ST. PAUL – The Minnesota House on Monday approved a bill which Rep. Harry Niska, R-Ramsey, said aims to improve school safety after a change in law caused school resource officers to be removed from schools throughout the state.
“This has been a big issue in Andover and Anoka, where SROs were removed from school buildings last fall, leaving our students, teachers and staff unsafe,” Niska said. “It’s good the majority finally came around to understanding the gravity of their new law and started working with Republicans to fix the problem they created.
“While this is not the fast and full fix Republicans would have executed, fixing it late is better than never and fixing it halfway is better than not at all. I hope this bill eases concerns of law enforcement so SROs can get back to doing the important work they do so well.”
The issue traces back to an omnibus education bill (HF 2497) Democrats enacted into law in 2023, imposing new prohibitions on the use of force in schools, banning certain physical holds by “an employee or agent of a district, including a school resource officer, security personnel, or police officer contracted with a district."
Language in the new measure provides updates which exclude SROs as employees or agents of a school district, exclude SROs from the prohibitions on prone restraints and physical holds; revise the “reasonable force standard” and mandate school districts and charter schools use only trained SROs and establishes new training and model policy requirements for law enforcement.
The House approved the bill (H.F. 3489) 124-8 and it now awaits action in the Senate.
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