Opinion ID: 4541297
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Police intervention

Text: As with the physical restraints, the district court and the hearing officer determined the request for police intervention violated the IEP, and thus denied O.W. a FAPE, because calls to police were inconsistent with the IEP’s expressly authorized strategies of using a calm interaction style, minimizing verbal interactions, providing access to a cooling off period, and avoiding power struggles. We disagree. As mentioned above, the IEP listed specific strategies to be used to address O.W.’s aggressive behavior. These strategies are not necessarily violated by a mere request for police presence, particularly to deal with a violent and escalating situation such as a student repeatedly striking a teacher and charging at her, as was the case here. O.W. interacted with police officers on one occasion, and only after school officials provided him an opportunity to cool down, offered verbal redirections, provided praise, attempted to reduce verbal interactions, and applied calming techniques. Once the officers arrived, the interaction was limited to a handful of questions which may best be characterized as implicit threats of arrest if O.W. continued to assault his teachers. There is no indication Ridgecrest staff directed or encouraged the police officers to act in a manner inconsistent with the IEP. Because the School District took steps to avoid police interaction and O.W.’s behavior posed a substantial risk of serious injury to himself and others, we do not believe the calls to police were inconsistent with O.W.’s IEP. Accordingly, the single instance of police involvement did not rise to the level of an actionable violation.