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HometownSource.com - Sen. Olseen sponsors bill designed to help deaf
Deaf students and teachers of the deaf urged the Senate Transportation Committee today (Tuesday, Jan. 13) to pass a bill sponsored by Sen. Rick Olseen, DFL-Harris.
The bill modifies previous legislation by Olseen dealing with student transportation safety — a bill with unintended consequences, Olseen explained.
“The school for the deaf — that thing just blind sided everyone,” he said.
Under the previous law, state officials were requiring drivers of Type III vehicles, such as vans or suburbans, to undergo physicals which many coaches or teachers of deaf, themselves deaf, could not pass.
“When we put the requirement in about the physical, they couldn’t pass the physical,” said Olseen.
Sen. Rick Olseen, DFL-Harris, watches Minnesota Northstar Academy student Allison Porter, a deaf student, speak to the Senate Transportation Committee today (Jan. 13) in sign language about changing existing state law pertaining to student transportation safety. An unintended consequence of a bill Olseen previously passed was that deaf school staff — themselves deaf — could no longer drive students to events because they could not pass the physicals the law required. Olseen said he never intended that coaches or teachers who sometimes drive students to events be prohibited from doing so.
Superintendent Linda Mitchell of Minnesota State Academies in Faribault said they knew the law wasn’t intended to be discriminatory.
“But I must say for our deaf staff that is how it feels,” she said.
Students feel safer
Allison Porter, a deaf student at Minnesota Northstar Academy, in sign language explained to the committee that rather than feeling unsafe with deaf drivers, deaf students feel safer.
That’s because in an accident the driver, knowing sign language, can communicate with them.
Speaking after the hearing, Olseen said it was never the intention to prevent coaches or teachers who occasionally drive students from doing so.
He ascribed the troubles with the bill to the Minnesota Department of Public Safety interpretation of its wording
Olseen’s new bill addresses a series of concerns and he believes it corrects the unintended consequences.
Asked whether he thought carrying the bill would be so involved, Olseen smiled said “No.”
Olseen became involved in student transportation safety after the death of 14-year-old Amanda Berglund of Scandia in 2007.
Berglund was being driven home from the school when the vehicle she and her driver were in crashed into the back of a Forest Lake School District bus.
Both Berglund and the driver were killed.
It was later determined the driver had marijuana in his system and in the van at the time of the crash.
Deaf students and teachers of the deaf urged the Senate Transportation Committee today (Tuesday, Jan. 13) to pass a bill sponsored by Sen. Rick Olseen, DFL-Harris.
The bill modifies previous legislation by Olseen dealing with student transportation safety — a bill with unintended consequences, Olseen explained.
“The school for the deaf — that thing just blind sided everyone,” he said.
Under the previous law, state officials were requiring drivers of Type III vehicles, such as vans or suburbans, to undergo physicals which many coaches or teachers of deaf, themselves deaf, could not pass.
“When we put the requirement in about the physical, they couldn’t pass the physical,” said Olseen.
Sen. Rick Olseen, DFL-Harris, watches Minnesota Northstar Academy student Allison Porter, a deaf student, speak to the Senate Transportation Committee today (Jan. 13) in sign language about changing existing state law pertaining to student transportation safety. An unintended consequence of a bill Olseen previously passed was that deaf school staff — themselves deaf — could no longer drive students to events because they could not pass the physicals the law required. Olseen said he never intended that coaches or teachers who sometimes drive students to events be prohibited from doing so.
Superintendent Linda Mitchell of Minnesota State Academies in Faribault said they knew the law wasn’t intended to be discriminatory.
“But I must say for our deaf staff that is how it feels,” she said.
Students feel safer
Allison Porter, a deaf student at Minnesota Northstar Academy, in sign language explained to the committee that rather than feeling unsafe with deaf drivers, deaf students feel safer.
That’s because in an accident the driver, knowing sign language, can communicate with them.
Speaking after the hearing, Olseen said it was never the intention to prevent coaches or teachers who occasionally drive students from doing so.
He ascribed the troubles with the bill to the Minnesota Department of Public Safety interpretation of its wording
Olseen’s new bill addresses a series of concerns and he believes it corrects the unintended consequences.
Asked whether he thought carrying the bill would be so involved, Olseen smiled said “No.”
Olseen became involved in student transportation safety after the death of 14-year-old Amanda Berglund of Scandia in 2007.
Berglund was being driven home from the school when the vehicle she and her driver were in crashed into the back of a Forest Lake School District bus.
Both Berglund and the driver were killed.
It was later determined the driver had marijuana in his system and in the van at the time of the crash.