Local News
Pill
Marathon
Lawyer Kristen Waggoner said during
closing arguments Wednesday that the state
was trying to suppress religious objection to
Plan B - an idea she called “repugnant to the
Constitution.”
The pharmacists “can violate their core
religious beliefs and participate in the tak-
ing of a human life, or they can lose their
license,” she told U.S. District Judge
Ronald Leighton.
Waggoner noted numerous business
Plan B was at the
center of the state’s
decision to adopt the
dispensary rule in 2007
exemptions under which it’s OK for phar-
macies not to stock a drug, including low
demand, high cost, insurance concerns, and
security reasons in cases where stocking a
drug such as the addictive painkiller oxy-
codone could increase risk of theft.
If the state allows pharmacies not to stock
a drug for non-religious reasons, it should
also allow them not to stock a drug for reli-
gious ones, she argued.
She also said the state showed no interest
in rigidly enforcing the rule until Planned
Parenthood and related groups began filing
complaints and sending test-shoppers and
picketers to Ralph’s and other pharmacies to
see if they would dispense Plan B. She
called that an indication that the state’s true
objective was to stamp out religious objec-
tion to the drug.
Plan B was at the center of the state’s
decision to adopt the dispensary rule in
2007. Following Planned Parenthood’s con-
cerns, the state’s Democratic governor,
Chris Gregoire, warned that she would
replace Pharmacy Board members who did-
n’t follow her wishes on the issue. Gregoire
later rejected a compromise the board
reached that would have allowed druggists
to refer patients to other pharmacies for rea-
sons of conscience.
Lawyers for the state insist that the 9th
U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in an earlier
ruling in the case, has already determined
that the rules are neutral and do not directly
target religious views.
The only question left for the judge to
determine, they said, was whether the state
has any rationale that supports the rules.
They said the state has a clear interest in
promoting the timely access to drugs, espe-
cially those like Plan B, which become less
effective with delay.
Exemptions to the rule allowing pharma-
PHOTO BY SUSAN FRIED
continued from page 1
Washington Middle School students participated in a citywide reading
marathon at the Douglass-Truth Branch of the Seattle Public Library. Ten
middle schools including Blaine, Denny, Eckstein, Hamilton,
Madison,Mercer, Orca, St. George, Whitman and Washington competed
to win a dance party with a KUBE 93 DJ by accumulating the most reading
time. Five other Seattle Public Library branches participated.
cies not to stock a drug for financial or busi-
ness reasons actually increase the general
accessibility of drugs because it helps phar-
macies stay in business, the state’s lawyers
said. Allowing pharmacies not to stock Plan
B for religious reasons, however, would in
no way promote public access to medicine.
The judge made several comments sym-
pathetic to the plaintiffs during Waggoner’s
closing argument.
does not meet the state’s annual benchmarks
for proficiency in reading and math, the
school is labeled as ``failing.’’
In a letter sent Jan. 17, Sen. Tom Harkin,
D-Iowa, and Rep. George Miller, D-Calif.,
urged Education Secretary Arne Duncan to
require strong accountability measures and
ensure civil rights and educational equity
gains under No Child Left Behind are not
lost.
``We fear that putting students with dis-
abilities, English language learners and
the Obama administration’s education poli-
cy. The panel’s concerns varied, but meet-
ing the needs of all groups of students was
one consistent theme.
In New Mexico, for example, the U.S.
Education Department expressed concern
about a lack of incentives to close achieve-
ment gaps and hold schools accountable for
the performance of all students. In a follow-
up letter sent late in January, subgroup
accountability was still an area of concern.
Hanna Skandera, secretary designate for
the New Mexico Public Educa-
tion Department, said the state’s
original plan did include breaking
down data on student perform-
ance by subgroup on each
school’s report card. But after
conversations with the U.S. Edu-
cation Department, schools will
be adding information on
whether they are on track for
progress and growth in meeting
annual targets. If a group falls
behind, schools will be subject to interven-
tion measures.
``We had high level reporting,’’ Skandera
said. ``Now we’re going to provide another
layer so everything is crystal clear to par-
ents across the state.’’
NCLB
continued from page 1
provide them until an announcement is
made on whether a waiver is granted. The
Education Department has previously said
it expected to notify states by mid-January.
``Our priority is protecting children and
maintaining a high bar even as we give
states more flexibility to get more resources
to the children most in need, even if that
means the process takes a little longer than
we anticipated,’’ said Daren Briscoe, a
department spokesman.
Jack Jennings, president of the Center on
Education Policy, said federal officials are
in a challenging spot.
``The current law means that each group
of kids, whether they are children with a
disability, or African-American, or poor
kids, have attention paid to them, because
the schools are accountable for each and
every group,’’ said Jennings. ``But what the
states are asking is that they all be lumped
together.’’
The Bush-era law is aimed at making sure
100 percent of students reach proficiency in
math and reading by 2014, a goal states are
far from achieving. As that year draws clos-
er, more and more schools are expected to
fall out of compliance, subjecting them to
penalties that range from after-school tutor-
ing to closure.
While there is bipartisan agreement the
2002 law needs to be fixed, Congress has
not passed a comprehensive reform. Presi-
dent Barack Obama announced in Septem-
ber that states could apply for waivers and
scrap the proficiency requirement if they
met conditions designed to better prepare
and test students.
The 11 states that applied for the first
round of waivers were Colorado, Florida,
Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Oklahoma,
Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey,
New Mexico and Tennessee. Many more
states are expected to request waivers in the
second round — meaning all eyes will be on
the first approvals.
The Center on Education Policy
analyzed all the waiver requests
and found that in nine of the 11
states, almost all decisions on
penalties and interventions would
be based on the performance of
two groups: all students and a
``disadvantaged’’ group that
would replace the current system
of separate categories of students
according to race, ethnicity,
income, disability and English language
proficiency.
Those separate categories are at the heart
of what No Child Left Behind aimed to cor-
rect — vast achievement gaps between
white, black and Hispanic students,
between the affluent and low-income —
and what most agree is the problem with the
law: If any one of these groups of students
The Bush-era law is aimed at
making sure 100 percent of
students reach proficiency in math
and reading by 2014, a goal
states are far from achieving
minority students into one `super subgroup’
will mask the individual needs of these dis-
tinct student subgroups,’’ they said.
In the feedback provided to states by a
panel of peer reviewers in December, many
states were praised for plans to institute col-
lege and career-ready standards and develop
teacher evaluation systems that take into
account student growth — two hallmarks of
Marriage
continued from page 1
full chamber with Lt. Gov. Brad
Owen, president of the Senate, say-
ing that he has emphasized tolerance
and diversity at state schools for
decades, which would make it “hyp-
ocritical for me to not support this
bill.”
“For me, this is not a religious
question,” said Owen, a Democrat.
“It’s a legal question.”
The committee advanced the bill on a 14-
7 vote, with seven of the eight Republicans
Opponents of same-sex marriage
have already promised a referendum
battle at the ballot if the measure
becomes law.
Same-sex marriage is legal in New
York, Connecticut, Iowa, Massachu-
setts, New Hampshire, Vermont and
the District of Columbia.
Lawmakers in New Jersey and
Maryland are expected to debate gay mar-
riage this year, and Maine is likely to see a
gay marriage proposal on the November
Opponents of same-sex
marriage have promised a
referendum battle at the ballot
if the measure becomes law
on the committee in opposition. Sen. Cheryl
Pflug, R-Maple Valley, voted to advance it.
She is one of two Republican senators who
have said they will support the measure.
ballot.
A referendum can’t be filed until after the
bill is passed by the Legislature and signed
into law by Gregoire. Opponents then must
turn in 120,577 signatures by June 6.
Washington state has had a domestic part-
nership law since 2007 and an “everything
but marriage” expansion of the domestic
partnership law since 2009. Gay marriage
bills were introduced in both the House and
the Senate this year, and received their first
public hearings this month.
February 1, 2012 The Seattle Skanner Page 3