S.D. Protests Spur Effort to Kill New Stun Gun Law

Under pressure from Parent-Teacher Assn. representatives in San Diego, a Riverside legislator will attempt to reverse a new state law that allows public school employees to carry electric “stun guns” on campus.

Dan Boatwright, administrative assistant to Assemblyman Steve Clute (D-Riverside), said that opposition, which came primarily from San Diego parents and the San Diego Unified School District’s lobbyist, convinced Clute to prepare an “urgency measure” reversing the 10-day-old stun gun law. Clute originally proposed the bill.

Boatwright said that he is now searching for an appropriate bill to which he can attach the measure. An urgency measure requires the approval of two-thirds of the members of both houses, and takes effect when signed by Gov. George Deukmejian. Most bills become law Jan. 1 of the year following passage.

The parents “were surprised that this law was in effect, and they wanted to do something to make sure teachers don’t have (stun guns) on school grounds,” Boatwright said. After fielding calls from five or six San Diego parents, San Diego Unified lobbyist H. David Fish and a state Parent-Teacher Assn. representative, Boatwright said, he and Clute were persuaded that the law should be changed.

The most vehement opposition came from Claudia Engstrom, president of a group of 14 San Diego Parent-Teacher associations here, Boatwright said. Engstrom was not available for comment Friday.

School district officials were also caught unaware of the law. “It caught me completely by surprise. I’d never heard about it,” said Supt. Thomas Payzant. Payzant said he learned about the law when he was interviewed on the subject by a television reporter Dec. 31.

Stun guns are battery-powered, pocket-sized devices with two electric prongs capable of temporarily immobilizing an attacker with an electric current applied to the skin. In the bill, which prohibits convicted criminals, drug addicts and minors from possessing stun guns, the state Legislature included a provision allowing school employees to carry them for self-defense.

Despite the furor among some San Diego parents, there are no indications that teachers are carrying the devices. “We were unable to find any school district that would admit to knowing a teacher had that weapon,” said Susie Lange, director of public relations for the state Department of Education.

Gail Boyle, president of the San Diego Teachers Assn., said the teachers union has had no complaints about teachers carrying stun guns and “no evidence that supports the idea that anyone even has one in the school system.”

“In the schools I’ve been in since January, most teachers think the idea of having one is laughable,” Boyle said.

Wayne Johnson, president of United Teachers of Los Angeles, said that “there are no stun guns in use in L.A. either by teachers or by the L.A. security force.” Johnson said he had not heard of the new law.

Nearly everyone now learning about the law is against school employees carrying the devices. Boyle said stun guns “are virtually useless against a student who has a knife or a pipe or a chair because you have to get too close to him.” In addition, child-abuse laws are so strict that one teacher was charged for shoving a student who was threatening another teacher.

“He was charged and he just used his hands,” she said. “Imagine what would have happened if he had a stun gun.” The teacher was acquitted, she said.

Payzant said employees’ carrying stun guns would create a false impression that the city’s schools are unsafe and give teachers the “dangerous” option of taking security into their own hands. Users could be liable if someone were hurt with a stun gun, he said. “I just think it’s a bad idea all the way around,” Payzant said.

Alex Rascon, director of the city schools’ 28-man police force, said there were 35 assaults on the district’s 20,000 full- and part-time employees last year, and seven assaults so far this year.

“We are totally discouraging” the carrying of stun guns, he said.