Rep. Schriver: 2023 Review & 2024 Preview
Official Newsletter: State Representative Josh Schriver
“I will honor my Sacred Oath to the best of my ability, so help me God.” -Josh Schrive
Dear Neighbor,
A year ago, I swore my sacred oath to uphold the Constitution to the best of my ability, so help me God. I promised you I would report every vote/reason and work hard to stop bad legislation, regardless of personal expense. This is a promise I take very seriously and will continue to keep.
Today, I would like to highlight legislative initiatives my office is working on, go over what I have done for you in 2023, and what my plans are heading into 2024.
2024 Legislative Initiatives (Part 1)
School Safety Training
Currently, I am working on a bill to develop resources for school administrators to understand the kinds of school security policies that should be put in place to help save lives.
The sad part is Guidepost Solutions, a New York Security firm, said this tragedy could have been prevented if proper assessments and suicide prevention protocols had been followed with Ethan early on.[1]
Although the past 2 years have not been easy for residents of Oxford, my hope is we can all learn from what happened during the incident and do what we can to ensure it never happens again.
My office is working on a bill to make additional training materials available to school administrators to implement better school security protocols, based on best practices from building security professionals.
This list is evolving; however, here are some of the components:
· Conflict de-escalation training for school teachers
· Suicide prevention strategies
· The early signs of an active shooting incident and what to look for
· Forging strong relationships with local law enforcement and involving them in the planning and execution of school security drills
· Examples of good school security policies – and pitfalls to avoid
· Building security best practices for different parts of school buildings (e.g. classrooms, gymnasiums, hallways, stairwells, windows, parking lots, athletic fields, etc.)
· Forging strong partnerships with local law enforcement; involving them in the planning and execution of drills
· Setting up good evacuation protocols
· And more…
My office appreciates constructive, courteous input as this important bill is developed.
Another Exception to School Liability If the Actions of School Employees Lead to Serious Personal Injury or Death of a Student
Currently, under Michigan law, school districts are immune from liability when carrying out governmental functions, with very few exceptions. According to the Detroit News, the Oakland County judge dismissed lawsuits against the Oxford School District, saying they are legally protected under governmental immunity.[2] Many survivors of the school shooting are concerned this statute grants school employees unfair protections, even if they were negligent. As a result, it’s extremely difficult to ensure justice is done.
Also, according to Guidepost, 70 school employees declined to participate in the third-party investigation or would not respond, including many of Crumbley’s former teachers and some critical witnesses. Both employees who met with the shooter hours beforehand did not participate.[3] That is a problem.
According to the $100M lawsuit filed by a victim’s family against Oxford Community Schools, the school district had a Constitutionally deficient policy. Our Constitution requires Michigan schools to ensure the safety and well-being of its students. The lawsuit states Ethan Crumbley posted countdowns and threats of bodily harm, including death, on his social media accounts. An example social media post: “Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds. See you tomorrow Oxford.”
Witnesses state multiple parents relayed these social media posts to district leadership. School administrators said the rumors of a school shooting were greatly exaggerated and told parents everything was fine. Furthermore, the Superintendent discouraged parents and students from reporting, sharing or otherwise discussing the threatening social media posts.[4] He had knowledge of credible threats, but eyewitness testimonies (and the Guidepost report) make it very clear this threat should have been taken very seriously by the Superintendent and district staff who interacted with Ethan Crumbley before the incident. The sad part is the entire shooting could have been prevented!
Under the Government Tort Liability Act, districts cannot be held liable unless the conduct of school employees is the immediate cause of the death of the student. My office is drafting a bill to add an exception to governmental immunity: negligence by school personnel that results in serious personal injury or the death of a student in a school setting. I’m working through the logistics of this. The target date for introduction is January of 2024.
My office appreciates constructive, courteous input as this important bill is developed.
Repealing Certificate of Need Requirements for Hospitals
Within 15 miles of Oxford Township, we have half a million people, but only 3 hospitals to serve the community. By comparison, Atlanta has 39 hospitals to cover a similar sized geographical area.
According to Oxford Township Supervisor Jack Curtis, Oxford needs 121 more hospital beds to ensure our community has good health care. Beaumont proposed to build a $225M hospital and the planning commission invested $3M in infrastructure improvements; however, the project could not move forward because the state had to determine if there was a “need” for another hospital in our area. He also said it frequently takes approximately 25 minutes from an ambulance pickup to arrival at the nearest hospital, which is unacceptable.[5] This made it much more difficult for ambulances to transport students who were severely injured after the school shooting to the emergency room in a timely manner.
Certificate of Need laws require hospitals to receive permission from the state before making capital investments in CAT scanners or MRI machines. In addition, they must get approval from the commission to expand their facilities or add new medical services.
My office is working on a bill to repeal this. This will make it easier to build new hospitals in our community. Also, it helps reduce driving time to the emergency room and save lives.
2023 Supported Bills
Also, I’d like to provide an overview of bills I have cosponsored this past year, and other work I have done (in addition to publishing my vote reasons for every bill I have voted on):
· House Bill 4546: protects the integrity of women’s sports by requiring high school athletes to participate in sporting events that match the gender listed on their birth certificate.
· House Bill 4744: requires the Department of State to withdraw from the Electronic Registration Information Center. Currently, the bylaws do not require member states to participate in addressing multistate voter fraud. Also, the organization adds names to the voter rolls by requiring a solicitation to individuals who already had an opportunity to register to vote but made the decision not to do so. Many election officials have attempted to enlist support to amend the organization’s bylaws to no avail.
· HJRI: Legislation to require Michigan to switch from a full-time to a part-time legislature. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, the Great Lakes State is one of only 10 states in America that operates a full-time legislature. 14 states have part-time legislatures, while the other ones have hybrid legislatures.[6]
· HB4871: Prohibiting the printing of ballots on-demand. Allowing this practice will have profound consequences on recounts and tabulation, the recording of voted ballots, and auditing challenged ballots.
· HB4875: a bill to remove voters in the state’s voter registration database who have not voted in the last 6 years from the state’s voter database and if they do not vote in the next election.
· HB5020: which requires labor unions to get permission from their members before using collective bargaining dues for political campaign contributions or lobbying efforts.
· HB5296: requires lawmakers to receive notification about government spending proposals 5 business days ahead of time. I cosponsored this legislation because lawmakers received an $82 billion government spending proposal with only a few hours to review before the vote in June of 2023. Furthermore, lawmakers were notified at 4AM on the last day of session for the year about a dozen bills scheduled to be voted on starting at 10AM the same day. Elected officials must have adequate time to review spending proposals before the vote.
· HB5296: gives elected officials the final say in who they can hire to work in their offices, with a handful of exceptions (e.g. immoral conduct). Currently, according to the House Rules, the House Speaker has final authority to decide who can work in lawmaker offices.
· HR0165: a resolution calling for the impeachment of the Attorney General for breaching the standards of ethical conduct of the office of the Attorney General and failure to prosecute election crimes. Example: the Attorney General failed to charge those responsible for forging and filing documents during an October 2020 investigation. Another: she ordered the State Police to put a business owner on the west side of the state in jail for not following her un-Constitutional lockdown orders.
2023 House Floor Speeches
As your State Representative, I have also spoken up publicly about a lot of legislation on the House floor this year.
Examples:
· Opposition to legislation that would give the state authority to issue permits for large solar farms in our community, instead of elected officials.
· Support for legislation to protect vulnerable adults from coerced exposure to pornography.
· Opposition to repeal of MCL 750.90h, which prohibits partial birth abortions in the State of Michigan.
· Opposition to legislation that would allow the Department of State to add residents to the state’s voter registration database without permission beforehand.
· Opposition to legislation that would remove a requirement requiring the ballots to be challenged when a voter does not present proper identification.
· Opposition to legislation that would require employers to fund abortion coverage as a part of employee benefit plans.
· Opposition to legislation that repealed Section 224 in last fiscal year’s budget prohibiting vaccine passports in the State of Michigan.
I’m honored to serve as your State Representative, to uphold my sacred oath to the Constitution to the best of my ability, so help me God, regardless of personal expense. I look forward to continuing to share my vote record/reasons and my initiatives on a regular basis throughout this year.
God Bless You,
State Representative Josh Schriver
[1] Guidepost Solutions - Oxford Community Schools Independent Report On The Shooting At Oxford High School On November 30, 2021 – Page 6
[2] Parents of Oxford Victims say protecting district with government immunity is ‘unfair’ – Detroit News – March 7, 2023 – Hannah Mackay
[3] A Sweeping Report on a Michigan School Shooting Finds Multiple Failures and a Troubled Aftermath – October 31, 2023 – Anna Clark
[4] Oxford shooting victim’s family files $100M suit, saying the district failed her – National Public Radio – December 9, 2021 by Bill Chappell
[5] CON Laws halt the building of a hospital – Michigan Capital Confidential – July 25, 2022
[6] Full and Part-Tine Legislatures – National Conference of State Legislatures – July 28, 2021
All 2023 VOTES & REASONS: HERE