10 A XITe Pallas #iornirtg rins Friday, March 13, 1981 _ -Nr• -up- Senate passes bill to limit probation use AUSTIN (UPI) — The senate passed by a voice vote and sent to the house Thursday a bill intended to prevent abuses of shock pro- bation, which permits some offenders to be released from prison after serving only a fraction of their sentences. The bill was inspired by the release from prison last year of State Dist. Judge Garth Bates of Houston, who had been sentenced to eight years for bribery. He served less than 120 days. Release of judges convicted of bribery "certainly was never intended by the legisla- ture," said Sen. Chet Brooks, D-Pasadena, sponsor of the proposal. Under the bill, persons convicted of violent crimes, organized criminal activity, felony official misconduct or tampering with a witness would not be eligible for shock pro- bation. The senate also passed and sent to the house a bill that would permit school dis- tricts to force suspended students to repeat an entire semester's classwork, even if the suspension comes within the last two or three days of the year. "It is rather harsh," the sponsor, Sen. Carl Parker, D-Port Arthur, said. "I'm certain it would only be used in extreme cases. There are lots of incidents of kids that are mean enough for something like this." For example, he said, a student at Thomas Edison Junior High School in Port Arthur broke a teacher's jaw near the end of the last school year. "When a student commits an act of violence against one of the teachers the last day or two of the year, the only thing they can do is suspend him for the remainder of the school year," Parker said. "It means he can't go to summer school. Big deal." 4