1-1     By:  Cuellar (Senate Sponsor - Zaffirini)              H.B. No. 964
 1-2           (In the Senate - Received from the House April 30, 1999;
 1-3     May 3, 1999, read first time and referred to Committee on
 1-4     Education; May 11, 1999, reported favorably by the following vote:
 1-5     Yeas 5, Nays 0; May 11, 1999, sent to printer.)
 1-6                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-7                                   AN ACT
 1-8     relating to allowing school crossing guards to direct traffic in a
 1-9     school crossing zone.
1-10           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-11           SECTION 1.  Section 542.501, Transportation Code, is amended
1-12     to read as follows:
1-13           Sec.  542.501.  OBEDIENCE REQUIRED TO POLICE OFFICERS AND TO
1-14     SCHOOL CROSSING GUARDS.  A person may not wilfully fail or refuse
1-15     to comply with a lawful order or direction of:
1-16                 (1)  a police officer; or
1-17                 (2)  a school crossing guard who:
1-18                       (A)  is performing crossing guard duties in a
1-19     school crosswalk to stop and yield to a pedestrian; or
1-20                       (B)  has been trained under Section 600.004 and
1-21     is directing traffic in a school crossing zone.
1-22           SECTION 2.  Chapter 600, Transportation Code, is amended by
1-23     adding Section 600.004 to read as follows:
1-24           Sec. 600.004.  TRAINING OF SCHOOL CROSSING GUARD.  (a)  A
1-25     local authority may authorize a school crossing guard to direct
1-26     traffic in a school crossing zone if the guard successfully
1-27     completes a training program in traffic direction as defined by the
1-28     basic peace officer course curriculum established by the Commission
1-29     on Law Enforcement Standards and Education.
1-30           (b)  A school crossing guard trained under this section:
1-31                 (1)  is not a peace officer; and
1-32                 (2)  may not carry a weapon while directing traffic in
1-33     a school crossing zone.
1-34           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-35     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-36     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-37     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-38     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
1-39     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
1-40     passage, and it is so enacted.
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