Bill That Links Grades, Driver Licenses Gains

High school students would have to show good academic and behavior records in order to obtain a driver license under legislation passed Thursday by the state Senate.

The bill, aimed at encouraging students to study more in school, went to the Assembly on a 26-3 vote over the protests of one opponent who claimed it would impose white, middle-class standards on non-English speaking minorities who may need to drive but are scholastically weak.

In a wide-ranging floor session, the Senate also passed legislation to prohibit the manufacture, sale and distribution of replica toy guns, including BB guns, and voted to prohibit a physician from refusing to treat someone solely because the patient had tested positive for exposure to the AIDS virus.

Behavior, Scholastic Performances

The student driver bill by Sen. Gary K. Hart (D-Santa Barbara) would impose new standards of behavior and scholastic performance as a condition for a public high school student to receive a driver license. Pupils attending private schools would have to obtain a signed document from their principal saying they were behaving well and performing scholastically.

Under the proposal, a public high school student between 16 and 18 years old would have to be on schedule to graduate with his or her class, comply with attendance regulations and not commit an offense for which the school principal must recommend expulsion, such as carrying a gun or selling drugs on campus. The criteria would be different for students at private schools because the state cannot dictate curricula to these institutions, Hart said.

Unlike similar proposals that have linked a C (or average) grade average to participation in activities outside the classroom, the Hart bill would not establish a specific grade average as a condition for eligibility for a driver license. Instead, each district would decide whether the student was properly headed toward graduation, even if the pupil recorded a D-minus average, Hart said.

Hart, a former high school teacher, said the bill was designed to “get students to focus on what is most important in their lives--getting an education and a diploma.”

“Nothing is more important to 13-, 14- and 15-year-olds, especially males, than getting to that 16th birthday and getting a driver’s license,” said Hart, chairman of the Education Committee.

But Sen. Leroy Greene (D-Carmichael) deplored the bill as an effort to impose “middle-class, Caucasian” standards on low-income and non-English speaking students who must drive for employment reasons but who would be penalized from doing so by poor academic performance.

The proposal drew strong support from Sen. Bill Greene (D-Los Angeles), whose legislative district includes Watts. “If this bill saves 100 kids in my district, it is worth it,” he said.

On the look-alike toy gun bill, the upper chamber approved it 21-13 after a debate between its author, Senate leader David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles), and Sen. H. L. Richardson (R-Glendora), the Legislature’s most outspoken advocate of firearms ownership.

Measure Amended

Last week, Roberti was not able to obtain the 27 votes necessary for the bill to become law immediately upon the signature of Gov. George Deukmejian. So he amended the measure to allow it to pass with only 21 votes and take effect Jan. 1.

The bill would make it illegal to manufacture, distribute or sell a “realistic replica” of an existing model of an actual firearm, although look-alikes could still be sent into the state through the U.S. Postal System from out-of-state companies.

The proposal would also make it punishable by at least three months in jail to brandish a replica or actual firearm in a threatening manner.

Roberti introduced the bill on behalf of Los Angeles television consumer affairs reporter David Horowitz, who last year was held hostage during a broadcast by a man with an air gun replica of a real pistol.

Roberti contended that keeping replica toy guns out of the hands of children would reduce the potential for accidental killings of youngsters by law enforcement officers. Over the past couple of years, police have mistakenly shot several young people who displayed replica firearms.

Exemptions Defeated

Richardson unsuccessfully proposed amendments supported by the National Rifle Assn. that would have exempted BB, pellet and paint ball guns. He said he uses a pellet gun to fend off dogs that chase cows on his Sierra foothill ranch, declaring, “It discourages them from chasing the cows, but it doesn’t kill them.”

“You can still have BB, pellet and air guns,” Roberti told Richardson. “But don’t make them look like real guns.”

The Senate also approved several bills aimed at combatting the spread of AIDS. One would prohibit doctors and other health care providers from denying treatment of a patient strictly because the patient tested positively for exposure to AIDS.

The author, Sen. Quentin Kopp (Ind.-San Francisco), said a physician could not deny such services unless another doctor or hospital agreed to accept the patient. He asserted that the bill merely would write into law ethical standards that physicians have drawn up for themselves.

Another bill would make physicians immune from criminal and civil liability, under certain circumstances, for disclosing the results of a positive AIDS exposure test to the patient’s suspected sexual partner or to a person believed to have shared the same hypodermic needle. It went to the Assembly on a 26-0 vote.

A third bill is aimed at protecting guards and others at facilities of the California Youth Authority. It would allow CYA medical officials to test an inmate for exposure to the AIDS virus against the inmate’s will in a case where, for example, an inmate assaulted a guard and the guard was exposed to the inmate’s blood.