California Legislature—2015–16 Regular Session

Assembly Bill No. 636

Introduced by Assembly Member Medina

February 24, 2015

An act to amend Section 67380 of the Education Code, relating to postsecondary education.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

AB 636, as introduced, Medina. Postsecondary education: student safety.

Existing law requires the governing board of each community college district, the Trustees of the California State University, the Board of Directors of the Hastings College of the Law, the Regents of the University of California, and the governing boards of postsecondary educational institutions receiving public funds for student financial assistance to require the appropriate officials at each campus to compile records of specified crimes and noncriminal acts reported to campus police, campus security personnel, campus safety authorities, or designated campus authorities. Existing law requires any report by a victim of a Part 1 violent crime, sexual assault, or hate crime, as defined, received by a campus security authority and made by the victim for purposes of notifying the institution or law enforcement, to be immediately, or as soon as practicably possible, disclosed to the appropriate local law enforcement agency without identifying the victim, unless the victim consents to being identified after the victim has been informed of his or her right to have his or her personally identifying information withheld. Existing law prohibits a report to a local law enforcement agency from identifying the alleged assailant if the victim does not consent to being identified.

This bill would authorize the identification of the alleged assailant, even if the victim does not consent to being identified, if the institution determines that the alleged assailant represents a serious and ongoing threat to the safety of persons or the institution and the immediate assistance of police is necessary to contact or detain the assailant.

Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no. State-mandated local program: no.

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.  

Section 67380 of the Education Code is amended
to read:

67380.  

(a) Except as provided in subparagraph (B) of
paragraph (6), the governing board of each community college
district, the Trustees of the California State University, the Board
of Directors of the Hastings College of the Law, the Regents of
the University of California, and the governing board of any
postsecondary educational institution receiving public funds for
student financial assistance shall do all of the following:

(1) Require the appropriate officials at each campus within their
respective jurisdictions to compile records of both of the following:

(A) All occurrences reported to campus police, campus security
personnel, or campus safety authorities of, and arrests for, crimes
that are committed on campus and that involve violence, hate
violence, theft, destruction of property, illegal drugs, or alcohol
intoxication.

(B) All occurrences of noncriminal acts of hate violence reported
to, and for which a written report is prepared by, designated campus
authorities.

(2) Require any written record of a noncriminal act of hate
violence to include, but not be limited to, the following:

(A) A description of the act of hate violence.

(B) Victim characteristics.

(C) Offender characteristics, if known.

(3) (A) Make the information concerning the crimes compiled
pursuant to subparagraph (A) of paragraph (1) available within
two business days following the request of any student or employee
of, or applicant for admission to, any campus within their respective
jurisdictions, or to the media, unless the information is the type of
information exempt from disclosure pursuant to subdivision (f) of
Section 6254 of the Government Code, in which case the
information is not required to be disclosed. Notwithstanding
subdivision (f) of Section 6254 of the Government Code, the name
or any other personally identifying information of a victim of any
crime defined by Section 243.4, 261, 262, 264, 264.1, 273a, 273d,
273.5, 286, 288, 288a, 289, 422.6, 422.7, or 422.75 of the Penal
Code shall not be disclosed without the permission of the victim,
or the victim’s parent or guardian if the victim is a minor.

(B) For purposes of this paragraph and subparagraph (A) of
paragraph (1), the campus police, campus security personnel, and
campus safety authorities described in subparagraph (A) of
paragraph (1) shall be included within the meaning of “state or
local police agency” and “state and local law enforcement agency,”
as those terms are used in subdivision (f) of Section 6254 of the
Government Code.

(4) Require the appropriate officials at each campus within their
respective jurisdictions to prepare, prominently post, and copy for
distribution on request, a campus safety plan that sets forth all of
the following: the availability and location of security personnel,
methods for summoning assistance of security personnel, any
special safeguards that have been established for particular facilities
or activities, any actions taken in the preceding 18 months to
increase safety, and any changes in safety precautions expected to
be made during the next 24 months. For purposes of this section,
posting and distribution may be accomplished by including relevant
safety information in a student handbook or brochure that is made
generally available to students.

(5) Require the appropriate officials at each campus within their
respective jurisdictions to report information compiled pursuant
to paragraph (1) relating to hate violence to the governing board,
trustees, board of directors, or regents, as the case may be. The
governing board, trustees, board of directors, or regents, as the
case may be, shall, upon collection of that information from all of
the campuses within their jurisdiction, transmit a report containing
a compilation of that information to the Legislative Analyst’s
Office no later than January 1 of each year and shall make the
report available to the general public on the Internet Web site of
each respective institution. It is the intent of the Legislature that
the governing board of each community college district, the
Trustees of the California State University, the Board of Directors
of the Hastings College of the Law, the Regents of the University
of California, and the governing board of any postsecondary
educational institution receiving public funds for student financial
assistance establish guidelines for identifying and reporting
occurrences of hate violence. It is the intent of the Legislature that
the guidelines established by these institutions of higher education
be as consistent with each other as possible. These guidelines shall
be developed in consultation with the Department of Fair
Employment and Housing and the California Association of Human
Relations Organizations.

(6) (A) Notwithstanding subdivision (f) of Section 6254 of the
Government Code, require any report made by a victim or an
employee pursuant to Section 67383 of a Part 1 violent crime,
sexual assault, or hate crime, as described in Section 422.55 of the
Penal Code, received by a campus security authority and made by
the victim for purposes of notifying the institution or law
enforcement, to be immediately, or as soon as practicably possible,
disclosed to the local law enforcement agency with which the
institution has a written agreement pursuant to Section 67381
without identifying the victim, unless the victim consents to being
identified after the victim has been informed of his or her right to
have his or her personally identifying information withheld. If the
victim does not consent to being identified, the alleged assailant
shall not be identified in the information disclosed to the local law
enforcement begin delete agency. end delete begin insert agency, unless the institution determines that
the alleged assailant represents a serious and ongoing threat to
the safety of persons or the institution and the immediate assistance
of police is necessary to contact or detain the assailant. end insert The
requirements of this paragraph shall not constitute a waiver of, or
exception to, any law providing for the confidentiality of
information.

(B) This requirement only applies as a condition for participation
in the Cal Grant Program established pursuant to Chapter 1.7
(commencing with Section 69430) of Part 42.

(b) Any person who is refused information required to be made
available pursuant to subparagraph (A) of paragraph (1) of
subdivision (a) may maintain a civil action for damages against
any institution that refuses to provide the information, and the
court shall award that person an amount not to exceed one thousand
dollars ($1,000) if the court finds that the institution refused to
provide the information.

(c) For purposes of this section:

(1) “Hate violence” means any act of physical intimidation or
physical harassment, physical force or physical violence, or the
threat of physical force or physical violence, that is directed against
any person or group of persons, or the property of any person or
group of persons because of the ethnicity, race, national origin,
religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression,
disability, or political or religious beliefs of that person or group.

(2) “Part 1 violent crime” means willful homicide, forcible rape,
robbery, or aggravated assault, as defined in the Uniform Crime
Reporting Handbook of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

(3) “Sexual assault” includes, but is not limited to, rape, forced
sodomy, forced oral copulation, rape by a foreign object, sexual
battery, or the threat of any of these.

(d) This section does not apply to the governing board of a
private postsecondary educational institution receiving funds for
student financial assistance with a full-time enrollment of less than
1,000 students.

(e) This section shall apply to a campus of one of the public
postsecondary educational systems identified in subdivision (a)
only if that campus has a full-time equivalent enrollment of more
than 1,000 students.

(f) Notwithstanding any other provision of this section, this
section shall not apply to the California Community Colleges
unless and until the Legislature makes funds available to the
California Community Colleges for the purposes of this section.