News
Students
Scrap the MAP
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students who are homeless have equal
opportunity to the same educational oppor-
tunities as other students, providing trans-
portation if necessary to keep students at
their school of origin and offering them the
proper resources to actively stay in school.
Outside of the classroom, students who
are homeless face difficult lives.
“Some kids don’t know what they’re
going to eat, where they’re going to be,”
Ladd said. “They have a very uncertain
future even with this ability of trying to
keep them stable.”
According to a 2008 report from
the National Association for the
Education of Homeless Children
and Youth and First Focus, children
and youth who are homeless are
more likely to experience physical,
mental and developmental health
problems than other children. They
are more likely to perform poorly in
school, leading to reduced chances
of graduation.
While educational measures like McKin-
ney-Vento do help, Ladd said it’s not
enough to overcome the issue.
“We can do our piece in school with the
educational [part], but some of that support
needs to come from things that happen after
school,” Ladd said.
Namely, the lasting stigma against those
who are homeless inhibits improvement.
“One thing that I think keeps the situation
bad is that there’s a lot of discrimination
against homeless people,” said David Del-
gado, a case manager at Peace for the
Streets by Kids from the Streets in Seattle.
In King County, the Committee to End
Homelessness is one group working to end
such stigmatization and bring awareness to
the problem.
The committee maintains a “Youth and
Young Adult Plan to Prevent and End
Homelessness” as well as hosts advocacy
events and conversations about homeless-
ness.
“I think people are misguided,” Ladd said.
She cited a misconception that homeless
people have to look a certain way, be a cer-
tain way, be a certain color.
“They can be educated, they can be going
to school.”
patients under consideration for medical
retirement. During that investigation, two
doctors were temporarily barred from clini-
a 2008 change in law that mandated soldiers
unable to serve due to the disability be qual-
ified for medical retirement with pension
tion for such retirements and ferret out sol-
diers who might be malingering. The team
reversed more than 300 PTSD diagnoses.
But the forensic screening team was sus-
pended and then permanently curtailed last
year. Many patients underwent re-evalua-
tions that reinstated PTSD diagnoses.
Hicks is a retired Army colonel and a for-
mer psychiatry department chairman. He
headed up an intensive outpatient treatment
program for PTSD. The circumstances of
the program’s 2010 closure were part of last
year’s Army investigations.
Of the K-12 students
comprising the 2011-12
figures, middle- and high-
school students are hardest
hit
$950,000 annually to Washington state to
fund resources and programs serving stu-
dents who are homeless. Those funds are
distributed to the various local education
agencies through grants.
“We could use more,” Olson said, “but it
is something.”
Of the K-12 students comprising the
2011-12 figure, middle- and high-school
students are hardest hit, Ladd said.
“It’s becoming more common for families
to be homeless as opposed to what people
think of as homeless,” Ladd said. “It’s real-
ly families, people with children, [with a]
mom and dad, middle-class people slowly
finding themselves in that predicament.”
The McKinney-Vento Act mandates that
PHOTO BY SUSAN FRIED
lack of shelters are all contributing factors.
Substance abuse or mental-health factors
might play a role. Some are chronically
homeless, Ladd said, whereas others are
“just having a hard time.”
Some students “double up,” meaning they
share the housing of others due to econom-
ic reasons. Many are transient.
Limited funding and cuts to state pro-
grams exacerbate the issue, Ladd said.
According to the superintendent’s office,
the federal government allocates about
On Feb. 6, Chief Seattle teachers joined educators in Seattle and across
the nation to support a boycott of tests like the Measure of Academic
Progress. Teachers at Garfield, Orca, The Center School also held Scrap
the Map events. The Chicago Teachers Union passed a resolution pledging
support for the Seattle teachers’ boycott of the “high-stakes” standardized
test.
Sheridan Smalley is a student in the Uni-
versity of Washington Department of Com-
munication News Laboratory.
PTSD
continued from page 1
arise from an effort to protect patients.
``Madigan command has an obligation to
ensure patient safety and the delivery of the
highest quality care to all our beneficiaries.
Anytime a concern is raised about patient
safety or the quality of care, we have an
obligation to act,’’ said Col. Dallas Homas,
Madigan’s commander.
Hick’s suspension is the latest develop-
ment in a turbulent 12-month period for
Madigan behavioral-health staff members,
who treat soldiers who return from war with
PTSD and other mental-health problems.
Last year, the Army launched investigations
into how Madigan staff screen PTSD
Last year, the Army launched investigations into
how Madigan staff screen PTSD patients under
consideration for medical retirement
cal duties.
The diagnosis of PTSD has become a crit-
ical issue in the military in the aftermath of
and other benefits.
Madigan set up a team of forensic psychi-
atrists to screen patients under considera-
federally licensed dealer. Gun-show trans-
actions and private sales are exempt.
The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Jamie Pedersen,
D-Seattle, calls it the ``lowest-hanging
fruit’’ when it comes to gun control.
said, noting it’s controlled by a Republican-
led majority. Many of the members have
strong NRA ties.
NRA rankings, however, suggest the
House will be no pushover, either.
Rally
continued from page 1
majority of Washington state lawmakers get
high marks from the National Rifle Associ-
ation, the nation’s dominant pro-gun lobby,
according to Project Vote Smart, a nonprof-
it, nonpartisan research group.
Yet in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook
Elementary School shootings in Connecti-
cut in December, gun-rights advocates are
having to play defense.
Several bills have been introduced this
session to keep guns out of the hands of
criminals and the mentally ill. In addition,
Senate Democratic Leader Ed Murray
wants to ban assault weapons, and Gov. Jay
Inslee, also a Democrat, supports some gun-
control measures.
Gun-control proponents have hopes for
House Bill 1588, which would require uni-
versal background checks for all firearms
sales in the state. Currently, such checks are
required only when buying a gun from a
Several bills have been introduced this session
to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and
the mentally ill
Ralph Fascitelli, president of Washington
CeaseFire, thinks the measure has a good
chance of making it at least through the
House, which is controlled by Democrats.
``The problem is in the Senate now,’’ he
And there’s legislation coming from the
other side, as well, including the Washing-
ton state Firearms Freedom Act, introduced
by Taylor.
The bill says, in part, that any federal law,
rule or order that is passed after Jan. 1,
2013, related to banning, registering semi-
automatic firearms or magazines is unen-
forceable in Washington, he said.
Lawmakers have passed laws banning
guns at courthouses, schools and bars, but
they’ve never restricted the right to bear
arms in the state Capitol.
When gun-rights supporters rallied in
Olympia on Friday, a woman’s protest sign
was confiscated when she tried to enter the
statehouse, while a man carrying a rifle
walked in with no problem. State officials
said signs aren’t allowed because they take
up too much room.
At least one lawmaker in the past appar-
ently thought carrying a gun helped him get
a bill passed.
In 1982, then-Sen. Kent Pullen debated
See GUNS on page 6
February 13, 2013 The Seattle Skanner Page 3