One legislator was making the case for deaf children’s needs in school. Another legislator was hearing things.
Rep. Jamie Allard was giving the House Finance Committee reasons to vote in favor of her bill to provide more support for children who are deaf and hard of hearing. She said that those children should not be discriminated against in funding and programs. Allard wears a hearing aid, and has a hearing disability exacerbated by military service.
This was Allard’s second presentation in front of Finance, which is usually limited to closing comments. Instead, it was an interrogation session by the opposition Democrats, including Rep. Andy Josephson and Rep. Sara Hannan, who were trying to kill the bill.
While Allard had used the word “discrimination,” Rep. Hannan took issue with Allard, accused Allard of calling her a “bigot,” and said Allard was impugning the motives of the Democrats who were grilling her. Hannan misquoted Allard, but Allard quickly corrected the record.
“I never said ‘bigot,'” Allard responded, as an at-ease was called by Rep. Will Stapp, who asked everyone to “take about 30 seconds.” Allard had been badgered by the Democrats on the committee in an apparent attempt to bait her.
When the room came back to the record, Allard repeated that she had never called anyone a bigot, which is factual, according to the Gavel Alaska recording.
Watch Allard’s argument for her bill and then the response from Hannan in taking umbrage at the testimony:
House Bill 111 establishes that children who are deaf or hard of hearing have the right to an individualized education program that identifies their primary language, considers their prognosis for hearing loss, provides instruction in their primary language, provides assistive devices and services, and provides appropriate and timely assessments in their primary language.
The bill has cosponsors from both sides of the aisles: Rep. Cliff Groh, Andrew Gray, Kevin McCabe, Sarah Vance, Stanley Wright, Rebecca Himschoot, Jesse Sumner, Ashley Carrick, George Rauscher, Ashley Carrick, George Rauscer, and Bryce Edgmon.
But some House Democrats don’t want the bill to make it to the floor of the House and are trying to kill it in the Finance Committee.
On the Senate side, Sen. Elvi Gray-Jackson, a Democrat from Anchorage, is carrying the companion legislation.
