Starting July 1, 2020, California school officials will be banned from suspending students for “willful defiance” of teachers and administrators. Senate Bill 419, signed by California Governor Gavin Newsom, gives students from kindergarten to eighth grade a free pass to disrupt and defy school teachers without getting suspended. The bill, sponsored by Senator Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley), also bans schools from suspending students in ninth through twelfth grade for the same thing.

Existing laws prohibit schools from suspending students in kindergarten through third grade for disrupting and willful defiance.

The new California law encourages school officials “to provide alternatives to suspension or expulsion, using a research-based framework with strategies that improve behavioral and academic outcomes, that are age appropriate and designed to address and correct the pupil’s specific misbehavior.”

Under SB 419, students can still be suspended from school for violence and/or bringing weapons and illegal drugs to school.

According to California Senate analysis, California students were absent more than 150,000 days of school because of suspensions due to unruly behavior in 2016-2017.

On Sunday, Rudy Giuliani tweeted a video of teacher being brutally beaten by two students. Giuliani wrote, “This is, I believe, @GavinNewsom CA. He just signed a law making it almost impossible to suspend these violent students. Let’s see if Teachers Union will step up or cower. Wasn’t Newsome in re-hab? Re-hab him again.”

Warning: Violence