O.C.G.A.

O.C.G.A. § 20-2-1180 (2019)

Loitering in or on a school safety zone; penalty; required check in of visitors; posting signs of required check in

✓ O.C.G.A. — 2019 edition (Public.Resource.Org Release 73)

Code text and O.C.G.A. statutory annotations on this page reflect the 2019 Official Code of Georgia Annotated (Public.Resource.Org Release 73, 2019-08-21; public domain per Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). The Syfert case-law annotations in Notes of Decisions, below, are current.

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(a) It shall be unlawful for any person to remain in or on any school safety zone in this state or to remain in or on any such school safety zone when such person does not have a legitimate cause or need to be present thereon. Each principal or designee of each public or private school in this state shall have the authority to exercise such control over the buildings and grounds upon which a school is located so as to prohibit any person who does not have a legitimate need or cause to be present thereon from loitering upon such premises. Each principal or designee of each public or private school in this state shall notify the

ELEMENTARY & SECONDARY EDUC.

appropriate law enforcement agency to prohibit any person who does not have a legitimate need or cause to be present therein from loitering within the school safety zone. (b) Any person who: (1) Is present in or on any school safety zone in this state and willfully fails to remove himself or herself from such school safety zone after the principal or designee of such school requests him or her to do so; or (2) Fails to check in at the designated location as required by subsection (c) of this Code section shall be guilty of a misdemeanor of a high and aggravated nature. (c) Upon entering any school building between the official starting time and the official dismissal time, any person who is not a student at such school, an employee of the school or school system, a school board member, an approved volunteer following the established guidelines of the school, or a person who has been invited to or otherwise authorized to be at the school by a principal, teacher, counselor, or other authorized employee of the school shall check in at the designated location as stated on posted signs and provide a reason for his or her presence at the school. (c.1) Subsections (b) and (c) of this Code section shall not apply to: (1) Law enforcement officers, firefighters, emergency medical technicians or paramedics, or any public safety or emergency management officials in the performance of an emergency call or to other persons making authorized deliveries to the school; (2) Any person entering a school on election day, for purposes of voting, when the school serves as an official polling place; or (3) Any person attending or participating in an academic or athletic event while remaining in the authorized area or a parent, grandparent, or guardian listed on a child’s pick-up list who fails to sign-in while delivering school supplies, food, clothing, other legitimate business and who has not previously been sanctioned by school officials for disrupting a school. (d) A school administrator or his or her designee may ask any visitor to explain his or her presence in the school building at any time when the school is in official session. (e) If the school posts signs on entrances to the school requiring visitors to check in at the designated location, such signs shall be deemed prima-facie evidence that persons entering the school were on notice of the requirements of this Code section.

(f) Nothing in this Code section shall be construed to prohibit school administrators from prohibiting the admission of any person who has violated school policy or state law. (g) As used in this Code section, the term “school safety zone” shall have the same meaning as set forth in Code Section 16-11-127.1.

History

Ga. L. 1973, p. 719, §§ 1, 2; Ga. L. 1994, p. 1012, § 5; Ga. L. 2002, p. 1078, § 1; Ga. L. 2006, p. 519, § 4/HB 1302; Ga. L. 2014, p. 432, § 2-10/HB 826; Ga. L. 2014, p. 599, § 3-4/HB 60.

Annotations

Cross references. Criminal penalty for failure to leave ground of public school when so directed, § 16-11-35. Editor’s notes. Ga. L. 1994, p. 1012, § 1, not codified by the General Assembly, provides that the Act shall be known and may be cited as the “School Safety and Juvenile Justice Reform Act of 1994”. Ga. L. 1994, p. 1012, § 2, not codified by the General Assembly, sets forth legislative findings and determinations for the “School Safety and Juvenile Justice Reform Act of 1994”. Ga. L. 1994, p. 1012, § 29, not codified by the General Assembly, provides for severability.

Ga. L. 1994, p. 1012, § 30, not codified by the General Assembly, provides that the Act shall apply to all offenses committed on or after May 1, 1994. Ga. L. 2006, p. 519, § 7/HB 1302, not codified by the General Assembly, provides that the amendment to this Code section shall become effective on July 1, 2006, and shall apply to all crimes committed on or after such date. Any offense committed before July 1, 2006, shall be punishable as provided by the statute in effect at the time the offense was committed. Ga. L. 2014, p. 599, § 1-1/HB 60, not codified by the General Assembly, provides: “This Act shall be known and may be cited as the ‘Safe Carry Protection Act.’” Law reviews. For article on the 2014 amendment of this Code section, see 31 Ga. St. U. L. Rev. 47 (2014).

JUDICIAL DECISIONS Principal’s authority to control visitors. - O.C.G.A. § 20-2-1180 does not impart a ministerial duty on school officials, rather, the statute imposes a duty on third party visitors and gives school principals discretionary authority to control visitors. Teston v. Collins, 217 Ga. App. 829, 459 S.E.2d 452, 1995 Ga. App. LEXIS 600 (1995). Instruction to remove oneself from school premises must occur on occasion in question. - Dismissal of an indictment for loitering on school premises was required because O.C.G.A. § 202-1180(b)(1) made it a crime for a defendant to fail to remove oneself from school premises after being told to do so; in this case, it was alleged that the defendant

was told to leave on a prior occasion, not the date in question. State v. Freeman, 349 Ga. App. 94, 825 S.E.2d 538, 2019 Ga. App. LEXIS 116 (2019). Evidence insufficient. - Defendant was entitled to reversal of a conviction for loitering upon school premises because the evidence showed that from the time the assistant principal first spoke with the defendant and walked out of the building with the defendant, two to four minutes elapsed and that the principal’s conversation with the defendant and the defendant’s conversation with police took place only seconds apart, and then the defendant left. Isenhower v. State, 324 Ga. App. 380, 750 S.E.2d 703, 2013 Ga. App. LEXIS 850 (2013).

ELEMENTARY & SECONDARY EDUC.

OPINIONS OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL Fingerprinting required for violators. - Those charged with offenses un-

der O.C.G.A. § 20-2-1180 are to be fingerprinted. 2007 Op. Att’y Gen. No. 2007-1.

RESEARCH REFERENCES Am. Jur. 2d. 75 Am. Jur. 2d, Trespass, § 168 et seq. ALR. Validity and construction of statute or ordinance forbidding unauthorized per-

sons to enter upon or remain in school building or premises, 50 A.L.R.3d 340. Validity, construction, and application of loitering statutes and ordinances, 72 A.L.R.5th 1.

Notes of Decisions

Cited in 11 cases, 1995–2019 · leading case: Isenhower v. State, 750 S.E.2d 703 (Ga. Ct. App. 2013).

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Isenhower v. State, 750 S.E.2d 703 (Ga. Ct. App. 2013). · cites it 24× “After a jury trial, Karen White Isenhower was convicted of loitering upon school premises (OCGA § 20-2-1180) and criminal trespass (OCGA § 16-7-21 (b)).”

Teston v. Collins, 459 S.E.2d 452 (Ga. Ct. App. 1995). · cites it 4× “Although plaintiffs argue that defendant school officials and employees negligently performed a ministerial duty allegedly imposed on them by OCGA § 20-2-1180 and by the Bleckley County School Board’s adoption of that Code section as School Board policy, we cannot agree.”

Walker v. State, 747 S.E.2d 51 (Ga. Ct. App. 2013). · cites it 4× “OCGA § 20-2-1180 (a), (b). Cf. Burgess v.”

Caldwell v. Griffin Spalding Cnty. Bd. of Educ., 503 S.E.2d 43 (Ga. Ct. App. 1998). · cites it 4× “The plaintiff in that case argued that school officials had the ministerial duty to enforce the provisions of OCGA § 20-2-1180, which makes it unlawful for unauthorized persons to remain on a school campus.”

Leake v. Murphy, 617 S.E.2d 575 (Ga. Ct. App. 2005). · cites it 2× “829, 830 (1) ( 459 SE2d 452 ) (1995) (school authorities entitled to official immunity in suit arising from injuries sustained by student during an altercation with a visitor; OCGA § 20-2-1180, which prohibits loitering within school safety zone, gives school principals…”

Hemak v. Houston Cnty. Sch. Dist., 469 S.E.2d 679 (Ga. Ct. App. 1996). · cites it 2× “The relevant Code section, former OCGA § 20-2-1180, provided in part: “Each principal of each public or private school in this state shall have the authority to exercise such control over the buildings and grounds upon which a school is located so as to prohibit any person who…”

Darnell v. Houston Cnty. Bd. of Educ., 506 S.E.2d 385 (Ga. Ct. App. 1998). · cites it 2× “OCGA § 20-2-1180. Even assuming for the sake of argument only that Snyder improperly exercised his discretion by having Darnell removed from the gymnasium, he and the Board were entitled to immunity.”

In the Interest of M. P., 631 S.E.2d 383 (Ga. Ct. App. 2006). · cites it 2× “OCGA § 20-2-1180 (a) clarifies that the principal or designee of a public school may exert his or her control within the entire school safety zone, which is defined in OCGA§ 16-11-127.”

State v. David Justin Freeman (Ga. Ct. App. 2019). · cites it 26× “David Justin Freeman was accused of loitering upon school premises, in violation of OCGA § 20-2-1180. The State appeals from the trial court’s grant of a general and special demurrer to Freeman, arguing that the language of the accusation sufficiently apprised Freeman of the…”

Karen White Isenhower v. State (Ga. Ct. App. 2013). · cites it 22× “After a jury trial, Karen White Isenhower was convicted of loitering upon school premises (OCGA § 20-2-1180) and criminal trespass (OCGA § 16-7-21 (b)).”

Ernest Walker, Sr. v. State (Ga. Ct. App. 2013). · cites it 4× “OCGA § 20-2-1180 (a), (b). 10 position away from an officer’s attempted first-tier questioning, and ignored the officer and refused to identify himself to the officer, such conduct did not justify an investigatory detention.”

Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.