SB2929

The existing school-property statute describes removal by school administrators and specified officers when a person refuses to leave peaceably and either poses a substantial risk of harm or behaves inappropriately after a verbal warning and persists. The new subsection says that verbal warning and persistence are not required for a covered athletic official to eject a spectator from the event. It removes those two procedural steps; it does not say all school visitors everywhere may be removed for any reason. 2017 law, section 5; Final law, new section 37.105(a-1).

The change concerns ejection from the athletic activity or competition. It does not itself impose a future attendance ban, create a criminal offense or repeal the rest of the school-property statute. A separate district-property exclusion should not be confused with an official’s immediate event ejection. This briefing does not determine the appeal procedure or other legal limits for an individual incident. Final law; Surrounding property-exclusion provisions.

The introduced bill, Senate report, engrossed bill, House report and enrolled law have the same operative text. The official amendment index lists no amendments, so there is no adopted floor change to distinguish from the final wording. Introduced bill; All versions; Amendment index.

Compare the published text versions in the official text index. A change is not attributed to a specific amendment here without a verified record.

Officials can act without first giving the statutory verbal warning and waiting for the spectator to repeat the inappropriate behavior. Spectators lose that particular warning opportunity at covered events. This may allow faster responses to disruption, but the act does not establish how often officials will use the authority or prove a reduction in abuse or injuries. Final law.

The introduced and engrossed fiscal notes anticipate no significant fiscal implication for the state or local governments. They provide no quantified savings or separate estimate of effects on individual spectators. Introduced fiscal note; Engrossed fiscal note.