Student and parent advocates long opposed to punitive measures in schools rose on Thursday to defend a controversial new state law on student restraints — and to say "no" to a possible special legislative session on the issue.
"The law is good as it is," said Josh Crosson, executive director of the education advocacy group EdAllies.
He spoke on behalf of the Solutions Not Suspensions Coalition, which held a State Capitol news conference intending to give voice to families and students in the debate over new restrictions on the types of physical holds that police and others can place on kids.
Police departments and sheriff's offices have pulled school resource officers (SROs) from schools as a result, prompting Republican lawmakers to call for a repeal of the legislation and DFL Gov. Tim Walz to say he was open to a special session to clarify the law.
Advocates said the state simply extended to all students a ban on "prone restraints" that was enacted 10 years ago for students with disabilities — unless the maneuver is needed to "prevent bodily harm or death to another," the law states.
"This is a political hissy fit and Walz should know better and do better to protect our kids," said Khulia Pringle, Minnesota state director for the National Parents Union and a longtime critic of discipline disparities in the St. Paul Public Schools.
Top Democratic leaders haven't closed the door to a special session to tackle the issue. But MPR News reported that 44 rank-and-file DFL legislators in the House and Senate signed on to a letter on Thursday opposing calls to return to the Capitol to repeal the law.
They accused some groups of misrepresenting what the new law does and argued such "extreme punishments" don't belong in schools.