On Feb. 6, California State Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson introduced a bill that could authorize California Community Colleges to discipline students with suspension or expulsion for off-campus conduct. These conducts include sexual assault, sexual harassment, arson, stalking, hazing, physical/domestic abuse and other serious violations.

The bill is intended to give the victims of these assaults a peace of mind and to enforce good behavior on and off campus. It is also meant to grant California Community colleges the ability to enact the same disciplinary action for serious offenses off-campus as schools in the CSU and UC systems.

“A lot of times, victims are not heard,” ESOL professor Serena Chu-Mraz said. “Sexual assault has been a serious issue on college campuses and this bill would promote more awareness.”

Giving a voice to the victims and potential victims is what is driving the bill. However, there are concerns of it being too harsh.

“I could see both sides,” biology technician Kylin Johnson said. “Obviously you want justice to be served, but I don’t think you should take away education because it prolongs the cycle. That (bill) shouldn’t be a punishment, since violence breeds violence. They won’t have an opportunity to change themselves.”

According to Crisis Connection Inc., 75 percent of rapes in colleges happen off campus, and 90 percent of those on campus involve perpetrators who were known by the victims. There is an existing law that prohibits a community college student from being removed, suspended or expelled, unless the conduct for which the student is being disciplined is related to college activity or attendance.

Update: the article has been update to fix AP errors. 12:40 p.m. 3/9/2015
Update: the article headline was changed from “Proposal to discipline students off campus for sexual assault” to “Sexual assault bill proposal for off-campus offenders” in order to better reflect the article 2:08 p.m. 3/9/2015