- April 28, 2024
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The tension built as one-by-one the students involved in Rep. Travis Hutson’s Flagler High Schools Mock Session voted either epilepsy or veterinary, the top two bills created by students. The winning bill would be filed by Hutson in Tallahassee.
The final count to the voice vote Wednesday morning ended in a tie, making Hutson the deciding vote. After consulting with his staff, Huston returned to his seat in board chambers.
“The ultimate goals of this process is to give the students a voice to be heard in Tallahassee,” he said before announcing his decision.
The bill on anti-epileptic drugs presented by Flagler Palm Coast High School student Carrie Hartnett focused on requiring pharmacists to notify the prescribing doctor when a name brand medication is switched to a generic or when a generic made medication is switched from one manufacturer to another. The issue with switching an epileptic’s medication is that the USDA allows for 20% variation in drugs and each manufacturer varies. How an epileptic’s brain reacts to those changes can cause break though seizures if they are not properly switched over a slow period of time.
“I don’t believe that anyone should have to experience break through seizures if they don’t have to,” said Hartnett, who has epilepsy.
This bill has already been passed in Hawaii, Tennessee, Utah, and Connecticut.
“The epilepsy bill has been filed before in Florida and did not move very far in the Senate,” Hutson said while announcing the winning project. “I think the bill with the best chances to be heart is something new.”
With that, Hutson broke the tie and named the winning bill as FPC student Morgan Purtlebaugh’s bill on reporting animal abuse.
“In my household we consider pets part of the family,” Purtlebaugh said in the beginning of her presentation to the student board.
Her bill focused on protecting vet clinics in Florida with reporting animal abuse and also streamlining the process to give veterinarians the option to report abuse. Currently, a ruling by the Veterinary Association considers not only the animal the patient, but also the person paying, which in some cases can cover the abuser in client confidentiality. The proposed bill would allow vets to discuss animal abuse when suspected and the right to report animal abuse freely just as doctors report child abuse.
Two other projects from Matanzas High School students were presented at the mock legislative session, but did not move past the first voting process.
Haley McQueen presented her bill on coastal property disclosures, which would amend an already existing bill to prevent buyers of coastal and intracoastal properties to wave the disclosure form. A bill on school bus advertising was also presented by Michael Manning, which would allow for advertising on school buses and does not cover any identifying markers. In his proposed bill, 50% of the profits would go to the transportation department, 20% of which would be designated for drivers education classes, and 50% would go towards academics.
