In a bid to work around a mayoral veto, the City Council plans to introduce an amended bill aimed at creating security perimeters around schools, despite criticism from some First Amendment advocates.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had the votes to do an override, but to jam through an override on an issue where even members who were going to support the override had concerns, I don\u2019t think that\u2019s a responsible path forward,\u201d Council Speaker Julie Menin said.<\/p>\n
The revised legislation would amend the so-called \u201cbuffer zone bill\u201d around educational institutions.<\/p>\n
What You Need To Know<\/p>\n
The City Council plans to introduce amended legislation creating security perimeters around some schools during protests
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The revised bill would apply to early childhood education sites and most K-12 schools, while excluding colleges, universities, libraries and teaching hospitals
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Mayor Zohran Mamdani vetoed the original legislation in April, citing concerns about protest rights and the broad definition of educational institutions<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the coming weeks we will introduce and hold a hearing on amended legislation that more clearly defines educational facilities as early childhood education sites and most K-through-12 schools,\u201d Menin said.<\/p>\n
Menin said libraries, teaching hospitals, colleges and universities would be \u201cexplicitly excluded\u201d from the legislation.<\/p>\n
The bill would still require the NYPD to publish plans for protecting those sites during protests when there is a risk of \u201cintimidation, obstruction or physical injury.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t see this as a watering down but a strengthening, because you\u2019re going to get more members involved in supporting this bill,\u201d Menin said.<\/p>\n
In April, Mayor Zohran Mamdani vetoed the legislation<\/a>, citing concerns over the right to protest and the broad definition of educational institutions. Mamdani did allow similar legislation related to houses of worship to become law<\/a>.<\/p>\n In a statement responding to the revised proposal, a spokesperson for the mayor said: \u201cThe Mamdani administration has not seen the specific legislative language, and we look forward to reviewing it. The mayor believes New York City must remain a place where students can access their schools safely as well as exercise their constitutional right to protest.\u201d<\/p>\n The amended bill is expected to be sponsored by progressive Councilmember Elsie Encarnacion instead of the original sponsor, Councilmember Eric Dinowitz.<\/p>\n \u201cObviously disappointed because the bill was a transparency measure, but we\u2019re building a broader base of support with the new bill,\u201d Dinowitz said.<\/p>\n Dinowitz also criticized opponents of the original legislation.<\/p>\n \u201cI think some of the dishonesty around the opposition is about people who didn\u2019t read the bill or didn\u2019t want to have tough conversations around it, demonizing the bill which is about transparency and community engagement,\u201d Dinowitz said.<\/p>\n The council was four votes short of a veto-proof supermajority when it passed the legislation earlier this year.<\/p>\n \u201cWe should be joined in the fight against antisemitism, so anytime we can get a broader coalition I think that is a positive,\u201d Menin said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a bid to work around a mayoral veto, the City Council plans to introduce an amended bill…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":174482,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[109,25,6348,9,24,12,63,87,134,136,135,27,200],"class_list":["post-239100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-staten-island","tag-app-local-state-politics","tag-app-top-stories","tag-kelly-mena","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-news","tag-nyc","tag-politics","tag-staten-island","tag-staten-island-headlines","tag-staten-island-news","tag-top-stories","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239100"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239100\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/174482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}