State Senator Abel Maldonado has proposed a very sensible bill, which would expel college students who are convicted of rioting or battery on an officer. Since the bill would exempt University of California students, the obvious but unfair implication is that UC Berkeley and UCLA students would be welcomed to riot in San Luis Obispo, while Cal Poly and other California State University and community college students would be subject to punishment. However, Maldonado’s bill does ask for the Regents, who control UC activity, to adopt the same bill regarding its students.
I am pleased that our local senator, with our Police Chief Linden’s support, has the guts to demand some consequences for riotous acts by students. For that matter, a one-year expulsion is very mild punishment.
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Matt Kokkonen
San Luis Obispo
This article appears in May 12-19, 2005.