2016 -- H 8261

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LC006003

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     STATE OF RHODE ISLAND

IN GENERAL ASSEMBLY

JANUARY SESSION, A.D. 2016

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H O U S E   R E S O L U T I O N

CONGRATULATING WOONSOCKET AREA CAREER AND TECHNICAL CENTER ON

BEING THE FIRST CAREER AND TECHNICAL SCHOOL IN THE UNITED STATES TO

OFFER LEAD PAINT ABATEMENT TRAINING TO ITS STUDENTS

     Introduced By: Representatives Phillips, Morin, Casey, Newberry, and Keable

     Date Introduced: May 26, 2016

     Referred To: House read and passed

     WHEREAS, Lead is a metal that is most often found in old houses because, before 1978,

most paint products contained lead. Lead can get into the body by ingesting it, breathing in dust

from lead paint, drinking tap water that has lead in it or eating food from dishes made with lead.

Lead is most dangerous to children under the age of six. Children suffering from lead poisoning

can suffer from serious consequences including learning disabilities, loss of IQ, and reduced

attention span; and

     WHEREAS, Nationally, approximately 900,000 preschoolers have high levels of lead in

their blood. Locally, around 30,000 homes pose a high risk of lead poisoning to children and in

Woonsocket, a study released in 2004 found that forty percent of incoming first graders had

elevated lead counts; and

     WHEREAS, Charles Myers, a teacher at Woonsocket Area Career and Technical Center,

won the Teacher of the Year Award in 2004, the very year the lead paint poisoning statistics in

Woonsocket were released. He was stunned and staggered by those numbers and vowed to

someday try to do something about this problem; and

     WHEREAS, For the past three years, Mr. Myers has been working with the Rhode Island

Department of Health and the Environmental Protection Agency to bring the Lead

Renovator/Remodeler license course to his students. This program teaches contractors how to do

work in homes with lead paint without contaminating the occupants or the building itself; and

     WHEREAS, This year, during the school's vacation week, Mr. Myers offered this course

to his students in a specially designed two-day program that included extensive hands-on-

training. At the end of the two-day program, the students, Christian Amparo, Andrew

Baillargeon, Evan Batholomy, Nicholas Beals, Zachary Burt, Damian Darling, Adam Guilbert,

Jacob Larivee and Cesar Fajardo passed the same exam adult contractors take when seeking

certification; now, therefore be it

     RESOLVED, That this House of Representatives of the State of Rhode Island and

Providence Plantations hereby congratulates Woonsocket Area Career and Technical Center on

becoming the first career and technical school in the United States to offer lead paint abatement

training to its students; and be it further

     RESOLVED, That the Secretary of State be and hereby is authorized and directed to

transmit a duly certified copy of this resolution to Mr. Charles Myers, Teacher, Woonsocket Area

Career and Technical Center.

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LC006003

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