[Music] good morning members afterno good a right um just kidding good afternoon members it's February 14th Quorum is present in the Minnesota Senate education policy committee will now come to order today we're hearing Senate file 3534 um I just want to welcome some new people to the committee since last time we met Dana has um begrudgingly um decided to come back for one more session so I just want to welcome her back my new CLA Chelsea we're going to miss Reagan a great deal Chelsea um will f
ill her shoes I want to also welcome the um the pages wherever they are right now Spencer olon Luke SE and John Bridges I want to thank all members of the critical staff that gets the work done behind the scenes that never get acknowledged for their hard work and again Senators on the committee I um appreciate all the work and time you put into um education and um so with that said does um do we Senator kunish would you care to um make a mo thank you Mr chair yes I saw move that uh I saw move um
Senate file 3534 for consideration thank you Senator weslin I don't know how you can miss me in this room I well it um very festive when you're ready thank you Senator good afternoon uh chair swedzinski and members um I I make note of my red suit I know everyone has sort of assumed I wearing it for Valentine's Day today but I I did want to acknowledge that today is missing and murdered IND IND indigenous relatives Remembrance Day and so I did wear this suit in remembrance of those um we have lo
st uh it is also Valentine's Day and it just happen St that I'm wearing red I do want to thank you today uh for this hearing on this very important bill on our school resource officers and for providing the opportunity for members of the public to participate in this discussion as a threshold matter representative Frasier our house author and I have been clear that our guiding North Star on this first priority and our first priority throughout our many meetings and conversations on this topic ha
s been our children our work has been centered on the foundational belief that our schools are institutions of learning and our expect expectation that all adults working in our schools should be there and are there to provide a safe and supportive learning environment for every student that every person should be part of a team that supports the shared objective of teaching our kids and helping them on their road to becoming and we have been clear also about the social context within which this
conversation arose and in which it continues the work to ban chokeholds and comprehensive restraints over the past few legislative sessions has been in response to the murder of our neighbor George Floyd and our commitment to making sure that tragedy never occurs again and the leg ISL passed a ban on those the use of dangerous choke holds and compressive restraints that impede the ability for individuals to breathe or communicate distress and I want to stress this that has not changed that ban
remains in place in this process we have reviewed existing SRO contracts some of which required SRO training and many that did not most contracts outline duties that are consistent with what we have included in this bill we have dedicated more than 60 plus hours meeting with and listening to stakeholder groups including Community groups education management organizations Education Minnesota law enforcement the Attorney General's office we have had input from representatives of the administration
including the Department of Education and the Department of Public Safety and we have listened carefully to everyone as we worked on drafting this bill we included many things that proposed that were proposed by stakeholders and as with all compromises and all negotiations nobody got everything that they wanted representative Frasier and I with input also from our house and Senate colleagues have worked hard to come up with a comprehensive approach to school resource officers that we believe br
ings not only Clarity but uniformity around the definition and the duties of an SRO the training requirements that they should have before working in our schools and ultimately a postboard model policy that will set the standard for accountability going forward next and I want to stress this as well the ultimate decision about with whether or not a community wishes to engage SRO to work in their schools is a local decision and we encourage every District to engage students and parents and commun
ity members in full and thoughtful discussions on this topic ensuring that all voices are heard as it stands now there are approximately 300 SRO in our state and the majority of schools do not have SRO for any number of reasons this will continue to be a matter of local control however when a district and a community determined that they would like to engage SRO in their schools this should not be a matter simply left to individual contracts between law enforcement agencies and school districts
as it is currently there should be minim minimum standards and there should be minimum requirements that are uniform throughout our state we have used this opportunity to build on the organizational structure of SRO to require specific responsibilities and policies that must be a component of SRO contracts going forward and provide the resources to adequately train sro's this bill requires a new postboard model policy that must specifically ident identify strategies to minimize the use and the d
uration of any prone restraint by sro's that imposes a duty for SRO to render care and requires alternative procedures to deescalate conflicts this legislation explicitly prohibits SRO from the administration of student discipline which is common in all of the contracts that we reviewed it requires Sr to help promote a positive School climate also a common component to the contracts we reviewed and it requires further stakeholder engagement in the development of the SRO model policy including an
d especially input from community and youth groups and the Minnesota Council on disability the training will emphasize juvenile brain development deescalation techniques and skill building the impact of childhood trauma on our kids how to respond to students experiencing a mental health crisis and how to understand and work with students with disabilities and students receiving educational Support Services I am convinced as I hope you will be that each of these components the required duties and
responsibilities of SRO the model policy the training requirements what will not only provide Clarity but a child focused and a child- centered approach to the role of sro's within our schools and promote a positive learning environment for all students thank you Mr chairman thank you Senator Miss Lewis would you be willing to take us on a walkth through thank you yes uh Mr chair members uh if you pull out the bill language I'll just do a um brief walk through uh on um on page one section one i
s a definition section and provides a uh definition to clarify that um a school resource officer is not an employee or agent of a district um then on section two which is then on page two uh um strikes references to uh school resource officers or security personnel from uh um the the use of um a Prohibition on the use of prints in certain physical holds section three is the reasonable Force standard that is applicable um in schools and uh it strikes the word imminent from the um the standard tha
t applies to teachers or school principals in exercising their lawful Authority then uh P page three section uh um section four is again the definition um and that a school resource officer is not a School employee or agent of the district section five is uh for school districts when they're or School boards when they're Contracting for services uh requires them to uh ensure that the school resource officer contract meet the requirements that are contained in um in this legislation section six i
s the same requirement of a school board um that goes towards a charter school board um if they are hiring a school resource officer section six seven excuse me is the beginning of um sections that are not part of the um education policy committee's jurisdiction but it um they relate to the first one relates to when uh reasonable force is authorized and there are Provisions that um uh that apply to teachers and school principals and other agents of the districts which um you'll find those uh cha
nges are um really clarifications on page four uh then section eight is the uh standard for uh reasonable force and adds a paragraph um on page five um that uh um states that nothing in the section will limit the other authorization of reasonable Force including those that are in the Education Code as well as in um section seven of this uh legislation then section nine is the beginning of the um requirements and uh for school resource officers as well as their training and then a um model policy
that is developed by the um post board and who is um consulted in developing that policy and then uh section 10 which is on the bottom of page page eight is the appropriation um to the Department of Public Safety thank you Miss Lewis we have a number of testifiers today I appreciate all of you coming in and taking time out of your busy lives we all appreciate it um before we begin that test tomor I remind the um members that are testifying the audience members that are testifying um limit your
remarks to 2 minutes um we have a buzzer beeper Bell going off at 2 and then at 2 minutes and 30 seconds another one's going off so try to adhere to that 2 minutes to 2 minute 30 seconds if possible um and so with that um would you please come up when your name's called and um I'll call two names at a time so we can be as efficient as possible well no we'll have Commissioners um one at a time so commissioner um Jacobson from Public Safety Mr chair I understand the need for time limits but I thin
k the two Commissioners could maybe get two and a half minutes each thank you um I should have yes and maybe we'll extend the commissioner's remarks um Senator abler I appreciate that um feedback and you are right I'll say that once this year uh uh good afternoon uh chair members of the committee uh appreciate the opportunity to be here um and uh I'm sorry commissioner can you identify yourself for the record thank you sorry uh Bob Jacobson Commissioner of Public Safety and again uh thank you fo
r the opportunity to be here today um I've been asked to testify on uh the school resource officer uh bill and I first of all I want to thank the chair and the bill authors for the work that they have done um as I told others this is has been a difficult process um to to get to the point that we're at now um I also have shared with other committees that my father was an educator uh 34 years 17 years as a high school principal 17 years as a school superintendent I grew up and uh u a household tha
t was um led by an educator and U learned a great deal from him and the approach to to students and how to work um on school safety I also have a history in law enforcement 33 years years spent time in the Department of Human Services uh that included working with children in the in the uh in the system and I also supervised school resource officers uh during my time in the city of New Brighton as the public safety director um School resarch officers became uh president president in the MS Schoo
l District starting in 1992 and supervised them until I left in 2016 so I've got experience in those areas I do want to say that um first of all I I support uh this bill I believe that sro's are valuable members of our school communities they Forge positive relationships with students and adults in our school buildings based on the results of the 2022 student survey the vast majority of students think it's a good idea to have an SRO in the school and we'll talk to an SRO about something illegal
or unsafe and SRO is yet another responsible adult within a school the SRO bill in front of the committee today represents a comprehensive proposal creates clear duties for sro's and schools it provides training requirements that are focused on school settings and working with students and free training options for law enforcement for this training it requires a postboard model policy that will incorporate broad input from minnesotans including those working in education law enforcement and Comm
unity groups this policy will cover a lot of topics but the one one that I do believe is the most important and focus is focusing on building constructive relationships between SRO students and Educators this bill also makes it clear that sro's are not allowed to be involved in school discipline this has been a best practice and included in training for many years putting this into law makes that very clear and if a community so chooses to have an SRO this bill will help ensure a higher standard
and specializ training and in closing every child I believe deserves a learning environment that's safe supportive and healthy and I believe this bill will help accomplish that thank you thank you commissioner we on both Commissioners have agreed um graciously to stick around so we if you have any questions for them members um they'll be here after the testimonies sen or commissioner Jack Mr chair members good afternoon my name is Willie jet Commissioner of Education thank you for the opportuni
ty to provide thoughts on this bill before we begin I want to express my gratitude to the individuals and the organizations Who provided thoughtful input into this proposal over the last months I also want to thank the authors legislators and members of the administration for their collaborative work while our perspectives on this bill may vary I appreciate our common focus and commitment to prioritize the health safety and well-being of our students and school communities as some of you know I
spent many years serving as a school and District administrator part of our work as school administrators is to ensure the safety of our school environments including de-escalating situations however we occasionally require assistance from our law enforcement Partners specifically school resource officers if there are significant safety concerns SRO programs when done well are rooted in the relationships that prioritize the health safety and support of young people this bill ensures that all SRO
throughout the state have this training SRO are viewed as essential to maintaining safe and secure learning environments and the data from the 2022 Minnesota student survey tells us as commissioner Jackson said an overwhelmingly majority of students from all demographic areas value the SRO in their schools for nine years I served as a superintendent in the St Cloud area schools we spent those years in partnership with our local police departments to co-create the roles responsibilities and guar
d rails for our school resource officers together we prioritize safety which stems from relationship and connection we focused on Clarity and consistency of roles including restorative practices and community-based non-punitive supports and responses I think it's important to note that we are saying clearly for the first time that SRO cannot engage in student discipline or the enforcement of school rules I believe we all recognize that SRO and schools can be a complicated conversation that requi
res honest and careful consideration and it's essential that we provide clarity through this bill to ensure the health and safety of our school communities thank you thank you commissioner oh Eric Miss Miss Sut you can mispronounce my name if you'd like that was perfectly pronounced my name is Eric ml I'm the executive director of the Minnesota peace officer standards and training board who is mentioned in this bill a couple of times um here today to just give you a little bit of background sinc
e typically uh we do not come in front of the uh education Committee in either house or Senate regarding what who we are what we do um we are a Regulatory and Licensing Board for all peace officers in the state of Minnesota so we promulgate the training requirements for pre-service Education including certification of schools uh continuing education uh which is of course part of this uh particular Bill and then also um uh regulating violation standards of conduct and uh misconduct conduct in ter
ms of Li lure uh issues so in the case of this bill um we have two tasks that are set for us as you know um and I'll just comment briefly on those with regard to the U establishment of the uh train learning objectives uh and by the way let me back up both of these things are things that we have been tasked to do for a number of um on a number of bills over time so this is not new to us um in the case of the uh education requirements or the uh uh better stated learning objectives we would work wi
th the uh School Safety Center to develop those and then promulgate those out for the training course as described in the statute and then with regard to policy um again something that we do have done on a regular basis is in our wheel house um we will work with the um groups identified in the bill uh to um to create this model policy uh I will add a little to that and based on the questions that have come up uh during the house hearings on this um and that is to say that when we say when the st
atute says uh to um I believe it's collaborate or uh consult with um in our world what that means is that we will bring the various groups together we will facilitate meeting face Toof face um and working out uh having multiple meetings to work out the details of that policy um there was a question about that because it's not technically described how we go about that but I'm just letting you know that's how we would uh anticipate uh tackling this and then secondly I want to be clear that with r
egard to promulgating policy policy never overrides statute so we will we will work on the policy with the interest uh groups uh on all sides Ides uh to put the policy together as described in statute um but of course we cannot uh Trump what statute says so when issues like uh prone restraint come up and whatnot we will follow the statute in in building the policy that's is it thank you thank you do you um can you stick around as well director I will do that thank you and now with Senator aer's
request um that was the last of the note time limit testifiers maren Christensen and Taylor oay are going to be the next two speak move on okay we'll wait for the virtual um so Marin Christensen thank you identify yourself for the record thank you so much CH woodski and committee members my name is maren Christensen Hofer I'm a parent of a child with a disability and I'm also the executive director for a nonprofit organization called the Multicultural autism Action Network which serves children
with disabilities in our Multicultural communities and I'm here for one reason today and really one reason only and that is that 79 children have died as a result of restraint related fatalities and 38 of those were specifically related to prone restraint I want to be very clear that we do not believe that any any child under any circumstances should ever be subjected to any form of physical holding that restricts or impairs a pupil's ability to breathe restricts or impairs a pupil's ability to
communicate distress places pressure or weight on a pupil's head neck throat chest lungs sternum diaphragm back or abdomen or results in straddling a pupil's torso the language as it's certainly curly written creates an exception for law enforcement it pulls law enforcement out of that requirement and it does not add it back in on the back end of the proposed law uh I know you to be a group of people that care deeply about children and I do not think that this is a referendum on whether we shoul
d have sro's in schools but the language as currently RIS L does not put our children first um you know what this bill says to me is that we're putting the wants of law enforcement over the needs of our children thank you thank you for your efficiency um so we have testifiers online and is are they waiting to be introduced okay hello it's ch wasinski and members of the education policy committee my name is Taylor o a member of the Minnesota Youth Council a 36 member Council of young people repre
senting the eight congressional districts in Minnesota empowered with the crucial task of amplifying the voices of Youth across Minnesota we approach our duties with full commitment and sincerity thank you for the opportunity to provide this testimony my name is Taylor O'Shea I am a junior at Deer River High School I currently serve on the Minnesota Youth Council representing Congressional District 8 and member of the Juvenile Justice committee my personal experience with sro's has been little t
o none this is because Miss Miss oay can you just pause for a sec can we get her picture on the screen we like to see your face so but we'll we we'll wait maybe five 10 15 seconds and um and if we can't pull it up then we'll continue with your testimony okay thanks for your patience yep there we go magic Miss Miss oay we're going to start the timer again if you want to start your testimony and introduce yourself for the record we appreciate it okay my name is Taylor oay I am a junior at Deer Riv
er High School and I currently serve on the Minnesota Youth Council representing Congressional District 8 and member of the Juvenile Justice committee my personal experience with SRO has been little to none this is because the SRO at my school fails to form relationships with students and does not promote open communication if this bill passes we need to hold the sro's accountable for completing their duties and doing them in a way that is consistent in order for this bill to pass it should expa
nd on the section on accountability similar to section 3 paragraph e there should be an annual report about how well an SRO is performing their duties this could be done by collecting data from students via survey on how they feel about the presence and impact the SRO has on their school/ District this would hold sro's accountable and ensure the safety of students this would also increase student voice in the SRO discussion student voice within the SRO discussion is arguably the most important v
oice and to see in section 9 subdivision 5 of this new bill that it has been implemented is very enlightening overall I urge the committee to preserve these changes in the bill and even expand on them because this is what Young people the future need thank you thank you for your patience as we got that right Mary Jane E Yeah begin when you're ready when we can see your face they're perfect and um make sure you identify yourself for the record thank you hello chair swedzinski and the members of t
he education policy committee for the record I my name is Mary jie Tate a member of the Minnesota Youth Council uh 36 member Council of young people representing the eight congressional districts in Minnesota we're empowered with a crucial task of amplifying the voices of Youth across Minnesota as we approach our dut our duties with full commitment and sincerity that being said I'm excited that the topic of school resource officers is being discussed through this bill as well as the addition of
the key elements that will ensure students of all different backgrounds will be protected in my testimony I will address the importance of amplifying Youth voices and the need for the implementation of accountability checkups within the process of this legislation firstly I would like to CH thank the chair and the education policy committee for allowing me this opportunity to share my voice and experiences through this testimony I'm a senior at the Park Center Senior High School we are on the bo
rder of the brook of Brooklyn Park and Brooklyn Center and as previously stated I serve on the Minnesota Youth Council as chair of the Congressional District 3 and member of the Juvenile Justice committee but as of right now the most important part of my identity is the fact that I'm a student of color who simply wants to feel safe in school coming from an area that is predominantly bipo I know firsthand how damaging the lack of trust between communities such as mine and the structure of police
can be and sticking peace officers without the proper legislation in the one one place children are supposed to spend upwards to 18 years of their life in is simply not a plausible idea which is why I am nearly ecstatic that there is a consideration for youth voices to be heard regarding this topic we are allowed to share our voices in writing and take time out of school and extracurricular activities to ensure our communities are being protected so why not allow us to have a say in the very bil
l that may affect us the most I believe in the addition I believe the addition of a clause or line that advises districts to have a youth Advisory board on the topic of sros would be very beneficial because if sros are not living up to their purpose in a particular District overall prove to not be only non-beneficial but harmful there needs to be next steps for the SRO thems and the district this could look like an addition of a clause that specifically highlights that sros are required to be he
ld accountable for any and all of their actions depending on various situations with a topic such as sros there needs to be care for every aspect that goes into a bill such as this for the physical mental and emot safety of Minnesotan children and young adults this is not and cannot be a oneandone situation there must be followup there must be researched and most importantly there must be feedback that is listened to and implemented overall I urge this committee to address these issues thank you
thank you both students um for taking time out of your class schedule to testify today next up um Ed allies Matt shaver and um Mr shaver make sure you identify your yeah you got it sign and make sure everybody signs in chair swedzinski members of the committee good afternoon my name is Matt shaver policy director at Ed allies we're members of the solutions not suspensions Coalition I'm here today to testify an opposition to Senate file 3534 prone kills kids we are advocates for kids and prone k
ills kids this isn't about whether SRO belong in schools it's about whether the state of Minnesota believes holds that kill children belong in schools a place they are required by law to be everyone has a child in their life there are parents uncles aunts grandparents coaches mentors in this room picture your child when should they lose their right to bodily autonomy in our Public Schools when should the math teacher be able to hold your child in a way that restricts or impairs their ability to
breathe when should the bus driver be able to put weight on on your child's head while they are laying flat on the floor when should a principal be able to put pressure on your child's chest when should a security guard be able to straddle your child's torso and when should a school resource officer be able to hold your child in a way that makes it impossible for your child to call out for help those are the stakes those are the policies we're here to talk about and that need thorough vetting my
guess is if you were picturing your own child you would want this to be done to them rarely if ever and if it had and it better be a situation that was so dangerous this was the only way to intervene this standard that adults do not need to put a child on the ground in a way that could kill them in nonviolent situations in schools is the policy the legislature and Governor signed into law last spring that we are here to defend it is that simple the choke hold ban in 60906 is not equivalent to t
he prone restraint brand in 121a 6096 simply does not provide as much protection for children as what is currently in law in 121a the clarity everyone is seeking here would mean explicitly detailing when SRO can and cannot put children into dangerous holds putting that into statute our Coalition does does support the concept of the model policy we can and should pass Pages 3 through 8 of this bill without needing to pass pages one and two there will be a 2-year gap between passage of this bill a
nd the adoption of the model policy what will we tell our children in the meantime thank you for your time today thank you Mr shaver Terry moral good afternoon chair schinski committee members I am Terry Marrow the Minnesota school board association's director of legal policy Services msba is grateful to you senator wesland for your role in leading Timely productive and collaborative conversations about this bill it was an effort that all the or education organizations appreciated now while this
bill is referred to as the SRO bill I am limiting my comments to the ability of a School employee to take action to stop damage to school property for school Minnesota school districts student safety is as everyone is saying a PRI fundamental priority and please I want to be really clear no school employ employee should use prone restraints or holds that might restrict a student's breathing or communication of distress in order to protect school property in 2023 though changes to the Education
Code and to the criminal code regarding School Employees use of reasonable Force resulted in inconsistencies which this bill does address thus I want to focus simply on one matter and one word on line 5.4 in Section 8 of this bill the word property is removed from the criminal code definition of reasonable force that teachers principes and other School Employees can exercise thus I'm here simply to I simply seek to confirm our conversations with the Bill's authors and legislative leaders that un
der this bill and existing Minnesota Law School employees can physically intervene reasonably responsibly rarely and as a la as a last resort to stop damage to school property and finally I will note that we do share the comments that Roger arenson will be sharing with you as well for the sake of time I won't repeat them here thank you thank you Mr moral Aaron Mark welcome to the committee hello hello chair Kinski and committee members my name is Aon stanmark I'm the Coalition programs manager f
or Solutions not suspensions SNS is a coalition of students families community members and organizations committed to changing policies practices and mindsets in order to end racial disparities in discipline and Foster positive School climates for all students that is our mission and that is why I'm here before you today I believe that SF 3534 will undo important wins and protections that were gained in the 2023 legislative session I am deeply disappointed that the bill before us today will gran
t the ability for to SRO and other contracted officers to use aor restrictive holds on students in schools like prone restraints we keep hearing to not worry and that enough protections are in 60906 we very much disagree 60906 is about choke holds and we are talking about prone restraints these are two different things a prone restraint with a body on the ground being held down by adults is a traumatic hold both psychologically and physically we have a student in our Coalition that has experienc
ed this hold firsthand when he was only in fifth grade when he spoke about his experience in a recent house here hearing it felt as if his story was largely ignored it is not the fault of our students that these incidents have gone unreported it has been a failure of the state until last spring when it became required to report such incidents we must fix this bill proposed in front of us today and protect our children from dangerous restraints by all student by all adults sure let's clarify the
law but that does not mean we have to play political games by taking out protections for our kids our students deserve more we know that these prone and air restrictive holds are more likely to be used on black brown indigenous and disabled youth we have to consider the implications of allowing these restraints by SRO all adults should be held to a high standard sros chose to leave school buildings this year but the bill that was passed did not kick them out it was merely trying to hold officers
accountable I urge you to reconsider the use of prone restraint we must consider the needs of our children before the wants of our police thank you thank you Jessica Webster next thank you Mr chair members of the committee my name is Jessica Webster I'm a Staff attorney with legal aid also representing the disability Law Center and uh with respect to Senator weslin and uh representative Frasier for all the hard work they've put into this bill we are strongly strongly opposed to Senate file 3534
as written we believe the spirit and intent of last year's legislation was to ban prone restraint and breath impacting holds on children in our schools unless there was a risk of bodily harm or death legal aid and the disabil Law Center absolutely support that intention because we've represented kids who have been hurt in prone holds and physical holds this is a prone restraint I if you can't see this image I can I have images here that I can share out it's allegedly the illustration of a prope
r prone restraint where a child is held down and their arms and legs are pinned and this is not banned by Minnesota law in 60906 because the adults are not using a compressive choke hold but this so-called proper prone restraint is inhumane it's traumatic it's incredibly dangerous for children because when the child fights or resists the risk of positional asphixiation increases legal aid acknowledges there have now been two AG opinions and a slightly different opinion from the henpen county att
orney we absolutely support your ability to clarify the law this session and clear up confusion about what is allowed and what the duties of officers are but please don't remove the ban on prone restraint in our schools unless deadly for force is authorized and please don't tell us everything is okay because 60906 bans choke holds these are not choke holds this is not banned this is what our children will be subject to if you codify the AG's opinion and don't clarify and use the legislator's pow
er to clarify this session thank you for the opportunity testify thank you Mr arenson thank you thank you Mr chair and members uh I'm Roger Aron I represent the elementary and secondary school principal associations um just for the committee uh we have 2,200 members of the two associations throughout Minnesota and we've tracked this legislation and the changes that happened last year quite closely um I I really want to say that I I think all of the introductory um comments that um uh the senator
made regarding the bill um we would join in I I think the sentiments that she expressed are absolutely um the appropriate sentiments and they're the the thoughts that ought to carry this committee as you make the decisions as to what you want to do I want to say on the outset that for School teachers and principales we have never had the authority to do anything other than what is reasonable the standard has always been reasonable Force this bill underscores the intersection of three pieces tha
t are very important to teachers and principles this bill intersects the criminal code in 609 it intersects the maltreatment of minor statute and then the reasonable Force statutes we support this bill there's a good change in here where the word imminent is deleted for the use of force that makes makes it quite a bit easier for teachers and principes to make decisions that happen in seconds um there are things that we would like to see in the bill we had very many discussions about this and we
appreciate the discussions among the state stakeholders we didn't get everything that we wanted in the bill other people didn't get everything that they wanted in the bill Mr chair you're pretty familiar with that that's the way this place works and so we would say that we strongly support this bill and we deeply appreciate the Senator's efforts this is not an easy Bill to carry by any sense of the imagination um it takes a lot of courage to do it and we really appreciate it so thank you Mr chai
rman members thank you Mr Aronson thank you I did sign one last testifier Ryan Bowers and identify yourself for the record Mr bers certainly Mr chair it's B but I appreciate it um my name is Ryan bers I am a licensed social worker in the state of Minnesota I have will soon be a lawyer and I've been working with children for over 10 years and I am here to provide testimony and opposition to this bill um I will refer the the members to my written testimony for the majority of my opposition but by
way of um expressing my personal experience in implementing physical restraint I would like to respond to some of the authors St ments and but before that would just say that while it is appreciated that SRO cannot be a part of school discipline they of course can still be a part of criminal discipline your honor excuse me your honor uh Mr chair um I um in my experience in working in a locked residential facility I was in whole physical restraints almost every day it would not be an overestimati
on to say that I was in physical restraints over a 100 times I was not allowed to use prone restraint I was only allowed to use restraints in response to IM imminent danger never did I feel it was necessary to put a child in prone restraint never did I wish I could respond sooner these are common sense restrictions that have been implemented on School staff and school and mental health professionals for decades my father had to follow these restrictions this is not unclear and prone restraints t
hemselves by definition are restrictive on the air and breathing of a child before I conclude U uh members I would just like to speak a name that hangs over this hearing for me personally and I believe for some of the members of the public as well and that is Cornelius Frederick a young man who was killed in Restraint in Michigan not too long ago and I'd like to tell you a bit about him other than the fact that he died when he was 12 years old he found his mother dead in his bed his father was i
ncarcerated and lost custody he ended up in the foster care system at 12 years old which is a time at which it is very difficult to exit the foster care system before you turn 18 he was separated from his siblings the aggression and intimidation that he exhibited was likely a front for the pain and sorrow within I provide this picture to you not because I want to shame people but because I want you to know what it who the child who is laying on the ground is and that they are our children as wel
l if it takes a village to raise a child it also takes a village to break them thank you thank you thank you all the testifiers um members any questions for anybody or any amendments you'd like to bring forward Senator Duckworth uh Mr chair thank you uh I would like to offer the A10 Amendment please can I and you're going to explain the amendment correct yes Mr chair whenever you would like me to soon as we get a copy of it that'd be great if you'd like Mr chair I can kind of explain it as um as
soon as Senator wesland gets a copy if you can wait for her very good do all the members have a copy no okay just bear with US senator than you uh thank you Mr chair I appreciate it and I would also uh like to request a roll call when the time comes to vote uh first and foremost Senator wesland it's good to see you I appreciate you bringing this bill forward I mean that very genuinely and sincerely uh it seems like forever ago in July when you and I had a phone conversation uh when this issue f
irst came up and uh I very much appreciated you reaching out to me saying you keep talking about uh a potential way to address this issue um what do you have could you send it to me uh and I want everybody to know that's that's a display of bipartisan collaboration that is extremely important in the legislature uh and so I sent uh I sent that to Senator wesland I sent it to then at the time leader krie dik so that we could begin the process of working together and collaborating on a fix and so I
appreciate everybody who's been a part of that process and I think the public should know Republicans and Democrats are trying to work on this together to fix it the amendment I offer uh is simply a repealer it deletes the bill that's before us and instead says let's just repeal the law that was passed last year that has put us all in the position that we're in currently uh I think legislators on both sides of the aisle nowadays have admitted to uh the fact that there is a lack of clarity in th
e law that was passed last year that they would like to have clarified they'd like to bring some certainty there I think a vast majority of people throughout this conversation have have been shown to agree that school resource officers in school are a good thing they keep kids teachers and our schools safe uh the bill that passed last year led to school resource officers being pulled out of some school buildings um or changing their response procedures in a way that greatly reduced their respons
e times compared to when they were actually in the buildings and uh many folks have said that was not the intent of the law nevertheless that has been what's occurred and so a quick and easy way to fix that would be to Simply repeal the law that was passed last year that put us in this position H we can essentially reset to where we were before this was an issue and continue our conversations and consideration of student and school safety uh legislative fixes or Bills moving forward that's all I
've got Mr chair thank you thank you Senator Duckworth Senator weslin thank you uh Mr chair and Siri always thinks I'm talking to her when I'm not so please excuse my AI thing um I oppose this I think that should come as no surprise um I think what we are trying to do today with the bill that I have brought forth in the Senate and the bill that has been brought forth by representative Frasier in the house is really to build on our work from last year this completely undo it and what we know um b
ased on testimony earlier from um commissioner Jacobson we know that sr's have been in our schools for a very very very long time and I was surprised last fall to find out we actually didn't have any kind of policies or training requirements this was all a matter of contract between districts there was no uniformity from one school district to the next and instead of going back to what I would describe as being sort of the wild west and things may vary from one District to to the next I think wh
at is important is that we have consistency that we have uniformity and again based on the many conversations that we have had with many stakeholders on this issue I think everybody agrees that consistency and uniformity is important this will completely this would completely undo not only the intentions and the purposes of the bill that is before you today but it will completely undo what happened last year and I I do not agree with this amendment and I will encourage members to vote no any oth
er members carried weigh in did you re um Senator did you request roll call vote for your Amendment or the final bill uh I for the amendment Mr chair um I'll request on the final bill as well I okay you're consistent um a roll call has been um requested roll call granted Cher swad zinski No Vice chair Meade no Senator Coleman I Senator abler hi Senator Balden no Senator Duckworth yes Senator hosch child no Senator kunish no Senator man no Senator weisenberg yes the final vote is six Nos and four
six Nos and four yeses so the um the amendment fails Senator abler well thank you and I I do appreciate the discussion I appreciate every testifier and uh I attempt to learn from everybody and uh I've learned quite a bit about this since first came on I voted yes on the last Amendment because at least in the experience that I understand it's not a problem in Minnesota there are stories that are horrible elsewhere and perhaps a few cases of inappropriate use um but if you look at where we have g
otten to in our schools um I'm kind of glad my kids are grown I have grandkids though and there are many kids many kids who feel unsafe in school uh why because they feel unsafe no because they are um we're not talking about weapons we're talking about fists we're talking about things that get thrown around we're talking about bullying intimidation for any amount of reasons and talking to my local law enforcement and to my local administrators um the SRO have been amazing for the bringing some k
ids on board helping them stick with the plan helping them graduate helping them be supported and I'm sorry for the experience of the one individual up north who didn't have a good experience but the testimonies are overwhelming that these uh officers uh are really an asset and for reasons that have been discussed greatly Anoka withdrew its police from the schools because they felt they had no choice than to put their their officers in Peril for some kind of lawsuit and for some some kind of per
sonal damage for doing what they thought was truly the best speaking to some my sro's uh one was the SRO for quite some time two times in his whole career used any Force whatsoever never prone restraints that's not even on their list of choices that make any sense um but there are people throwing desks throwing stuff around and so um somehow I had a feeling I knew how that last Amendment would go but I don't think there's a problem that we're fixing at least in most of the world my son is a depu
ty sheriff and he talks about his view of law enforcement and these folks don't go out looking to see what who who they can imperil they go out seeing who they can help by putting their own life on the line and if you think that's nothing then just ask them all to stop and if you think it's nothing when someone calls because there's a activity guy on the that they're afraid of or someone who's um you know putting your family at risk and nobody comes with these kind that that's that's really too
bad Minneapolis has half their complement of officers just in the whole theme of the what people think they're doing and uh it's not true there are exceptions to every every uh profession and the post board post whatever um it's their job to keep track of that and uh if there's a a law enforcement office who doesn't belong there then they should be out but I can tell you that most of them would die to protect you and they would die to protect the kids and they would die to protect the teachers t
hey would they would you know I'm just astonished as I see how that's going to go and they don't want to lose their house they don't want to lose their livelihood so Mr chair with that being said I move the A2 Amendment this the2 Amendment Senator abler is um if you'd explain it as soon as we get a copy and Senator Wes gets a copy as well so Mr chair I can just comment a little bit more without the amendment just to get 30 more seconds of commentary in my list there so I but I want to encourage
the the people that are watching Senator just wait till um Senator weson gets I wasn't talking about the amend I was still [Applause] rhetor thank you that'll help me things long your honor I have more than once um referred to uh Senator Champion as your honor instead of Mr President yeah okay Senor you don't mind explaining your but I want to just to in my finishing my comments I I want to encourage the individuals students uh Advocates parents whoever who feel that um they're somehow not that
they're at risk or imp Peril that nobody wants that either and there are parts of this bill that could work and if we're going to have a bill then it needs to be a bill that actually does its job and what this does um the league of City agrees with me the Coalition of Greater Minnesota cities metro cities um Municipal legislative commission and some other group I can't read because my glasses aren't good enough um and others agree that um when you this this changes the sh to a May basically on p
age five line 21 and with some of the related um uh words and I I think that it has to work and so will the bill so whatever people think and the fear they have the question we still have to ask is in Fair collaboration with all the parties will the piece of legislation we passed truly protect those who feel at risk but also get all the sro's back and so my interest here is to help the bill to work and it's minor it's not something I made up I I liked it to start with but um so this makes the ag
reement with the SRO more of a contractual situation where they discuss with the school what they and their Department what they might be doing um and so there's a bunch of Duties that the that this bill gives them that they shall do um they have to foster a positive School climate the relationship building an open communication what if some parent didn't feel that that person fostered a relationship it's a legal Duty well they they failed they could be sued and they're going like I mean it's it
's it's an undefinable thing um they they should certainly work on fostering that they should certainly protect students they should certainly serve as layers on they should certainly should Pro provide advice but maybe they're not really part of the safety drill team now they violated the law and so I think that the bulk of these duties would be appropriate and laid out in a school's policy a District's policy but I think this is a a major concern of a lot of the folks who have concerns about t
he bill this is maybe the singular biggest one so um and I'm sure it's not new to the author of the bill and so I would actually hope that you could accept it as a from the amendment Senator wesland Mr chair um so just by way of process um there was an amendment uh provided to the house filed the bill on Public Safety yesterday uh which I like considerably better and which I have consulted with my house partners on um we have had a lot of discussions about shall and may um and I will say first a
nd foremost that many of the contracts that I've reviewed have the no notion that an SRO should be fostering positive School environment hasn't been a problem in the past with somebody saying you didn't comply with your legal contractual Duty the duties outlin in here basically a job description however there has been language that has been added in the house that seems to be satisfactory to uh some of our stakeholders that raised the concern I am asking members to oppose this language uh becaus
e this has been addressed in the house file and it actually is um I think better language and addresses things in a more comprehensive way um I also just wanted to address a couple of your other comments Senator abler um I have deep respect for our Law Enforcement Officers I have a great relationship with the police departments in Plymouth and Maple Grove I have a great relationship with Sheriff wit and I know that they all work very hard and I understand that and I appreciate that I I deeply ap
preciate the work that they do and that they put themselves on the line to keep communi safe and I and it's not an either or and it is important to understand that my experience with law enforcement and perhaps your experience with law enforcement may be vastly different than the experiences of some of our friends and neighbors and I think that we can hold both of those things as true and I think the intention of the model policy in particular is incredibly important because each of the stakehol
der groups that are coming to help develop those policies have a unique perspective and it includes our law enforcement agencies it includes msba it includes um the Council on disability it includes the youth Council Who members that we heard very very clearly and I think asking to have uniformity in the policy and having Clarity in the policy developed in conjunction with people whose perspectives are different is incredibly important and it does not in my view take away from the important role
that law enforcement places in in our Comm plays in our communities and again we need to understand that there are in there are communities and individuals who have a different relationship and a different experience with law enforcement bringing them together to make policies gives everybody the opportunity to listen to each other to understand not butt and to really develop relationships that can only make things better and I also believe that sometimes that means sitting with discomfort and
what happens in a lot of these conversations things are brought forward we feel our discomfort and we don't want to continue in the conversation and above all else um this is beyond the scope of what we're talking about here but I just want to say that these are important conversations that should continue um and and I hope that that happens um the model policy piece is really important and really critical um but I believe the duties are also and again uh to reiterate sorry I'm a lawyer we alway
s use 10 words when you could use one but there's something that was passed in the in the house um public policy yesterday that actually uh is preferable language IT addresses uh some of these concerns in a very explicit ilit way and I would ask members to vote no on this amendment Mr chair Senator abler um well this is a a real hearing this is our real chance to do it um is there a reason Senator weson you didn't bring that Amendment forward that you like better so we could see where there's pr
ogress and movement because there are many people out there groups and others that they're nervous about it both ways and just splitting it up so that both PE both groups are un happy isn't a good way to write something so could you please describe for me what last night's Amendment did I I don't I'm sorry Senator a Mr chair Senator abler I I don't I think it's sitting on my desk I have a manila folder and I have my what I call my trial notebook um and I understand that this is a real hearing I
came prepared to have a real hearing today I am also working in coordination with my house author and these these bills are traveling and it's possible it may get through their process first we are coordinating to make sure that any changes made in the bill in the house are acceptable to me and that those are it those are the things that will be presented to probably the Public Safety Committee because to be honest with you much of this bill actually falls under the authority there I appreciate
um you're bringing this amendment and again I'm simply going to reiterate that um I would ask members to oppose the amendment Senator Duckworth uh thank you Mr chair I appreciate it and before I forget I'd like to request a roll call on the vote um Senator weson again compliment you on working with your house counterpart to to move a bill get it before committees for hearings and discussion um and I want to I guess I want to be clear because I've been following the other house committee hearings
as well uh it's it's my understanding that an amendment regarding the verbage that has to do with May versus sha has actually not been amended onto the house bill yet and I'm not trying to catch you off guard to your point we've got a lot of stuff going on you're trying to track it and do your bill as well I know there was an amendment to the bill yesterday evening but I'm not sure it was that one but to your point I believe it's being discussed I believe uh law enforcement and other folks are
having conversations uh with Bill authors yourself and representative Frasier and others specific to the amendment that Senator aor brought forward so if if my understanding is incorrect uh please let me know but that's that's where I believe things currently stand Mr chairman Senator Duckworth um we the change was not shall to May there was other explicit language however that clarified and I think the concern that was being raised specifically by the league of Minnesota cities was whether or n
ot this created special duties or interfered with with the the standard duties that peace officers have such as the caret taking function the language added yesterday specifically and explicitly addressed those things I know that I um I believe maintaining the word shall is important if we are trying to have uniformity and and consistency across this and there are other ways to address the concerns that have been raised and I believe they have addressed those concerns so anything that changes th
e shell to a May from my perspective as a bill author um I don't agree with but I do believe that those concerns raised by LMC have been addressed in an amendment to the house file that explicitly says this isn't creating special duties and it does allow law enforcement to engage in caretaking and other functions they would have as a peace officer just for clarity the caretaking function for instance is if a student is having a mental health crisis the law enforcement officer can accompany that
child for instance to a facility or Hospital facility that is just part of their role as a peace officer and there was concern that somehow this language in this bill which I disagree with but somehow the language in the bill um prevented them from carrying out those duties explicit language addressing those two things um and I believe that is a better way to address uh that Shell versus May because that's my understanding of what the problem was for some folks with shall versus May so again I j
ust want to reiterate I oppose the amendment I'm asking members to vote no thank you thank you any anybody else okay roll call yeah Senator abler and Senator wesland I I didn't mean to be offensive when I suggest this is a real hearing but I what I have not seen in the last year not I don't remember any particular bill of yours that I'm going to be commenting on is nothing changes so some bills go through nine committees and it's still kind of the same bill when it gets all done and the advice o
f people I won't even use the word minority the PE the advice of random human beings that how to know how to improve a bill is is ignored because it's barely being written by the legislature but it's but nothing changes here's a hearing and there's a a good amendment I would just wish if you would have liked the amendment we could have had that there so we could have seen the evolution and so um by that way that bill didn't move out of committee which is interesting and uh I imagine this one wil
l I don't know um but as people watch our process they want to see that there's listening going on and evidence of evolution um talking to two individuals this morning they represent some of the law enforcement groups who I am happy to stand with not blindly but I really appreciate what they do they don't feel least bit comfortable with whatever and for them the shell thing it's not that they don't want to do any of those jobs they don't want to get sued for not doing them and the world has chan
ged and there's uh you know lawyer jokes are always funny I guess but um just because a person is AG greev then they're going to go after an individual and describe how they failed to accomplish this list that's what they're worried about they might even make a longer list when they have a contract with the individual with the city Maybe the Rapid want something and and Chasco wants something else and you know you know duth needs a different kind of thing that they could be flexible about we are
not that smart in St Paul to create enumerated lists of all the things somebody is supposed to do and the error I've seen in my time here is that there's this St Paul amazingness uh where we can introduce policy I think some of the policies of last year's bill could have been a little more flexible to allow areas to deal with where they want School districts to handle what they want to what their own priorities anyway so I'm going to ask you to vote Yes and I'm going to ask I'm going to bring t
his to a vote and just so you know that I'm still committed to making this work it's not meant to be disrespectful to your dislike of the amendment but at the end you want to have a bill that works that that the parties come together on this is in terms of the concern about the individuals who are worried about abuse of this bill this has nothing to do with them with their fear this has the ability that has to do with the ability of the groups that are have to implement this thing to do it and s
o I would request that you uh please vote Yes today and if not we'll think about it for another day thank you Mr chair could would you indulge me in just a brief response yes I would thank you Senator abler Senator wesland and I appreciate that Senator abler um I have always appreciated conversations with you uh in my short time here in the legislature um as we heard earlier from uh the executive director of the post board they establish policies on a regular basis all the time in conjunction wi
th people and I think I love my staff um and and I think that this is just a regular part of the process and that's what we're asking them to do this isn't unusual our peace officers are subject to just as I am a lawyer I'm subject to rules and policies and so forth and we are allowing the post board who has the expertise we are allowing um the the DPS providing the training uh potentially through the school resource center we are allowing the people with the expertise to do those things uh it's
simply important that um that we move from a situation where there's literally no uniformity there's no established rules there's no expectations that we move to a position where there actually are clear expectations and our peace officers work to uh model policies all the time that's what they do and I have every confidence that the post board will engage in a thoughtful process with input from Law Enforcement Officers among others so I'm sure we could go back and forth and back and forth mayb
e we can talk offline but um I we've had a lot of conversation with a lot of people and we have had conversations with LMC and stakeholder groups uh including law enforcement and this has been a very deliberative process I think we have well over 60 hours in conversations both with groups of stakeholders and individual stakeholders really trying to understand what concerns were and adopt changes that we felt were consistent with the intention of this policy and this bill we have we've adopted an
d attempted to work with every group to understand and Implement where we can so um again I just want to say that there was an amendment passed that addresses the concerns Mr chair final words um of the author of the amendment that sounds so final Mr chair so your honor um just want to remind you senator wesland this is not about the the policy manual this is not about establishing working with groups this is about a list of stuff they have to do and because it's on the list the poll sport will
require that they do these things um and so that's just different and if if COC doesn't want all this stuff they don't have to ask for it just as you go forward and I accept that you're not going to vote today but I'm hoping for tomorrow Mr chair I'm not on the committee so I won't be voting for this in this committee maybe I'll get your vote on a different committee thank you roll call has been um requested roll call granted chair sadinski no Vice chair May quid no Senator Coleman hi Senator ab
ler yes Senator Balden no senator Duckworth yes Senator hosch child no Senator kunish no Senator man no Senator wenberg yes six NOS four yeses um the Amendments defeated any other members amendments M Senator weisenberg thank you Mr chair I'd like to move forward with the A3 Amendment and to uh mirror some of what Senator abler said I think uh Senator can you wait till one has a copy thank you I appreciate that I promise I'll read fast go ahead thank thank you Mr chair um just to mirror a little
bit of what Senator abler said without repeating everything in regards to law enforcement I think they want what's best for everybody and they don't want to cause anyone harm um in this bill some things seem clear as mud to me I guess um I think there is a point that we come to unfortunately where some someone may have to be restrained because of you know physical harm or loss of life I guess so if if I could could I ask the author a question or think Mr chair yes you may say thank you thank yo
u Mr chair so at at some point God forbid it comes there but if if someone brandishes a weapon or a scissors or something like to a teacher or a resource officer another child I mean is there a point where we're going to allow them to protect their life and the life of other children in school Mr chair and Senator there's nothing currently that prevents them from doing that so I guess I don't understand the question thank you Mr chair and thank you uh I just wanted to make sure that that was cle
ar to me and teachers CU they teachers fear that if they do anything they're going to have some repercussion and I know of a you know small stature teacher that was attacked with a with a scissors by a larger you know adult I'll say adult you know a male that's been through puberty and you know they have to do what they have to do to protect themselves I think we have to make that clear that if your life is threatened I just want to so people know teachers anybody in a school they don't want to
do this but if they have to do something to prot protect their lives we need to make it clear to them that it's okay right so thank you Mr chair and then I'll ask I'll go for with my Amendment so okay yeah Senator weslin any um so I've read the amendment and um there are some pieces there some of this is peac meal and this is uh addressed I I am unclear if what I have in my hand is what was actually passed yesterday um in the house uh to be to be honest with you and again I don't seem to have a
copy of that Amendment with me but um this information again to go back to what I was saying earlier um we have added in the house Public Safety Committee an amendment that addresses the fact that nothing in this bill prevents or impedes a peace officer from performing their usual duties uh as you as you can imagine again we are trying to move um this matter forward in a systematic Way It Is Passing forward in both both houses it may pass through the house before we get through all of our pieces
it is being amended in the house in consultation with me and again I would ask that um this amendment uh I would ask members to vote no it is my understanding that this um concern has been addressed in the in the house file Senator weisenberg Mr Senator Duckworth uh thank you Mr chair and thank you senator weisenberg for letting me jump in um we're TR this we're trying to help you out we're trying to bring about good faith uh sincere bipartisan amendments and changes and I understand the bill i
s dual tracking uh in the house and they may have passed either the exact or similar amendments and I don't mean to be critical but I mean we we're not the house we're the senate for a reason we're going to have discussions and our amendments may differ if that's the end of the day the bills are similar but slightly different there's a process for that they don't have to track identically through uh House and Senate committees and I I I I probably sound um more critical and stern than I mean to
Senator Weston this is this is not directed at you this is more so comments about the process um I want to vote Yes on your bill I really do very badly um but it's going to be hard for me to do so um given the conversation so far which is yes we intend to change amend or modify it we just don't have the version the way we want it yet in the Senate um and and that's why I think Senator weisenberg has brought about this amendment because it gets to the conversation earlier about caretakers and pol
ice officers being able to do things in the normal course of their Duty like uh help a child um in a situation in which they may need to and so um we can continue to advocate for voting no on on good well-meaning amendments that have either exactly or similarly been adopted in the house uh or we can accept them pass them can continue to improve the bill work it through the process and ultimately vote on it and have a conference committee if we need to um so I'll I'll stop there Mr chair but I ju
st want to for the good of the order remind people that our bills do not have to be the same at this point and quite frankly the fact that they're not the same and we have these conversations and we make amendments usually means we end up with a better product in the long run uh thank you senator weisenberg for letting me Mr chair Senator Duckworth I am very clear about the difference between the Senate and the house I am very clear that we have our work to do and they have their work to do um n
o lack of clarity on my part about our roles um again I have uh I do like to work in collaboration and this is a very important um policy that we are putting forward uh we have had numerous conversations with stakeholders uh this is a delicate balance and I want to make sure that as we are moving things forward that they are being done in a way that I agree with first and foremost um and that reflect the conversations that we've had with individuals I guess the other thing I would bring up um Mr
chair the Amendments that are bring being brought forward uh at this point are actually not part of the jurisdiction of this committee we are having a Public Safety Committee hearing uh between now and then um certainly you can have colleagues introduce these there but I don't believe I mean we've entertained these um amendments uh and and I think that's fine but they do not fall under the jurisdiction of this committee and I think that these would be better addressed in the public safety and J
udiciary Committee but again I want to reiterate um my understanding of the language that is being added uh and I did find my file um is that it it literally addresses these concerns it's been adopted into the house file uh it is entirely possible the house file may pass through their process before ours if that happens I may determine that I want to take up the house file so um I understand the procedural arguments I appreciate your feedback um this is moving forward in a way that I would like
to move forward and it is done in a way that is in collaboration and conjunction with our stakeholders and also with my partner uh on the house so again I think um before we get any more amendments on um parts of the bill that are not under the jurisdiction of this committee I guess I would just say we can have those hearings but it would be better before the public safety and Judiciary Committee thank you Senator um I would reiterate that as well and um I'm not sure if everybody's aware but the
public safety and Judiciary Committee is for the Senate's meeting on Monday so if any of these amendments are you deem more appropriate for that committee's expertise and experience um that might be helpful for the whole process and certainly commissioner if you'd like to weigh in at some point on the what committee you feel whatever Amendment gets brought up might be better suited for we'd appreciate your wisdom on that as well um Senator M Wade um thank you Mr chair and I think um Senator wes
on what you just said was super helpful I think when you keep referring to the house committees it's because it's gone through two in the house and we're on the first one and so when you're talking about the house you keep saying that and I think you're talking about the Judiciary and Public Safety Committee which has not happened here okay that makes sense Mr chair it might be helpful if you could just tell us which sections of this bill before us are in the jurisdiction of the education commit
tee um and which one would be in the public safety Judiciary or or anry um Miss Lewis yeah uh Mr chair and uh members uh referring back then to the um sen file 3534 the um sections that are amending uh the Education Code are section one section two Section 3 section four uh section five and section six thank you Miss Lewis the thank you chair I'd like to move forward with the A3 Amendment and call for a roll call thank you um and I feel discussions are important so we need to move forward with t
his uh page five uh line 29 after laws we just insert and execution of other duties imposed upon peace officers by law so it says laws and we're just defining that they're going to do their job thank you um Senator man thank you Mr chair um I think this Falls very much outside of the jurisdiction so for example other duties imposed upon peace officers by law do we have a list of what that looks like we haven't had any discussion as it pertains to this bill we don't know what that means I certain
ly don't so um for those reasons I don't think that this amendment is pertains to our jurisdiction and I would recommend a no vote Senator M Quade um ditto Mr chair thank you Senator man thank you anybody else Mr chair Senator abler I don't know I used to teach school right did you teach government was in a previous life oh yeah I mean because there's a house and there's a senate I mean there's the other body pardon me I'm not supposed to say that word with a h in it um and this is a committee a
nd this is a big deal this topic I think is Germain and I I mean it's a softball Amendment but we're here to work and I think those of us in this committee appreciate the fact to do committee work in the committee and as it expands a little bit beyond you accepted my um amendment in the same area and so if it's a good Amendment Senator please accept it and then you can tweak it up with uh your counterpart across the street Mr chair I I just so so we've had a few amendments we've heard the Amendm
ents I believe the Amendments should be heard in the appropriate committee that has subject matter jurisdiction where the committee members are at least more familiar with the topic yes we've heard some amendments I have asked everyone to vote no we voted no on them um I don't think we should continue to do work that should be done in the Judiciary and Public Safety uh committee and uh for that reason alone I don't again if there are other amendments coming for that deal with the public safety p
art of this bill I would I would ask the chair to rule that they are outside the jurisdiction of this committee and we can certainly talk about those things on Monday in the Judiciary and Public Safety Committee I mean you're Mr chair it's before the committee go ahead and I you know it's your committee you know we can certainly have a vote on it but I I just it's your committee but I I'm going to probably object to any further amendments and ask you to rule on that um going forward and anything
that does not deal with the jurisdiction of this committee senator may Quade final comment coish final com thank you uh Mr chair I I was basically going to say what Senator uh Wesson just said if we start um accepting any kind of amendments that are really under the jurisdiction of another committee uh that's sort of what what uh was part of the critique in the beginning of of this whole situation when um we passed it through our uh our education committees and um apparently um there are those
that think that it should have gone through Judiciary as as well so I don't think it's imp it's uh it would be in our best interest and we would be presuming a lot that we don't know because we are not the Judiciary Committee if we were to continue to take uh or listen to or even accept any amendments that that are kind of out of our purview out of our jurisdiction and would only cause um perhaps additional issues down the road thank you roll call has been um requested roll call Grant chair sadi
nski no Vice chair mayid no Senator col I Senator abler I Senator Bolden no Senator Duckworth yes Senator hosch child no Senator kunish no Senator man no Senator weisenberg yes the amendment fails on a six NOS four yes's vote I'm going to ask um members if you feel like um there's a I think it looks like four amendments left if you feel like that perhaps um it's a better bill in your heart and soul for the Judiciary Committee I'd appreciate we would appreciate if you kept that in mind but in thi
s Spirit of bipartisanship we will hear your bills until um you know it's time for us to leave um just but in um Spirit of like I said bipartisanship um continue with your amendments Mr chair Senator Duckworth uh thank you I'd like to offer the A5 Amendment and uh while that's being passed out I would just say your comments are well taken we did have a meeting before this and there were other amendments for us to consider and I myself said I don't don't think it necessarily falls under the purvi
ew of the education policy committee so we ruled those out and we stuck with the ones that we thought were relevant we are talking about school resource officers after all we're talking about a model policy for them and we are the education policy committee so they F they seem fairly relevant to me uh and Senator kish's point is extremely well taken one of the reasons we find ourselves in this situation is because the bill that passed last year only went through this committee it did not go to t
he Senate Public Safety Committee so you'll have to forgive us if we're uh being a little more cautious and ensuring that we uh utilize every opportunity we have to have amendments considered because last year in our rush to pass the law that committee was skipped and it didn't have that opportunity and had I been adhering to the restraint you now want to place upon me as it pertains to committee purview we would have never had that discussion so that that being said uh we do have just I think t
hree more amendments to offer I might not sound friendly right now but they are friendly they're very simple changes and uh I would love to quickly go over the first one if you deem it appropriate now Mr chair okay thank you CER I'm sorry thank you all the A5 Amendment does is delete the word June in a couple of spots and insert the word December to allow for school resource officers and police departments to have a little bit more time to appropriately train and ensure they are implementing uh
the bill as you intend um just gives them more time to plan prepare and train so they can do right by our kids in schools that's all it does I would ask for a roll call please Senator wesland Mr chair Senator Duckworth uh we've had a lot of conversations about this um and in fact uh conversations with uh stakeholders uh DPS the post board um it is important that these policies be enacted sooner rather than later in fact you've heard testimony today from a number of individuals who are concerned
that it's taking as long as it is however uh the amount of time that has been allocated in this bill is sufficient time to bring on additional FTE for the school resource center to train SRO as necessary we know that a lot of the sro's actually have some SRO training already including in my jurisdiction uh I believe they have both the basic and the Advanced Training in nasro we allow for an additional length of time for those individuals who have had some uh training already um this is an adequa
te amount of time and I would oppose extending that uh beyond what is in this bill that again has been based on a lot of conversations with a lot of people and I would so if if we were in court I would maintain my standing objection that this Falls outside the jurisdiction of this committee thank you Senator wesland Senator May uh thank you Mr chair and just for the record I guess or maybe for everyone on the committee the way that committed committee jurisdictions are broken up is by Statute so
the statute numbers this committee has certain sections of Statute that we deal in 121a 121b blah blah blah 609 is a criminal statute that is the Judiciary and Public Safety Committee sometimes uh you know if it's cross- referenced it can be both and so to your earlier comment Senator Duckworth you would have been able and had every opportunity both in this committee and on the floor and in conference committee to offer amendments to the statute that we had before which was in 121 a. 58 you had
every opportunity and every member of this committee had that opportunity now this amendment is dealing with the sections of the bill that are not within the jurisdiction of this committee um we can keep doing this but I think we should that the point of having a committee is that you do the work that is assigned to the committee it's not about the topic it's about the statutes under which they deal with and this is firmly outside of our jurisdiction thank you Senator seeing no further comments
roll call was asked for roll call granted chair swedzinski no Vice chair mayid no Senator Coleman I Senator abler I like Senator Balden no Senator Duckworth yes Senator hosch child no Senator kunish no Senator man no Senator weisenberg yes six yeses four NOS the amendment fails Mr you have that backwards you have that backwards Mr chair backwards six NOS four yeses than thank yeah yeah of course you um the amendment fails Mr chair Senator Duckworth thank you I'd like to offer the A6 and request
a roll call Senator weson do you have a copy I I do Senator Duckworth um what your reasons for the amendment I appreciate it Mr chair thank you uh it's my understanding that this amendment uh very closely resembles if not exactly resembles the amendment that was added in the house Judiciary excuse me the house Public Safety Committee uh last evening it simply adds the Minnesota school resource Officers Association uh to the group that will be Consulting on um the school resource officer model p
olicy which will be implemented throughout schools all across Ross Minnesota as the uh education committee I think that's fairly relevant and also I could be mistaken but the last time I checked I was fairly certain that uh an amendment regardless of committee jurisdiction or regardless of its relevance or germanness to a specific committee could still be adopted and added to a bill that's all we're seeking to do here it's a very friendly Amendment pretty sure it was accepted in the house yester
day evening we're just trying to help help you along in the process and get this thing ready so we can vote for it thank you I I request a roll call Senator wesland Senator swad zinski and chair Mr chair Senator Duckworth um please vote no roll call has been asked for roll call granted all chair sadinski no Vice chair mid no senator Coleman I Senator abler wow I Senator Balden no Senator Duckworth yes Senator hosch child no Senator kunish no Senator man no Senator weisenberg yes having six Nos a
nd four yeses the A6 Amendment fails Senator Coleman um thank you Mr chair I have a couple of questions that may or may not lead to an amendment request um Senator wesland thank you so much for bringing forth this issue I I think I like everyone at this table wants to see a good version of this bill move forward um I do have a clarifying question we did have a testifier and also a letter from the School Board Association the association of school administrators and so on that are looking for oh
someone to please share with them the statutory Authority that supports that property damage is included in here can you tell me where that is in the bill I can it's not in the I'm sorry Mr chair Senator Coleman I was so excited to answer that question I Your Enthusiasm is infectious I have all of these statutory references sort of committed to memory at this point it's not in the bill it's actually in 609.066 n6 subdivision 1 um subsection 4 um authorized use of force when used by any person in
lawful possession of real or personal property or by another assisting the person in lawful possession and so we have had that conversation with our um our education partners who raised that and under existing use of force St uh authorization under 60906 that is permitted Senator colan thank you Mr chair um Senator wesland can you walk me through then uh line 5.4 kind of the rationale but for taking that part out Mr CH Senator W Senator Coleman I think so one of the challenges that we have uh I
think when we are reading statutes in conjunction with one another I think we want them to be as clear as possible um this is already so this is a different um subdivision this is 69.3 79 again this is a part of the criminal section um that falls under the jurisdiction of a different committee but um it when we start duplicating things in different SE c s of the statutes uh it becomes less clear rather than more clear and part of what the reasonable use of force was getting to is that particula
r section you're referring to 5.1 to 5.5 um actually makes it consistent with 121 a582 which does not reference property damage and so we wanted those piece those pieces need to um be consistent with one another and then in 60906 uh subdivision 1 subsection 4 it deals with the property so the part that you're referencing here is now consistent with 121 a582 which does not permit for for property damage Senator Coleman thank you Mr chair thank you Senator wesland so I think what we're seeing here
again is there needs to be more clarification so that we don't end up right back where we started uh in my dist District because of what we passed last year our school got put on lockdown because of a student that was disruptive breaking property and the SRO was unable to do anything until they were physically assaulted and so I would like to offer the A9 Amendment Mr chair and request a roll call and as soon as Senator weson has the bill exp chair if I could request our researcher help walk us
through I think this is a little more clarification than addressing the section five language um kind of walk everyone through how that's going to that's okay Mr chair would that be all right yeah okay thank you he's better at the legali than I am it's okay um senator may Quade um uh thank you Mr chair and be before we get through that one thing I just want to clarify that I heard loud and clear Senator wesland but I just want to make sure that it was really clear to everybody else um Senator C
oleman the part that you're talking about the self-injury injury to another person or property if you look at 5.7 it says nothing in this section limits any other authorization to use reasonable Force including but not limited to authorizations under and then at list 60906 subdivision 1 that is the criminal statute that all law enforcement officers and all other motans to be quite honest with you um have the authority to use reasonable for force in various situations that is the section that you
are that everybody should be looking to to understand when they can use reasonable force that includes destruction of property you know threat of harm doing an arrest all of those things that's 60906 subdivision one and then subp part four that Senator weson was talking about so what she's talking about is that they reference 60906 subdivision one here so that it enumerates all of the things that already exist in the the criminal code for law enforcement officers and everybody else instead of t
rying to articulate what it is and isn't in the education statute it is already listed in the criminal code 60906 subdivision one that's what I think and I just want to remind um members that um we probably have to be out of here in about 20 minutes and if 10 10 to 20 minutes and if we're still here we'll have to come back tonight thank you Mr chair if I could just have our researcher walk us through the please let's try to pick up the pace as much as possible thanks Mr chair Ed cook I'm a resea
rcher with the Senate Republican caucus um if I understood Senator wesland uh she was referring to paragraph 4 under 609.066 [Applause] through 4.8 if you want to look at it m um I think that's what if I have it correct I don't think this is getting at the issue Senator Coleman is because this is more if you if it's your personal property and someone was attempting to take it from you like your your cell phone or something like that you would have the right to use reasonable Force to resist um w
hat Senator Coleman is getting at is um a student who's vandalizing the school you know spray painting the walls or tipping over expensive um AV Equipment breaking windows that um would be a problem we believe for the school people and I think the school people were referencing that earlier because if you look at paragraph 7 which is where teachers and School principles would now be placed the only time they can exercise lawful Authority is to restrain a child or p to prevent bodily harm or deat
h to the child pupil or another so it would not cover uh property and that's what Senator Coleman's amendment is trying to say you could use reasonable Force to restrain or correct a child or to prevent bodily harm or death to the child or another do you have a thank you Mr chair um I we again have had a number of conversations about this particular issue I and other uh nonpartisan and partisan staff that have provided a different interpretation uh of 609.066 uh my comments but I in essence I'm
asking that uh members vote no on this amendment but would ask Mr oi to uh elaborate do you want to go first yes um senator may Quade before you okay before I would before Oh yes um thank you Mr chair and Mr n I'm looking forward to hearing what you have to say I just want to really be very clear that the subpart seven that was implied that teachers and principes and School Employees can only exercise lawful authority to prevent bodily harm or death right above that there's also the Clause that
says when used in the lawful for a lawful custodian of a child in the exercise of lawful authority to restrain or correct such a child so that is still the law um and I don't want people to just read some parts and not the entirety of the law thank you Senator Mr chair members for the record my name is zun I'm the director of government relations for the Minnesota Department of Education uh and to just go to uh the sections that uh you all were discussing uh between Clauses six and seven Clause
six uh provides uh Authority for parents guardians or lawful custodians under this bill whereas Clause 7 provides the Authority for teachers School principal employees or agents of the district and the retention of or correct in when we were looking at the correct language was that in the education setting that is a term or practice that is outdated it's around correcting behavior in the opinion of the educator that might not be appropriate that is a practice that is uh it is in terms of the in
terms of the lens of reasonable force is not an appropriate place for an educator um to engage in the use of reasonable force and that's in line with the purpose of the bill which is to um which is to limit it to the use of reasonable Force for um restraining a child to prevent bodily harm or death the language was retained for in the context of a parent or guardian or custodian as that's outside of the educational context and there are situations where that language is more appropriate but that
's why there's a difference between why correct exists for parents Guardians and custodians and doesn't exist for uh teachers and um uh teachers and other school Personnel in this bill um that would also apply with this bill um that would also apply below um in the the other it's consistent with Section 8 where correct also uh remains for parent legal guardian or um uh or caretaker of a child and teacher is Struck from that section as well Mr chair and Mr oie perhaps you can clarify this the the
term to correct has a particular meaning right doesn't the term to correct a child have a particular meeting that meaning that is outdated uh or refers to the ability to engage in certain conduct uh Mr chair committee members I think I I I gloss over that very quickly yes uh to to correct is around U modifying the students's behavior specifically and doesn't really have a place to play in the educational setting for um for for educators that it's more about modifying uh modifying Behavior while
they're we're going to be leaving in 10 minutes so just FYI to everybody okay the my understanding um Mr chair is that the term or cor the term correct is an outdated term my understanding if I recall from the many conversations we had is that often it's in reference specifically to corporal punishment um and in any event um I oppose the bill please vote no or the amendment okay roll call has been asked for roll call granted a n Amendment chair swedzinski no Vice chair May Quade thank you no Se
nator Coleman yes Senator abler yes Senator Balden no Senator Duckworth yes Senator hosch child no Senator kunish no Senator man no Senator wenberg yes um six NOS four yeses the amendment fails Mr chair are these yes Senator abler I don't have an amendment I just want to offer a short thought and move toward closing comments yeah let's do that that's a great idea C I'm here to help Mr chair it's Valentine's and I don't want to send Valentine evening with you either if that's okay well the feelin
g might not beut but be nice if you had cookies um s Weston thanks for working on this um there's actually evidence uh from input um just not enough yet and I I think that the concerns of the people who fear overuse of of force have been listened to and I appreciate their comments as well I think they're protected in this bill pretty well and so the concerns they express I think are way uh are just I think they're protected pretty well and so I think you're on to something um the bill has to bri
ng all the officers back to schools and the respectful amendments we brought um except the whole undoing of the thing which I appreciate you didn't want that one um but keep listening and because some of those groups don't feel like they're being listened to they feel like they have not been listened to which is why I brought my Amendment because they're very insecure about some of that and in the precarious place a lot of these law enforcement people find themselves being judged by other people
who have done things that they should not have done and in their own forces they're exemplary and impeccable um you want them back protecting us because we need them the schools need them the students need them the teachers need them the families want to feel safe and so I will help you along that way um I'm sorry I can't support this bill today because it's it's not going to work so thank you that was short right Senator Kish yeah I just I think we just we really need some clarification and um
so I have a question for uh the senator if that's all right the author okay um so it's my understanding that there's no blanket ban on the use of prone restraints for sro's present in our statute is that correct uh Senator W weson that is correct and I I do believe that occasionally some terms are being used interchangeably um between uh 125a 0942 deals with our students receiving special education services we have 12858 we have 128 582 all of these and 609 these all sort of work together um an
d if there is interest I know that we have um Department of Education folks here who could certainly talk and clarify this but you are you are correct that there is currently not a blanket ban on prone restraints um the statute is clear on that uh the Attorney General's opinion clarified that 60906 applied to our law enforcement officers and again if uh the Department of Education is here could talk maybe very briefly about the interplay of the different statutes but I do think that is important
to understand we are not repealing or reversing anything by bringing this bill and in fact in my opinion we are creating guard rails that do not currently exist and from my perspective um this is the way to ensure that everyone in the schools has the proper training has the ability to uh learn about how to interact with kids in a school setting in particular which in my view is appreciably different than a law enforcement um uh member of the law enforcement in the general Community Senator Cole
man uh thank you Mr chair I think there were a couple people that were on the list before me they want to go ahead I don't want to jump Senator duckor uh thank you Mr chair and I do appreciate your Indulgence I know we're running low on time um so you're you're uh C to pick up the pace as noted although I will say uh I did make that mistake last time last time when this when the bill that became law was before us in this committee we were running low on time and rather than asking questions I si
mply made a statement and the statement was well we should probably run this language past law enforcement school resource officers and school districts and My Hope was that the folks here representing the governor uh that were here with the Minnesota Department of Education would have done that and it would have gone through the appropriate committee procedure so we could have got that feedback I'm not going to continue to rehash the past but I will say sometimes and why I appreciate you giving
us the time Mr chair is uh we don't want to Short change the process for a very good reason uh everybody in this room without question without a doubt wants to keep Kids Safe they want to keep teachers safe they want to keep schools safe we have Universal agreement on that that is not a republican stance it's not a Democrat stance it's a bip partisan unified universal truth that we want to keep Kids Safe what I think is at hand in this discussion is what's reasonable what is reasonable when we'
re talking about in the most outrageous and unimaginable and dangerous situations we're talking about the health safety and Welfare of kids and teachers in schools what's reasonable what are we going to allow teachers to do School staff to do what are we going to allow school resource officers to do to prevent deter people from being harmed and to keep them safe and we talk a lot about law enforcement that's not just coming from them this is not just a concern from law enforcement they've come f
orward about it County Sheriffs have come forward about it County governments have come forward City governments school districts parents kids there's a whole a lot of folks out there that have requireed or excuse me requested that we make a change to the law that was passed last year I appreciate the effort that's being made here today but I don't think it quite meets the threshold of what they're looking for um and you know we can make it very simple very simple listen to the kids listen to th
e kids it was a survey conducted by the Minnesota Department of Education in 2022 before this issue was in the news before it became politicized before there were some confusing narratives surrounding the issue and here are the highlights of the results of that survey 94% of Minnesota students the kids we all say we should be listening to on this issue 94% said it was a good idea to have SRO or police at our school 71% said we would tell an SRO or police officer about an unsafe or illegal activi
ty and 61% said they were comfortable going to an SRO or police officer at schools of having problems or needing help if all of these dangerous unreasonable things were happening and harming kids and negatively impacting them in our schools why in the world would a survey bring us those results that's the question at hand so if we wanted to make this real simple and strip away all the political aspects about this bill and make it about a safe learning environment for our children it would be pre
tty easy there were a few students last night that testified in the house Public Safety Committee that said the same thing I'm not going to rehash everything they said but you should look at you should listen to the hearing if you want to hear it straight from the mouth of kids henpen County they had to pull some school resource officers are not back 91 one calls to schools have increased 53% we've got state troopers here today they're present you might not see them but they're in this room they
're here to keep us safe they're here that if something were to happen they could intervene they could deter they could prevent harm if we've got them up here in the Senate building the house office building the state capital to keep all of us safe how in the world could we be comfortable within being removed from schools it's a failure for us not to act to get them back in the school buildings where they were previously if they have since been removed that's the kind of Bill we need that's the
kind of urgency that we need I'm almost done Mr chair you know I'm I'm uh I represent the city of Lakeville it's my hometown it's where I went to high school I was a school board chair of that school district for a time and you you may or may not have seen a video that went viral just a couple of weeks ago about a very violent altercation that took place in the very high school I graduated from and if you watch that video there's a woman who's trying to intervene I don't know if she's a teacher
or a staff member at that school but there are students fighting on the ground there's a crowd people have their cameras out and she's trying to help and she looks to the crowd at one point and she says please help me that's somebody's wife that's somebody's Mom it's somebody's grandmother and she symbolizes all the teachers across the state of Minnesota that are asking us for help when it comes to clarifying the law keeping kids safe keeping teachers safe School staff safe and Community safe an
d I want to let that woman know and other teachers know that we hear you but we must also listen passing a law that truly fixes this is what we need I don't believe this bill does so but Senator wesland I pray the version that we do hopefully see and get a chance to uh to vote on and pass does thank you Senator Coleman thank you Mr chair I pride myself on being one of the shortest winded members of the Senate and I will not let you down today uh but I will say I've seen this story play out befor
e law enforcement officers not in agreement with the bill a lack of clarification Republicans shut out of the debate and I want to ask the Senators at this table how that worked out for you last time I've seen this play out before and I am terrified for what's going to happen because how it played out in my district Mr chair is our students cowering in their classroom for 45 minutes as their SRO had to wait to get physically assaulted before they could do anything and if this bill does not get i
mproved on its way to the floor I think that we're going to be right back where we started and right here again taking up committee time on this same issue next year but how many students will get hurt and how many Law Enforcement Officers or teachers will get hurt in the meantime is a tragic answer we will have to wait to find out and so I urge that Republicans do not get shut out of all the debates again this year because we might know what we're talking about uh so thank you Mr chair and good
luck senator wesland Senator coish thank you Mr chair I renew my motion to um move this bill to Judiciary senator may quid oh have a few more people that want to speak I'll go very fast the the thing I want to say to you Senator won is thank you for doing this work because um the bill that was passed through this committee and off the floor and off the house floor and then the conference committee and passed again um the language that involved not allowing adults in schools to use Pro and restr
aints has been introduced every year since 2021 both in this chamber and in the house it's the result of the work of the restrictive uh procedures workg group um that has been meeting for the 10 years since we introduced the same language in the special education statute what I don't appreciate about this conversation that's been happening here today is that setting standards for how adults treat children in school as somehow making kids unsafe because it's not the willful misinterpretation of l
aw has done that um and I'm really hoping that we can get this clarification because what was uplifted through that confusion is that there weren't any standards and so this bill is not a response to what happened before because we just set uniform standards for how adults treat children in schools they can't restrict their ability to breathe or communicate distress and use prone restraints which has killed children in schools uniform set of standards for all adults in schools I think that's a p
retty good deal this actually sets the uh model policy for how all SRO are going to be acting in schools and their duties and how they're going to interact with school boards I want to be very clear that um none of this bill was about saying that we don't want sros in school School none of it was about saying that they shouldn't be in school or that the 25% of students who answered the student survey the 71% of the students of the 25% that answered the student survey like their SRO it wasn't abo
ut not liking them it was a uniform set of standards for how adults in schools treat children and so we hope to continue to move this bill forward and I thank you senator weson for all of the work because that is what the point of this was and it was uh to ensure that the students are safe with adults in schools and nothing more before you have your closing remarks I just want to thank all the testifiers today and all the letters and input that we've heard and read I have not not in my um eight
years in the Senate uh had such an edifying and intellectually stimulating um commissioner um of Education um jet said um the last month um it's been five months uh just not to correct your you but and it's been very like I said intellectually steaming I had no idea there were this many different varying definitions of imminent and reasonable and restraint and shall versus must uh and or and two uh until this bill came forward and um you know the constitutional convention was all about a bundle
of compromises and some of them didn't stand the test of time and some of them have stood the test of time and I appreciate all my members on the other side of the aisle um for their opinions on this I I I'm hoping that maybe history will judge that um Senator weslin and representative Frasier that you were right and you your tireless work on this bill along with um representative Frasier has been nothing but a inspiration to me and I can never thank you enough and um so with that said closing a
rguments before the roll call vote thank you Mr chair and again again I will also try to be brief and remember I'm not in a court of law arguing to the court um I would like to reiterate my deep thanks for the many many many conversations that have been had over the the past months and I I think first and foremost I would love to lift up our staff uh I think we often um remember them last and I always try to remember them first we have the best nonpartisan and partisan staff in both bodies we ha
ve worked worked with staff from the governor's office all of whom are deeply passionate and Incredibly intelligent uh individuals who come here probably could get paid better in the private sector but who are devoted to this work and we have relied on them uh and and their their smarts and their passion um I just want to correct one thing um this isn't about me being right and I understand what you were saying but this isn't about me being right this is about um all of the people who have worke
d and touched this work really deeply listening to everybody who came to us with their feedback and their suggestions and from that work crafting a bill that I actually believe is a good piece of work um in my short time here in the legislature I will say that I'm incredibly proud of this work I'm and and I'm incredibly proud to be the Chief author of this bill um I do want to say that nobody is being shut out of a debate we are having a very robust debate we will go through the regular committe
e process we'll go through this again in judiciary and Public Safety um our colleagues on the in the other body are going through a similar process and so nobody is being shut out of this debate I do want to touch on briefly too that one of the pieces that we passed last year that is going to be so important going forward we've heard comments multiple times uh this afternoon about how often does this really happen the thing is we don't know because up until this point we haven't had a reporting
requirement we are going to be getting information about what is actually happening in our schools how often use of force is being uh used with uh our students who is doing it teachers sro's uh Etc and will provide detailed information for us to know exactly what's going on in our schools um and I I do want to say once again um as I wrap up Mr chair that the fact that some of us have not had certain experiences I think it's so important that we don't discount individuals who have had experiences
and we've heard some very moving testimony um in the other body and committee and we've heard moving testimony here and I do want all of those individuals to know that I care deeply about their words and their experiences and again I believe that moving this bill forward will actually be a good thing to provide for a supportive and a safe learning environment for all of our students I um am asking members of this committee to vote Yes on this bill and that we will then move forward to Public Sa
fety and eventually this will hit the floor um and I again will ask for your support at that time thank you so much Mr chair and members thank you Senator roll call vote chair swedzinski yes Vice chair M Quade hi Senator Coleman no Senator abler hopefully yes someday but not today Senator Balden I Senator Duckworth no senator hild yes Senator kunish yes Senator man Senator weisenberg no Senator man Senator wesland the bill passes 5 to4 congratulations as you head to Public Safety thank you for y
our time today I really do appreciate the conversation members our next meeting um is Monday it's a student voices day reach out to young people in your District if they're interested in testifying on what's going on in their school or what's going on in their life we'd love to hear from you and [Music] them [Music]
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