ENROLLED
Senate Bill No. 222
(By Senators Blatnik, Lucht, Bailey,
Jones and Wagner)
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[Passed March 12, 1994; in effect ninety days from passage.]
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AN ACT to amend and reenact section one, article five, chapter
eighteen-a of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine
hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to prohibiting
corporal punishment in the public schools.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section one, article five, chapter eighteen-a of the
code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as
amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 5. AUTHORITY; RIGHTS; RESPONSIBILITY.
§18A-5-1. Authority of teachers and other school personnel;
exclusion of pupils having infectious diseases; suspension
or expulsion of disorderly pupils; corporal punishment
abolished.
The teacher shall stand in the place of the parent or
guardian in exercising authority over the school, and shall have
control of all pupils enrolled in the school from the time theyreach the school until they have returned to their respective
homes, except that where transportation of pupils is provided,
the driver in charge of the school bus or other mode of
transportation shall exercise such authority and control over the
children while they are in transit to and from the school.
Subject to the rules of the state board of education, the teacher
shall exclude from the school any pupil or pupils known to have
or suspected of having any infectious disease, or any pupil or
pupils who have been exposed to such disease, and shall
immediately notify the proper health officer, or medical
inspector, of such exclusion. Any pupil so excluded shall not be
readmitted to the school until such pupil has complied with all
the requirements of the rules governing such cases, or has
presented a certificate of health signed by the medical inspector
or other proper health officer. The teacher shall have authority
to suspend any pupil guilty of disorderly, refractory, indecent
or immoral conduct, and the district board of education may expel
or exclude any such pupil if, on investigation, the conduct of
such pupil is found to be detrimental to the progress and the
general conduct of the school.
Corporal punishment of any pupil by a school employee is
prohibited.
The West Virginia board of education and county boards of
education shall adopt policies consistent with the provisions of
this section encouraging the use of alternatives to corporal
punishment, providing for the training of school personnel inalternatives to corporal punishment and for the involvement of
parents and guardians in the maintenance of school discipline.
For the purpose of this section: (1) "Pupil" shall include
any child, youth or adult who is enrolled in any instructional
program or activity conducted under board authorization and
within the facilities of or in connection with any program under
public school direction: Provided, That in the case of adults
the pupil-teacher relationship shall terminate when the pupil
leaves the school or other place of instruction or activity; (2)
"teacher" shall mean all professional educators as defined in
section one, article one of this chapter and shall include the
driver of a school bus or other mode of transportation.
Teachers shall exercise such other authority and perform
such other duties as may be prescribed for them by law or by the
rules of the state board of education not inconsistent with the
provisions of this chapter and chapter eighteen of this code.