S 1611: 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.
The bill aims to amend the penal law to strengthen harassment laws in New York. It introduces a new definition of "school employee" to include anyone employed by an elementary or secondary school. The bill also expands the definition of harassment in the first degree to include situations where a person intentionally and repeatedly harasses another person by following them in public or places, or engages in a course of conduct that places them in reasonable fear of physical injury. Furthermore, the bill makes it a crime to strike, shove, or kick a school employee while they are performing their duties or on account of their job. This law does not apply to activities regulated by the national labor relations act or similar federal laws. The bill classifies harassment in the first degree as a class B misdemeanor.
| Jan. 07, 2026 | REFERRED TO CODES |
| Jan. 13, 2025 | REFERRED TO CODES |
STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 1611 2025-2026 Regular Sessions IN SENATE January 13, 2025 ___________ Introduced by Sen. BORRELLO -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed 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: 1 Section 1. Section 240.00 of the penal law is amended by adding a new 2 subdivision 8 to read as follows: 3 8. "School employee" means any person employed by an elementary or 4 secondary school, public or private, or by the school district or other 5 entity administering such school. 6 § 2. Section 240.25 of the penal law, as amended by chapter 109 of the 7 laws of 1994, is amended to read as follows: 8 § 240.25 Harassment in the first degree. 9 A person is guilty of harassment in the first degree when: 10 1. [he or she] such person intentionally and repeatedly harasses 11 another person by following such other person in or about a public place 12 or places or by engaging in a course of conduct or by repeatedly commit- 13 ting acts which [places] place such other person in reasonable fear of 14 physical injury, or 15 2. such person strikes, shoves, kicks or otherwise subjects a school 16 employee to physical contact, or attempts or threatens to do the same, 17 while such school employee is engaged in or on account of the perform- 18 ance of the duties of such school employee. This section shall not 19 apply to activities regulated by the national labor relations act, as 20 amended, the railway labor act, as amended, or the federal employment 21 labor management act, as amended. 22 Harassment in the first degree is a class B misdemeanor. 23 § 3. This act shall take effect on the first of November next succeed- 24 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