I wrote originally about the 2020 changes to the school incidents reporting law.
I have removed the content of this column in order to reconcile issues with the current reporting law, including 2022 changes, with the Department of Education.
I will repost it when those issues are resolved.
(comments below)
(comments below)
You bring up some valuable points. From the perspective of principals, student discipline is the game of hot potato. I call my supervisor and follow whatever he/she says and I make sure that the instructions are in writing. I have now passed the hot potato to him/her. Now on his/her watch, not mine.
It is set up as tails you lose, heads you lose.
Read DJ’s remarks and my response.
Are we finally seeing a “revolt of the principals” in Fairfax County?
The best solutions to cause crime to decline, according to the Dem Woke-aristas: decriminalize most crimes and then stop reporting on those left on the books…..brilliant. Peace in our Time!!!
Other than possession of marijuana, what actions have been “decriminalized”?
Rapes by a guy in a skirt in Loudoun; every crime in NYC and in every other Dem cities; etc, etc.
Can you provide a reference to the legislation that decriminalized rape, please? Also, add “every crime” in Dem cities to that request as well…
Fairfax County has twice the disciplinary incidents in the first semester as it recorded in the year ago semester.
Sounds like things are falling apart in FFX.
“One type of disciplinary incident — engaging in reckless behavior that creates a risk of injury to one’s self or to others — is included in the top 10 during the first semester of the current school year, but wasn’t in the top 10 during the same time frame of the last school year.”
That doesn’t sound good.
But, this is directly counter to Jim Sherlock’s narrative. According to him, because the laws are more lax and teachers and principals are discouraged from reporting incidents, the number of reports should be going down.
Seems like any principal would opt to report rather than not. I would not be surprised to see more reporting to law enforcement.
I suspect this year’s numbers undercount the incidents in FFX as well. The ones that leaked through the system now are just a lot more than leaked through the system the year before.
I suspect that reflects a revolt of the principals against a system that is making their schools chaotic..
God I hope so. About time.
Very little evidence that this so called “system” is making their schools chaotic. Clearly there is and has been a lot going on. One should not bet on a “revolt of the principals”.
Right. So, if both are true …. increased incidents despite under-reporting – we have a fiasco on our hands.
Or… there is no under-reporting…
I should also note that (as far as I can tell) none of the infractions cited in the article you provided are in any way impacted by the law enforcement reporting requirement changes to the law that Sherlock references. They are (and have been since at least 2003) exempted from mandatory law enforcement reporting.
You will never see these protest signs.
Protect Our Kids From Authoritarian Democrats Now.
DEI is Burning down public educ..doctrination centers.
Those may have been part and parcel of the Youngkin campaign. They would have fit nicely in his divisive approach.
Do you think you could share an example?
Executive order #1 which the court ruled could either be followed or not by local school boards and hence it served no real purpose. It was merely part of the CRT strawman along with the teacher tip line and the revamping of the history SOLs.
I’m having a hard time digesting the idea that it’s Dems who are exclusively against reducing violence in schools when there was a preventable school shooting in a bright red state last week.
You just wrote something that I never did.
My contention, backed up by the votes is that Democrats in Virginia organized as the majorities in the General Assembly and holding the governorship in 2020, is that Democrats with no Republican votes made the changes to the law I quoted, making assault and battery without bodily injury not reportable to police. Then they neglected to define “bodily injury”.
Once I looked it up, the Virginia Supreme Court has defined bodily injury so broadly that virtually any assault results in bodily injury. Certainly strangulation does.
Which means that Democrats made a change to the law that hinged on a term they did not define.
They could have written “serious bodily injury”, which is defined in 8VAC20-81-10 as follows: “Serious bodily injury” means bodily injury that involves substantial risk of death, extreme physical pain, protracted and obvious disfigurement, or protracted loss or impairment of the function of a bodily member, organ or mental faculty. (18 USC § 1365(h)(3); 34 CFR 300.530(i)(3))”
They did not do that, so bodily injury means what the Supreme Court of Virginia has found it means, with reference to 18 USC § 1365(h)(4)
(4) the term “bodily injury” means— (A) a cut, abrasion, bruise, burn, or disfigurement; (B) physical pain; (C) illness; (D) impairment of the function of a bodily member, organ, or mental faculty; or (E) any other injury to the body, no matter how temporary.
With that definition – including any physical pain or any other injury to the body no matter how temporary or slight – virtually all batteries should be called in to police.
And we know they are not.
I am interested.
Why do you think the General Assembly wrote and the governor signed a change to the law that hinged on “bodily injury” and no where defined it?
“You just wrote something that I never did.” Nope, disagree. Did you write this? “In the Battle between School Safety and Democrats, the Democrats are Winning.” That statement sets a dichotomy *between* two opposing positions (which the word “between” necessarily means): School safety is in a battle with Democrats.
“My contention, backed up by the votes is that Democrats in Virginia organized as the majorities in the General Assembly and holding the governorship in 2020, is that Democrats with no Republican votes made the changes to the law I quoted, making assault and battery without bodily injury not reportable to police. Then they neglected to define “bodily injury”.”
Your contention is 100% absolutely incorrect. As demonstrated above the “without bodily injury” exemption to calling the cops was a part of the existing legislation (was originally created by Dick Black and passed by Republican-controlled bodies in 2003). The only change this legislation did was to include other offenses where the principal is 100% positive that no felony was committed to the list of offenses that MAY be excluded from reporting to law enforcement (whether there was bodily harm or not). Please note that any principal can simply continue to handle reporting to law enforcement as was done before the law was passed and will remain in 100% compliance. It is really pretty straightforward.
…impairment of the function of a bodily member, organ, or mental faculty.
Interesting. That means if, say, a biology teacher, bores his students into a coma-like state with his droning monotone voice, that biology teacher has caused bodily injury to students and is subject to prosecution.
I wish I’d known that when I was in the 10th grade…
…impairment of the function of a bodily member, organ, or mental faculty.
Interesting. That means if, say, a biology teacher, bores his students into a coma-like state with his droning monotone voice, that biology teacher has caused bodily injury to students and is subject to prosecution.
I wish I’d known that when I was in the 10th grade…
I found ways to entertain myself in boring classes. Detention rectified some of those behaviors.
In truth, I was being a bit unfair to my 10th grade biology teacher. When I was bored in his class, he would send me out on school grounds to catch crickets, worms and other treats for the blue crab he kept in the salt water tank in his classroom.
By 10th grade I was much more interested in the application of practical biology involving 10th grade girls. It was a wonderful discovery that some of them were as interested as I was.
The study of the biological roots of fermentation was also coming up on the radar screens, as was the biological history of gasoline.
Girls, beer and cars were a heady mix. We were lucky we survived.
By 10th grade I was much more interested in the application of practical biology involving 10th grade girls. It was a wonderful discovery that some of them were as interested as I was.
The study of the biological roots of fermentation was also coming up on the radar screens, as was the biological history of gasoline.
Girls, beer and cars were a heady mix. We were lucky we survived.
The law is very clear and simple: “the principal shall immediately report to the local law-enforcement agency any act enumerated in clauses (ii) through (vii) of subsection A that may constitute a felony offense and may report to the local law-enforcement agency any incident described in subsection A”
If the assault does not cause any bodily harm, the principal is not required to call police – that is not new. Otherwise, unless they are 100% positive no felony has been committed law enforcement must be notified. When in doubt they are required to report to law enforcement – they are in no way required to act as a lawyer or judge. Of course, this was explained the last time this topic was broached here at BR… so… nothing new here.
Find in the Code of Virginia or the Virginia Administrative Code the definition of “bodily harm” upon which the change to the law hinges.
I’ll wait.
The exclusion of “no bodily harm” was part of the existing regulation and never required a call to law enforcement. Here is the relevant part of the bill that was passed with the edits included (emphasis added by me):
“…and may report to the local law-enforcement agency any incident described in clause (i) of subsection A.”
Clause (i) of subsection A is (and was) the following:
“(i) the assault or assault and battery, without bodily injury, of any person on a school bus, on school property, or at a school-sponsored activity”
Your beef is with whomever penned and passed the original legislation. Do you want me to research that for you…?
The “no bodily harm” exemption was a part of the existing legislation. The specific changes Democrats made are as follows (emphasis added by me):
“…and may report to the local law-enforcement agency any incident described in clause (i) of subsection A.”
Clause (i) of subsection A is (and was) the following:
“(i) the assault or assault and battery, without bodily injury, of any person on a school bus, on school property, or at a school-sponsored activity”
Your beef is with whomever penned and passed the original legislation. Do you want me to research that for you…?
Edit: The “no bodily harm” exclusion looks like it was inserted into the law in 2003 – introduced by Dick Black – both the Virginia Senate and House were controlled by Republicans that year so perhaps your complaint is with them.
It’s gone.
The exclusion of “no bodily harm” was part of the existing regulation and never required a call to law enforcement. Here is the relevant part of the bill that was passed with the edits included (emphasis added by me):
“…and may report to the local law-enforcement agency any incident described in clause (i) of subsection A.”
Clause (i) of subsection A is (and was) the following:
“(i) the assault or assault and battery, without bodily injury, of any person on a school bus, on school property, or at a school-sponsored activity”
Your beef is with whomever penned and passed the original legislation. Do you want me to research that for you…?
OMG! What is a principal to do if two friends get into fisticuffs that ends with a black eye, a bloodied lip, and a handshake?
Guess ya gotta call the cops!
Actually the original (2003 Republican-passed) legislation allowed for no cops for your basic fisticuffs. It maintains that exemption in the version the Dems passed. See my response to Sherlock below.
Except that assault and battery was clause 1 in that version of the law.
Read the current law.
I assume this all went through a subcommittee. Got the vote?
It’s tough determining an unambiguous application of the law. Ask John Yoo.
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