Assembly OKs Warnings for Teacher Safety

School administrators would have to notify teachers whenever a student with a violent history is assigned to their classroom, under legislation passed overwhelmingly by the Assembly on Thursday.

The legislation also would increase penalties for assaulting a school employee off school grounds in retaliation for an act performed in the course of the victim’s duties at the school.

The bill, by state Sen. Alan Robbins (D-Tarzana), was approved on a 68-0 vote and returned to the Senate for action on minor amendments made in the Assembly.

Robbins introduced the bill in March at the request of the United Teachers-Los Angeles after a 15-year-old Pacoima youth with a history of disciplinary problems stabbed his teacher in the back during an Olive Vista Junior High School class March 6.

Teacher Slain

Later that month, Grant High School teacher Hal Arthur was ambushed and shot to death in front of his Sherman Oaks home as he left for school. Although police have no leads in the case and have not identified any student as a suspect, Robbins said Arthur’s death was also a factor in his support of the measure.

“This is a sensible effort to try to protect teachers,” Assemblyman Terry B. Friedman (D-Los Angeles) said of the bill. “Teachers are fearful because students with weapons or students who are a lot bigger and stronger than them are threatening and hurting them.”

The bill would require school districts to inform the teacher of every student who has caused or attempted to cause injury to another person within the previous three years. Teachers would be required to maintain the confidentiality of the information they received.

The measure also would establish a new crime for the retaliatory assault or battery of a school employee off of school property. An assault would be punishable by up to one year in county jail and a fine of $2,000. Battery would be punishable by up to three years in state prison.

Under law, assaults are not treated differently just because they involve school employees.