• On Aug. 17, a bill by state Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara) that allows community colleges to discipline students for off-campus sexual assault violations passed the Assembly with a 63-0 vote. It awaits approval from Gov. Jerry Brown. The bill, Senate Bill 186, gives community college districts jurisdication similar to the extended jurisdication UC and CSU systems have now. If signed into law, community college districts can extend jurisdication beyond campus borders and discipline, expel, or suspend students for off-campus sexual assault and sexual exploitation. Jackson said the bill is especially important in districts like hers, which includes Isla Vista where UC and community college students live next to each other but are held to different standards. “This will level the playing field for all students, regardless of where they are enrolled, send a clear message about assault, and help ensure that victims feel safe enough to stay in school,” Jackson said. The bill defines sexual assault but also defines sexual exploitation as prostituting another person as well as recording, photographing, and distributing naked and sexual images without consent.
• School board members are urging Gov. Jerry Brown to fix the school budget reserve cap held in SB 858, a bill they say limits the ability of school districts to maintain adequate reserves. “Reserves are what help school districts weather economic downturns and the volatility of state revenues, and help us save for specific projects like textbooks, technology upgrades, modernizing classrooms, and maintenance proejcts,” Jack Garvin, board member of the Santa Maria Unified High School District, said. The California School Boards Association launched a statewide media campaign urging legislators to fix the bill, which would require that districts keep local school reserve funds below a state-mandated cap. For most school districts in the state that cap on savings equates to approximately 6 percent.
• On Aug. 18 the Joint Legislative Committee on Emergency Management and the Senate Judiciary Committee were set to hold a joint oversight hearing at the state capitol on the risks and benefits of drone use during fires, medical emergencies, and other emergency response situations. “Drones have the potential to revolutionize some emergency situations, like search-and-rescue missions, but they can also create enormous problems for first responders and undermine our response to emergencies, creating great risks for the public,” said Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara), who is chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee and vice-chair of the Joint Legislative Committee on Emergency Management. “This is an important conversation that we need to have, particularly in the midst of this very serious fire season.”
This article appears in Aug 20-27, 2015.