Dr. Bernie James is the foremost scholar and lecturer on school safety in the United States. He is a school safety law professor, expert, presenter and consultant. He currently teaches law at Pepperdine University Caruso School of Law. Dr. James is available to bring his 40 years of research, scholarship and expertise to local and state school officials in on-site, customized, half-day lectures.

Each topic he presents is designed to provide an on-site, state-specific Socratic session on the following topics, allowing you gain a better understanding of the complexities of each:

• school authority
• student rights
• legal constraints (federal/state legal updates)
• affirmative duties
• roles of interagency partners
• qualified immunity
• best practices in maintaining a safe learning environment

Known as “Dr. Bernie” to NASRO members, he is a very popular annual conference keynote speaker and long-time columnist for the Journal of School Safety. His legal insights and extensive knowledge of how the law pertains to school safety are invaluable.

Dr. Bernie James is the foremost scholar and lecturer on school safety in the United States. He is a school safety law professor, expert, presenter and consultant. He currently teaches law at Pepperdine University Caruso School of Law. Dr. James is available to bring his 40 years of research, scholarship and expertise to local and state school officials in on-site, customized, half-day lectures.

2024-2025 Session Topics

Behavioral Threat Assessments, Student Rights, and School Safety

This session presents the rules, duties, and best practices on mandated behavioral threat assessments (BTA). Schools are now called to participate in a different kind of decision making using behavioral threat assessments that shape outcomes in ways that affect not only the school environment, but also the delivery of social services to children and families as well as interventions by the juvenile justice system. The courts, recipients of the new policies are now tasked with motivating schools to adopt and implement school disciplinary practices that align with the emerging science on juvenile brain development, trauma, suicidal ideation, and other special needs. The focus of the session is upon accountability, showing how strongly held, but mistaken beliefs about school law unwittingly constrain the assessments of concerning behaviors on campus in ways that are harmful to students, triggering more rigorous judicial review and school liability.

Campus Security in the Era of the “First Amendment Audits”

This session addresses the growing trend of random persons coming onto campus, filming campus activities and school employees to "audit" the school as a means to “hold educators accountable” by posting their film online. The session will present research, highlighting the clearly established case law, studies, and data on school policies related to securing a safe learning environment. The presentation will (1) encourage participants to share their experiences occurring in their district offices and schools (2) review their policies on visitors and trespassers (3) understand the message from the courts on encroachments on campus in light of their duty to protect the school environment (4) discuss potential liability for failure to implement properly policies and procedures on visitors and trespassers (5) roleplay how to handle a potential “audit” using model responses and best practices.

Restorative Justice Liability: School Discipline Reforms, Student Rights, and School Safety

This session is based on the reality that litigation challenging school discipline policies is on the upswing. Under the current wave of school discipline reform, judicial review previously considered deferential to school decision making is becoming more rigorous. Court decisions over the last decade reveal that school-based restorative justice policies take on variations of “excessive tolerance,” in which discipline outcomes function under the weight of an expectation to keep students in school, emphasizing forbearance and minimal sanctions. A review of the cases captures most of the variation in school policies. Suspensions and expulsions are inappropriate, except in an emergency or when there is good reason to believe that alternative forms of corrective action would fail if employed. Under this policy construct, expulsion is used only when there is an immediate danger to students and then only until the emergency subsides. A straight line connects this decision-making with the most important evidence of the changing judicial attitude: criminal and civil liability against educators who fail to protect students. In this shifting legal environment, the session presents the rules, duties, and best practices on restorative-justice-based school discipline reforms.

If your school, district or law enforcement agency would like Dr. Bernie James to speak at your upcoming event, please contact [email protected] for more information.