SPIRO T. AGNEW, Governor                        959

Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That this Act shall take effect
July 1, 1968.

Approved May 7, 1968.

CHAPTER 517
(Senate Bill 181)

AN ACT to add a new Section 98B to Article 77 of the Annotated
Code of Maryland (1965 Replacement Volume), title "Public Edu-
cation," subtitle "Chapter 7. Schools," to follow immediately after
Section 98A thereof, providing that principals and teachers in
every public elementary and secondary school may intervene in
a fight or physical struggle which takes place in their presence
in school buildings or on school grounds between or among stu-
dents or any other persons and relating generally to such
intervention and its results.

Section 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Maryland,
That a new Section 98B be and it is hereby added to Article 77 of
the Annotated Code of Maryland (1965 Replacement Volume), title
"Public Education," subtitle "Chapter 7. Schools," to follow imme-
diately after Section 98A thereof, and to read as follows:

98B.

(a)   Principals and teachers in every public elementary and
secondary school in this State may intervene in any fight or physical
struggle which takes place in their presence in school buildings or
on school grounds, between or among students or any other persons.
The degree and force of the intervention may be as reasonably
necessary to restore order and to protect the safety of the com-
batants and surrounding persons.

(b)   A principal or teacher who incurs injury while thus inter-
vening shall be compensated by the county board of education or
Baltimore City Board of School Commissioners, as the case may be,
for necessary medical expenses resulting directly from the inter-
vention, and he shall not suffer any loss of compensation for time
lost from his school duties resulting directly from the intervention.
, BUT SUCH COMPENSATION SHALL BE REDUCED BY ANY
PAYMENTS MADE PURSUANT TO THE WORKMEN'S COM-
PENSATION LAW.

(c)   In any suit or claim brought against the principal or teacher
because of the intervention, by a parent or other claimant of one
of the combatants, the county board of education or Baltimore City
Board of School Commissioners, as the case may be, shall provide
legal counsel for the principal or teacher and shall save him harm-
less from any award or decree against him, compensating him fully
for the amount of the award or decree...; PROVIDED, HOWEVER,
THAT THE AFORESAID OBLIGATION TO HOLD HARMLESS
SHALL NOT APPLY IN THOSE CASES IN WHICH THE IN-
TERVENTION OR FORCE EMPLOYED BY THE PRINCIPAL
OR TEACHER WAS NOT REASONABLY NECESSARY TO RE-