MARSHALL — The start of the school year is fast approaching in Marshall. But Marshall Public Schools, like many school districts around Minnesota, is facing questions on how to continue its School Resource Officer program.

MPS Superintendent Jeremy Williams and Marshall Public Safety Director Jim Marshall said school resource officer Sara VanLeeuwe will still be present in the school district. But as of this week, they weren’t sure how recent changes in Minnesota laws would potentially affect her job.

“We will still have our SRO in the schools. What we need to work to better understand is what the response looks like under this new legislation,” Williams said.

This week, law enforcement agencies in several Minnesota counties and cities said they would remove resource officers from schools, due to concerns over new state laws limiting the kind of physical restraints that can be used on students. In Redwood Falls, the local school resource officer asked to step down from their position and go back on patrol, KSTP TV reported this week.

Marshall said Friday that he and Williams met this week to try and work out how to proceed with an SRO in Marshall schools. The MPS school resource officer program has been around for about 25 years, and Marshall himself was the district’s first SRO. He said he wanted to continue the partnership. “I definitely don’t want to be the one that steps away,” he said.

At issue for Minnesota law enforcement officers are changes to state law that were passed this year as part of a broader education bill. The new law says school employees and school resource officers can’t use certain kinds of physical restraints or holds on students. The list of banned restraints includes putting a child in a face-down position, as well as physical holds that restrict a student’s ability to breathe or communicate distress, or holds that put weight on a student’s head, neck, chest or abdomen.

The changes also say reasonable force may only be used when it is necessary to prevent imminent harm or death to a student or another person.

However, Marshall said Minnesota already has laws about use of force – including language banning police from using choke holds or preventing someone from breathing.

“The concern is that now we have two different bills with different language,” Marshall said. It makes it harder to know how a law enforcement officer can respond if they need to intervene in an incident like a fight, he said. “It opens a door for criminal and civil liability that really doesn’t need to be there.”

“This puts resource officers in our schools into a very tough position,” state Sen. Gary Dahms, R-Redwood Falls, said Friday. “We either have to get this corrected, or figure out ways to work around it.” And finding those workarounds could be difficult for schools and law enforcement, Dahms said.

Dahms wasn’t the only state legislator with criticism for the new laws this week. On Wednesday, a group of Republican lawmakers proposed a bill to repeal the changes, and called on Gov. Tim Walz to discuss a special legislative session.

“School resource officers play a valuable role in the efforts to keep teachers, students and staff safe,” Sen. Bill Weber, R-Luverne, said in a press release. “The removal of SROs from our schools is the latest consequence of hasty decisions made by Democrats this session. Before the new school year starts, we need to take immediate action to provide our officers with clarity. I know that this is an issue that we can find a bipartisan solution to.”

“I think it’s unfortunate that we’re dealing with this,” Rep. Chris Swedzinski, R-Ghent, said Friday. “I think we saw, in a major way, that ‘St. Paul knows best’ attitude,” he said. Swedsinzki said the new laws took power away from local governments, and could potentially put people at risk.

However, Dahms and Swedzinski said it remains to be seen if the issue could be addressed before the next legislative session in February.

“At this point, the governor is indicating he’s not interested in taking it up,” Dahms said.

Marshall said one of the frustrating things about the situation at Marshall Public Schools was that the SRO does more than take disciplinary actions. In the Marshall district, the school resource officer often gives educational talks, serves as a liaison to the public, and helps build a positive relationship between students and law enforcement, he said.

“It’s disappointing to see that could potentially go away,” Marshall said.

Marshall said he would continue to work with the school district over the next couple of weeks, and VanLeeuwe will continue to serve as SRO.

“Our main priority will always be to make sure there’s a safe learning environment for students and staff,” Marshall said.