Wilson Signs School Safety, Testing Bills

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Pete Wilson, acting on the final day to sign bills, gave his approval Monday to legislation requiring that students be expelled for up to a year--and possibly longer--for packing guns, brandishing knives or selling drugs on campus.

The bills establish a minimum statewide standard for expelling students, but permit local school districts to impose stricter policies. Several school districts expel students for simple possession of drugs or knives--not only for drug sales or brandishing weapons.

At the same time, Wilson signed into law a bill sponsored by the Los Angeles Unified School District directing school districts to set up alternative schools and attempt to educate expelled students. The bill by Assemblywoman Barbara Friedman (D-North Hollywood) is aimed at reducing the number of dropouts.

Wilson also signed legislation to create a new statewide performance test for public school students. Conservatives had urged that Wilson veto the bill, saying it creates subjective standards. The governor acknowledged that the bill had deficiencies, but he said in a statement that lawmakers promised to address his concerns when they return in January.

The governor also wielded his veto pen Monday, rejecting measures that would have permitted legalized use of marijuana by people suffering from chronic and terminal diseases and made it easier for terminally ill inmates to be freed from prison in the final days before death.

Wilson said the marijuana bill, which he also vetoed last year, would “serve no useful purpose.” The governor said that evidence is not clear that smoking marijuana eases the pain of ill people and that legalization would complicate law enforcement efforts.

Assemblyman John Vasconcellos (D-Santa Clara), author of the marijuana bill, accused Wilson of “pandering to the right wing of his party.” The bill was supported by some physicians and groups that lobby for people with AIDS, cancer and other diseases.

Wilson worked on the last day to meet the state constitutional deadline for signing measures. In all, the almost evenly divided Legislature sent the governor about 575 bills during the final days of the session that ended a month ago--about half the number of bills lawmakers passed in years when Democrats controlled both houses.

Wilson ended the year by signing nearly 935 bills and vetoing about 70. By late Monday, he still had half a dozen bills on his desk, including one that would require health insurance companies to pay for contraceptives.

Among the bills of note that Wilson signed Monday were measures to:

* Make homeowners insurance easier to buy by allowing insurance companies to offer scaled-back earthquake insurance policies with 15% deductibles, rather than the current 10%, and limiting damages covered by those policies.

* Create a framework for an earthquake insurance Superfund to be administered by the insurance commissioner. Legislation to fully implement the earthquake reserve will be considered next year when lawmakers return.

* Abolish what was a mandatory program that firms with 100 or more workers in Southern California implement ride-sharing programs. The bill was carried by Senate GOP Leader Rob Hurtt of Garden Grove.

Wilson spent most of the day in his office going over bills and working against a midnight deadline. He emerged only to announce the signing of the bills establishing what he called “zero tolerance” for drug sales and weapons violations on school campuses.

“We will not tolerate drugs or knives or guns or the kids who bring them,” Wilson said as he signed the bills in his conference room, with students from Sacramento-area schools as a backdrop. “We will remove the thugs and restore to our classrooms safety, discipline and order, and learning.”

Noting that officials seize 1,000 guns a year from students, Wilson said, “All across this state, school playgrounds have turned into killing fields, and this has got to stop.”

State Sen. Patrick Johnston (D-Stockton) carried the bill mandating expulsion for drug sales and weapons. Johnston’s measure requires expulsion for at least a semester and a day for drug sales and brandishing knives.

Assemblyman Phil Hawkins (R-Bellflower) carried the legislation specifically requiring a minimum yearlong expulsion for gun possession before students can reapply for admission.

Wilson also signed the bill by Friedman creating the new program aimed at reducing the number of dropouts by ensuring that expelled students can receive some schooling in alternative programs.

Under the program, students would remain in the alternative schools for a minimum of six hours a day and for as long as eight hours a day. Continuation schools now are generally four-hour programs.

As many as 9,000 students are expelled annually, including several hundred from Los Angeles schools, some of whom are as young as 6.

Without the new program, Friedman said, the expelled students would spend their days “hanging around malls and school parking lots and, at worst, terrorizing neighborhoods.”

Los Angeles already has schools for expelled students. Under Friedman’s bill, the state will provide money for such efforts, giving districts an extra $1,500 per student a year above the average $4,435 spent on other students.

The additional money will help pay for extra classroom time and counseling, said Ron Prescott, lobbyist for Los Angeles Unified. “We believe we will be able to turn them around,” he said.