December 24, 2014

Who are Healthy Kids Heroes?
Yes, it is painful to threaten the illusion of safety in a school or community and to talk about death and loss. The New London School Explosion survivors did not talk about their painful experiences for more than forty years. Their stories clearly teach us that it is even more painful to live with a tragedy when opportunities to prevent loss were unseen or overlooked.

HEROES understand that when it comes to making decisions that impact children, "no risk is acceptable if it is avoidable."  

HEROES are committed to building schools for occupancy by children recognizing that standards, building codes, and guidelines that are based on the average adult male or workplace regulations are not safe for children because children are not little adults.

 
HEROES serve as a resource and mentor to the school community, setting up in-house systems for community participation, health surveillance, and ongoing hazard identification and control.
 
HEROES support the rights of parents to be involved in the decisions that affect their children, acknowledging that without informed parents, there will never be enough experts or inspectors to ensure schools are the healthy places and safe havens they are supposed to be. 

HEROES educate community members, preparing them to exercise their special rights as parents, employees, patients, students and citizens.  


HEROES advocate for precautionary standards and protective measures as active members of building committees, school health advisory councils, site-based management boards, and environmental quality teams that set child safety standards and guidelines for school design, renovation, operations and maintenance, pest-proofing, lab safety, and all activities in and around the school.


There is a hero in your school. It could be you!
Tell their story. Tell your story.
 ...let us suggest the legislature of Texas set aside a special day each year to be observed as a memorial day on which tribute will be paid to the children and teachers who died in this catastrophe...and to make laws of safety... Our daddies and mothers, as well as the teachers, want to know that when we leave our homes in the morning to go to school, that we will come out safe when our lessons are over.  
Click here to find the complete transcript of 9-year-old fifth grader Carolyn Jones' speech to the Texas Legislature.  Read it out loud in your classroom or at a school event.
 
Every year to mark the anniversary of the March 18, 1937 Texas School Explosion, I salute heroes whose extraordinary sense of responsibility and leadership is dedicated to protecting students and staff from chemical hazards and unhealthy school conditions.
Send your hero's story, name, and email/phone # by January 15, 2015 to ellie.goldberg@healthy-kids.info
Do you know where your chemicals are?

 
Every year to mark the anniversary of the 
March 18, 1937 Texas School Explosion, I salute heroes whose extraordinary sense of responsibility and leadership is dedicated to protecting students and staff from chemical hazards and unhealthy school conditions.

Send your hero's story, name, and email/phone # by January 15, 2015 to ellie.goldberg@healthy-kids.info
 


Lesson:  Skill + Values = Safety

One of the lessons of the 1937 Texas School Explosion is that those responsible for schools need to be highly qualified for the job of managing complex systems of both buildings and people. 

Who Is Your 2015 Hero? Every year to mark the anniversary of the March 18, 1937 Texas School Explosion, I salute heroes whose extraordinary sense of responsibility and leadership is dedicated to protecting students and staff from chemical hazards and unhealthy school conditions.

Each Healthy Kids Hero 2004-2014 is extraordinary for a combination of personal qualities and qualifications beyond credentials, a commitment to a safe quality environment, and an exceptional sense of responsibility for excellence.
  

  
Bring the Lessons of 1937 to Your School


Send your hero's story, name, and email/phone #   
to ellie.goldberg@healthy-kids.info


Deadline: January 15, 2015

December 02, 2014



On May 8, 2008, Dave Sueper was driving to a business meeting when he was struck and killed by a distracted teenage driver who had run a red light. Scott Tibbitts, a chemical engineer and space entrepreneur who made motors for NASA, was the person Sueper was scheduled to meet that tragic morning, and he was deeply affected when he learned about the accident. Like Sueper, he was a father of two, and as an engineer he became fixated on finding a way to prevent another death from distracted driving...  


See more: Video story Yahoo News, Katie Couric @ https://news.yahoo.com/katie-couric-interviews-katasi-ceo-about-texting-and-driving-195250260.html 

So that it never happens again....