Area school chiefs still assessing new laws on fighting, bullying

While the superintendents of Cape Girardeau and Jackson school districts say new mandatory reporting laws about fighting and bullying likely won’t mean significant change to disciplinary procedure, they also say the adjustments are ongoing.

Two Missouri statutes that went into effect Jan. 1 concern third-degree assault and first-degree harassment and modify what schools are required to report to law enforcement.

For years, schools have been required to report a variety of incidents, including third-degree assault. But one of the new laws changes third-degree assault from a misdemeanor to a Class E felony.

Some school districts such as Hazelwood and Ferguson-Florissant have expressed concerns the change may exacerbate disciplinary and retention problems rather than discourage students from fighting.

Some districts have sent home letters notifying parents of the new law, but the Cape Girardeau and Jackson school districts aren’t seeing the change as something that warrants such action —not yet, at least.

John Link

James Welker, Cape Girardeau school superintendent, said the changes are more likely to affect law-enforcement procedure than school policy.

“We currently work closely with law enforcement,” he said. “I don’t think in terms of our procedures that’s going to change a whole lot.”

Jackson school superintendent John Link said much the same, emphasizing his district’s focus on proactive intervention.

“We get [school resource officers] involved early and then together we sit down with juveniles to make a determination whether or not that should be sent on to juvenile [law enforcement] to follow up or whether it’s a school incident,” he said.

He said though Jackson schools comply with

mandatory reporting laws and will continue to do so, ways of exercising discretion exist within the disciplinary system.

Susan Goldammer, a staff attorney with the Missouri School Board Association, said that’s the case at most schools. While a fistfight or bullying could technically constitute a felony, most cases are handled with more discretion.

“You have to be 17 years old to be charged with a felony, so even if outside law enforcement decides to take action, [for] the vast majority of kids in school, it would go through the juvenile courts system,” she said. “School districts are required to report it, but law enforcement isn’t required to arrest anybody. ... In Missouri, we have a lot of common-sense, good people working as law enforcers, prosecutors and juvenile officers who will bring context. And that’s a good thing.”

She said some concern is warranted, however, because the new laws strengthen the mandatory reporting structure that already was controversial. While some see law enforcement in schools as a safety and disciplinary boon, others say involving law enforcement in school discipline is too severe a measure and disproportionately harms black and Hispanic students.

The Cape Girardeau School District has five school-resource officers, and the Jackson district has two.

But while the law about assault has gotten a lot of attention, Goldammer said the school board association is more concerned about the other statute that has made harassment a Class E felony.

“The offense is now very broad,” she said.

A person commits first-degree harassment if, according to the statute’s text, “he or she, without good cause, engages in any act with the purpose to cause emotional distress to another person, and such act does cause such person to suffer emotional distress.”

The law is not practical, Goldammer said.

“Little kids get distressed about a lot of things, bullying being one of them. ... There’s a lot of non-criminal behavior that gets scooped up with that,” Goldammer said.

Some, such as the school board association, worry the new law could lead to a sharp increase in reporting to law enforcement, depending on how administrations interpret the statute.

If applied as broadly as the language seems to permit, it could result in inappropriate punishment or inappropriate use of law enforcement.

While the law may be designed to combat bullying, Goldammer said her organization worries it may do so at too high a cost.

“My little sister caused me emotional distress most of my childhood and it might have been intentional, but I don’t think she should go to jail for it,” she said. “Kids are learning how to be adults. ... There are kids that bully. There are kids who get bullied. There are kids that say things that they shouldn’t in the heat of the moment when they shouldn’t, and I don’t think that’s something that should require contact to law enforcement.”

Local schools are confronting some uncertainty about the harassment statute.

Welker and Link said they still are researching and consulting to see whether policy changes would be appropriate.

Welker, however, is confident the district’s existing guidelines are sufficient, even under the new law.

“Unless there is more directive or clarification, which is always possible with new laws,” Welker said. “But at this point, I don’t see a huge impact or change in what we do. Our procedures, our process as far as working with law enforcement is going to stay the same.”

While Link acknowledged the idea of mandatory reporting and the uncertainty surrounding it could be scary, “especially from a parent’s standpoint. If you’re the parent of a 15-, 16-year-old and emotions run high at that level ... we want to err on the side of the student, and we don’t want to label that child as a felon because of a mistake that they made,” he said. “We’re going to follow the law, we’re going to do what the law says we have to do, but we’re also going to protect our kids.”

He said a lawyer is scheduled to help the Jackson administration evaluate its practices this month to ensure the district is still in compliance.

“I think most schools are in the same boat; it kind of snuck up on us. ... There just hasn’t been a lot of information sent out to schools on this law until just recently. ... I think if it’s an incident that needs reported to the police, our folks make a pretty good determination to make that report,” Link said. “I don’t think this new law will change the way we do business at Jackson.”

Cape Girardeau school-resource officers spent Friday afternoon with Cape Girardeau police chief Wes Blair, according to police spokesman Sgt. Adam Glueck.

He said the new law was part of the reason for the meeting, which also reviewed the memorandum of understanding between the schools and police department to determine whether it needs updating because of the new statutes.

tgraef@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3627