Protecting Women’s Right to Choose

Waking to the decision of the United States Supreme Court is devastating. The Constitutional right to abortion, a ruling that has been implemented for over 50 years and has protected the health and lives of thousands of women, has been overturned and lost due to the conservative majority in the Supreme Court.

For Washingtonians, we are thankful not to feel the brunt edge of this devastating blow. Under our current legislation, women still have the right with the consultation of their doctor to choose what is best for their body, a protection that I and many other Democrats have long fought for in Olympia. Though this still stands in our state, with the overturn of Roe v. Wade, it may not always be permanent. This is something we must continue fighting for. This pressure has always existed, but we cannot lose our footing as a result of this attack on women’s rights. Instead, we must work even harder and remain wide awake to the challenges we face ahead.

We Must Take Action

I am so heartbroken for the children that lost their future, for the families that lost their babies, their mother, their friends. For the first 48 hours, I walked around numb, unable to grasp such a terrible tragedy . This hits me in so many ways. I am a School Counselor at an elementary school. I had to walk into the school today seeing the flags at half-mast. I walk in and we give each other half-smiles, everyone afraid to speak of the event as we all know we have to be strong and keep it together. Because in 25 minutes our students would be walking into the hallway. We know their stories, their families, their dreams, their potential but we do not know if we could keep them safe. We feel helpless.

I am also a State Legislator, this past session I stood on the house floor and begged for support of a bill that limited the number of rounds a high capacity rifle can shoot. It limits it to ten shots before having to reload. The hope is that it would save lives by giving time to intervene while someone is reloading; such a sensible small move toward gun safety. I spoke of the shooting in Mukilteo. Oh, how I hate hearing the word AR-15 or high capacity rifles. I heard arguments that rights were being violated because it was inconvenient to take the 15 seconds to reload your rifle. I stood on that floor numbly pleading, trying to reason, trying to keep it together. Is the inconvenience of reloading not worth the lives of our children? Afterward, I kept saying to myself, “why are we having such senseless discussions, these are our babies?” I am fully aware that gun safety laws are only part of the solution. We need mental health, social media reporting, etc. but we can’t ignore that gun safety laws are a part of the equation. We have to stop being extremist – it is not all or nothing. Gun safety does not mean taking people’s right to own guns away. The problem is big, and we need comprehensive solutions. After we passed the legislation, the question, why do we have to fight so hard for a small step towards protecting our children, kept going through my mind. I felt helpless.

Please support your educators. They have families, and children in the schools too. They have to walk past the half-mast flags and into buildings that have been a target in this country for far too long.

I know what I have to do this morning. I have to be strong, welcome the children, take care of the families and control the heartbreak. We as educators know what we have to do; put aside the thought that this could have been your school, your time, your children and hope that every child you encounter today will be here tomorrow. And I tell myself, I will fight another day in all my roles for that end. Our children deserve a tomorrow.

Necesitamos Tomar Acción

Se me rompe el corazón por los niños que perdieron su futuro, por las familias que perdieron a sus bebes, su madre, sus amigos. Por las primeras 48 horas, caminaba adormecida, no podía entender que una tragedia como esta había pasado. Esto me impacta en tantas maneras. Soy una Consejera en una escuela primaria. Tuve que caminar hacia mi escuela viendo la bandera en media asta. Entro y nos damos media-sonrisas, todos asustados de hablar del evento porque sabemos que tenemos que ser fuertes y mantener la compostura. Porque en 25 minutos nuestros estudiantes empezaran a entrar al pasillo. Nosotros sabemos sus historias, sus familias, sus sueños, sus capacidades, pero no sabemos si los podemos mantener a salvo. Nos sentimos impotente.

También soy una Legisladora Estatal, en esta sesión pasada yo me pare en el piso de la Cámara de Representantes y suplique para que apoyaran mi proyecto de ley que limitaba el número de rondas de municiones un rifle de alta capacidad pueda disparar. Lo limita a diez rondas antes de necesitar recargar. La esperanza es que salvaríamos vidas a través de dar más tiempo para intervenir mientras alguien recarga su arma; una acción sensible hacia leyes para el seguro manejo de armas. Hable del tiroteo aquí en Mukilteo. O como odio escuchar la palabra AR-15 o rifles de alta capacidad. Escuche argumentos que los derechos estaban siendo violados porque era una inconveniencia tomar los quince segundos extras para recargar su rifle. Me mantuve en ese piso rogando, tratando de razonar, tratando de mantener la compostura ¿No vale la pena la inconveniencia de recargar un arma para salvar la vida de nuestros hijos? Después, me sigue diciendo a mi misma, “porque hemos estado teniendo estas discusiones sin sentido, si hablamos de nuestros propios bebes?” Estoy completamente consciente que leyes del control de armas solo son parte de la solución. Necesitamos enfocar la salud mental, reportaje de redes sociales, etc. pero no podemos ignorar que las leyes del control de armas si son parte de la ecuación. Necesitamos parar de ser extremistas - no es todo o nada. El manejo de armas no significa quitarle a la gente el derecho de poseer armas. El problema es muy grande, necesitamos soluciones adecuadas y comprensivas. Después de pasar el proyecto de ley, la pregunta, porque tenemos que pelear tan fuerte por un paso tan pequeño a la protección de nuestros hijos, siguió pasando por mi mente. Me sentí sin esperanza.

Por favor apoyen a sus educadores. Tienen familias, e hijos en las escuelas también. Tienen que pasar por las banderas a media asta y entrar a los edificios que han sido el blanco en este país por demasiado tiempo.

Se lo que tengo que hacer esta mañana. Tengo que ser fuerte, dar la bienvenida a los estudiantes, cuidar a las familias y controlar la angustia. Nosotros como educadores sabemos que tenemos que hacer; poner al lado el pensamiento que esto pudo haber sido tu escuela, tu tiempo, tus niños y tener esperanza que todos los estudiantes que vistes hoy estén aquí mañana. Y me digo a mi misma, voy a pelear otro día en todos mis sentidos por esa realidad. Nuestros niños merecen un ‘mañana’.

EDUCATION

In the last five years as a legislator I have worked hard to fully fund our education system.  We have built a great foundation and yet, there is still more to be done. We need to increase support staff in our schools to be able to identify the social, emotional needs of our children.  The need for smaller class sizes continues to be an issue. I am very committed to continue to look at school safety. No parent should be worried about sending their child to school. We need to take a comprehensive approach to solving this problem, instead of just wanting to put a band-aid on this crisis.

I have a passion for our schools and for assuring that all children succeed academically. I currently serve as a school counselor in the Everett School District where I work with youth in both a teaching and counseling capacity. The stories of my students and families have motivated me to bring their voices to Olympia and impact public policy.

In my participation with various organizations, I have had the great privilege of traveling around the state to talk with hundreds of families and children who have shared with me many stories, challenges and inspirational dreams.

These are dreams of becoming doctors, teachers, engineers and a dream of making the world a better place. I have yet to meet a student that wakes up in the morning and says, “I want to fail today” or a parent who has said, “I don’t want my child to succeed.”

If we want our children to truly succeed, it is imperative we solve our statewide crisis of teacher recruitment and retention so we can keep quality educators in our classrooms. In order to do this, we must strive to have our educators compensated and treated fairly!

Businesses thrive when they have an educated work force and I am committed to building a 21st century workforce that will make sure Washington succeeds for years to come.

It’s simple really: when our children succeed our state succeeds.

JOBS & THE ECONOMY

As a past small business owner, I know that it’s time to make critical investments in our workforce, local infrastructure and transportation system. I believe that government can be a partner in building our economy.

We need to make sure we are expanding access for worker retraining by utilizing our institutions of higher learning and providing a wide range of career options for our future workforce. I will prioritize making tuition more affordable and work to increase the number of enrollment slots in community colleges, tech schools, and four year colleges so our local kids can get the degrees they need as they move into the workforce. We must also recognize that our workforce is diverse, so we must provide more opportunity for apprenticeships in various fields.

As a member of the House Transportation Committee, I worked tirelessly to bring thousands of dollars and hundreds of jobs into Snohomish County’s through one of the largest Transportation Budget Packages Washington has ever seen.

Although we have made great strides in transportation investment, we must not stop, continuing to fund our local transportation system has to remain a top priority. Local businesses, big and small have demanded we take action and we must listen. We need to continue to reduce gridlock and invest in transit to help ease congestion along our major commuter corridors, while also protecting our environment. Businesses are losing thousands of dollars a day when our highways are clogged and we can no longer kick the can down the road.

PUBLIC SAFETY

As a mother I know that safe communities mean secure families. We need to make sure we are passing common sense laws and that we are investing in training for our local police and public safety personnel. We also need to address systemic racism, because Black Lives Matter and we have lost valuable lives needlessly.

Public safety starts by ensuring that every community has what they need to live safely. Communities need access to resources that meet the needs of their families. Increasing mental health services is a top priority for me as I have heard way too many heartbreaking stories of loved ones that can’t access services and have little supports. We need to change this.

Additionally, we can and should do more legislatively by passing evidence-based gun violence prevention policies that will make Washington safer and save lives. I support taking additional commonsense steps to prevent gun violence while protecting the right to bear arms.

PROTECTING THE SAFETY NET

For over 25 years I have worked on behalf of children and families directly in various positions at not for profit agencies. This work has given me a deep appreciation and understanding for human services and what they can do to help families and most importantly children succeed. My experience as a member of the House Early Learning & Human Services Committee has allowed me the opportunity to improve the conditions for our state’s most vulnerable and push for more funding to our safety net.

We need to make sure the resources our families need are available and efficient.  We can’t balance budgets on the backs of our most vulnerable and it is important that we find a way of funding our priorities while ensuring seniors, veterans and struggling families get the support they need in this tough economy.

Thousands of families have been greatly impacted by the changes to the Affordable Health Care Act. I will continue to fight for all residents of the state of Washington to have access to health care. Health care should be a right not a privilege.