Teacher Physical Intervention Proposal Fails; COVID Meatpacking Protections Still Uncertain

March 24, 2021, 5:55 p.m. ·

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Nebrska Legislature debating Wednesday (Photo by Fred Knapp, NET News)

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An attempt to give permission for teachers to physically intervene with students failed in the Legislature today/Wednesday. And senators are continuing to work on a bill to protect meatpacking workers from COVID-19.


The issue of letting teachers and other school personnel physically intervene with disruptive students has been a hot one for years. Supporters say it’s important to put that permission into law, so school personnel will feel free to stop students from hurting themselves or others. Opponents say such intervention is already allowed by court decisions, and the proposal to exempt teachers from discipline if their intervention is reasonable will result in more interventions against racial minorities and developmentally disabled students.

Last year, an attempt to put intervention into law failed by one vote. This year, Sen. Dave Murman of Glenvil tried again, offering an amendment to a bill allocating lottery funds to education programs. Murman said his amendment was needed.

“In a recent interim study by the Education Committee, teachers expressed their concerns about being kicked, hit, bitten, spit upon, slapped, punched, or worse. One of the teachers had a traumatic brain injury due to a student assaulting her. Students as well have been placed in danger,” Murman said.

Sen. Terrell McKinney of Omaha opposed the move.

“Teachers should not have immunity, administrators should not have immunity to just grab students and slam ‘em. I promise you, I’ve seen it happen. I don’t know if it happens in western Nebraska, but I could tell you from experience, being a student and just knowing from experience – I coach youth for my community – teachers snatch up kids and slam ‘em. And they should not be provided with immunity,” McKinney said.

Sen. Mike Groene, former chair of the Education Committee who failed with a similar proposal last year, supported Murman’s amendment.

“What this amendment does is protect employees at the school to do the right thing. They are being fired. They are being put on suspension. One teacher contacted me and said they grabbed a child’s wrist when they were about to strike another child, and they were put on suspension,” Groene said.

Wednesday morning before the debate, the Education Committee voted 5-3 to kill a similar bill by Murman. That had the effect of raising the votes needed for his amendment to succeed from 25 to 30. Murman complained about the move to indefinitely postpone his bill, a motion sometimes referred to as an “IPP” motion.

“It was voted to IPP along what would be party lines if we were a partisan legislature so (I’m) very disappointed in that,” he said.

Voting to kill the bill were McKinney along with Sens. Patty Pansing Brooks, Adam Morfeld, Jen Day and Committee Chair Lynne Walz, all registered Democrats in the officially nonpartisan Legislature. Voting to keep it alive were Sens. Lou Ann Linehan, Rita Sanders and Murman, all Republicans.

After Speaker Mike Hilgers ruled that it would take 30 votes, Murman withdrew his amendment. But he said he would bring up another version at the next round of debate.

Asked about Murman’s comments about partisanship, Walz said she hopes everyone can work together and communicate better in the future.

The bill includes about $2 million a year to train school personnel in behavioral awareness and intervention training, including de-escalation techniques. Senators gave it first round approval on a vote of 28-6.

And, senators continue to work on a bill to require meatpacking plants to protect workers from COVID-19. During the pandemic, more than 7,000 of the state’s 25-30,000 meatpacking workers have tested positive, over 250 have been hospitalized, and 27 have died.

Omaha Sen. Tony Vargas’s proposal requires protections like masks, temperature checks, and paid sick leave, measures many meatpacking plants say they already have in place. The Business and Labor Committee voted 4-3 to advance it to the full Legislature.

However, two senators who were co-sponsors have now taken their names off the bill. One of them is Sen. Rita Sanders of Bellevue.

“Sen. Vargas and I have been trying to figure out a bill that we could work on together. My north part of Bellevue is meatpacking industry, and South Omaha for him. And so that initially was why I was looking at the bill, and to help families and it’s a current issue. But the meatpacking industry themselves are unhappy with it, Sanders said.

Sanders added she’s consulting other senators about possible amendments.

Another sponsor who’s dropped off is Walz who represents Fremont, where there are three meatpacking plants.

“I’ve gone and toured two of those plants, and I plan on touring the third one. As far as I can see the plants in Fremont have really done a good job going above and beyond what they needed to do to make sure their workers were safe,” Walz said.

Walz says plants elsewhere may not be doing as good a job.

One sticking point with meatpackers is a requirement for six-foot distances between workers. Vargas said he’s working on an amendment to address that

“There are places where six foot social distancing is extremely difficult. And if there are people wearing masks and have some barriers that are up, have sanitizing stations and all these other safety requirements that are in the bill and are supported by CDC guidelines, is there a way we can provide some level of a waiver?” Vargas asked.

Vargas drafted an amendment that would let meatpackers apply to the Department of Labor for a waiver. But Jessica Kolterman of Lincoln Premium Poultry, which runs a chicken plant in Fremont, said packers don’t want to have to apply for waivers, or be legally locked into observing CDC guidelines that can change frequently.

Vargas said he’s not surprised the companies don’t want to have legal regulations, but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t.

“We’re accountable to the people of Nebraska. We’re not accountable to the meatpacking plants themselves. People often tout…USDA with regulators watching the meat to make sure they’re safe. That’s true. Those regulations were put in place by the USDA. They were put in place to better protect meat quality. This is the same thing. Putting regulations in place to better protect workers and the whole system as a whole is the right thing to do,” he said.

With Vargas promising to keep working on amendments, and senators including Sanders and Walz saying they’ll consider them, the future of the proposal remains to be determined.