8/06/2011 - More than eight years after graphic pictures displayed by anti-abortion protesters at Dodson Middle School in Rancho Palos Verdes caused students to stop in the street and stare, some of them crying, a new law will make such "disturbances" illegal.
The legislation, sponsored by the Los Angeles Unified School District, gives school systems the ability to stop protests near campuses when student safety is threatened. It was signed by Gov. Jerry Brown on Wednesday and goes into effect Jan. 1.
The law addresses a 2003 incident that prompted an anti-abortion group to successfully sue a district official and the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, which was found to have violated the group's First Amendment rights.
"It's pitting the right of free speech versus safety. Now that we've got this into law, we can explain that safety trumps everything," LAUSD spokeswoman Lydia Ramos said. "People have a right to express their opinion but there's a way to do that so that you do not cause potential harm to children."
The bill was carried by Norwalk Assemblyman Tony Mendoza, who was a teacher with LAUSD for a decade. The American Civil Liberties Union chose not to oppose the bill after discussions with Mendoza's office, a legislative aide said.
"This bill will give school administrators the tools they need to ensure student safety without overly burdening the right of free expression," Mendoza said in a statement.
The incident that gave rise to the court case and new law began early in a March school day.
Before class, a truck with blown-up images of aborted first-term fetuses drove around Dodson Middle School on public streets. As students were arriving at campus and began to react - some of them discussing throwing rocks at the truck - a school administrator called sheriff's deputies.
"Little kids, sixth-graders were seeing it and they were crying and running back into school. Some were running into the streets," said LAUSD board member Richard Vladovic, then a local district superintendent overseeing Dodson.
"These crazies, these anti-abortion zealots, got all these little kids upset," said Vladovic, referring to the protesters. Vladovic advocated for the new law.
Sheriff's deputies asked the protesters - from Lake Forest-based Center for Bio-Ethical Reform - to leave, saying they were violating a state Penal Code section that prohibits interfering with school activities. They left but later filed suit, alleging constitutional violations.
After a federal trial court judge sided with the school district and the sheriff's department, a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals panel overturned the lower court ruling.
The appellate ruling stated that the protest was part of the group's "Reproductive Choice Campaign," which is described on the campaign website as "unlike anything ever undertaken in the pro-life movement and ... the latest step in CBR's unwavering commitment to exposing the evil of abortion."
The group typically displays trucks with large, graphic images on streets and freeways but sometimes targets schools, the court ruling said.
Vladovic said that after the Dodson incident, a similar truck came to a school in West Covina when he was superintendent of the school district there.
The appellate decision said sheriff's deputies' actions were prompted by student reactions to the anti-abortion signs, not purely by public safety concerns. That is, the protesters were asked to leave because of the content of their signs, not because of the manner of their protest.
The court found that the protesters' free speech rights had been violated and that they had been unlawfully detained.
But the court added in a footnote that the state Legislature could chose to craft a law prohibiting "disruptive messages" around schools if the disruption threatens the physical safety of students. The ruling specifically declined to comment on the constitutionality of such a law.
That's the law by Mendoza that was signed by the governor.
Assembly Bill 123 creates a new misdemeanor in the Penal Code for individuals who disrupt K-8 schools or preschools with the intent to threaten the physical safety of students.
Offenders could be fined $500 and sent to jail for up to six months. Jail terms could increase for repeat offenses.
An identical version of Mendoza's bill was vetoed last year by then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger because, he said, it failed to include high schools and was too narrowly drawn. Schwarzenegger's veto message said the law would be ineffective because prosecutors would have to show intent to harm students, not just show that a disruption caused physical harm.
smf: For once I’ve got to agree with Schwarzenegger. I find the anti-abortion campaign as described utterly repugnant – and Boardmember Vladovic’s description of the provocateurs temperate – but to prove that a disruptive message’s intent is to threaten the physical safety of students lays an impossible burden of proof. I believe that intentionally threatening the physical safety of anyone/anywhere is already illegal. And High Schools are worthy of similar protection – if protection is really what’s going on.
BILL NUMBER: AB 123 CHAPTERED
BILL TEXT
CHAPTER 161
FILED WITH SECRETARY OF STATE AUGUST 3, 2011
APPROVED BY GOVERNOR AUGUST 3, 2011
PASSED THE SENATE JULY 14, 2011
PASSED THE ASSEMBLY APRIL 11, 2011
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Mendoza
JANUARY 10, 2011
An act to amend Section 626.8 of the Penal Code, relating to
school safety.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 123, Mendoza. School safety: disruption threatening pupil's
immediate physical safety.
Existing law provides that a person who comes into any school
building or upon any school ground, or adjacent street, sidewalk, or
public way, whose presence or acts interfere with or disrupt a school
activity, without lawful business, or who remains after having been
asked to leave, as specified, is guilty of a misdemeanor. "School" is
defined to mean any preschool or public or private school having
kindergarten or any of grades 1 to 12, inclusive.
This bill would expand this provision to also apply to any person
who comes into any school building or upon any school ground, or
adjacent street, sidewalk, or public way, and willfully or knowingly
creates a disruption with the intent to threaten the immediate
physical safety of any pupil in preschool, kindergarten, or any of
grades 1 to 8, inclusive, arriving at, attending, or leaving from
school. Because this bill would expand the definition of an existing
crime, it would create a state-mandated local program.
The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local
agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the
state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that
reimbursement.
This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this
act for a specified reason.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Section 626.8 of the Penal Code is amended to read:
626.8. (a) Any person who comes into any school building or upon
any school ground, or street, sidewalk, or public way adjacent
thereto, without lawful business thereon, and whose presence or acts
interfere with the peaceful conduct of the activities of the school
or disrupt the school or its pupils or school activities, is guilty
of a misdemeanor if he or she does any of the following:
(1) Remains there after being asked to leave by the chief
administrative official of that school or his or her designated
representative, or by a person employed as a member of a security or
police department of a school district pursuant to Chapter 1
(commencing with Section 38000) of Part 23 of Division 3 of Title 2
of the Education Code, or a city police officer, or sheriff or deputy
sheriff, or a Department of the California Highway Patrol peace
officer.
(2) Reenters or comes upon that place within seven days of being
asked to leave by a person specified in paragraph (1).
(3) Has otherwise established a continued pattern of unauthorized
entry.
(4) Willfully or knowingly creates a disruption with the intent to
threaten the immediate physical safety of any pupil in preschool,
kindergarten, or any of grades 1 to 8, inclusive, arriving at,
attending, or leaving from school.
(b) Punishment for violation of this section shall be as follows:
(1) Upon a first conviction by a fine not exceeding five hundred
dollars ($500), by imprisonment in a county jail for a period of not
more than six months, or by both that fine and imprisonment.
(2) If the defendant has been previously convicted once of a
violation of any offense defined in this chapter or Section 415.5, by
imprisonment in a county jail for a period of not less than 10 days
or more than six months, or by both imprisonment and a fine not
exceeding five hundred dollars ($500), and shall not be released on
probation, parole, or any other basis until he or she has served not
less than 10 days.
(3) If the defendant has been previously convicted two or more
times of a violation of any offense defined in this chapter or
Section 415.5, by imprisonment in a county jail for a period of not
less than 90 days or more than six months, or by both imprisonment
and a fine not exceeding five hundred dollars ($500), and shall not
be released on probation, parole, or any other basis until he or she
has served not less than 90 days.
(c) As used in this section, the following definitions apply:
(1) "Lawful business" means a reason for being present upon school
property which is not otherwise prohibited by statute, by ordinance,
or by any regulation adopted pursuant to statute or ordinance.
(2) "Continued pattern of unauthorized entry" means that on at
least two prior occasions in the same school year the defendant came
into any school building or upon any school ground, or street,
sidewalk, or public way adjacent thereto, without lawful business
thereon, and his or her presence or acts interfered with the peaceful
conduct of the activities of the school or disrupted the school or
its pupils or school activities, and the defendant was asked to leave
by a person specified in paragraph (1) of subdivision (a).
(3) "School" means any preschool or public or private school
having kindergarten or any of grades 1 to 12, inclusive.
(d) When a person is directed to leave pursuant to paragraph (1)
of subdivision (a), the person directing him or her to leave shall
inform the person that if he or she reenters the place within seven
days he or she will be guilty of a crime.
(e) This section shall not be utilized to impinge upon the lawful
exercise of constitutionally protected rights of speech or assembly.
SEC. 2. No reimbursement is required by this act pursuant to
Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution because
the only costs that may be incurred by a local agency or school
district will be incurred because this act creates a new crime or
infraction, eliminates a crime or infraction, or changes the penalty
for a crime or infraction, within the meaning of Section 17556 of the
Government Code, or changes the definition of a crime within the
meaning of Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California
Constitution.
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