Civ. Code, § 48.8 · Part 2. PERSONAL RIGHTS
Civ. Code, § 48.8
Text — As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
(a) A communication by any person to a school principal, or a communication by a student attending the school to the student’s teacher or to a school counselor or school nurse and any report of that communication to the school principal, stating that a specific student or other specified person has made a threat to commit violence or potential violence on the school grounds involving the use of a firearm or other deadly or dangerous weapon, is a communication on a matter of public concern and is subject to liability in defamation only upon a showing by clear and convincing evidence that the communication or report was made with knowledge of its falsity or with reckless disregard for the truth or falsity of the communication. Where punitive damages are alleged, the provisions of Section 3294 shall also apply.
(b) As used in this section, “school” means a public or private school providing instruction in kindergarten or grades 1 to 12, inclusive.
Notes and commentary — not statutory text
History
Added by Stats. 2001, Ch. 570, Sec. 1. Effective January 1, 2002.
Source of truth
- Edition
- As published in the Legislative Counsel's database, tables dated October 18, 2026 (pubinfo_2025.zip)
- Official file
- https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=CIV§ionNum=48.8.
- Text hash
- sha256 1824a08001a8843bce78dfe2c55109a4742f0340df9cfaeb175f1cd1d16e5c36
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- compose_ca.py 2026-10-22: the Legislative Counsel's CAML content files read by a tokenizer (caml_readers.reader_a); an independent xml.etree reading (caml_readers.reader_b) agrees on every section
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Civil Code
Procedural information only. Not legal advice and not a substitute for the advice of an attorney. Confirm the current text with the official publisher before relying on it.