At the end of the 2009 legislative session, lawmakers were looking at a bill that would increase the penalties for gang-related activities and require school employees to report students who they suspect were gang members.
Senate Bill 826 would make recruiting a member to a criminal street gang a felony punishable by as much as five years in prison and a $5,000 fine. Crimes committed as a condition of gang membership would bring an additional five years in prison, according to a published report on the legislation.
Thankfully that bill didn't make the cut in the legislature's closing hours. It may surface at the start of this year's session. We hope lawmakers don't add yet another unfunded requirement on our state's educators.
School employees don't often know when a student is a member of a gang. The bill gives them immunity from litigation for providing information to the superintendent or other school officials.
Educators have enough to worry about without trying to sort out who is a gang member and who is just dressing in the latest West Coast fashion. We already expect them to be teacher and parent in many instances. Don't make them play cop, too.
