(Undated) — Hamline University analyst David Schultz says a fight inside Mankato East High School that injured a student puts increased pressure on Governor Tim Walz to call a special session on new law dealing with use-of-force by on-site school officers.
Schultz says, “I don’t want to quite say it was for the Republicans or for the police a[n] ‘I told you so’ — but in many ways it was an ‘I told you so’ event, where they can say that, if you don’t change the law, something bad’s gonna happen.
This is the something bad that happened.” Local law enforcement has pulled on-site officers (school resource officers) from some schools — Mankato East among them — warning the new law is unclear about when officers can use certain restraint holds on students.
They say officers could be sued or even criminally charged for not doing enough — or doing too much — to stop fights. House Democratic leaders say the new law is clear that reasonable force is still allowed to prevent bodily harm or death.