California lawmakers are considering legislation that critics warn could criminalize parents’ speaking out at school-board meetings or otherwise criticizing school officials. Passed by the California Senate in May and now under consideration in the Assembly, SB 596 would amend state law to classify causing “substantial disorder” at a school-board meeting or engaging in “harassment” of a school employee as a misdemeanor punishable by fines and imprisonment. It would also broaden the definition of “school employee” to include “any employee or official of a school district, a charter school, a county office of education, a county board of education, the state board, or the State Department of Education.”
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