October 15, 2024 | less than a minute read

New Legislation Expands the Right to Obtain Restraining Orders to Protect Students

Oxford, England - June 19, 2013: Students relaxing on the grass outside Balliol College of Oxford University

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Dan Ojeda

Partner

Get in touch

Dan Ojeda

Partner

Governor Newsom recently signed AB 2096 into law with the goal of providing California public higher education institutions another tool to protect students from potential violence on campus.

Previously, the law gave private institutions the right to seek restraining orders in response to conduct by individuals that occurs off campus and amounts to a “credible threat of violence.”

The new law amends Code of Civil Procedure section 527.85 to expand this right to public colleges and universities. It also permits colleges and universities to obtain restraining orders in response to acts of “unlawful violence,” defined as “any assault or battery, or stalking as prohibited in Section 646.9 of the Penal Code," excluding acts of self defense. The conduct no longer has to occur off campus.

This bill would, beginning January 1, 2026, expand the definition of postsecondary educational institution to include public institutions, expand the conduct for which a restraining order can be sought to include unlawful violence, as defined, and remove the requirements that such conduct occur off the school campus or facility and be construed to be carried out or to have been carried out at the campus or facility.

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