Loitering in or on a School Safety Zone; Penalty; Required Check in of Visitors; Posting Signs of Required Check In

1. Law
2. Georgia Code
3. Education
4. Elementary and Secondary Education
5. Loitering at or Disrupting Schools
6. Loitering in or on a School Safety Zone; Penalty; Required Check in of Visitors; Posting Signs of Required Check In

1. 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 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.
2. 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.

3. 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.
   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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. 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.

(c.1)Subsections (b) and (c) of this Code section shall not apply to:

(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.)

The 2014 amendments. The first 2014 amendment, effective July 1, 2014, substituted the present provisions of the first sentence of subsection (a) for the former provisions, which read: "It shall be unlawful for any person to remain upon the premises or within the school safety zone as defined in paragraph (1) of subsection (a) of Code Section 16-11-127.1 of any public or private school in this state or to remain upon such premises or within such school safety zone when that person does not have a legitimate cause or need to be present thereon."; in paragraph (b)(1), substituted "present in or on any school safety zone" for "present upon the premises or within the school safety zone of any public or private school" near the beginning and substituted "school safety zone" for "premises" near the end; and added subsection (g). The second 2014 amendment, effective July 1, 2014, deleted "paragraph (1) of subsection (a) of" following "as defined in" in the first sentence of subsection (a).

Cross references.

- Criminal penalty for failure to leave ground of public school when so directed, § 16-11-35.

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).

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. § 20-2-1180(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).

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).

Cited in Phillips v. State, 240 Ga. 453, 241 S.E.2d 203 (1978); Darnell v. Houston County Bd. of Educ., 234 Ga. App. 488, 506 S.E.2d 385 (1998); In the Interest of M.P., 279 Ga. App. 344, 631 S.E.2d 383 (2006).

OPINIONS OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL

Fingerprinting required for violators.

- Those charged with offenses under 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 persons 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.

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