Minnesota Senate passes new SRO bill

Minnesota Senate passes new SRO bill

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(ABC 6 News) – On Monday afternoon, the Minnesota Senate voted to pass legislation clarifying school resource officer’s use of force in schools by a 57-9 vote.

In the summer of 2023, law enforcement agencies began pulling SROs from schools due to confusion on what an officer could or could not do when confronting an unruly student.

Officers previously expressed concerns that the 2023 law would limit their ability to do their jobs.

At the start of the 2024 session, DLFers introduced HF 3489 to clarify what was permissible for officers.

— RELATED: Minnesota House passes fix to SRO law, sending bill to Senate

The bill includes the ability for officers to “use reasonable force when it is necessary under the circumstances to correct or retrain a student to prevent bodily harm or death to the student or to another.”

The bill also allows reasonable force to be used by adults that are not SROs, such as a school employee, school bus driver or other agent of a district when necessary.

Reasonable force is allowed to restrain or correct a child, or in protective situations.

Previously, students and opponents of the updated bill spoke against the new bill, stating that allowing some restraints to be used on children puts students at additional risk.