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Bill
Increases Pesticide Use Notice At Schools
Gongwer News Service, October 21, 2003
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Parents would have at least two days' notice before pesticides
are applied on school or day care center grounds under a bill
under consideration by the House Agriculture and Resource
Management Committee.
HB 5414, up for a first hearing Tuesday, would require 48-hour
notification before pesticides are used by schools and day care
centers. That notice would have to be posted in a common area as
well as mailed and given to children to deliver to parents. Bill
sponsor Rep. Edward Gaffney (R-Grosse Pointe) said the
legislation would enable parents to make decisions regarding
their child's safety when pesticides will be used in an area.
Linda Kingston, chair of the State Public Affairs Committee of
the Michigan Junior League, said strengthening parent
notification prior to pesticide use near schools would limit
childhood exposure to various toxins, a goal of the
organization.
"An informal study shows not all schools are complying with the
current law of notification schools must give parents before
pesticide use," Ms. Kingston told the panel.
However, Brian Rowe, section manager of the Department of
Agriculture pesticide division, said state regulation 637, the
system of notification currently used by the department when
schools or daycare centers anticipate using pesticides, would
overlap with the bill.
Brad Deacon, legislative liaison for the department, admitted
that many schools do not comply with the current regulation, but
suggested parents and staff notify the department in those
circumstances as a solution to the issue.
The committee did not report the bill Tuesday.
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Testimony Taken On Suicide Prevention in Michigan
Legislature
MIRS, October 21, 2003
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Today the House Education Committee took testimony on HB 5059, a
bill that would require school districts to include
age-appropriate curriculum on the warning signs of childhood and
teen suicide.
As the testimony unfolded, there appeared to be universal
consensus, including the bill sponsor Rep. Chris WARD
(R-Brighton) that the bill is a work in progress that still
needs considerable work.
Testimony from parents of children who had committed suicide
repeatedly hit on the same theme -- that they'd learned the
warning signs of depression and potential suicidal tendencies
too late.
"We viewed what he was going through as normal," said Laura
EDWARDS, of Brighton, whose 12-year-old son Chase committed
suicide on Feb. 23 of this year. "It was only afterwards that we
found out he had the warning signs of youth depression and
suicide."
Cheryl KING, of the Child and Adolescent Suicide Prevention
program of the University of Michigan told the Committee that
suicide is now the third leading cause of death among certain
adolescent age groups.
King said that there are three "gaps" in the manner by which
schools address the potential for student suicides. They are:
- teachers say they are not adequately trained in this area;
- students often hear about potential suicides from peers but
don't know how to respond; and,
- teachers find it difficult to act, even when they suspect
something may be wrong.
Rep. Lauren HAGER (R-Port Huron) asked how such a curriculum
would be taught.
"It should not be a one-time lecture," King responded. "It
should be integrated, perhaps once a year in age-appropriate
ways. I think exactly how it's integrated may be less important
than making sure it is integrated."
King said that females attempt suicide more often than males do,
but males are from five to seven times more likely to be
successful in their attempts.
Jim TUMAN, a leading advocate on childhood suicide prevention
told the panel that childhood suicides are taking place at an
epidemic level.
"It will take more than teacher training and peer involvement,"
Tuman said. "This is a disease."
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ISD Panel Moves Toward Use Of Subpoenas
MIRS, October 21, 2003
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Today, the House Education Subcommittee on Intermediate School
District Review voted 3-2, along party lines, to authorize the
panel's chairman, Rep. Ruth JOHNSON (R-Holly) to sign subpoenas
for individuals to appear before the subcommittee.
The full House granted the subcommittee subpoena power in May.
Today's action is a step toward actual use of the power.
Another GOP motion passed, 3-2, that stated the subcommittee,
through its chairman, send formal notice to any Intermediate
School District (ISD) with Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
requests overdue or unfulfilled as of Oct. 25, requesting that
the FOIA request be fulfilled immediately, and in event the
information sought is not received by Oct. 30, the subcommittee
authorizes its chairman to issue a subpoena for the production
of the documents.
According to Johnson, at this juncture, the Oakland ISD is the
only ISD this measure might immediately affect. In addition, she
said she plans to move with deliberation and with advice of the
House legal experts.
"I want to make sure what we're doing is correct," Johnson said.
"This (wielding subpoena power) isn't something that I have any
previous experience doing."
The subcommittee was formed in the wake of alleged misuse of
funds by Oakland ISD officials. Johnson has been, perhaps, the
most active lawmaker in Lansing in terms of working on the
issue.
More than a year ago allegations of misappropriation of funds at
the ISD surfaced under former Oakland ISD Superintendent James
REDMOND. At the heart of those allegations was the use of funds
levied for special education that were used for a new $30
million administration building. Redmond was fired on Jan. 31,
and is suing the district over his dismissal.
This summer further allegations of possible wrongdoing at the
ISD surfaced through newspaper accounts. These allegations were
that some ISD employees traveled around the United States and to
India, France, Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia
with the expenses charged to the school district.
Republicans say today's authorization comes after the Oakland
ISD failed to turn over documents that Johnson requested under
the FOIA – some dating back several months.
There was considerable debate over the actions that were taken
by the panel today.
The two Democratic members of the panel, Reps. Virgil SMITH
(D-Detroit) and Andrew MEISNER (D-Ferndale) argued that they
would go along with the subpoena authorizations if the wording
of the motions were to authorize the overall subcommittee to
issue subpoenas rather than its chair, Rep. Ruth Johnson.
After the motions to give Johnson the subpoena power had passed
on 3-2 votes, Meisner offered a motion that all communications
(including FOIA requests) should be made by the subcommittee as
a whole, rather than by Johnson.
"The chairman of this subcommittee has been attempting to get
this information and has not been satisfied with what she has
received," Meisner said. "Why should we continue to do something
that has failed? Continuing to do this is just dragging this
out."
Rep. Ken BRADSTREET (R-Gaylord), who had made both of the
motions to authorize Johnson to use the subpoena power, argued
that changing the source of the FOIAs had nothing to do with
whether or not Oakland ISD was complying with Johnson's FOIA
requests.
"When someone is stone-walling there's only one logical step,"
Bradstreet said. "That's to turn to subpoenas. It's not a
question of not asking to ‘please' turn these over."
Meisner said that he had seen "mountains" of documents turned
over by the ISD and suggested that the legislative probe would
be viewed in a more favorable light if it was done on a more
bipartisan basis.
"If we, or the ISD, are to have any confidence in this process
this should be done by the whole subcommittee," Meisner said. "I
think what we're asking for here is completely reasonable.'
Again, Bradstreet responded that it isn't the Legislature's
responsibility to try to convince the ISD to respond to a FOIA
request.
"Responding to a FOIA is a matter of law," Bradstreet said.
"This is not something where the ISD can be selective about who
it responds to."
Once again, the rhetorical battle picked up and it appeared that
the Democrats were arguing that the overall subcommittee should
have the responsibility of determining what FOIA requests should
be made and whether the ISD has adequately replied.
"The fact is that this hasn't been done to-date using the
subcommittee as a vehicle," Meisner said. "So far, it has been
done by the chairman of this committee personally. I know that I
have seen a voluminous amount of documents sent in response to
the FOIA."
Bradstreet, however, argued that the Democrats were simply
attempting to find a way to slow down the panel's review of the
Oakland ISD.
"I am almost tempted to support your motion just so I can see
you vote ‘no' on every individual request in the future,"
Bradstreet said. "But, I think this is nothing more than a
delaying tactic."
The Meisner motion failed on a 2-3, straight party-line vote.
Johnson told MIRS that the Oakland ISD does not seem to have
adequately responded to her FOIA requests in regard to 52
contracts and two employee purchase cards.
"Some of these contracts were for very significant amounts of
money," Johnson said.
A spokesperson for the Oakland ISD told MIRS that the ISD has
recently hired a law firm (Thrun, Maatsch, Nordberg, Pollard &
Albertson, L.L.P.) to handle the FOIA issue, and that firm is
taking a "broader" view of which documents would possibly fall
under the FOIA requests.
Attorney Dennis POLLARD told MIRS today that his law firm has
only recently been employed by the Oakland ISD.
The (ISD) board asked us to dig deep and double check everything
that might be subject to FOIA," Pollard said. "We are going to
sin on the side of interpreting the FOIAs broadly."
In regard to the contracts Pollard said the district had
originally interpreted the FOIA to only cover the actual
contracts, but under the law firm's policy the interpretation
will be that the FOIAs cover virtually every document that could
be related. He also said that, based on this broader
interpretation, Oakland ISD has just recently sent Johnson more
documents.
"We've virtually cleaned out the purchasing department," Pollard
said. "I'd be surprised if what she's requested isn't already
there."
However, Johnson seemed less certain about the employee purchase
cards, and stressed that the ISD cannot respond to FOIA requests
if the documents being sought can't be found.
"Other than some limit documents that involve employee
information, Oakland ISD considers its records to be wide open
to the public," Pollard said. "But you can't produce an expense
account if no one ever made one out to begin with, and we can't
turn over documents that we don't have."
Pollard also complained that the ISD has primarily heard about
failing to comply with Johnson's FOIAs through press accounts,
rather than from the lawmaker herself.
Accusations of misuse of taxpayer money and/or other
questionable practices have been surfacing in regard to other
ISDs around the state, as well. The panel is also preparing to
look into those situations in addition to the Oakland ISD.
The panel also moved today toward making FOIA requests of other
ISDs across the state.
A Bradstreet motion passed, 3-2, stating that the subcommittee,
through its chairman, send FOIA requests to any Michigan-based
ISD where allegation of misapplication or misuse of funds,
including, but not limited to, allegations of excessive
remuneration and inappropriate travel, have been made, for the
purpose of determining whether the allegations have merit.
Meisner and Smith spoke out against this motion as well, on the
same basis as the others, that the subcommittee should be
sending the FOIA requests not Johnson.
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