lakewoodkids_0 Editor’s note: This dissection of Assembly Bill 1174, conceived by students in a Lakewood High School civics class and introduced by Assemblymember Warren Furutani, is excerpted from a column on CalWatchdog.org describing the California legislature as the Bad Mill Bill.

AB 1174 states that any person who disturbs a public school activity, including the arrival and departure of students at school during school hours, is guilty of a misdemeanor and subject to a fine of $500. Because this bill would expand the scope of an “existing crime,” it would impose a state-mandated local program.

What crime is Furutani talking about? Under a loose definition of what constitutes disturbing public school activity, parents, students, teachers, school employees and the general public, on public sidewalks near the school, could be arrested for picketing, passing out flyers or talking to students, teachers or administrators.

Parents distributing information about after-school sports, clubs or scouting could be charged with the “crime” of disturbing public school activity if school officials don’t care for the topic being solicited. Even the ACLU opposes the bill because “on its face appear to criminalize protected First Amendment activities.”

In the bill analysis, the author cites the following examples of inappropriate interactions:

In 2002, members of Survivors of the Abortion Holocaust gathered outside Millikan High School in Long Beach. The group, located on the sidewalk directly bordering the high school, displayed gruesome signs and distributed leaflets to students during dismissal.
In 2003, at Dodson Middle School in Rancho Palos Verdes, a group from the Center for Bio Ethical Reform placed graphic photographs on the sides of trucks and drove around Dodson Middle School while students arrived. Several children reported becoming physically ill, some cried and many averted their eyes from the photos.
And, at Lakewood High School in Long Beach Unified School District, different individuals have been present during school dismissal to distribute items such as flyers for a nearby strip club.

Only activities that bother Democrats were noted in Furutani’s bill. I am assuming that people handing out flyers about global warming, or from PETA, GLSEN, Planned Parenthood or AmeriCorps would not be arrested.

In support of AB 1174 is the Association of California School Administrators. A recent news story reported that ACSA hopes the bill will expand “the scope of authority for school administrators to protect students entering or leaving a school site beyond the school property itself.”

The original wording in the bill stated that it was about “curriculum,” but when amended it became a “public safety” issue.

On behalf of Lakewood High’s legislative advocacy class, Furutani introduced the bill because students “are disturbed and feel unsafe due to incidents where solicitors attempt to talk to students and hand out materials, including Bibles, on sidewalks adjacent to schools as students are leaving school. The students state that while they can choose to not answer the door to strangers at home or patronize businesses where solicitors are present, they are required to attend school and are therefore captured audience.”

How terrifying to have someone handing out Bibles. What if the offending solicitors were handing out packets of marijuana? Would the students be just as disturbed or feel unsafe?

I am not sure which is worse: Teachers and administrators abdicating their responsibility to use the picketing and protests as teachable moments about the First Amendment, or students and parents with such thin skin, they can’t face issues they find disagreeable or distasteful?

In the attempt to prevent certain messages from reaching students, Furutani’s bill proposes eliminating free speech even beyond school property. It also likely violates the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that protected even disgusting protests at military funerals. As Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in his majority decision:

“Speech is powerful. It can stir people to action, move them to tears of both joy and sorrow, and — as it did here — inflict great pain. On the facts before us, we cannot react to that pain by punishing the speaker. As a Nation we have chosen a different course — to protect even hurtful speech on public issues to ensure that we do not stifle public debate.”

Legislators talk publicly about the need to improve California’s economy, but spend time producing bills that do more damage than good, while ignoring constitutional liberties.