Provides that a person is guilty of harassment in the first degree, a class B misdemeanor, when such person strikes, shoves, kicks or otherwise subjects a school employee to physical contact or attempts or threatens to do the same while such school employee is engaged in the performance of such person's duties as a school employee.
S T A T E O F N E W Y O R K
________________________________________________________________________
7436
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
I N A S S E M B L Y
March 27, 2025
___________
Introduced by M. of A. HAWLEY -- read once and referred to the Committee
on Codes
AN ACT to amend the penal law, in relation to harassment in the first
degree
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND ASSEM-
BLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
Section 1. Section 240.00 of the penal law is amended by adding a new
subdivision 8 to read as follows:
8. "SCHOOL EMPLOYEE" MEANS ANY PERSON EMPLOYED BY AN ELEMENTARY OR
SECONDARY SCHOOL, PUBLIC OR PRIVATE, OR BY THE SCHOOL DISTRICT OR OTHER
ENTITY ADMINISTERING SUCH SCHOOL.
§ 2. Section 240.25 of the penal law, as amended by chapter 109 of the
laws of 1994, is amended to read as follows:
§ 240.25 Harassment in the first degree.
A person is guilty of harassment in the first degree when:
1. [he or she] SUCH PERSON intentionally and repeatedly harasses
another person by following such OTHER person in or about a public place
or places or by engaging in a course of conduct or by repeatedly commit-
ting acts which [places] PLACE such OTHER person in reasonable fear of
physical injury, OR
2. SUCH PERSON STRIKES, SHOVES, KICKS OR OTHERWISE SUBJECTS A SCHOOL
EMPLOYEE TO PHYSICAL CONTACT, OR ATTEMPTS OR THREATENS TO DO THE SAME,
WHILE SUCH SCHOOL EMPLOYEE IS ENGAGED IN OR ON ACCOUNT OF THE PERFORM-
ANCE OF THE DUTIES OF SUCH SCHOOL EMPLOYEE. This section shall not
apply to activities regulated by the national labor relations act, as
amended, the railway labor act, as amended, or the federal employment
labor management act, as amended.
Harassment in the first degree is a class B misdemeanor.
§ 3. This act shall take effect on the first of November next succeed-
ing the date on which it shall have become a law.
EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD02566-01-5
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