Article 9. Prohibited Activities of California Education Code >> Division 1. >> Title 1. >> Part 19. >> Chapter 3. >> Article 9.

As used in this article:
  (a) "Person" means any individual, partnership, corporation, limited liability company, association, firm, or public board, agency, or entity.
  (b) "Prepare" means to put into condition for intended use.
  (c) "Degree" means any "academic degree" or "honorary degree" or title of any designation, mark, appellation, series of letters or words such as, but not limited to, associate, bachelor, master, doctor, or fellow which signifies, purports, or is generally taken to signify satisfactory completion of the requirements of an academic, educational, technological, or professional program of study or is an honorary title conferred for recognition of some meritorious achievement.
  (d) "Diploma" means any diploma, certificate, transcript, document, or other writing in any language other than a degree representing that an individual has completed any course of study.

Any person who prepares, manufactures, or prints, or who offers to prepare, manufacture, or print, for a fee or other compensation, any document purporting to be a degree or diploma without written authorization to do so from the school authority shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. As used in this section, "school authority" means any of the following:
  (a) A governing board of a school district that issued or reissued the degree or diploma, as the case may be.
  (b) A private school that issued or reissued the degree or diploma, as the case may be.
  (c) Any public or private college, university, or other institution of higher learning that issued or reissued the degree or diploma, as the case may be. Nothing in this section shall prohibit a person from reproducing, or having reproduced, for his personal use a degree or diploma issued to him by a school authority.

No person shall:
  (a) Sell, barter, offer to sell or barter, or conspire to sell or barter, any diploma or degree as defined in this article.
  (b) Buy, obtain by barter, attempt to buy or obtain by barter, or conspire to obtain by barter or buy, any diploma or degree.
  (c) Use in connection with any business, trade, profession, or occupation, or attempt to use in connection with any business, trade, profession or occupation, or conspire to use in connection with any business, trade, profession or occupation, any degree or diploma, which has been purchased, obtained by barter, fraudulently or illegally issued, illegally obtained, counterfeited, materially altered, or found.
  (d) Use in connection with a business, trade, profession, or occupation, or give or receive, any degree or diploma which has been purchased, obtained by barter, fraudulently or illegally issued, illegally obtained, counterfeited, materially altered, or found.
  (e) Attempt to use in connection with a business, trade, profession, or occupation, or attempt to give or receive, any degree or diploma, which has been purchased, obtained by barter, fraudulently or illegally issued, illegally obtained, counterfeited, materially altered, or found.
  (f) Conspire to use in connection with a business, trade, profession, or occupation, or conspire to give or receive, any diploma or degree evidencing the undertaking or completion of any course of study or scholastic achievement attained if, in fact, such course of study has not been undertaken nor completed or if such scholastic achievement has not been attained.

Any person willfully violating any provision of Section 32382 is guilty of a misdemeanor and is punishable by imprisonment in the county jail, or by a fine of not more than one thousand dollars ($1,000) or by both such fine and imprisonment.

Any court of competent jurisdiction is hereby authorized to grant such relief as is necessary to enforce the provisions of this article, including the issuance of an injunction.

Actions for injunction under the provisions of this article may be brought in the name of the people of the State of California upon their own complaint or upon the complaint of any person, or in the name of any authorized public or private school, college, university, or other authorized institution of learning, acting on its own behalf or the general public.