California State Senate Passes Bill to Allow Schools Not to Report Threats

The California State Senate has passed a bill that would allow schools not to report threats or attacks against employees or officials to law enforcement, despite the ongoing national shock and outrage over the Uvalde, Texas, mass school shooting.

The bill, SB 1273, introduced by State Sen. Steven Bradford (D-Los Angeles), passed easily last Thursday — just two days after the Uvalde shooting, in which an 18-year-old gunman murdered 19 children and two teachers in an elementary school.

The bill repeals a provision of existing law that requires that “whenever any employee of a school district or county superintendent of schools is attacked, assaulted, or physically threatened by any pupil, the employee and any person under whose direction or supervision the employee is employed who has knowledge of the incident are required to promptly report the incident to specified law enforcement authorities.” SB 1273 would make such reports to law enforcement voluntary.

Democrats are pushing for gun control rather than increased law enforcement at schools, saying the latter removes political pressure for restrictions on firearms and causes harm to minority students. On Tuesday, as part of that pressure campaign, students at some schools in Los Angeles staged walkouts to protest gun violence. – READ MORE