Legislative Update from Rep. Bernie Perryman

Legislative Update

News from St. Paul

This week after Attorney General Ellison released an official opinion saying that the new law on school resource officers does not limit the types of reasonable force SROs use to carry out their lawful duties, Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty released a contradicting opinion saying that the new law does not actually allow reasonable force, unless it is directly related to bodily harm or death of a person. This seems to mean that SROs could still be opened up to liability in the course of their work based on the whims of county attorneys.

This contradicting opinion is just further proof that we need to act as soon as possible to clarify this law so that schools and local law enforcement have concrete answers about how this law is actually intended to work. It is not good enough to wait until session begins in February, six months after the school year started, to bring a bill and give everyone certainty about the law.

District Visits

This week I attended several community events and loved hearing more about the great things happening in our area! I attended the Jugaad Leadership Program graduation, and got to learn more about this fantastic program (above).

I also attended a celebration of women veterans at the St. Cloud VA (left), which was a great event celebrating many of the heroes in our community. Thank you all for your service!

Finally, I met with the MN Funeral Home Directors Association (below).