Laurels & lances: Transparency, therapy, reflection
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Lance: To keeping secrets. Every day, there are lawsuits that are sealed for a variety of reasons. On Tuesday, sealed paperwork was filed in Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas containing the details of the settlement between UPMC and Paris Cleaners Inc. on one side and, on the other, the estates of UPMC patients who died after contracting fungal infections in 2014 and 2015.
This is a case of secrets being dangerous, not only to people but potentially to UPMC itself. Distrust flourishes in the dark, much like the mold found behind a wall at UPMC Presbyterian in 2015. People have a right to make informed decisions about their health care, especially when it is provided by a nonprofit health system with such scope and reach.
UPMC is an undeniable leader in transplant surgery, cancer treatment and so many other ways it helps people live and grow. If these records weren’t sealed, they could lead by example in transparency.
Laurel: To protecting kids. Allegheny County Council banned conversion therapy on Tuesday.
Conversion therapy is a widely discredited branch of practices of that promise to make a gay person — often a minor — straight. Some treatments have been found to be mentally and physically abusive, including using painful stressors like needles and electricity as aversions.
The Allegheny ban was passed by a vote of 13-2, and included one Republican vote from Tom Baker.
Whether anyone supports or opposes gay rights is a different issue from a questionable therapy that has been disavowed by the American Psychological Association and American Academy of Pediatrics, among other groups. What isn’t in question is the simple truth that children must be protected.
Laurel: For finding better solutions. Highlands School District used to just punish kids for things like inappropriate language or acting out in class. That could mean getting suspended and taking them out of a learning environment.
The “Rams Reflection Room” in elementary and middle school use this year is changing that. Instead of getting a time out, they get some time to talk with a behavior specialist about how they ended up in trouble, what should have happened, how it affected others and what the plan for next time will be.
“We are seeing some positive results,” middle school Principal Kimberly Price said. “It gets kids thinking about empathy.”
It isn’t appropriate for every bad behavior, but correcting a kid should be corrective, and this seems like a good try.