SACRAMENTO – A bill by Assemblymember Bill Dodd (D-Napa) which aims to protect students and teachers during earthquakes took an important step forward this week, passing the state Assembly with unanimous bipartisan support.

Dodd’s bill would require school districts in seismically active zones in California to ensure that the contents of their classroom, like heavy bookshelves or filing cabinets, comply with state earthquake safety guidelines.

"Earthquakes are a part of life in California. We can’t count on earthquakes to strike outside of school hours, and we can’t afford to wait for tragedy before we take common sense steps to protect our children and teachers,” said Assemblymember Bill Dodd. “I’m thankful my fellow Assemblymembers rallied together to advance classroom safety.”

In August of 2014, Assemblymember Dodd’s district and hometown of Napa was rocked by a massive 6.0 earthquake.

Inspections of Napa schools following the South Napa Earthquake revealed significant damage inside classrooms, totaling millions of dollars.

The shifting contents and blocked exists could have been life-threatening had the earthquake occurred during school hours. These findings are not specific to Napa. Similar results have been identified following numerous earthquakes throughout the state.

The notion of securing classroom contents is not new to California. The state of California has already invested time and resources into creating guidelines for securing the contents of classrooms in the event of an earthquake.

However, there is currently nothing in state law that requires school districts to adhere to the established guidelines produced by the Division of the State Architects.

Dodd’s legislation, AB 1783 would require that all seismically active school districts in California proactively inspect school contents and equipment to ensure they are within state guidelines.

“What we found after the Napa Earthquake was alarming … we found classrooms that we couldn’t even get inside because things had fallen in the doorway,” said Don Evans, member of the Napa Valley Unified School District, who testified in support of Dodd’s bill earlier this year. “We believe the preventative approach is the way to go and we believe future damage is controllable.”

Following the South Napa Earthquake, the Napa Valley Unified School District completed an inspection of its facilities and addressed the issues that were identified. While some other school districts have taken these steps, many have not.

Dodd’s bill now advances to the state Senate along with his measures to promote gender pay equity and increase water storage and reliability. Both of which also passed the Assembly this week with bipartisan support.

Assemblymember Bill Dodd represents the 4th Assembly District, which includes all or portions of Napa, Yolo, Sonoma, Lake, Solano and Colusa counties. You can learn more about Assemblymember Dodd and the district at www.asm.ca.gov/dodd .