House Standing Committee on Education

Aloha and good afternoon. Welcome to your House Committee on Education. We are here. Today's date is April 1 and it is 2.04pm we are in room 309 and we have three items on the agenda. We are taking resolutions in tandem.

So first up, we have HCR129 HR125HD1 requesting the Department of Transportation, Department of Education and Department of Transportation of the County of Maui to collaborate to propose viable solutions to improve pedestrian and traffic safety and relieve traffic congestion around Haiku Elementary School. School. So first up, we have Department of Education offering comments in person.

Good afternoon. My name is Megan Omora. I'm the Student Transportation Services Administrator representing. The Department of Education. The Department stands on our written testimony.

Thank you so much for being here. Members. That's all I have on our testifier list. Is there anyone else wishes to testify on these measures? Seeing None. Members Questions? Okay, Seeing None.

Let's move on to HCR 173, HR 169, HD 1, urging the Department of Health to undertake preliminary education outreach and vaccination drive efforts at schools in Hawaii with vaccination rates under 30% beginning at the start of the 2025-26 school year. First up, we have Department of Education in support.

Aloha, Chair La Chica and Members of the Committee. Kinau Gardner from representing Department of Education. We stand on our written testimony in support.

Thank you for being here. Next we have Department of Health in support.

Aloha, Vice Chair La Chica and Members of the Committee. My name is Ron Balajadia. I'm the Immunization Branch Chief of the Hawaii Department of Health, and we stand on our written testimony for HCR 173. And I'm available for any questions. Mahalo.

Thanks so much, Ron. We also have testimony in support from the Hawaii Public Health Institute, the Hawaii American Nurses Association of Hawaii in support. We have the Committee, the Democratic Party of Hawaii Health Committee in support. We have Free Citizens of Maunalua in opposition. We have the Hawaii Islands Republican Women in opposition on Zoom.

Aloha, Chair La Chica and Members of the Committee. Thank you for this opportunity to testify. The Hawaiian Islands Republican Women stand in strong opposition to HCR 173. The bottom line for us is vaccines have no place in schools. Vaccine drives and education have no place in schools. That conversation and that education piece belongs to the physician and the parent.

That's a decision between the two. Because it is a medical treatment. It really has no place in schools. What we need in schools, since this is the Education Committee, is we need to improve our education. Our scores refer to that. We stand and we need to have improvement in our schools.

It is also government overreach when government is dictating, and in this case the Department of Health is recommending that they go into the schools because immunization rates are low in their purview. But they're low for a number of reasons. Again, since this is the Education Committee, I would like to emphasize to place that focus on education.

As a retired healthcare professional with over 33 years of experience and as a mom and a grandmother, I know the value of education, and vaccines and vaccine education and vaccine drives do not belong in the schools. Thank you for this opportunity to testify. Mahalo.

Thank you, Jamie. Next we have Hawaii Patriot Republicans in opposition. We have Hawaii Christian Coalition in opposition via Zoom.

Yes. Aloha, Chair Woodson, Vice Chair La Chica, and Members of the Education Committee. My name is Margaret Mejia, and I represent Hawaii Christian Coalition. Hawaii Christian Coalition has been around for many, many years. I've been volunteering since 1999, since I was in college.

And we have over 35,000 members and we represent about 130,000 people, parents and their keiki in all districts, including the neighbor islands. And we're submitting testimony today to ask you to vote no on HCR 173. So first of all, regarding the funds. It's not ethical to take federal funds from Medicare and federal and state funds from Medicaid to finance Governor Josh Green's vaccination drives, whether you do it in part or in whole.

The Medicare funds are federal funds that are designated for the elderly 65 years and older. And Medicare and Medicaid funds should not be raided and funneled into the Department of Health and or the Department of Education for the purpose of vaccinating children and adults. Vaccination drives at schools are not necessary because we already have vaccines for children.

That's a federally funded program that provides free vaccines for eligible children in Hawaii. We also have CHIPS, capital CHIPS. So once again, vaccination drives are not necessary. Parents can take their children to the doctors if they want them to be vaccinated. And also, Governor Green wants to turn Hawaii schools into health clinics for vaccinations.

And if passed, HCR 173 would fund Governor Green's vaccination drives by providing a provider at Hawaii schools that gives vaccinations to children. This is gross negligent by gross negligence by the DOE and the DOH. It's not ethical. And I can just tell you in advance there's going to be lawsuits. Because a child doesn't know the ingredients in these vaccines. A child does not know that it's more dangerous to receive vaccines in threes, such as MMR or DPT, versus a single dose.

A child doesn't know that people can have adverse reactions to a vaccine or even die from a vaccine. So a child doesn't know that bugs in these vaccines also mutate and then the vaccine is no longer effective. So the first question would be, where's the informed consent? Because people would need to know the ingredients in these vaccines.

Okay. And then the second big question is, will the Department of Education and the Department of Health be liable? So one of the main problems with this bill is liability. So who will be liable in cases where vaccine injury or vaccine death occurs? So I see lawsuits, lots of them, if this bill were to pass, okay.

And as the previous testifier said, schools are for education and not medication. In addition, taxpayer money designated for education via the public school system would be used towards the public schools being used as a medical facility for vaccinations.

Or even worse, they would use vax buses like they did during the pandemic. So children go to school for education, not for vaccination. If parents want their children to be vaccinated, they can take them to a medical doctor or a medical clinic. In previous testimonies at another committee, they talked about access.

But even in remote areas like Hana, Maui, there's clinics in Hana Town where vaccinations are available for parents who want to vaccinate their children. And taxpayers should not fund immunizations. Just as the Hyde Amendment protects federal taxpayer dollars from funding abortions, we should not have to use our state or federal Medicare and Medicaid taxpayer dollars to fund immunizations.

Since many people don't believe in immunizations and since people have a choice as to whether they want to vaccinate or not. And I believe the Hawaii Department of Health gave an initial startup cost of the program and then they said it would be, I think they said 77 million in one of the testimonies. But anyway, in the bill, when you read it, it contains no spending cap...

Ms. Mejia? Are you testifying on HCR 173? We're not hearing a bill right now. We are on HCR 173, HR 169. Yeah. And if you can... Thank you. If you can conclude, maybe summarize your testimony so we can also offer others the opportunity to testify.

Sure. And this bill does gives the Department of Health way too much authority. So DOH would be able to decide what substance including MRNA could be used in these vaccines. And MRNA is a dangerous substance according to Dr. Robert Malone who is a biochemist and biologist and the creator of MRNA technology. And it changes people's DNA. So we find that HCR 173 is a campaign to vaccinate, hosting the medical treatments on publicly funded school campuses across the islands.

These schools do not meet the standard of care required for children and adults, especially the children whom the public has entrusted in the Department of Education's care to educate and not to medicate. The Department of Education's trespass into the realm of medicine, medical treatment, medical device administration, faculties, and facility is unlawful, illegal, and dangerous.

Schools should be prepared to be sued for lack of full informed transparency, no informed consent, and destroying the quality of life to anyone who develops injuries, damages, and death as a result of vaccinations. And as legislators I just ask you to uphold your oath of office, including the United States Constitution and the Hawaii State Constitution, and to make sure there's informed consent. But I would advise not to pass this bill on. Thank you very much for your time.

Thank you so much. We, Members, to those wishing to testify, we do have other folks wishing to testify. So if you can kindly limit your testimony to about two minutes, that would be great. So next up we have Mr. James Wallace in opposition in person. Please come up. Thank you.

Good afternoon, Vice Chair, Chair and all the Representatives. Oh gosh, I have to bend down. Better not. So I oppose to HCR 173, and I've opposed to this bill because this bill attacks our children. It's a demonic bill. I'll be straight. It's a demonic bill. The reason why I say it's demonic is because any bill that attacks the children is influenced by the devil. Okay, so I try to educate the other committee I went to, and it's a waste of taxpayers' money and also it's dangerous to people.

And if you go on to VAERS report, I better just do this. If you go on the VAERS report, do some statistics. I challenge anyone to go on the VAERS report. It has all the numbers throughout the years since 1990 and only 1% is underreporting. It's 1%, but there's 2,663,664 reports of vaccine adverse events. Why is everybody trying to get push vaccines when people are dying and getting injured?

That's the part I don't understand. So here's some videos I try to encourage some of the Representatives to watch. There's a video called Vax 1, Vax 2, People's Truth. It's a horror story. There's like three videos, but I only have two right now. But go watch that video.

All you vax lovers gotta watch these so you guys can see the truth. And I used to wonder why is these vaccines coming up every year? Why is Department of Health, why is Department of Education all pushing this? It's all about money. There's a lot of Representatives, especially Josh Green. He's got a lump sum from...

No, actually not lump sum. He's got a lot of money coming from Pfizer. So let me go down the list right now. Representatives. These are all the Representatives. Nadine Nakamura got $100. Linda Ichiyama got $250. Dee Morikawa got $500. Nicole Lowen got $100. Della Au Belatti got $1000.

Mr. Wallace, can you confine your remarks to specific to the measure before us please?

Okay, okay, so I'll just go to the end then. So the thing is, what I'm saying is the reason why this thing's passing is because people are getting paid off. I just read you the names, and it goes to my conclusion. Everybody look at this. It says Hawaii has been the most corrupt state in America.

In a recent evaluation conducted by the Institute for Corruption Studies in Illinois State, Hawaii University Hawaii known as Aloha State, has once again claimed the rather unwelcome most corrupt city in America. That was January 2024. So now this is 2016. Here's something you probably don't want to hear.

Hawaii is the only state which both legislative and executive branches are perceived to be very corrupt. That lines come comes directly newly results from the Corruption in America Survey. More than 250 reporters across the country, many of whom cover state government and politics. So I don't... I hate to come here every single time.

And the reason why we're going against it is because people are getting paid off the corruption on Hawaii. So I want to give, if anybody wants this note, I have enough for everybody. I'm going to give it to every Legislature. And I have this note that says are you going to fix the problem or be the problem?

So everybody knows kids are dying, everybody knows about the adverse events. But the reason why it's going through is because of the corruption in the state. The Health Department and Department of Education, they're the two that we have to get rid of. They're the most corrupt. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Next we have Cheryl Toyofuku in opposition.

Aloha, Representatives of the Education Committee. My name is Cheryl Toyofuku. I'm a retired registered nurse, and 30 years ago I transitioned to more natural and non-toxic health care. I'm in strong opposition to HCR 173, HD 1 due to the following reasons.

As stated in this particular resolution, the purpose of this resolution is because of Department of Health's strong concern about the vaccine decreasing, the rates decreasing because of vaccine hesitancy. So the big question of course then is why is there a strong now the people of Hawaii really are hesitating to be vaccinated.

Parents and many others now here in Hawaii are now researched and informed on their own without the Department of Health's help. They understand that toxic vaccines are not the solution to keep their children safe and healthy. They are choosing not to vaccinate due to the extensive scientific evidence of vaccine failures, adverse events, and deaths. Vaccines are not safe and effective.

Vaccine rates have decreased because parents now realize with critical thinking that vaccines build artificial herd immunity based on flawed science. The VAERS, as the other testifier did mention, that's the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System and vaccine death reports confirm a phenomenal increase in detrimental effects of toxic vaccines with often severe neurological and immune disorders, autism, myocarditis, cancer, and other chronic diseases.

Vaccine ingredients include heavy metals, animal viruses, aborted fetal cell lines, polysorbate 80 that causes cancer, antibiotics, MRNA technology that changes the human genetic code. We oppose this resolution because promoting an outreach and educating vaccine drive efforts at schools in Hawaii.

It suggests that educating students that vaccines are safe and effective will increase vaccine rates along with questionable and dangerous school vaccination clinics like Seattle, the one that's mentioned in the bill, and in Hawaii. Many recall the school vaccine buses during the coronavirus with attractive incentives to students to vaccinate.

This is furthering agendas toward often mandating vaccines without informed consent or without freedom of choice. This is a misguided and a poor use of valuable funding, time, and resources. The Departments of Health and Education should better use the resources towards programs of healthier school lunches.

Maybe educating on the abundance of natural nutrients available, sunshine and exercise to build our children's natural immune system, which is a healthier way to achieve natural herd immunity against diseases. For example, more evidence proves nutrition like vitamin A for measles, vitamin C for tetanus, vitamins D and zinc elderberry echinacea for colds.

Cultural herbal remedies that will boost our natural immune system. This resolution is definitely a governmental overreach. It's a promotion of a nefarious vaccine agenda and it undermines our parental rights and our freedom of choice. Please do not further this resolution of an unhealthy educational effort by advancing this. So please do not vote for this to go through. Thank you.

Thank you. Next we have Ms. Kim Cordery in opposition.

Aloha. My name is Kim Cordery, and I oppose HCR 173 for several reasons. In my opinion, another attempt, this is another attempt to remove parental consent. By bringing the vaccine clinics to the schools will absolutely be an issue of peer pressure for the keiki. This is coercive and will have negative impact on the families.

Not to mention, this will open the door for many lawsuits, as said before. Because of vaccine hesitancy, the numbers of fully vaccinated keiki have dropped. I'm wondering if you ask, if you ask yourself, why is that? Why are people now vaccine hesitant? When did the numbers drop?

It seems obvious that since the COVID shot that many have woken up to the agenda of the government and big pharma colluding together as a result of seeing many friends and family die or had an adverse reaction from the safe and effective vaccine. Vaccines are not tested for safety when given at the same time or near the same time as other vaccines.

Meaning that we have no idea of whether we are exposing our keiki to extremely dangerous levels of chemicals when we follow the childhood vaccine schedule. Vaccines are one of the only products available to consumers so dangerous that they had to pass a law providing legal immunity for the manufacturers so that they didn't quit making them. Please say no to HCR 173. Mahalo.

Thank you so much. Next we have Ms. Terrie Armbruster in opposition.

Aloha, Vice Chair and Committee Members. I'm Terrie Armbruster, and I strongly oppose HCR 173. Even though this is April Fools Day, you're not fooling any of us about the real intent of this resolution. By targeting schools with low vaccination rates, there's really a form of discrimination against the unvaxed.

And especially if you start targeting those that already have religious exemptions, that is unconstitutional against their religious freedoms and rights. This also tends to undermine the parental rights because medical decisions like this are between the parent, their child, and their doctors. And even before the school year starts, they go to their doctor for a medical checkup. And they make the decision then whether to get vaccines or not. And you need to respect that choice.

Also, this resolution's intent to educate about vaccines is really indoctrination. This is trying to indoctrinate that vaccines are the only way, as opposed to all the diverse ways to stay healthy and include natural immunity and natural ways to stay to build up your immune system through nutrition, nutritional foods, vitamins, exercise, rest. So there's so many other choices to make and not just one way only.

And also trying to reduce vaccine... Did you turn my... Did you mute this? Okay, sorry. And also trying to reduce vaccine hesitancy is really pressure tactics and persuasive bribes. This can be seen as forms of bullying and harassment. So I ask you to stop this relentless trying to indoctrinate and vaccinate. Stick with educate and graduate.

And also I'd ask you to stop this resolution before you incite a revolution of angry parents and community members against this government overreach and medical tyranny. Because we the people are resolute that you will not pollute our children's minds with toxic ideas or their bodies with toxic shots. So I ask you again to stop wasting our tax dollars and vote no to HCR 173. Mahalo.

Thank you so much. Next up, we have Ms. Kaili Swan in support via Zoom. Mr. Swan.

Good morning, Chair, Vice Chair, and Committee Members. My name is Kaili Swan. I'm in strong support of this measure because vaccine is the way to fight the virus of any infection disease in State of Hawaii. So can you please pass this bill to get our kids vaccinated before the school year starts. And that concludes my testimony, and please let me know if you have any question. Thank you for the opportunity to testify.

Thank you. And final testifier signed up in opposition via Zoom is Ms. April Lee.

Thank you. And I'm sincerely happy that I'm able to express my feelings because I've gotten a lot of education on genetics since 1966 when I won a science fair project dealing with those. My concern is so much more than just... This is kind of a breakdown of civilization.

You know, there's a sanctified relationship from God through the family, and it has its parent. That child's parents are given that authority to be the determiners of their child's protection. Just like you who are on this Education Committee are the ones that are supposed to protect us, the public.

We do decree and affirm that you will take that very, very seriously. Because what, you know, what happened with this bill, it didn't even get put forth by a Legislator. It got put forth by someone who said we are not going to allow your religious preferences.

Well, if we don't have religious preferences, then we've absolutely violated everything in the constitution, save the one thing which is owning property, you know, owning our property and having property rights. But in this case, this goes to the heart and soul of every single family unit.

And you can't define civilization without bringing the idea of family into that. Now I know a child locally that I was with the mother, I know the grandmother. And the child got an 18 month vaccination and within two days that child was completely paralyzed. It couldn't even close its little eyelids when Kaikoa went to sleep. And he was like that for two and a half years until he died.

It was so devastating for the mother and it was so devastating for the grandmother. I cannot tell you how much they suffered, and they didn't want this to be known. And so many parents that have these vaccination responses are not going to go out and tell everybody because they're so traumatized. But they did have other people in the community that came forth and told them what happened to their children when they got vaccinated.

And you know, the vaccination program has been completely changed since the late 90s when Bill Gates took over. He did a lot of good in Africa with the malaria, and then he took advantage of it. And let me tell you, it's a whole different thing than you and I got if you're probably over 45 or 50 because vaccines when we were young were a whole different, a whole different category of chemicals.

And so the other thing is this family locally told this family that lost their son after a lot of time, two and a half years of suffering, that their child died within 24 hours of that vaccination. I have several videos and you won't be able to open a video link. I understand.

But I do have another person who has talked about this whole thing going on in other countries. And it's very upsetting when you realize that you've got more than, more than, I mean, who is saying to us, this is the World Health Organization. We're going to vax everybody, everybody in the world. So there's these absolute ridiculous edicts coming out from people that don't care.

They don't allow freedom of choice. And if we're not sovereign with our own bodies and our children's bodies, we have no rights, we have no health, and we, our civilization is doomed. Thank you for listening, Committee on Education. I appreciate you considering the fact that you are where our health is in your hands. This is very important decision you're making today. Mahalo nui.

Thank you. Is there anyone else wishing to testify on this matter? Thank you. If you can perhaps sit one at a time. And also if you can please limit your testimony to two minutes. We've been going over three and a half minutes, so I've just been allowing the testifiers to go over, but we will have a timer up. Thank you.

Good afternoon, Vice Chair.

You can also state your name for the record.

Okay. My name is Laretta Dubin. I'm a retired nurse now. I worked in nursing for 42 years. And I just feel very compelled to say something from a health standpoint for my community, for my everyone sitting here, as well as in the gallery. We are really under attack. And I'm going to just say it this way. Anything that has risk, which this does, has to have informed consent.

There's no ifs, ands, or buts. In the hospital, we were trained to never mix medications. Now, I have a list here. Okay. And I'm going to give you a copy of this. In 62, there were five doses of vaccines that a child would get by the time they turned 18. In 1983, there were 24 doses that a child would get. Now, well, as of 2018, it was 72. Now, currently in 2025, this is going to be something like 78 doses that a child's going to get.

Of course they're going to double up. That's mixing medications. That alone is a big no bueno. No, no. Okay. But they're doing it. So what I basically want to say is that if you pass this bill, this is tantamount to, in some countries where they'll say put somebody in front of the firing squad and they shoot them.

They send the family the bill. That's what's happening to us. There's so many of us that don't want this and have seen what happens even in our own families that we know what's down the pike. And we just beg you, please, please, to have mercy on us as a community, as a state, and the little children coming up. Please just vote to oppose this bill, to not vote for it, please. Thank you for hearing my plea.

Thank you.

Aloha, Vice Chair La Chica and Members of the Committee. At first, I'd just like to say that this committee is likely the most important committee in this House chamber. The responsibility that you have to control education in this state and what happens in the lives of the keiki is immeasurable.

This particular resolution is supposed to declare the intent of this body, but I believe... Oh, I'm so sorry. I'm Gary Cordery. Thank you very much. Thank you. I'm Gary Cordery. I'm speaking as a citizen, but also on behalf of Aloha Freedom Coalition's 20,000 members.

And I, and I want to share really briefly that the intent of this committee should reflect the bill, HB 1118, which was already deferred. This bill is a bit of a resurrection of that bill, which was already deferred. The people voted decisively in the range of 2000 to 200 against that bill.

And I have to raise some questions about has Department of Health and Department of Education been informed about how exactly is this bill going to be implemented? Who's going to pay for this? Has Department of Transportation been notified? Are they aware that they're going to be called on to drive the bus? And what about this idea, an enrollment campaign for vaccinations of our kids?

This can also be considered peer pressure. I know some others had mentioned it today. Peer pressure is not necessarily a bad thing if the intent is to cause something like public service or leadership or friendship or sports activities. But this particular peer pressure is actually not positive. And it will lead to academic failure, developmental leadership dysfunction, decrease in self confidence, poor academic performance, separation from family, depression, and anxiety.

These are the consequences of peer pressure when it's put on by the state to drive a campaign to vaccinate the kids of this state. And I ask you, as thoughtful parents, uncles, grandparents, please vote no on this resolution. It is not going to achieve its goal. It will just bring turmoil and pain to the State of Hawaii. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Is there anyone else wishing to testify on this measure? Thank you. Please come up. Thank you. You'll have two minutes. Thank you.

Okay. Aloha. My name is Alice Abellanida. I'm a concerned citizen, and I stand on my written testimony online. Pretty much everybody has covered all my talking points that I was going to say. But I would challenge each one of you to research the ingredients that are in these vaccines because it's very alarming.

I've known this stuff for 30 years. When my kids were little, I went on the cdc.gov and I looked up the vaccine ingredients and what they were and what they meant, and I literally went and got a religious exemption and took my kids off of vaccines. And that was in the early 90s. So they grew up unvaccinated.

I grew up unvaccinated. Except for when I was five, I got maybe two shots. But you know, I'm a strong believer in nutrition and vitamin supplements and natural immunity. I am 64 years old and I'm on no medication. I have not had a cold in over seven years and I was not vaccinated during this whole pandemic.

So you know what, we need to have nutrition for our kids. We need to go the other direction because the pharmaceutical companies are making big billions of dollars off of these vaccines. And so, you know, I really challenge you guys to look what you're putting inside your kids' bodies, or your own bodies for that matter, because this is the only one you get while you're in this life. We want to take care of ourselves.

And there's a lot of toxic chemicals in them. Like they said, there's aborted human fetus cells in these things. There's bovine, there's monkey there, there's aluminum, MSG, mercury, mercury. Autism rates have exploded since the vaccines came out and they started increasing vaccine. So you know what, they're playing with fire. It's like Russian roulette.

I read a 500 page book on an investigation on these vaccines when autism was starting to explode. And this guy, what they found out was that at the pediatrician's offices, what they do is they buy the vaccines in bulk. So they have a barrel of the vaccines and what happens is the mercury sinks to the bottom.

Mercury is toxic to any human. You're not supposed to have it in the human body and they're putting it in all these children's vaccines. Every one of them. So it sinks to the bottom. And then what happened was the kids that got the shots that were at the bottom of the barrel, the autism would explode.

And you notice most kids that are autistic are boys because they found out the Rx genetic factor in boys, they respond to the vaccine when they get the toxic mercury and it causes autism, it's brain damage. I mean, these kids go, they're horrible suffering.

So you know what, we need to just have common sense here and wake up and say, okay, we don't need this. I personally am hypersensitive to medication. I can die, I get angioedema. You know, I don't want to inject something into some kid that, you know, kids have... Everybody's different. We're not all the same. So I'm sorry to keep so long. But yeah, thank you for hearing me.

Thank you so much. Is there anyone else wishing to testify on this measure here or online on Zoom? Yes, if you can please state your name and for the record and your position on the bill, on the measure.

Hi. My name is Michelle Moku. I'm a concerned, very concerned parent. I have four children that all have had some sort of symptom or vaccine related injury. And had I not known that I was a busy mom trying to survive in this world and pay attention more to this medical and big pharma industry, I would have never allowed my children to have vaccines. I've watched my oldest with epilepsy and have be on medication for 10 years.

I stand by my daughter who received the MMR vaccine and was succumbed to immune thrombosis purpura where we had to spend six months in the cancer ward at Kapiolani. I watched my son suffer from severe eczema and psoriasis on a daily basis. And not one of the Departments of Education people, not one of the government officials, not any of you guys on that committee board will be there to take care of my children, which I know that I need to care for.

And I know now through this COVID pandemic, the bright light has awoken everybody that this medical industry and pharmaceutical agenda is pilau. And now you guys want to stick it onto children who are vulnerable, innocent, healthy human beings that deserve their parents to take care of them as they see fit.

Not the Department of Education, not the Governor of the State of Hawaii, not any of the government officials. I highly, highly oppose this message, this bill, and I hope and I pray that all of you guys that have children out there will do the same and not vote for this and kill this thing. Thank you.

Thank you. And I believe we have one individual testifying in person. Please come up. Oh, did you testify already, ma' am? Sorry... Sorry. Okay, thank you so much. Okay, Members, we also have testimony, four in support, 29 in opposition, and 10 testifiers that submitted opposition that were late. Members, any questions? Any questions? Okay, seeing none. Let's move to the final measures on the agenda.

HCR1 37 HR131HD1 urging the Department of Transportation, Department of Education and the City and County of Honolulu to implement visibility enhancement measures on the Kilani Avenue crosswalk at KPAPA Elementary School. First up, we have Department of Education offering testimony, offering comments.

Good afternoon Committee. My name is Megan Omora, student transportation, Department of Education. The Department stands on our written testimony.

Thank you, Megan. We also have Principal Jamil Duarte in support via Zoom.

Hi everyone. My name is Dr. Jamil Duarte I'm the proud principal of Kipapa Elementary School.

Just reiterating my written testimony for this resolution, I am in strong support to ensure the safety of our students on Kuahilani Avenue Crosswalk, and also that we continue to ensure that there is some sort of resolution to all of this to ensure that our kids are able to walk safely and our community members.

Are able to walk without feeling like. They're going to get banged at some. Point in the area. So thank you so much for listening.

Thank you so much, Principal. Members, that's it for our testifiers. Is there anyone else wishing to testify on these measures in person? Online? We also have 19 individuals in support on HCR137HR131. Okay, seeing none. Members, questions? Okay, seeing none Members. We will recess.

Okay, Members, reconvening the Committee on Education, we are going to take up these resolutions in tandem.

First up, we have HCR129HD1, HR125HD1 requesting the Department of Transportation, Department of Education and Department of Transportation of the County of Maui to collaborate on to propose viable solutions to improve pedestrian and traffic safety and relieve traffic congestion around Haiku Elementary School. Members for this we are going to pass out an HD2.

We need to amend this as this. It's the Department of Public Works in Maui County that oversees roads in Maui, not the Department of Transportation. So in the resolution where it says Department of Transportation of the County of Maui, we will be replacing it with Maui County Department of Public Works.

And we will also update the title and distribution list to reflect the change. Members, comments, questions, concerns? Okay, seeing none. Vice Chair for the vote.

[Roll call]

Okay, thank you Members. Next up we have HCR173HD1, HR169HD1 urging the Department of Health to undertake preliminary education, outreach and vaccination drive efforts action at schools in Hawaii with vaccination rates under 30% beginning at the start of the 2025-26 school year.

Members as the resolution title states, this is providing access through outreach and education and it's not a requirement as any type of public health, you know, intervention. It's about, you know, collective responsibility requiring us to do what it takes to help save lives, to help another, to do what it takes for another preventable outbreak.

And for this it simply provides the Department of Health the opportunity to provide the information for outreach and education so that those who do want to participate will have the ability to. But it also doesn't force anyone who would not want to.

It's still a choice, it's not a requirement as it's simply outreach and education in our schools. And so for this we will pass out an HD2.

We will simply add that the Department of Health also partner with community health centers and other local healthcare providers in these vaccination drive efforts and we will update the first be it resolved to reflect this change, we will also amend the resolution adding a new whereas clause stating that the critical role that community health centers play in providing accessible, affordable and culturally competent healthcare services, including vaccinations to underserved communities in school age children is important.

And I believe that's it for those amendments. Members, comments, questions, concerns? Representative Muraoka.

Thank you, Madam Chair. You know, so I'm strongly opposed. I'm going to vote no on this and I wish I could vote no 10 times. I would love to see our Governor who is so hard pushing this.

I know you said this is about outreach and education, but my question or my comments is to number one, our Governor who so strongly pushes this. Number two, our Department of Education as well as Department of Health. Why aren't we pushing physical fitness? Why are we pushing healthy diets and vitamins?

We're so strong on pushing this, which I cannot prove, but apparently you folks can. There's a financial factor driving this.

I would love to see our Governor put a tutorial out on how to do a proper sit up, how to stretch in the morning, how to run, what food should you eat at a certain age to develop your body.

Pushing these mandates is absolutely against what I personally believe in as a parent and what I feel our community believes in. Instead of forcing mandates, forcing medications that as these retired nurses, I trust a nurse, they went to school for so long and they if they're against backing up these medications, so am I.

I would love to see our Governor, the heads of our Department of Health as well as our Department of Education put out outreach education on how to be healthier through diet and exercise. I don't want to give away my age, but when I was in school we were required, Darius.

We were required to pass a physical fitness test which included a 600 yard run, sit ups, push ups, those have seemingly gone away in school nowadays. Why aren't we pushing that? That, that, why aren't we pushing that? So with those reasons, I'm a very strong.

No, thank you so much. Representative Muraoka. Sorry, no reactions please from the audience. Thank you so much. And so anyone else, any other comments? Yes, please go ahead.

Thank you, Chair. You know, I do understand the concerns from the testifiers. So thank you for being here and for, for sharing your perspectives.

I also will say that I am support, I am in support of this measure because to me this is just about providing resources for our students and for parents to be able to make their own choice. So I do agree with you, Chair, with your assessment of the situation.

I will also correct the record to say that this is not a part of the governor's bill package. This is a resolution introduced by our colleague. And so I'm not sure what all of that discussion was about the Governor, but this is not that. So thank you, Chair.

Thank you so much, Representative Souza, for those remarks. And again, there's nothing in this resolution that mandates a family or a parent to, you know, as part of the requirements. Again, it's about public health, which does require collective responsibility. We know that seat belts save lives. We know that car seats reduces fatalities.

And it's about one parent's ability to, if you're immunocompromised or if you don't have herd immunity and you're just simply one parent that wants access to education for your child and be able to get your child to school and have that education. No amount of physical exercise or access to vitamins or supplements.

I mean, a lot of communities do not have these available to them. We have a lot of communities that do not have these available to them. And so again, it's our responsibility to make sure that we are not the next breeding ground for the next preventable outbreak.

So for those reasons, I am in full support of this measure. So any other further comments on this? Yes, please go ahead. Representative Evslin.

Yeah, thank you, Chair. I just want to say that I support the intent of the resolution. I strongly support increased education and outreach in our schools. My only hope would be that the resolution, you know, right now it's narrowly targeted to schools with vaccination rates of under 30%. My hope that that would be expanded.

But I understand, you know, that that's, that's the way it is right now. I also want to say that I respect and appreciate Representative Muraoka's comments about also trying to promote the need for healthy activity and, you know, healthy living and healthy eating. And we should be able to do all of that, right? It's not either or.

Thank you.

Any other comments? Please go ahead. Representative.

I just want to correct the record. When Rep. Muraoka was talking about setups, he was mentioning my age comment. I always give him flack about age. I can do a sit up. But noting there the concerns I just, at the moment I'm going to vote reservations and the Committee.

Thank you so much. Anyone else? Thank you. Okay, thank you so much. Members. With that Vice Chair, we're ready to take the vote.

[Roll call]

Members we are in our final set of resolutions HCR137HD1HR131HD1 urging the Department of Transportation, Department of Education and City and County of Honolulu to implement visibility enhancement measures on the Koahilani Avenue crosswalk at Kapapa Elementary School. Members, this is generating a lot of good support.

We are in discussion with Department of Transportation on the state side as well as city and County of Honolulu so there's ongoing work to look at into this so principal rest assured that we will be prioritizing this but for this Members we will be passing this measure as is Comments? Questions, Concerns?

Seeing none, please Chair for the vote.

[Roll call]

You Members we are adjourned.