Governor on issues impacting young people,” says it does not support the reopening or amending of this law, adding it “believes that all students have a right to a school environment that is safe and welcoming.” As a group of lawmakers and Chiefs of Police in Minnesota urge the Governor to call a special session to address new guidance around the conduct of Student Resource Officers in schools, the youth leaders of the Minnesota Youth Council “stand strongly in support of the language on school staff use of restraint methods as introduced and passed in the 2023-24 legislative session.”

Several lawmakers have asked for a special session, and police departments have echoed those calls, suspending SRO programs until there can be a legislative fix. Locally, the St. Cloud, St. Joseph and Waite Park police departments or city councils have left buildings in St. Cloud Area School District 742 without SROs. Departments say the language in the law is too vague and ambiguous, opening officers up to civil liability or criminal prosecution just for doing their jobs.

The council argues that “reworking Minnesota statute 121A.58 could lead to SROs having less restrictions and causing more harm to students in their communities. This section of law protects, supports, and addresses the safety needs of students in Minnesota by restricting the kinds of holds SROs can use against them.”

The group adds it is particularly concerned about the differential experience with SROs by students of color compared to their white peers. They say according to the Urban Institute, “Schools where Black or Latinx students make up at least 80% of the students are more likely to have an SRO present on school grounds compared with schools with high concentrations of white students, regardless of income level.” And, while “Black students represented 15% of enrolled students but made up more than 30% of students who experienced a suspension, expulsion, or school arrest.”

“In schools the presence of SROs is not necessarily viewed as a universal good,” says Minnesota Youth Council member and Minneapolis Washburn High School student Charlie Schmit. “Some students view SROs in a negative way and many students report SROs contribute to increased feelings of stress and fear. This law helps to assure safe school environments by clearly identifying SROs roles in school and hopefully it will lead to further training and discussion to ensure all learning environments for students are safe.”

The Minnesota Youth Council believes that the law clearly outlines how an SRO should intervene in conflict situations, and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison’s August 22nd letter to Minnesota Department of Education Commissioner Jett clarifies this issue even more.

In Ellison’s opinion, the amendments do not limit the types of force that school employees and agents may use to prevent bodily harm or death but retain the instruction that force must be “reasonable” in those situations.

What is “reasonable” is up to interpretation, and agencies say it is still too ambiguous.

Additionally, the Minnesota Youth Council’s Educational Equity Committee recently provided the author of the legislation, Representative Samantha Sencer-Mura, with a feedback letter further expounding on their support of the new guidance.

At least 44 Democrats have gone on record saying they are not interested in a special session to discuss the issue. Governor Walz has also said he wouldn’t entertain it but seemed to lighten up on that position at a back to school event earlier this month, saying, “We all want a solution,” but right now, he’s not sure what that looks like, however, he is “certainly open to anything that provides a solution” even if it means the Legislature works it out.

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