H-2495.1  _______________________________________________

                    SUBSTITUTE HOUSE BILL 1598

          _______________________________________________

State of Washington      55th Legislature     1997 Regular Session

By House Committee on Education (originally sponsored by Representatives Sterk, Johnson, Talcott and Mulliken)

Read first time 03/05/97.

Prohibiting educational methods that involve dissociative mental states.

    AN ACT Relating to prohibiting the use of certain psychological techniques in the classroom; adding new sections to chapter 28A.150 RCW; prescribing penalties; and declaring an emergency.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1.  The legislature recognizes the responsibility of educational practitioners to fulfill the obligations of the Washington state Constitution and to protect the health, safety, and general welfare of students.  The legislature further recognizes that techniques used in school programs must ensure that educational practitioners, including teachers, administrators, counselors, and other staff, are practicing within the scope of their professional duties.  Therefore, educational practitioners are prohibited from using hypnosis or dissociative mental states, including any techniques, curricula, or methods that produce or advocate a dissociative mental state or hypnotic state in which there is a separation or isolation of mental processes in such a way that they become split off from the main personality or lose their normal thought‑affect relationship.  "Hypnosis" means a dissociative or altered state of consciousness, usually artificially induced, characterized by a heightened responsiveness to suggestions and commands, suspension of disbelief with a lowering of critical judgment, and the potential of altered perceptions.  Hypnosis is also defined as a deliberately induced condition of suggestibility or trance.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 2.  Educational practitioners who use methods or curricula producing dissociative states are in violation of professional practices.  Violators of section 1 of this act shall be subject to reprimand, suspension, and revocation actions respecting certification of educational practitioners in the state of Washington for acts of unprofessional conduct as specified in RCW 28A.410.010.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 3.  Sections 1 and 2 of this act are each added to chapter 28A.150 RCW.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 4.  This act is necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety, or support of the state government and its existing public institutions, and takes effect immediately.

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