Law Commons^™

Addressing Utah’S School To Prison Pipeline, Tyler B. Bugden

Utah Law Review

Utah’s STTP problem needs to be resolved. Zero tolerance policies, the limited constitutional rights of students, the police power of school administrators, the injection of SROs into our schools without clear job responsibilities and training, and the imbalance of power between students and state actors all contribute to Utah’s biased STPP. To address the STPP, researchers encourage: the expansion of legal protections for juveniles; the re-training of SROs and employment contracts that clearly define SROs’ responsibilities; the use of restorative justice practices and other evidence-based alternatives to the juvenile justice system; and reforming the discretionary power of state actors to …

Handcuffing A Third Grader? Interactions Between School Resource Officers And Students With Disabilities, Elizabeth A. Shaver, Janet R. Decker

Utah Law Review

The expansion of police involvement at schools has had serious implications for students with disabilities. By enacting IDEA, Congress recognized that these students deserve special protections and entitlements. In the most recent amendments to this federal law, Congress included important guidelines regarding functional behavioral assessments (FBAs) and behavior intervention plans (BIPs) to outline how school personnel must respond to undesired behavior of students with disabilities. Recognizing the special behavioral needs of students with disabilities is one way to reduce the current reality where students with disabilities are suspended, expelled, restrained, and secluded at much higher rates than their peers.

Although …