•Kula Elementary looks ahead •Say no to assisted suicide •Support Solis as labor secretary Kula Elementary looks ahead We are saddened to hear that Kula High and Intermediate will close its doors at the end of the school year. Kula
•Kula Elementary looks ahead
•Say no to assisted suicide
•Support Solis as labor secretary
Kula Elementary looks ahead
We are saddened to hear that Kula High and Intermediate will close its doors at the end of the school year. Kula Elementary at Na Kamalei in Kilauea has been and continues to be a separate nonprofit corporation operating a premier K-6 elementary school on a separate campus and under separate governance and administration from Kula High and Intermediate.
The closing of Kula High and Intermediate in no way affects the operations of Kula Elementary at Na Kamalei.
Kula Elementary will continue to offer a challenging curriculum and small class sizes. Our core program emphasizes critical thinking, collaborative problem solving and exploration of deep essential questions.
Alongside our core program, students are exposed weekly, all year long to local experts who teach them art, music, Hawaiian Studies, creative dance/storytelling, physical education and marine science. Our students also have the chance to take robotics, digital media, yoga, pottery, drama, hip hop, organic gardening and Japanese watercolor as part of our elective program. Kula Elementary offers a laptop program for grades 3-6, a one-of-a-kind marine education program and an overall focus on sustainability.
At this important time in the growth of Kula Elementary, we are very excited to be designing and executing our first strategic plan. Our goal is to further develop a world class 21st century eco-friendly school that works in sync with the larger Kaua’i community.
We look forward to unveiling our new plan — including new core values, a refined mission and a new name — to the greater Kaua’i community before the end of this school year.
If you are interested in becoming part of this exciting process, please contact principal Lisa Mireles at 828-1144.
• Scott Nemeroff, Lyle Robinson, Chris Jaeb, David Bissell, Doran Smith, Benjy Garfinkle, Lisa Mireles,
Kula Elementary Board of Trustees
Say no to assisted suicide
I am an internal medicine doctor, practicing in Oregon where assisted suicide is legal. I would like to share a story about one of my patients.
I was caring for a 76 year-old man who came in with a sore on his arm. The sore was ultimately diagnosed as a malignant melanoma, and I referred him to two cancer specialists for evaluation and therapy. I had known this patient and his wife for over a decade. He was an avid hiker, a popular hobby here in Oregon. As he went through his therapy, he became less able to do this activity, becoming depressed, which was documented in his chart.
During this time, my patient expressed a wish for doctor-assisted suicide to one of the cancer specialists. Rather than taking the time and effort to address the question of depression, or ask me to talk with him as his primary care physician and as someone who knew him, the specialist called me and asked me to be the “second opinion” for his suicide. She told me that barbiturate overdoses “work very well” for patients like this, and that she had done this many times before.
I told her that assisted-suicide was not appropriate for this patient and that I did not concur. I was very concerned about my patient’s mental state, and I told her that addressing his underlying issues would be better than simply giving him a lethal prescription. Unfortunately, my concerns were ignored, and approximately two weeks later my patient was dead from an overdose prescribed by this doctor. His death certificate, filled out by this doctor, listed the cause of death as melanoma.
The public record is not accurate. My patient did not die from his cancer, but at the hands of a once-trusted colleague. This experience has affected me, my practice, and my understanding of what it means to be a physician. What happened to this patient, who was weak and vulnerable, raises several important questions that I have had to answer, and that Hawaiian citizens should also consider:
• If assisted suicide is made legal in Hawai‘i, will you be able to trust your doctors, insurers and HMOs to give you and your family members the best care? I referred my patient to specialty care, to a doctor I trusted, and the outcome turned out to be fatal.
• How will financial issues affect your choices? In Oregon, patients under the Oregon Health Plan have been denied coverage for treatment and offered coverage for suicide instead, which says the plan money. See e.g. KATU TV story and video at http://www.katu.com/home/video/26119539.html (about Barbara Wagner). Do you want this to be your choice?
• If your doctor and/or HMO favors assisted suicide, will they let you know about all possible options or will they simply encourage you to kill yourself?
In most states, suicidal ideation is interpreted as a cry for help. In Oregon, the only help my patient received was a lethal prescription, intended to kill him.
To the citizens of Hawai‘i, is this where you want to go? Please learn the real lesson from Oregon. Despite all of the so-called safeguards in our assisted suicide law, numerous instances of coercion, inappropriate selection, botched attempts and active euthanasia have been documented in the public record.
Protect your health care. Don’t let legalized assisted suicide come to Hawai‘i.
• Charles J. Bentz, MD, Portland, Ore.
Support Solis as labor secretary
Right now, there is some hope that the Employee Free Choice Act could become law in the United States, removing a major hurdle to workers who want to form unions in their workplaces.
Republicans don’t want the Employee Free Choice Act to pass. And they really don’t want Hilda Solis, President Obama’s pick for labor secretary, to be confirmed.
The Employee Free Choice Act, which Hilda Solis supports, would streamline the process for workers to form unions in their work places, and seriously curtail employers’ ability to run campaigns of intimidation and disinformation during organizing campaigns.
I used to be a union organizer (H.E.R.E.) and a union member (Teamsters). My husband is a member of the Carpenters Union. While conservatives make the false claim that union organizers intimidate workers into signing union cards, we know that it is employers who use strong-arm tactics when they routinely force their workers to attend mandatory anti-union meetings in which they are threatened with firings and plant closures.
During union organizing campaigns employers hold the purse strings of the workers’ futures. The Employee Free Choice Act would balance out the power in the workplace and allow workers make conscious choices about their working conditions free of fear and intimidation.
Consider contacting your representatives in Congress to tell them to fight for Solis’s confirmation. Solis represents one of Obama’s most progressive picks for his cabinet. Let’s ensure that positive change really does happen this time!
• Katy Rose, Hanalei
