BILL ANALYSIS �
AB 1174
Page 1
Date of Hearing: May 4, 2011
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Felipe Fuentes, Chair
AB 1174 (Furutani) - As Amended: April 26, 2011
Policy Committee: Education
Vote:6-3
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable: No
SUMMARY
This bill expands an existing misdemeanor regarding any public
school or public school meeting, to include creating a
disruption that threatens the physical safety of school children
coming to, leaving, or attending school.
FISCAL EFFECT
Unknown, likely minor nonreimbursable local costs, offset to a
degree by increased fine revenue.
COMMENTS
1)Purpose . Current education statute specifies that any person
who willfully disturbs any public school or public meeting is
guilty of a misdemeanor and punished by a fine of not more
than $500. Statute, however, does not specify the meaning of
"willfully disturbs!"
This bill attempts to clarify this issue.
The author cites incidents of students being approached by
individuals outside of their school in a confrontational and
unsafe manner. For example, in 2002, members of Survivors of
the Abortion Holocaust gathered outside Millikan High School
in Long Beach, CA. The group, located on the sidewalk directly
bordering the high school, displayed gruesome signs and
distributed leaflets to students during dismissal. According
to the author, "These disruptions have become a continual
problem, and it reveals that school administrators sometimes
are unable to fully protect their students. �This bill] gives
school administrators a tool to ensure the safety of their
AB 1174
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students."
This bill amends existing law to include the disruption of a
public school activity such as the arrival and departure of
students to and from school.
2)Existing Penal Code statute states that any person who enters
any school building, school grounds, or adjacent streets or
walkways, without lawful business, and whose presence disrupts
the school or its pupils, is guilty of a misdemeanor,
punishable by up to six months in county jail and/or a fine of
up to $500, if he or she does any of the following:
a) Remains after being asked to leave by school official or
peace officer.
b) Returns to the school or adjacent vicinity within seven
days of being asked to leave, or establishes a pattern of
unauthorized entry.
This measure does not address Penal Code statute, only the
Education Code. In both statutes, interpretation of
"disturbs" is largely up to law enforcement.
3)Similar legislation passed in April. AB 123 (Mendoza), passed
by this committee on April 6, 2011, expands the existing
misdemeanor (referenced in the Penal Code above) to include
willfully creating a disruption with the intent to threaten
the immediate physical safety of students.
4)Previous legislation . AB 2478 (Mendoza) expanded an existing
misdemeanor related to interference or disruption of school
activities and punishable by up to six months in the county
jail to include any person who willfully or knowingly creates
a disruption with the intent to threaten the immediate
physical safety of K-8 pupils arriving at, attending or
leaving school. This bill was vetoed by Governor
Schwarzenegger in September 2010 with the following message:
"I believe it is important to ensure the physical safety of
all students, but the protection provisions of this bill do
not include students in grades 9 through 12. I am also
concerned that the provisions of this bill would likely be
ineffective, limited to situations where the person charged
with interfering with the peaceful conduct of a school would
have to have the specific intent to physically harm students
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rather than causing a disruption that causes physical harm.
Since this bill is too narrowly drawn and otherwise duplicates
existing law governing the crime of making criminal threats, I
am unable to sign this measure."
Analysis Prepared by : Kimberly Rodriguez / APPR. / (916)
319-2081