Letters to the editor for April 11
Strengthen state laws on policing
The trial of Derek Chauvin is riveting. Watching the torturous death of George Floyd and hearing the painful testimony of witnesses is devastating and infuriating.
At this historic moment, a package of powerful police accountability bills is moving through our state legislature. These bills would fundamentally change policing in our state.
The heart of this package is House Bill 1310. It would require a statewide standard of care and require officers to use de-escalation as their first response. A second part of this package, HB 1054, would ban neck restraints and no-knock warrants and restrict hot pursuits, shooting at moving vehicles, and use of tear gas and military equipment. HB 1267 would create a statewide office of independent criminal investigations for police use of force. Police cannot investigate themselves.
Finally, Senate Bill 5051 addresses licensing and misconduct of officers. Too often officers with serious misconduct allegations leave one department to be employed in a different location. We saw this in Olympia recently when a finalist for the job of Olympia Police Chief withdrew on the discovery of a misconduct case against him in Michigan.
Tune in, do your research and support this legislation. Reach out to your legislators, write letters, make phone calls. We have the opportunity to influence meaningful change. Speak out now.
Kathy Strauss, Olympia
Charter schools deserve scrutiny
Dr. Thelma Jackson’s April 4 op-ed was well written and informative. Her commitment to quality education is unquestionable and I salute her exemplary service to our community. She makes the case that Washington’s public schools do not meet all children’s needs and better options are needed. I agree. However, she oversells the benefits of independent charter schools, which operate outside the rules applied to traditional public schools.
Innovation in educational systems is valuable, but the State Board of Education shows limited benefits from Washington’s charter schools. Charter school outcomes are mixed, and overall, they perform about as well as traditional public schools, even when local demographics are considered.
Charter schools serve a higher percentage of students of color and students from limited-income households, but the performance of these learners is generally not much different from their peers in traditional settings. The research does show a dramatic range of outcomes between different charter schools. Some charter schools are performing well above traditional schools, while others are well below.
Charter schools receive the same per-pupil state funding as traditional public schools, but they do not have equal access to local levy funds. After years of wrangling about equitable school funding, local levy funds are still determined district by district.
Dr. Jackson and I agree that more can be done to meet the needs of under-performing students, including those children who are facing historically unfair systems. However, let’s be sure that we are learning the right lessons from Washington’s experiment with charter schools.
Nathaniel Jones, Olympia
Support the fight against Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy
My son was recently diagnosed with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD). Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy is currently asking for support from Congress. I wrote a letter to our legislators and would like to spread awareness of DMD so that others understand the importance of scientific research needed to eradicate it.
My letter:
On April 1, my 6-year-old son was diagnosed with DMD. This diagnosis has been absolutely terrifying, devastating, and shocking to our family. The dreams we had for our son and our family have been ripped out from under us. An initial search on the internet left us in tears, with search results such as “in a wheel chair by 10-12” and “death by age 26.”
I sincerely believe that one day soon, those won’t be the statistics that parents see. I thought my son would surely die. I didn’t know much about muscular dystrophy, but after researching treatments and clinical trials, I realized that there was hope. There are so many treatments on their final clinical trial and many other treatments awaiting approval. Among current research is gene therapy, which could be the answer to slowing down and possibly “curing” DMD and other genetic diseases. It could have a profound effect everywhere!
Please help us stop this terrible disease.
Heather Hay, Olympia