BILL ANALYSIS |
C.S.H.B. 1173 |
By: Villalba |
Higher Education |
Committee Report (Substituted) |
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE
Interested parties note that many school districts have adopted a school marshal program and that the junior college community has expressed a growing interest in having access to such a program as an alternative to the expensive measures of creating their own police department or hiring private security. C.S.H.B. 1173 seeks to provide for the safety of the junior college community in a way that is economically feasible.
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CRIMINAL JUSTICE IMPACT
It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly create a criminal offense, increase the punishment for an existing criminal offense or category of offenses, or change the eligibility of a person for community supervision, parole, or mandatory supervision.
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RULEMAKING AUTHORITY
It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking authority to a state officer, department, agency, or institution.
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ANALYSIS
C.S.H.B. 1173 amends the Education Code to authorize the governing board of a public junior college to appoint one or more school marshals. The bill authorizes the governing board of a public junior college to select for appointment as a school marshal an applicant who is an employee of the public junior college and certified by the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement as eligible for appointment. The bill authorizes, but does not require, the governing board to reimburse the amount paid by the applicant to participate in the school marshal training program.
C.S.H.B. 1173 authorizes a school marshal appointed by the governing board of a public junior college to carry or possess a handgun on the physical premises of a public junior college campus but only in the manner provided by written regulations adopted by the governing board and at a specific public junior college campus as specified by the governing board. The bill requires any such written regulations to provide that a school marshal may carry a concealed handgun at a specific public junior college campus as specified by the governing board, except that if the primary duty of the school marshal involves regular, direct contact with students, the marshal may not carry a concealed handgun but may possess a handgun on the physical premises of a public junior college campus in a locked and secured safe within the marshal's immediate reach when conducting the marshal's primary duty. The bill requires the written regulations to require a handgun carried by or within access of a school marshal to be loaded only with frangible ammunition designed to disintegrate on impact for maximum safety and minimal danger to others. The bill authorizes a school marshal to access a handgun only under circumstances that would justify the use of deadly force as provided under Penal Code provisions relating to the justified use of deadly force in defense of a person or in defense of a third person.
C.S.H.B. 1173 establishes that a public junior college employee's status as a school marshal becomes inactive on expiration of the employee's school marshal license, suspension or revocation of the employee's license to carry a concealed handgun, termination of the employee's employment with the public junior college, or notice from the governing board of the public junior college that the employee's services as school marshal are no longer required. The bill makes the identity of a school marshal appointed by the governing board of a public junior college confidential, with certain exceptions, and not subject to a request under state public information law. The bill requires the governing board of a public junior college, if a parent or guardian of a student enrolled at the public junior college inquires in writing, to provide the parent or guardian written notice indicating whether any employee of the public junior college is currently appointed a school marshal but prohibits such notice from disclosing information that is confidential under the bill's provisions.
C.S.H.B. 1173 amends the Occupations Code to apply statutory provisions relating to the training and licensure of school marshals appointed by the board of trustees of a school district or the governing board of an open-enrollment charter school to school marshals appointed by the governing board of a public junior college. The bill changes the information collected or submitted under those provisions that is confidential from identifying information about a person to all information.
C.S.H.B. 1173 amends the Code of Criminal Procedure to make conforming changes.
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EFFECTIVE DATE
September 1, 2015.
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COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL AND SUBSTITUTE
While C.S.H.B. 1173 may differ from the original in minor or nonsubstantive ways, the following comparison is organized and formatted in a manner that indicates the substantial differences between the introduced and committee substitute versions of the bill.
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