An Idaho lawmaker has proposed inserting a mental health exception in a 2014 felony battery law that protects health care workers.
The Idaho Statesman reports Republican State Rep. Christy Perry last week introduced a bill that would amend the law so that it cannot be used to charge people who were in treatment or in the process of seeking treatment for mental illness with battery of health care workers.
The 2014 law made battery of health care workers a felony.
Perry says, "We don't want to go too far and take people who are having a mental health crisis and make them felons."
Committee members agreed Monday to print the bill. They referred it to the Judiciary, Rules and Administration Committee, where its next step will be a public hearing.
