Attacks on Teachers Prompt Bill to Protect Them

Attacks against two San Fernando Valley teachers last month have prompted a bill introduced Friday in Sacramento that would increase penalties for assaults on classroom teachers and would require districts such as Los Angeles Unified to spend more money on school security.

The bill, named the teacher protection act of 1989 by its author, Sen. Alan Robbins (D-Tarzana), also would require that teachers be warned about students in their classes who have criminal records.

The bill was introduced because of “a wave of teacher-related violence” in the Los Angeles Unified School District, Robbins said at a news conference Friday.

Last month, a Sylmar junior high school English teacher was stabbed during class by one of her students, and a popular Grant High School teacher was shot to death in front of his Sherman Oaks home by an unknown assassin.

The bill, SB 142, would also make it easier to prosecute minors as adults in the murder of teachers and administrators. It would also add three years to the mandatory prison term for the murder of teachers. Los Angeles school board President Roberta Weintraub and United Teachers-Los Angeles President Wayne Johnson attended the news conference to voice support for Robbins’ legislation. UTLA represents about 22,000 of the district’s 32,000 teachers.

“An average of one teacher a day is being assaulted viciously enough to warrant medical attention and taking some time off to recover from the injury,” Johnson said. “We feel that this bill will have an effect.”

Johnson said teachers are not routinely told about the criminal records of students who transfer into their classrooms. “Teachers in Los Angeles are very much afraid,” he said.

Weintraub said the bill would require the Los Angeles district to increase spending on school security from about $20 million a year to about $28 million. “This has to be a top priority,” she said.