Wednesday, April 21, 1999
Ohio legislators pass tougher school crime bill
BY MICHAEL HAWTHORNE
Enquirer Columbus Bureau
COLUMBUS — Shortly after Ohio lawmakers approved tougher penalties for violent crimes committed on school property, another shooting spree in an American school reinforced their point.
ABOUT THE BILL
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Gov. Bob Taft plans to sign a measure approved Tuesday that toughens penalties for violent crimes at schools. The legislation would:
• Add two years to prison terms of offenders who commit certain violent crimes within “school safety zones.” Areas covered include school property, school buses, bus stops and school activities.
• Allow schools to expel students for firearms- and knife-related violations that occur off school property but at a school-sponsored event.
• Require school districts to develop safety plans that include notification of police and affected parents.
• Expand suspension and expulsion laws to punish misconduct directed at teachers or administrators beyond school property.
• Permit school districts to deny admittance to any student suspended from another Ohio school district until the penalty expires.
• Ban expelled students from taking school-paid college courses as a way around an expulsion.
• Enable the state to suspend driver instruction permits or driver's licenses for students suspended or expelled for violating school weapons policies.
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By requiring all Ohio school districts to develop safety plans, the measure lawmakers sent Tuesday to Gov. Bob Taft seeks to prevent shootings like the one at a suburban Denver high school that police say left as many as 25 people dead.
The bill also would allow judges to add two years to sentences handed down for violent crimes within newly created “School Safety Zones.” Areas covered would include school property, school buses, bus stops and school activities.
Moreover, students could be suspended or expelled for misconduct directed at teachers or administrators beyond school property. And they could find it tougher to escape suspension by transferring to another school.
“If students don't feel comfortable and secure in their schools, they aren't going to learn as effectively as they should,” said Scott Milburn, Mr. Taft's spokesman. “We need to do anything we can to throw up roadblocks to events like the one in Denver.”
Crime actually is down in schools. Yet highly publicized cases of school violence, such as Tuesday's shooting and others in Kentucky, Arkansas and Oregon, have heightened fears among parents, teachers and administrators.
The bill lawmakers sent to Mr. Taft fulfills one of the new governor's campaign promises. It is part of a broader effort to improve school safety that includes alternative schools for troubled youths and legislation to shield teachers from liability for disciplining students.
Congress also has responded by requiring all school districts to expel students for one year if they bring a gun to school.
“We've had to get tough based on what's happening out there,” said Ohio House Speaker Jo Ann Davidson, R-Reynoldsburg. “I think schools can use as many tools as we can give them.”
The House approved the bill, 93-1, after defeating an amendment by Rep. Ron Hood, R-Canfield, that would have allowed most Ohioans to carry concealed weapons.
Twenty-two legislators voted to add the controversial amendment, including Reps. Dale Van Vyven, R-Sharonville, and Gary Cates, R-West Chester. Seventy-three opposed it.
Mr. Hood complained that Republican legislative leaders have failed to schedule a hearing on a similar bill he is sponsoring. But Rep. Joy Padgett, a Coshocton Republican sponsoring a rival conceal-and-carry measure, led the fight against Mr. Hood's amendment.
“This is not the place and not the time,” she said.
The lone legislator to oppose the school safety measure was Rep. Ray Miller, D-Columbus, who argued the proposed penalties are too harsh. “Kids make mistakes, but we need to give them a chance to improve their behavior,” Mr. Miller said.
While experts say schools still are safe places, state leaders are alarmed by some recent statistics.
• Eight percent of students in a recent statewide survey reported carrying a gun, knife or other weapon to school during the previous 30 days.
• Four percent of students in the same survey said they didn't attend school during one or more of the previous 30 days because they felt unsafe at school.
• More than 5,000 students violated their school weapons policy during 1997, according to the Ohio De partment of Education.
Many school districts already have adopted safety plans.
In Warren County, for instance, most school districts have committed to or are considering hot lines that enable residents to anonymously report safety concerns.
Callers to the hot line are assigned a code number and are asked to call back in three days while the matter is investigated.
“We need to do everything we can to help teachers regain control of their classrooms,” said Walt Davis, a member of the Lebanon school board. A tip in February led officials at Lebanon High School to search the car trunk of a 17-year-old senior for weapons.
Andrew Szymanski had been suspended from school for a month for allegedly writing a threatening note on an English test. Now he faces up to a year in jail if convicted of illegally conveying or possessing a deadly weapon on school premises.
Seeking jail time for students is part of the reaction to school shootings across the country. Students killed 11 children and two teachers in five school shootings last school year in Pearl, Miss.; Jonesboro, Ark.; West Paducah, Ky.; Edinboro, Pa., and Springfield, Ore.
Despite the deadly string of shootings, a federal survey found 90 percent of schools reported no serious violent crimes such as robbery and weapon attacks last year.
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