By:  Duncan                                  S.B. No. 1628

         97S0661/1                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

                                       AN ACT

 1-1     relating to punishment for certain assaults committed on school

 1-2     employees.

 1-3           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

 1-4           SECTION 1.  Subsection (b), Section 22.01, Penal Code, as

 1-5     amended by Section 5, Chapter 318, Acts of the 74th Legislature,

 1-6     1995, is amended to read as follows:

 1-7           (b)  An offense under Subsection (a)(1) is a Class A

 1-8     misdemeanor, except that the offense is a felony of the third

 1-9     degree if the offense is committed against a person the actor knows

1-10     is a public servant while the public servant is lawfully

1-11     discharging an official duty, or in retaliation or on account of an

1-12     exercise of official power or performance of an official duty as a

1-13     public servant.  In this subsection, "public servant" includes

1-14     public school employees.

1-15           SECTION 2.  Subsection (c), Section 22.01, Penal Code, is

1-16     amended to read as follows:

1-17           (c)  An offense under Subsection (a)(2) or (3) is a Class C

1-18     misdemeanor, except that the [an] offense [under Subsection (a)(3)]

1-19     is a Class A misdemeanor if the offense is committed against a

1-20     public school employee while the employee is engaged in performing

1-21     duties within the scope of employment or committed in retaliation

1-22     for or on account of the employee's performance of duties within

1-23     the scope of employment or if the offense was committed against an

 2-1     elderly individual or disabled individual, as those terms are

 2-2     defined by Section 22.04.

 2-3           SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1997.

 2-4           SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the

 2-5     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

 2-6     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

 2-7     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

 2-8     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.