What's happening
This bill allows school safety agents to possess and use electronic dart guns or stun guns on school grounds and buses if trained and authorized.
Why it matters
Expands School Security Tools. By allowing trained school safety agents to possess and use electronic dart guns or stun guns, this bill introduces less-lethal options for addressing emergencies, potentially offering schools alternatives to firearms or physical restraint.
Mandates Rigorous Training and Oversight. Only individuals who are not otherwise barred from possessing firearms and who have completed approved training in both deadly force and the specific use of these devices can be designated as school safety agents. This ensures a standardized level of preparedness and competence.
Requires Local Policy Development and State Reporting. Each school district must create written policies—subject to state consultation—on how and when these devices may be used, and must report all safety agent designations and training completions (and removals) to state authorities, enhancing transparency and accountability.
Limits Legal Liability for Agents. The bill offers legal protection to designated school safety agents for actions taken in the line of duty, unless their conduct amounts to gross negligence or intentional harm, which may influence the willingness of staff to serve in this role and impact legal risks for schools.
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Who cares
Headline styles
Allow Stun Guns in Schools
Plain English, a few words. Used as the page title.
Sponsors
1 Co-sponsor
History
- Held for consideration in codes
- Referred to codes
- Referred to codes
Full text
2 pagesUnderlined is new[Struck] is removedOfficial text on nysenate.gov ↗
STATE OF NEW YORK
2495
2019-2020 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
January 23, 2019
Introduced by M. of A. CROUCH, MORINELLO -- read once and referred to the Committee on Codes
AN ACT to amend the penal law and the education law, in relation to the use of electronic dart guns or electronic stun guns on school grounds and school buses by school safety agents
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:
Section 1. Subdivision a of section 265.20 of the penal law is amended by adding a new paragraph 17 to read as follows:
17. Possession or use of an electronic dart gun or electronic stun gun as defined in subdivisions fifteen-a and fifteen-c of section 265.00 of this article by school safety agents on school grounds or school buses as authorized under section twenty-eight hundred one-c of the education law.
§ 2. The education law is amended by adding a new section 2801-c to read as follows:
§ 2801-c. Use of electronic dart guns or electronic stun guns on school grounds or school buses by school safety agents. 1. a. The board of education, board of trustees, or sole trustee of any school or school district, whether public, private, or charter, may authorize the principal or the principal's or superintendent's designee or designees to possess an electronic dart gun or electronic stun gun on the school grounds of each school within the school district or on any school bus being used by the school district. Such individual shall be designated a school safety agent.
b. An individual shall be designated a school safety agent only if (i) he or she is not prohibited by state or federal law from possessing a firearm, rifle or shotgun; and (ii) he or she has successfully completed a course of training approved by the commissioner of the division of criminal justice services in the use of deadly physical force and the use of electronic dart guns or electronic stun guns.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD02980-01-9
A. 2495 2
c. The board of education, board of trustees, or sole trustee of any school or school district, in consultation with the commissioner of the division of criminal justice services, shall adopt a written policy specifying the manner in which the electronic dart guns or electronic stun guns shall be possessed and the circumstances under which a dart gun or stun gun may be used.
d. Every school or school district shall report to the commissioner of the division of criminal justice services, the names of all school employees who have satisfactorily completed the training requirements and the names of all persons designated as school safety agents. Every school or school district shall report to the commissioner of the division of criminal justice services, the names of all school employees that are no longer designated as a school safety agent and the date when such designation was removed.
e. No person serving as a school safety agent shall be liable to any person while serving in such capacity based on his or her conduct in the execution of such position unless the conduct of such school safety agent with respect to the person asserting liability constituted gross negligence or was intended to maliciously cause the resulting harm to the person asserting liability.
2. For the purposes of this section:
a. the term "school safety agent" shall mean the principal or the principal's or superintendent's designee or designees authorized to possess an electronic dart gun or electronic stun gun on school grounds or on a school bus pursuant to this section.
b. the term "electronic dart gun" shall have the same meaning as set forth in subdivision fifteen-a of section 265.00 of the penal law.
c. the term "electronic stun gun" shall have the same meaning as set forth in subdivision fifteen-c of section 265.00 of the penal law.
d. the term "school grounds" shall mean in, on or within any building, structure, athletic playing field, playground or land contained within the real property boundary line of any elementary, intermediate, junior high, vocational, or high school, whether public, private, or charter.
e. the term "school bus" shall have the same meaning as set forth in section one hundred forty-two of the vehicle and traffic law.
§ 3. This act shall take effect immediately.
Reflowed for reading: line numbers and page breaks removed. Cite the official text.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.