SCHOOL OFFICIALS WANT TO KNOW ABOUT STUDENT ARRESTS

State Politics: Bill Would Require Cops To Report Most Felony Arrests
To Schools

INDIANAPOLIS -- A defect in state law keeps school officials in the
dark when a student is arrested on charges as serious as murder,
robbery and rape, Lake County school administrators told lawmakers Tuesday.

School officials from Crown Point, Whiting and Lake Central High
School came to the Capitol in support of House Bill 1382, which
cleared the House Judiciary Committee on an 8-0 vote. Sponsored by
state Rep. Linda Lawson, D-Hammond, the measure would require law
enforcement to inform school officials when students are booked on
most felony charges.

"If a student is dealing drugs on the weekend, they're arraigned on
Monday, they're released on Tuesday, they're back in school on
Wednesday. Right now, we don't know (why)," said Robert McDermott,
assistant principal at Lake Central. "We just know they were in
court. We don't know why, and we can't ask them why."

Indiana is one of 10 states that lacks a school notification law,
said McDermott, who co-chairs the Lake County Safe School Commission
with Milan Damjanovic, security and safety director for Crown Point
Community School Corp.

Lawson's legislation, which now goes before the full House, would
require police to notify school officials within 48 hours of student
arrests for drug trafficking, gang crimes, aggravated battery and
other violent felonies. Judges would have seven days to inform
schools of a conviction on such charges.

"These are strictly serious felonies," said Bruce Stewart,
attendance and safety specialist for the School City of Whiting. He
and other supporters say the information would be used to protect
the student body and staff and not to punish students that stand
accused of crimes.

Current law allows schools to seek information-sharing agreements
with individual judges and police units, but McDermott said that
piece-meal approach is ineffective. The Safe Schools Commission has
reached such an agreement with just one Lake County juvenile court judge.

Nursing Home Smoke Detectors, Sprinklers

The Senate also voted 46-0 Tuesday to require that nursing homes
install fire sprinklers by 2012 and put a smoke detector in every
resident's room. Senate Bill 93, which is sponsored by state Sen.
Sue Landske, R-Cedar Lake, now moves to the House.