Assembly OKs Bill Involving Use of Reasonable Force by Teachers
The State Assembly Tuesday (June 1, 1999) approved a bill providing
increased legal protection to teachers who use reasonable force to maintain
order in a classroom. The bill, which WEAC strongly supports, now goes
to the Senate.
Current law allows a teacher to use reasonable and necessary force
to quell a disturbance, to obtain possession of a weapon, in self defense,
to protect property, to remove a disruptive pupil from the premises,
to prevent a pupil from inflicting harm on himself or herself, or to
protect the safety of others. The use of incidental, minor or reasonable
physical contact designed to maintain order and control is also allowed.
However, some district attorneys have prosecuted teachers who use minor
force under these circumstances anyway.
Assembly Bill 100, introduced by Representative Glenn Grothman (R-West
Bend), received strong bipartisan support and passed the Assembly 99-0.
The bill is designed to protect teachers from being charged criminally
when they act reasonably in dealing with disruptive students. The bill
acknowledges a common law defense that teachers may use reasonable force
in dealing with disruptive students.
Prior to 1988, when a law prohibiting corporal punishment became effective,
common law recognized a teacher’s authority to use reasonable corporal
punishment as a disciplinary measure in the absence of a school board
policy or rule to the contrary. AB 100 merely states that the enactment
of the 1998 law on corporal punishment did not abrogate or restrict
that common law defense.
Posted June 2, 1999