BILL ANALYSIS
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 257|
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UNFINISHED BUSINESS
Bill No: SB 257
Author: Kuehl (D), et al
Amended: 7/18/01
Vote: 21
SENATE EDUCATION COMMITTEE : 8-2, 4/25/01
AYES: Vasconcellos, McPherson, Alarcon, Alpert, Karnette,
Ortiz, Scott, Vincent
NOES: Knight, Monteith
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : 7-4, 5/14/01
AYES: Alpert, Escutia, Karnette, McPherson, Murray,
Perata, Speier
NOES: Battin, Johannessen, Johnson, Poochigian
SENATE FLOOR : 23-13, 9/13/01
AYES: Alarcon, Alpert, Bowen, Burton, Chesbro, Dunn,
Escutia, Figueroa, Karnette, Kuehl, Machado, McPherson,
O'Connell, Ortiz, Polanco, Romero, Scott, Sher, Soto,
Speier, Torlakson, Vasconcellos, Vincent
NOES: Ackerman, Battin, Brulte, Haynes, Johannessen,
Johnson, Knight, Margett, McClintock, Monteith, Morrow,
Oller, Poochigian
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 46-26, 9/12/01 - See last page for vote
SUBJECT : Schools: hate crimes
SOURCE : Author
DIGEST : This bill adds "hate crimes" to the list of
CONTINUED
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issues to be addressed in interagency safe schools programs
established under the School/Law Enforcement Partnership.
In addition, the bill requires comprehensive school safety
plans to include development of a discrimination and
harassment policy, and development of hate crime reporting
procedures.
Assembly amendments make a clarifying technical change and
add coauthors.
ANALYSIS : Existing law requires the School/Law
Enforcement Partnership under the Interagency School Safety
Demonstration Act of 1985 to establish interagency safe
school programs to address the problems of school safety,
truancy, excessive absenteeism, and school crime including
vandalism, drug and alcohol abuse, gang membership, and
gang violence.
Existing law also requires each school district and county
office of education responsible for the development of
comprehensive school safety plans that include, among other
things, a sexual harassment policy.
This bill adds "hate crimes" to the list of issues to be
addressed in interagency safe schools programs established
under the School/Law Enforcement Partnership. In addition,
the bill requires comprehensive school safety plans to
include development of a discrimination and harassment
policy, and development of hate crime reporting procedures.
Specifically, this bill:
1. Requires the inclusion of discrimination and harassment
policies in the comprehensive school safety plan.
2. Requires the inclusion of hate crime reporting
procedures in the comprehensive safe school plan.
3. Authorizes school districts to apply for grant money
through the existing safe schools grant program in order
to fund hate motivated violence prevention efforts.
4. Assures that the School/Law Partnership, in addition to
being charged with addressing the problems of school
safety, truancy, excessive absenteeism, and school
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crime, including vandalism, drug and alcohol abuse, gang
membership, and gang violence, also addresses
hate-motivated violence.
Comments
Need for the bill . In materials provided by the author and
noted below, findings and recommendations made at the state
and federal level indicate the need for a comprehensive
approach to hate crime and violence issues.
The Attorney General . "Reporting Hate Crimes: The
California Attorney General's Civil Rights Commission on
Hate Crimes Final Report" released in March 2001 found the
following:
1. Parents made "numerous complaints that teachers and
school administrators were not addressing hate incidents
and hate crimes. Particularly troubling were reports of
school staff compounding the impact of an act motivated
by bigotry by insensitivity and lack of respect for
students and their parents. In several communities,
parents complained that teachers do not intervene when
students use racist, sexist and homophobic slurs to
harass others."
2. "Teachers and school administrators lamented that they
lacked the training, time or capacity to address hate
motivated violence and hate crimes on K-12 campuses."
3. "Some parents state that they often do not report hate
crimes or hate incidents because their children are
worried they will be victimized by indifferent school
staff or by other students."
Federal report . The U.S. Department of Education Office
for Civil Rights and the National Association of Attorneys
General issued a guide for schools entitled "Protecting
Students from Harassment and Hate Crime" in September 1999.
That guide recommended a comprehensive approach to
eliminating harassment and hate crime including: written
policies prohibiting unlawful harassment and violence,
identifying and responding to incidents of harassment and
violence, providing a formal complaint procedure, creating
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a school climate that supports racial, cultural, and other
forms of diversity, and working with law enforcement
agencies to address and prevent hate crimes and civil
rights violations.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: Yes
Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
Major Provisions 2001-02 2002-03
2003-04 Fund
Revision of school Minor, absorbable
costs General
safety plans
Expanded reporting Minor absorbable costs to
include hate General
requirements crime reporting procedures in school
(state-mandated safety plan (consistent with existing
penal
local program) code provisions)
Evaluation Up to $100 one time General
SUPPORT : (Verified 9/10/01)
American Association of University Women
American Federation of State, County and Municipal
Employees, AFL-CIO
Anti-Defamation League
Attorney General, Bill Lockyer
California Alliance for Pride and Equality
California Federation of Teachers
California National Organization for Women
California Organization of Police and Sheriffs
California School Employees Association
California Teachers Association
Crime Victims United of California
Peace Officers Research Association of California
Superintendent of Public Instruction, Delaine Eastin
County of Santa Barbara, Human Relations Commission
California Association for Health, Physical Education,
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Recreation and Dance
California Federation of Business and Professional Women
OPPOSITION : (Verified 9/10/01)
Campaign for California Families
Committee on Moral Concerns
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : Proponents argue this bill is in
response to recent state and national reports that indicate
a need to for a comprehensive approach to addressing
hate-motivated violence and hate crimes in schools.
ARGUMENTS IN OPPOSITION : Opponents assert that this bill
promotes an "alternative" agenda. Opponents believe that
this bill will not contribute to school safety, but rather
promotes what they consider to be the
"it's-ok-to-be-gay-agenda" (Committee on Moral Concerns).
ASSEMBLY FLOOR :
AYES: Alquist, Aroner, Calderon, Canciamilla, Cardenas,
Cardoza, Chan, Chavez, Chu, Cohn, Corbett, Correa, Diaz,
Dutra, Firebaugh, Frommer, Goldberg, Horton, Jackson,
Keeley, Kehoe, Koretz, Liu, Longville, Lowenthal,
Matthews, Migden, Nakano, Nation, Negrete McLeod,
Oropeza, Papan, Pavley, Richman, Shelley, Simitian,
Steinberg, Strom-Martin, Thomson, Vargas, Washington,
Wayne, Wesson, Wiggins, Wright, Hertzberg
NOES: Aanestad, Ashburn, Bates, Briggs, Bill Campbell,
John Campbell, Cogdill, Cox, Daucher, Dickerson, Florez,
Harman, Hollingsworth, Kelley, La Suer, Leach, Leslie,
Maddox, Maldonado, Mountjoy, Robert Pacheco, Runner,
Strickland, Wyland, Wyman, Zettel
NC:sl 9/20/01 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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