Silver school board hears pitch to join anti-vaping lawsuit – Silver City Daily Press and Independent

The Silver Consolidated Schools Board of Education opened the new year with an opportunity to attack a relatively new problem the growing use of nicotine-containing vaping devices by underage students.Attorney William B. Shinoff, with the Frantz Law Group out of California, attended the school board meeting remotely to speak about ongoing lawsuits seeking to combat vaping in schools.I currently represent over 650 school districts across the country in this litigation against Juul Labs and Altria, Shinoff said. The two defendants in this case are Juul, which is the major vaping manufacturer in this country, and Altria which many of you might know as Philip Morris who owned 25 percent of Juul. This case is focused on the issue of the companies intentionally marketing their product to children, and as a result, we now have a new generation of nicotine addicts.Shinoff asked board members to consider allowing him to file a suit on the districts behalf.This case, to make sure its clear, is not a class action, he said. This is whats called a mass action, so each school district thats involved in this case has their own lawsuit on file.If we decide to move forward with this, how will we hear about updates? said board Vice President Michelle Diaz. What will be the ongoing communication?I try to do written updates to at least the superintendent to pass on to the board every month or two, and then I try to get in front of the board every three to four months to be able to provide updates on how the case is going, Shinoff said.Since Mondays meeting was the first of the year, recently reelected board members Patrick Cohn, Ashley Montenegro and Diaz were all sworn in by Grant County Magistrate Judge Maurine Laney, and the board elected officers. Diaz moved to nominate Montenegro as president, with Mike McMillan seconding.Thank you for the nomination. It has been a privilege to serve as your president, and a privilege to work with the administration, and I would accept that nomination, Montenegro said. I enjoy working with this board and the administration team, and serving the public.For vice president, McMillan moved to nominate Diaz, with a second from board member Eddie Flores. Diaz nominated Cohn as board secretary, with a second from McMillan.Associate Superintendent for Instruction Cindy Barris shared her thoughts on the recent passing of a beloved former Silver High teacher, Nathan Nolan.The district would like to continue to send its condolences to the Nolan family, as well as all of their friends, she said. The impact of a teacher knows no bounds, so I got the privilege and honor to attend the celebration of life. There were just a million walks of life. The number of people that he impacted and will continue to impact is just phenomenal.Silver High School students art could be seen hung around the room during the meeting Monday.We wanted to continue to showcase the excellence that is taking place across the district, said Superintendent William Hawkins. In our various fields over the course of the fall semester, we had the opportunity to celebrate those students and their success, both last year and current year, extracurricular and academic.Board members also heard a presentation on the ALICE Program, which is meant to prepare students for the unthinkable, according to Associate Superintendent Louis Alvarez, who led the discussion.The program is active shooter training, and we pray that we never have to use this but if we do, we want to be prepared, Alvarez said. You can see that active shooters end up happening everywhere. Mesilla Valley Mall had an active shooter a week ago. These kinds of things are going to be taking place everywhere, so the best thing that we can do is prepare our staff and prepare our students, and thats what we are doing with ALICE.The board also heard their monthly update on coronavirus in the district, which included last weeks update to the New Mexico Public Education Departments COVID-19 Toolkit, which dictates how schools address the pandemic.The changes that have occurred in the toolkit include a reduction of self-isolation and quarantine from 10 days to five days, Hawkins said. The isolation should last at least five days after the onset of symptoms, and until the individual is fever-free for 24 hours without the use of fever-reducing medications. If you are symptomatic in any way, shape or form, or if youre still using medications to keep your fever down after five days, you are expected to not report to school or work, according to the toolkit. If you havent developed any symptoms after five days, you are able to return. Both the isolation number of days and the quarantine number of days have been reduced to five.Also, according to Hawkins, at the beginning next week, PCR tests will no longer be accepted for COVID-19 surveillance testing or for Test to Stay. Rapid antigen tests will be required for those two COVID-19 testing applications.At least part of this change relates to the shortage of tests throughout New Mexico.Last week, there were several mornings where we were on the verge of running out of tests and had to get deliveries from Albuquerque to Las Cruces to Silver, Hawkins said. It wasnt for a lack of contacting the provider of testing, its simply a scarcity of tests and the difficulty of getting them shipped in.The board is scheduled to meet again Feb. 21 at 5:30 p.m.Jordan Archunde may be reached at [emailprotected] press.com.

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Silver school board hears pitch to join anti-vaping lawsuit - Silver City Daily Press and Independent