Woodland Hills body cameras policy delayed

The Woodland Hills School District plan for a body cameras policy is “still alive,” but likely won’t be brought before the school board until the fall.

Superintendent Alan Johnson said crafting a policy requiring the district’s school resource officers to wear body cameras is proving more difficult than administrators initially realized, especially because they haven’t found a similar school district policy they could study or adapt to fit Woodland Hills.

“It’s going to take a little longer that we thought,” he said. It will not be in place when students return to school in late August.

Mr. Johnson said the district began discussing such a policy after Woodland Hills recently made national news. Surveillance video was released of school resource Officer Steve Shaulis dragging a student into an office in April before the student’s tooth was punched out.

Another video, from 2015, shows Officer Shaulis putting a different student in a chokehold before pinning him to the ground and using a Taser on him with the help of high school principal Kevin Murray.

The Allegheny County District Attorney’s office has been investigating whether Officer Shaulis used excessive force in the incident last month. Mr. Murray, who in the fall was put on paid leave as the district attorney’s office investigated an audio recording of him threatening a student, was reinstated in January and was not charged with a crime.

“One thing that wasn’t present in the videos that made the news was what was being said,” Mr. Johnson said. Body camera footage would provide more context if a similar incident were to happen.

Currently, the superintendent is arranging meeting with the police departments in Churchill, Rankin and Swissvale, which provide the district’s school resource officers.

The policy should protect the rights of students, the school district and the police officers, Mr. Johnson said. The district also has been slow to work through some of the legal questions such as policy raises, including whether the video could be made public and which entity — the district or the police department — would keep it.

“The only time that footage will be used is if there’s an issue that has to do with officer accountability and can be used in court,” Mr. Johnson said. “We obviously wouldn’t routinely get out the video and watch it.”

At a meeting Wednesday night, the school board voted 7-2 to terminate the employment of Joseph Golden, a behavioral specialist at the Rankin Promise alternative school who is accused of grabbing a student by the neck and carrying him down a hallway. Board members Robert Tomasic and Fred Kuhn voted no.

Mr. Golden was charged with simple assault and endangering the welfare of a child, and he had been suspended from his job since the incident occurred in April.

The board also approved a budget for the 2017-18 year that requires no tax increase in an 8-1 vote with Mr. Tomasic voting no. The district anticipates about $88.1 million in revenues and about $92.7 million in expenditures, and it will use about $4.6 million of the district fund balance.

Elizabeth Behrman: Lbehrman@post-gazette.com, 412-263-1590 or follow @Ebehrman on Twitter.