By Ellis                                                S.B. No. 56
       74R1613 KKA-F
                                 A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
    1-1                                AN ACT
    1-2  relating to corporal punishment in public schools.
    1-3        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
    1-4        SECTION 1.  Subchapter I, Chapter 21, Education Code, is
    1-5  amended by adding Section 21.310 to read as follows:
    1-6        Sec. 21.310.  CORPORAL PUNISHMENT.  (a)  An employee of a
    1-7  public school may not administer corporal punishment to a student.
    1-8        (b)  An employee of a public school may use reasonable and
    1-9  necessary physical restraining techniques for the purpose of:
   1-10              (1)  preventing a student from injuring a person or
   1-11  property;
   1-12              (2)  self-defense; or
   1-13              (3)  obtaining from a student possession of a weapon or
   1-14  other dangerous object or of a controlled substance as defined in
   1-15  Chapter 481, Health and Safety Code.
   1-16        (c)  In this section, "corporal punishment" includes hitting,
   1-17  spanking, or slapping a student with a hand or an object.
   1-18        SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
   1-19  crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
   1-20  emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
   1-21  constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
   1-22  days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
   1-23  and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
   1-24  passage, and it is so enacted.