By John Krull
TheStatehouseFile.com 

INDIANAPOLIS – The signs at the Statehouse told the story on Red for Ed Day.

Most were hand-made and handwritten on pieces of poster board. The white of the boards stood out against the red of t-shirts thousands of protestors wore.

They could be seen in the crowd sitting and standing at the rally held just outside Gov. Eric Holcomb’s office on the Statehouse’s second floor.

They could be seen ringing the rails on the third and fourth floors, where red-clad rally goers stood to listen to and cheer the speakers on the small stage below.

They could be seen in the hands of the protestors who came streaming in through every public entrance to the building.

One sign read: “You can’t put students first if you put teachers last.”

Another read: “We taught you better.”

Perhaps the funniest was the one held by Cheyanne Trawick of Hebron High School.

It read:

“IF U KEPE HURTIN EDUKASHUN MORE SINES WIL LOK LIK DIS.”

Trawick, a 17-year-old senior, said she traveled for more than two hours, each way, from her northern Indiana home and school because she doesn’t think Indiana teachers are being treated fairly.

“It’s the most important job there is,” she said as we talked at her spot on the third floor just above the stage one flight below.

Trawick told me that she hopes to own her own business someday. She’s already working hard at a part-time job. She puts in the hours around her schoolwork.

She said she thinks it’s a shame that there are people who work in her school make less money than she does.

“I don’t have a degree and I make $10 an hour,” she said, clutching her sign tightly as she spoke.

Trawick was one of more than 14,000 educators, parents, students and others who had signed up to attend Red for Ed Day.

The crowds came with a specific list of goals. They wanted more pay for teachers. They wanted schools to stop being punished if students’ standardized test scores weren’t deemed satisfactory. They wanted a repeal of the requirement that they work outside of school for 15 hours every five years.

But, really, their demands were more basic than that.

As I wandered through the crowd and talked with the red-clad protestors, certain phrases popped up again and again.

Parents wanted to know that their children’s education mattered as much to state officials as the educations of the students in charter or private schools.

Students want to know that their futures matter.

Teachers want to know that their work is valued.

Everyone used the same word. They used it again and again.

The word was “respect.”

They said they were tired of having public schools and public-school families slapped around and disparaged. They were sick of being told that the only people who shouldn’t have a voice in determining Indiana’s policies are teachers.

Most of all, they were fed up with hearing that what they want and what they care about just doesn’t matter.

As I buttonholed one protestor after another, the speeches continued from the stage. The speakers’ words bounced off the stone walls of the Statehouse and echoed through the vast open space of the old building, making them hard to hear.

It didn’t matter.

The crowd didn’t need speakers to fire them up. The people in the red shirts brought energy to them. As more and more of them gathered, that energy grew.

And still, the red shirts kept coming.

They continued to file into the building. They found perches on every floor of the Statehouse. And they filled the lawns, sidewalks, and streets around the state capitol.

Red for passion.

Red for anger.

Red.

Red.

Red everywhere.

FOOTNOTE: John Krull is the director of Franklin College’s Pulliam School of Journalism and publisher of TheSatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students.

By Brynna Sentel
TheStatehouseFile.com

INDIANAPOLIS—With 120 Americans dying every day from opioid overdoses, a national group of state court judges is recommending expanding treatment options and creating specialized courts to deal with the crisis.

The National Judicial Opioid Task Force, co-chaired by Indiana Supreme Court Chief Justice Loretta Rush, released a report  Wednesday with findings from a two-year study that included recommendations on how state courts should deal with the opioid addiction epidemic.

The study found that the daily death toll from opioids in 2018 was worse than the daily deaths from the Vietnam War. In Indiana in 2017, the last year for which data is available, there were more than 1,000 opioid deaths.

Rush chaired the task force with Deborah Taylor Tate, Tennessee’s director of courts, leading 34 state court leaders from 24 states on the National Judicial Opioid Task Force.

“The misuse of opioids such as heroin, morphine, and prescription pain medications is not only a devastating public health crisis, it is critically affecting the administration of justice in courthouses throughout the United States,” Rush said in a news release. “It’s crucial that judges are involved in reversing this epidemic.”

The task force was established in 2017 and over the past two years has developed practical information, educational resources, tools and best practice recommendations for state court judges, court administrators, and numerous partners and stakeholders.

Some of the key findings include that there is a lack of education about medication-based treatments; that the addiction crisis has a significant impact on children and families; state courts need to become partners in dealing with the crisis, and state courts need to design programs and resources that will respond to all addiction crises.

The report says that the epidemic is more than a criminal justice issue and notes that one of the most prevalent issues nationwide is the impact on child welfare. The report shows a spike in foster care rates in recent years as a result of parents losing their rights because of opioid abuse.

“For years, the justice system knew how to be ‘tough on drugs,’ now is the time for us to become ‘smart’ on drugs,” Tate said in the release.

The task force reported, “Courts should address the opioid epidemic from a “public health” model, recognizing that the problem and potential solutions cut across traditional lines of responsibility for government agencies and academic disciplines and require the direct engagement of the public for a successful response.”

Other recommendations note the need for judicial leadership in bringing together government and community stakeholders at the local, state and regional levels and in fostering collaboration among federal courts, child welfare agencies, and tribal courts.

It was also suggested that “Opioid Intervention Courts” be used nationwide as well as the use of parent partners who would help those involved with the child welfare system.

A national judicial training and model curriculum was proposed for judges in every state. The training would help judges continue their education specifically on the science of brain disorders, the impact of adverse childhood experiences, secondary trauma, identifying signs of Opioid Use Disorder, risks upon release of incarceration or from the ER, and risks of exposure to fentanyl, carfentanyl, and their analogs.

The need for funding was addressed in the report, including resources for high-speed wireless internet access in areas without it and money to facilitate data collection related to the opioid crisis.

Footnote: Brynna Sentel is a reporter for TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students.