Excerpt from CalMatters

The proposal by state Sen. Susan Rubio, a Democrat from West Covina, has stirred up broad opposition as well as support from dozens of organizations. It pits police, prosecutors and school employee groups against youth and disability advocates and the ACLU.

Existing law already says it is a crime to make a threat about something that could result in death or great bodily injury to someone. If the threat is “unequivocal, unconditional, immediate, and specific” and causes “sustained fear” in a person, the crime is a misdemeanor or a felony.

Rubio, a former public school teacher at Baldwin Park and Monrovia school districts, said she championed this bill to highlight the location of the threat, rather than the victim of the threat. She said that phoned-in or texted threats often waste time and money for schools and first responders and traumatize people.

“I’ve seen the toll these threats take on students and communities,” she said in a statement. “Even when the danger isn’t real, the fear is, and the trauma stays with kids long after the lockdown ends.”

But there’s disagreement about whether a new law is needed. Opponents point out that this bill is similar to existing law.

Rubio said existing law has too many loopholes, but this bill would give authorities more options.

“California law shouldn’t allow someone to threaten a mass shooting at a school and walk away without consequences, simply because no individual person was named in the threat,” she said.

Read the full article from CalMatters here.