11-3-17 thiesfeldt-teacher protection act

The author  of  a bill designed to protect teachers in the classroom says his bill would not infringe on the privacy rights of students.  Republican state representative Jeremy Thiesfeldt of Fond du Lac introduced the bill last week.    Critics argue the bill would violate student privacy and disproportionally criminalize students of color and those with disabilities.  The ranking Democrat on Thiesfeldt’s  Education committee, state rep. Sondy Pope, says its putting on a band-aid without figuring out why there is bleeding.   Thiesfeldt says that’s unfair criticism and politically motivated. “I’ll bluntly say that WEAC’s opposition to this, Milwaukee teacher’s union opposition to this…if there was a Democrat sponsors’ name on this bill they would be all for it,”  Thiesfeldt told WFDL news.  “Its the fact that I’m a Republican.  That’s why they don’t like it.”   The bill would require police in most cases to notify a school when a student is arrested for a violent crime and require schools to provide that information to the teacher who work directly with that student.  Thiesfeldt says it doesn’t mean that teachers will be able to go to the police department to examine a student’s juvenile police record.