On Sept. 3, California Assemblymember Damon Connolly passed 11 new bills ranging from high school wildfire safety to pesticide use. Ten of the bills are awaiting California Governor Gavin Newsom’s signature to be signed into law, while one has already been signed. The governor has until Sept. 30 to either sign or veto the bills, many of which target issues involving Marin County and southern Sonoma County high school students and college students in California.
Assembly Bill (AB) 1790 is a part of the “A Call to Action” legislative package that targets sex discrimination and sexual harassment in the California State University (CSU) system. Connolly is one of many Assemblymembers who came together to introduce this package of bills because of flaws within the CSU system.
“These issues around [sexual harassment in] the CSU system really came to a head in the last few years, where there were clear instances when sexual harassment complaints were not being properly addressed, documented and followed up on,” Connolly said.
AB 2251 is a bill that exempts high school students with absences due to mental and physical health from additional graduation requirements. Connolly explains exactly how this will affect students.
“[This bill] helps students who have missed significant school time because of their mental or physical illness to still graduate. In other words, things out of the student’s control. They should not be held back from being able to graduate on time,” Connolly said.
Tamalpais Union High School District (TUHSD) Superintendent Tara Taupier, a strong advocate for students, explains the importance of this bill.
“[These students] are already dealing with the tremendous social impact at a very formative time of their life,” Taupier said. “I’m totally supportive of this [bill] because I think the more we can provide students with extenuating circumstances access to graduation, the better.”
One of the most popular bills in Marin County is AB 1778, which is designed to provide stricter laws for e-bikes to limit accidents.
“AB 1778 would create a pilot program in Marin to regulate class two e-bikes such that riders under 16 would not be permitted to ride that class of e-bike [and] helmets would be required for everyone,” Connolly said. “[We are] really trying to strike that balance between safety [and] also encouraging kids and their families to ride their bikes or walk to school.”
Taupier explains how the limited amount of laws around e-bikes causes struggles within the school district.
“It is all about safety. Unfortunately, we’re in an era where technology is ahead of the laws,” Taupier said. “We have 11 municipalities [in TUHSD], and right now, e-bike regulations are by municipality. So, even just working with The Mill Valley Police Department (PD) and Central Marin PD took a lot of work because initially Mill Valley and Central Marin had different perspectives, so until they came together, we couldn’t have a district-wide approach.”
Until these bills are signed into law, any community member can reach out to the governor to advocate for any of these bills by visiting www.gov.ca.gov/contact/.
Assemblymember Connolly will also be free to talk, via phone or email, to any community member about concerns and the presentation of new bills until early January when the new legislative session begins.
“We like working with youth, representing youth and learning more about their issues,” Connolly said. “One of the best parts of the job is to be able to work with community members on policy.”
