School safety: mandatory notifications.

(1) Existing law provides that any person who willfully disturbs any public school or any public school meeting is guilty of a misdemeanor and subject to a fine of not more than $500. The bill would exempt from those misdemeanor and fine provisions a person who, at the time of the disturbance, is a pupil of the school district. (2) Existing law requires, if 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. Under existing law, failure to make the report is an infraction punishable by a fine of not more than $1,000 and acts by specified persons to inhibit or impede the making of the report is an infraction punishable by a fine of not less than $500 and not more than $1,000. This bill would delete those infraction provisions for a failure to report and for inhibiting or impeding the making of the report. The bill would authorize, instead of require, the employee who was the target of the incident to make that notification and prohibit the governing board of a school district, a member of the governing board, a county superintendent of schools, and an employee of a school district or of the office of any county superintendent of schools from imposing any sanctions against a person making that notification. The bill would strongly encourage an employee of a school district or of the office of a county superintendent of schools to employ other means of correction, as provided, before considering a law enforcement referral. (3) The federal Gun-Free Schools Act prohibits a local educational agency from receiving certain federal funds unless the local educational agency has a policy requiring referral to the criminal justice or juvenile delinquency system of any student who brings a firearm or weapon to a school served by the local educational agency. Existing state law requires the principal of a school or the principal's designee to notify the appropriate law enforcement authorities of the county or city in which the school is situated of certain acts committed by a pupil that may be unlawful, including, among others, the selling or possession of narcotics or other designated controlled or regulated substances, and acts of assault, as specified. This bill instead would require that notification only if the pupil's acts require notification under that federal law, or a pupil or nonpupil's acts include possessing, selling, or otherwise furnishing a firearm or possessing an explosive.