New State Legislation Aims to Prevent Sexual Misconduct in Schools
Allison Winslow
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KEYT) – A new bill making its way through the California State Assembly and Senate, aiming to give school district officials tools to combat sexual abuse and educate students on grooming behavior.
SB 848, or the Safe Learning Environments Act, is a comprehensive bill meant to address a common practice known as “pass the trash.” Educators accused of sexual misconduct will quietly resign from one school district, often with a confidentiality settlement agreement, only to be rehired elsewhere.
More often than not, that teacher will re-offend. In most cases, it takes a teacher passing through three school districts before that educator is finally caught. California is one of 16 states that doesn’t have a plan to address “pass the trash.” The bill broadens mandated reporting requirements, creating a database for district officials to use during the hiring process.
The Safe Learning Environments Act would set up standardized training for both students and employees to ensure stronger protections. The specific training requirements haven’t been written yet, details would be finalized once the bill is passed, however, training could include defining and recognizing grooming behavior and what constitutes acceptable communication online.
It is difficult to pinpoint just how common it is for teachers to engage in sexual misconduct with students. Current data from the Federal Department of Education is about 20-years-old. The survey showed approximately 1 in 10 students are targeted for a sexual relationship at some point in their K-12th grade education. The Teacher Credentialing Commission in California has opened more than 1,300 investigations in the last 5 years – yet another indicator of how common reports of teachers being arrested by law officials are.
State Senator Sasha Renée Pérez authored the bill – “protecting our kids is the most basic promise we make. It is time that we start building real safeguards. SB 848 should be a bill we can all support.”
In 2023, investigative reporter Matt Drange published “The Predators Playground” in Business Insider, which broke decades-long abuse at Rosemead High. Rosemead is in Senator Pérez’s Pasadena district and Drange himself is an alum of the school. Your News Channel spoke with Drange on his reaction to the possible passing of this bill.
“The generational harm from this behavior is quite deep and has left a lot of long lasting scars so I think the community in Rosemead is just glad that somebody is finally doing something about it.”
A major drive for SB 848 to pass is the financial toll sexual misconduct cases take on school districts, one of the reason’s for the bill’s bipartisan support. In 2019, AB 218 was passed that extended the statute of limitations for sexual abuse cases to be filed. Since then, hundreds of cases of been filed in the state. California’s Fiscal Crisis & Management Assistance Team – or FCMAT – found that the estimated liability from those cases is in the $2-3 billion dollar range. “For schools, the financial toll of settlements is staggering,” said Senator Pérez.
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