Sen. Jennifer McClellan, D-Richmond
The Virginia legislature has passed measures to eliminate the requirement that school leaders report certain criminal offenses to law enforcement, legislation that Republicans say could make schools less safe.
House Bill 257 from Del. Mike Mullin, D-Newport News, and Senate Bill 729 from Sen. Jennifer McClellan, D-Richmond, would remove the stipulation that school principals report potential misdemeanors to police while still giving the school leaders the option to do so.
The legislation is part of a broader push by Democrats to address the school-to-prison pipeline, which disproportionately affects students of color.
“There has not been a fair and equitable relationship between school incidents and who ends up in the courtroom,” said Mullin, an assistant prosecutor in Hampton.
The measure “gives school officials a tool to manage certain disciplinary infractions without mandatory reporting to law enforcement,” the Virginia Education Association, the Virginia School Boards Association, the Virginia Association of School Superintendents, the Virginia Association of Secondary School Principals and the Legal Aid Justice Center said in a joint statement.
The bills have passed both chambers and now head to Gov. Ralph Northam. Alena Yarmosky, a spokeswoman for Northam, declined to say whether the governor would sign the bills.
“The governor will carefully review these bills when they reach his desk,” she said.
Current law requires principals to report all criminal offenses to law enforcement. The bills change the word “criminal” to “felony” while saying principals “may report” any of the offenses, such as assault and battery, to police.
“This legislation is about removing the zero tolerance policies that push too many students into the criminal justice system, particularly our minority students,” said VEA President Jim Livingston. “It’s time we move away from a one-size-fits-all approach to reporting and tap into the experience and expertise of our front-line school principals.”
In Henrico County, for example, black students made up 36% of enrollment but 65% of referrals to law enforcement, according to the most recent data from the U.S. Department of Education in the 2015-16 school year. Similarly disproportional rates are found in districts across the state.
In the joint statement, the education advocacy organizations criticized current law for not considering students’ age or disability status when requiring certain incidents be reported to police, and praised the new legislation for allowing “for more thoughtful analysis before a decision is made on involving law enforcement.”
The bills would still require that schools tell parents of incidents involving their children.
“By bringing some discretion back to school officials, these bills would thereby allow input from those parents to help guide some of the decision-making of how to proceed,” the statement said.
House Minority Leader Todd Gilbert, R-Shenandoah, said in a statement that the new policy would “make our students, teachers, and school personnel significantly less safe.”
Gilbert, a former prosecutor in the city of Lynchburg and in Shenandoah, Warren and Frederick counties, said: “Administrators should have some leeway over when to involve law enforcement in disciplinary problems — but instances of sexual battery, stalking, and threats against teachers and staff are not discipline problems. They are serious crimes with real victims that need to be investigated and prosecuted.”
The legislature has already approved bills from Mullin and McClellan that would change state law so that students could not be found guilty of disorderly conduct for actions in school.
Northam has until April 6 to sign or veto the bills.
