Senate Judiciary to Vote on SB1179 May 9th
As the deadline approaches for non-fiscal legislation to be presented to the Senate floor, Senate Bill 1179 has set a date of May 9th for a hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee. In order to make it to the Senate Floor, SB 1179 must pass through the Judiciary Committee by a majority vote prior to May 12.
Help end discrimination against skateboarders in California by sending a letter of support to the Senators on the Committee who will be voting on May 9th.
Click the links below (IASC urges you to send the letter to each Senator), copy and paste the letter into your email and include your name at the bottom.
Don't procrastinate do it NOW!
For the full press release click the link at the bottom of the page.
For more info on SB1179 click here, to write a letter to the Senator or Congressperson in your discrict click here
- Senator Joseph Dunn (Chair) http://www.senate.ca.gov/ftp/sen/district/sd_34/_home
- Senator Bill Morrow (Vice-Chair) http://www.senate.ca.gov/ftp/sen/district/sd_38/_home
- Senator Dick Ackerman http://www.senate.ca.gov/ftp/sen/district/sd_33/_home
- Senator Martha Escutia http://www.senate.ca.gov/ftp/sen/district/sd_30/_home
- Senator Sheila Kuehl http://www.senate.ca.gov/ftp/sen/district/sd_23/_home
RE:Support SB 1179:
In 1998 Health and Safety Code 115800 mandated safety gear because injury statistics were unknown. In 2003, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission found skateboarding is safer than basketball, football, and bicycling. California has no health and safety code guiding the norms of these other recreational activities and attempting to legislate the wearing of safety gear in a skate park is problematic, if not discriminatory. The Commission goes on to warn; “The more serious injuries that result in hospitalization typically involve a crash with a motor vehicle.” Skateboarding is safest on surfaces of a well-designed skate park. Please do not push our kids into the streets and parking lots where they can be put in harms way.
Adding skateboarding to the list of protected recreational activities is a much needed step toward encouraging litigation-shy officials to build skate parks in California, and bring the growing number of young skaters in off of our sidewalks and streets and into safety of these skate parks. Skate parks can be a remedy to the decades long clash between law enforcement and the skateboarders, as skaters are increasingly banned from public areas.
Skateboarding is an activity that can be accessible to everyone and the demographics of skateboarding show that it appeals to all colors, ages, and income levels. California, as the cradle of this activity, should be the leader in enacting laws that embrace the sport and it’s participants. The young people of California need the protection of a community-gathering place where they can skateboard out of harms way. Endorsing SV 1179 will help give California’s youth a place to practice the sport safely.
Respectfully,
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I am urging you to support SB 1179 proposing that skateboarding be added to the list of hazardous recreational activities in Section 831.7 of the Government Code, and to repeal Section 115800 of the Health and Safety Code. Section 115800 has been successful in reassuring many public entities that they can operate skate parks without fear of lawsuits. SB 1179 is a logical next step in support of California’s 2nd fastest growing recreation. There are 12,000,000 skateboarders in the United States and only approximately 2000 skateboard parks for these skateboarders to safely participate in their sport- supporting SB1179 will help even out these statistics in California.
