Roll Call Votes
on TeenScreen
Thursday, March 15th
In the
K-12 Finance Division hearing,
Rep. MIndy Greiling
(DFL-Roseville), Committee Chair and author of the TeenScreen
legislation, refused to allow amendments on her
TeenScreen legislation. Greiling packed numerous other bills into the
hearing, allowing little time, in spite of the uproar of opposition
TeenScreen has generated. One veteran lawmaker said he has never before
seen committees refuse to take amendments. EdWatch testified against
TeenScreen.
Monday, March 26th
In a transparently coordinated effort, the
Star Tribune
editorialized in support of TeenScreen.
Tuesday, March 27th
1.) The omnibus Mental Health bill (HF 169) was heard in the
Health Care and Human Services Finance Division.
Rep. Laura Brod (R-New
Prague) offered an amendment to delete TeenScreen from the bill. The Brod
amendments was defeated, 5 - 12.
Ayes: Brod,
Bunn,
Dean,
Erickson,
Gottwalt
Nays: Abeler,
Fritz,
Hosch,
Huntley,
Liebling,
Loeffler,
Erin Murphy,
Ruud,
Slawik,
Thao,
Thissen,
Walker
Absent:
Anderson,
Otremba,
Peppin,
Peterson
2.) The omnibus K-12 Education bill (HF 6) was heard in the
K-12 Education Finance Division. All specific references to
TeenScreen had been removed, but language was added in another section
called "Safe Schools Levy" (charged to every property owner in
each school district) one small phrase saying, "including suicide
prevention tools." This is disguised TeenScreen
authorization.
Rep. Mark
Olson (R-Big Lake)
offered an amendment to add: "...which shall not include psychiatric
screening tools." The Olson amendment also stated that students
could not be labeled as potentially violent based solely on attitudes,
values or beliefs.
The second
part of the Olson amendment relates to the "Early Warning, Timely
Response" federal program which uses "intolerance for
differences and prejudicial attitudes" as a "warning sign"
for violence and mental illness. "Intolerance" labels would be
based on "racial, ethnic, religious, language, gender, sexual
orientation, ability, or physical appearance" criteria. The
amendment was fiercely debated. It failed, 6 to 15, with every DFL member
opposing and every Republican supporting. While TeenScreen is not
specifically named, but it remains in the House omnibus education
spending bill. This
YouTube
link shows some
of the live debate or listen to
the
streaming audio here. The Olson amendment was defeated, 5 -
16
Ayes: Those supporting the motion, to prohibit universal
mental screening were: Bud
Heidgerken, Randy
Demmer,
Bob Dettmer,
Sondra Erickson, and
Mark Olson.
Nays: Those opposing the amendment, to keep mental
screening in the K-12 omnibus spending bill, were:
Mindy Greiling,
Tom Anzelc,
John Benson,
Robin Brown,
Jim Davnie,
Denise Dittrich,
Augustine
"Willie" Dominguez,
Tim Faust,
Pat Garofalo,
Debra Hilstrom,
Carlos Mariani,
Paul Marquart,
Carol McFarlane,
Will Morgan,
Terry Morrow, and
Marsha
Swails.
Rep
. Pat Garofalo
(R-Farmington) then offered an amendment removing the Safe School
Levy entirely, which also failed.
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