As part of its MI Safe School Indoor Air Ventilation program, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) will continue to offer free air purifiers to K-12 schools in the state.

The program started in December 2022 as part of the DHHS’s effort to improve air quality in schools. Since its launch the DHHS has provided more than 42,600 air purification machines to 451 school districts across the state at no cost. 

“Air purifiers are another tool in our toolbox to improve air quality and help prevent the spread of illness while at school, as well as provide additional protection from allergens and wildfire smoke,” said Dr. Natasha Bagdasarian, DHHS chief medical executive. “MDHHS is excited to offer the air ventilation and purification program to our schools. Staying healthy leads to better academic outcomes as well as social and emotional well-being.”

In May, the Centers for Disease Control updated their guidelines for air exchanges in schools, setting a goal of five air changes per hour. DHHS is extending its indoor air ventilation program so schools that have participated can receive more machines to meet the new recommendations, and so schools that have not can incorporate air purifiers into their building’s air quality strategy.

According to a statement from the department, the portable air purifiers may be used in classrooms and other communal areas to reduce the number of harmful microbes and allergens in the atmosphere.

The air purifiers provided by the Department are equipped to help protect users from COVID-19 and wildfire smoke, trapping 99.9% of harmful particles like smoke, allergens, odors, VOCs, pollen, pet dander, dust, smog and other contaminants down to 0.1 microns, according to Chelsea Wuth, associate public information officer for DHHS.

Schools are able to order as many purifiers as needed for their building and are available to all public and private K-12 schools while supplies last.

“We encourage more schools to keep their facilities’ air healthy and clean by taking advantage of this opportunity for free air purifiers,” said State Superintendent Michael Rice. “Parents will be able to breathe easier knowing that their children are learning in healthier environments.”

is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Michigan Advance maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Susan Demas for questions: info@michiganadvance.com. Follow Michigan Advance on and .

Lawmakers on the Michigan House Education Committee heard testimony from educators earlier this month regarding , which would modify the requirements to become a substitute teacher in hopes of addressing the ongoing shortage.

Rep. Nate Shannon (D-Sterling Heights), who sponsored the bill, testified in its support alongside Sheryl Kennedy of the Michigan Department of Education.

The proposed changes to Michigan’s school code would allow for anyone over age 21 with a high school diploma to substitute teach in classrooms for grades 9 through 12, and allow anyone over the age of 18 also enrolled in a teacher preparation program to substitute teach in kindergarten through eighth grade.

Shannon said that the changes to eligibility requirements, while “uncomfortable” for many educators, would be a temporary solution to Michigan’s shortage of substitute teachers that accelerated during the pandemic. The bill, which has yet to be voted on by the committee, would include a sunset clause expiring the eligibility changes in June 2025.

“We have a problem, and we’re doing things that maybe not necessarily all of us are comfortable with,” Shannon said. “But we have to do something in the meantime.”

Rep. Jaime Churches (D-Wyandotte) voiced concerns that the bill would make it too easy to become an educator, even for a short period of time. She said that her own experience as a teacher showed her that students require highly qualified substitutes in order to continue their learning and to allow permanent teachers to take time off.

“You can’t put any substitute in an emotionally impaired classroom,” Churches said. “And I could argue you can’t put any substitute in just a fifth-grade room like mine easily.”

Kennedy and Shannon noted that the bill would not apply to special education teachers and classrooms.

Rep. Brad Paquette (R-Niles) argued that changing the requirements for substitute teachers could provide necessary work opportunities for young Michiganders. He said that he “fell into teaching” in his own career and hoped the bill would help others do the same.

“This is going to open the door for a lot of people,” Paquette said.

Kennedy said one goal of the legislation would be to connect young people who are undecided about their career path to school districts and the communities they reside in, ideally encouraging them to pursue long-term careers as teachers.

“One of the things that we hope this bill will do is build those relationships,” Kennedy said. “And perhaps one of those young people that are substitute teaching, or a 21-year-old who’s maybe done a little college, they have an experience and then they say, ‘Oh wow, this is what I was meant to do.’”

Various incentives have been adopted at the state and school district level to attract teachers to Michigan’s public schools, but Shannon said the state won’t see the effects of those programs for a few years. In the interim, he said that HB 4549 would help ease the strain on school districts.

“We want to be able to solve the problem in a systematic way,” Shannon said. “But we need to have a little time to figure this out.”

is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Michigan Advance maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Susan Demas for questions: info@michiganadvance.com. Follow Michigan Advance on and .

A room full of survivors, supporters and listeners, many donning ribbon skirts and orange shirts, filled an MSU auditorium this week in the hopes that by sharing difficult truths, healing can continue.

The boarding school healing and justice panel — titled “ginoojimomin apii dibaajimoyang,” which translates in Anishinaabemowin to “our stories heal” — was just as much of a ceremony on Thursday as it was a panel discussion. It encapsulated some of the Native Justice Coalition’s work to offer safe spaces for survivors’ stories to be heard and for non-Indigenous people to listen.

“I tell my story because I know there’s many out there who can’t,” said Linda Cobe, who is Ojibwe/Oneida and a Lac Vieux Desert tribal citizen. “… My language was taken from me, my childhood was taken, my culture was taken. But we have the opportunity today to get that all back.”

All three speakers on the panel, including Cobe, attended the Holy Childhood School of Jesus in Harbor Springs, known by many as the most notorious of Michigan’s five former Indian boarding schools. Differing accounts point to the northern Michigan school closing between the early 1980s to mid-1990s.

The event also featured Sault Ste Marie Band of Chippewa Indians citizen Tom Biron and Ben Hinmon, a descendant of Chief Pontiac who hails from the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe. The panel was cosponsored by the Indigenous Law & Policy Center, Native American Institute, and American Indian and Indigenous Studies at Michigan State University.

Five federally funded or operated boarding schools once operated in Michigan, according to a released last year: The Holy Childhood School of Jesus; the Old St. Joseph Orphanage and School in Assinins (or Baraga Chippewa Boarding and Day School) near Baraga in the Upper Peninsula; the Mount Pleasant Indian Industrial Boarding School in Mount Pleasant; the (or Sainte Anne School) on Mackinac Island; and the Catholic Otchippewa Boarding School, or Otchippewa Day and Orphan Boarding, in the U.P.’s Schoolcraft County.

Thousands of Anishinaabe children in Michigan were forcibly removed from their tribal communities to attend that school and others, often many hours away from their tribe and family. In an attempt to assimilate the Indigenous children, their hair was cut, their clothing replaced with more “white attire,” their given names replaced with English names. They were pressured to exclusively speak English and were punished for speaking their own language.

On top of abuse, starvation, poor living conditions and sometimes death, this treatment of entire generations of Indigenous people resulted — as planned — with a significant blow to Indigenous identity, wisdom, language, customs and culture, survivors said.

It also came with deep intergenerational trauma that Native families and individuals still grapple with today.

“We have many children that experienced this horrific process have an inability to connect with who they were as Indian people and a loss of their identity as Native people,” said Wenona T. Singel, MSU associate professor of law, associate director of the Indigenous Law & Policy Center and a citizen of the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians (LTBB).

Singel walked the audience through the historical context of boarding schools amid a slideshow of historic photographs depicting children who had been forced to attend the schools. She emphasized that the schools were part of the federal government’s “kill the Indian, save the man” policy for 150 years that presented a “cheaper” alternative to killing Native Americans in battle.

“These truths are so painful that many cannot share them during their lifetimes,” Singel said.

Under U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, there has been an effort since 2021 to reveal the depths of experiences at these institutions, marking the federal government’s first formal investigation and documentation of the boarding school system, decades after the last school stopped enrolling Indigenous children.

The Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative seeks to compile records and information, make the historical truths widely available, and aid in the healing process for survivors and their families.

Bronson C. Herman of the Native Justice Coalition told the Advance that more of these panels are on the horizon in Michigan, where non-Native people are welcome to attend, listen and share what they have learned with their communities.

is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Michigan Advance maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Susan Demas for questions: info@michiganadvance.com. Follow Michigan Advance on and .

Following a late Monday night shooting that killed three Michigan State University students and injured five more — mere miles from the state’s Capital of Lansing — Democratic lawmakers are vowing to deliver more than empty words in order to prevent another tragedy.

“F—k your thoughts and prayers,” reads the opening line of a late-night from House Majority Whip Ranjeev Puri (D-Canton).

“ … Thoughts and prayers without action and change are meaningless. Our office will continue to work tirelessly to pass common sense gun reform immediately. We will not stop until our students can attend school without fear, our communities can attend places of worship in peace, and our society is safe from senseless gun violence.”

State Rep. Kelly Breen (D-Novi) echoed Puri’s sentiments in a , writing: “Policy & change. F—k your thoughts and prayers. I will not mince words.”

Democrats hold slim majorities in both the House and Senate. For the first time in about 40 years, they have a governing trifecta along with Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and have vowed to take action on gun control measures that have long stalled in Michigan, such as safe storage and so-called “red flag” laws.

The gunman, Anthony McRae, who police said is not affiliated with the university, opened fire in MSU’s Berkey Hall at 8:18 p.m. Two students were killed there.

The suspect then moved next door to the MSU student union and opened fire again, where another student was killed.

MSU Police on Tuesday afternoon  the names of the three students killed: Brian Fraser, a sophomore from Grosse Pointe, Alexandria Verner, a junior from Clawson, and Arielle Anderson, a sophomore from Harper Woods.*

Five more injured victims — all students — are still in critical condition as of Tuesday morning, and four have required surgical  at Lansing’s Sparrow Hospital.

MSU classes are canceled until Monday, Feb. 20.

“I am angry that the safety and security of Michigan State University has been shattered by the uniquely American scourge of gun violence,” said House Speaker Joe Tate (D-Detroit), who graduated from MSU.

“ … This is not a new phenomenon, and the people who elected us to help lead the state have no patience for inaction. … We have a choice. We can continue to debate the reasons for gun violence in America, or we can act. We cannot continue to do the same thing over and over again and hope for a different outcome,” Tate said.

There have so far been  nationwide in the first 45 days of 2023 alone.

McRae, 43, was found by law enforcement roughly three hours after the shooting in East Lansing. After being confronted, police  he fatally shot himself.

Whitmer, an MSU alum who ordered U.S. and Michigan flags across the state to be lowered to half-staff until further notice on Tuesday, said in statements Tuesday morning that “the whole state of Michigan is wrapping its arms around the Spartan community today.”

“This is a uniquely American problem. Too many of us scan rooms for exits when we enter them. We plan who that last text or call would go to. We should not, we cannot, accept living like this,” Whitmer said.

She and U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Lansing) spoke at the MSU police briefing Tuesday morning. 

Law enforcement have so far not been able to find a motive for the shooting. According to the Detroit News, McRae was  with multiple gun-related crimes in 2019.

Attorney General Dana Nessel has twin sons who attend MSU. She told CNN on Tuesday that one of them had just left one of the locations on campus shortly before shots were fired.

“As a parent, there is no greater fear than having your child tell you there is an active shooter at their school. I experienced this terror along with thousands of other MSU families last night,” Nessel said in a statement. “While my Spartan sons are safe, I am mourning the devastating loss and senseless violence.  The events at Michigan State University are a tragedy for the entire state of Michigan. My thoughts are with the victims, their families, friends, and loved ones.”

Senate Majority Leader Winnie Brinks (D-Grand Rapids) also has a child who attends MSU.

“As the mom of an MSU student, I’m watching with dread as the events on and around campus are unfolding, so grateful and relieved my daughter is answering my texts and calls. My heart is breaking for the parents whose children have been injured or killed,” Brinks .

American Federation of Teachers (AFT) President Randi Weingarten and David Hecker, AFT Michigan president, demanded that politicians take immediate action on gun control.

“The tragedy at Michigan State demands immediate action from our state and federal lawmakers,” Weingarten and Hecker said in a joint statement. “We cannot become numb and accept this violence as normal. We cannot allow politics to hold us back from acting. Too many lives have been taken because of gun violence and too little has been done. Our elected officials need to act and push through common sense gun violence prevention legislation that will save lives.”

Similar sentiments were echoed by U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Lansing) and groups including Michigan Education Association (MEA), MSU Administrative Professionals Association, Campaign for a Safer Michigan, Detroit Action, Michigan Health & Hospital Association (MHA), Progress Michigan and more.

Mitchell Robinson, a Democratic member of the State Board of Education in Michigan,  that his two sons were on campus when the shooting began; one was in the Union and heard the shots. Robinson said both of his sons are safe.

President Joe Biden’s press secretary said on Twitter that Biden  with Whitmer Monday night following the shooting. Whitmer also confirmed that at the press conference Tuesday morning.

“Last night, I spoke to Governor Whitmer and directed the deployment of all necessary federal law enforcement to support local and state response efforts. I assured her that we would continue to provide the resources and support needed in the weeks ahead,” Biden said in a statement later on Tuesday.

” … As I said in my State of the Union address last week, Congress must do something and enact commonsense gun law reforms, including requiring background checks on all gun sales, banning assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, closing loopholes in our background check system, requiring safe storage of guns, and eliminating immunity for gun manufacturers who knowingly put weapons of war on our streets. Action is what we owe to those grieving today in Michigan and across America,” Biden continued.*

Republicans, now in the minority in the Michigan Legislature, also offered some words of support for victims but did not offer plans of action.

“Today, we are all Spartans,” reads the lone statement from the House GOP caucus on Twitter.

State Sens. Aric  (R-Porter Twp.) and Mark  (R-Walker) issued statements of their own, with Nesbitt writing that “parents and community leaders [are] desperately searching for ways to prevent these senseless attacks on the innocent.”

Some Republicans in Congress also responded.

U.S. Sen. Lisa McClain (R-Romeo) also  that she is “heartbroken” and is praying for the MSU community and families affected.

“This culture of violence and murder must stop,”  U.S. Rep. John James (R-Farmington Hills).

is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Michigan Advance maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Susan Demas for questions: info@michiganadvance.com. Follow Michigan Advance on and .

The American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan (ACLU) sent a letter Tuesday urging Michigan’s public school district leaders to “to affirm your commitment to public education, the First Amendment, and the welfare of all students in your community by resisting” efforts to ban books in schools.

“When school officials attempt to create a ‘sanitized’ learning space by eliminating controversial texts from school libraries, they undermine this critical function of public education,” wrote Loren Khogali, ACLU of Michigan executive director. “And when books can be removed based on parents’ complaints about the author’s message or point of view, it paves the way for an unending series of attempts by one group or another to cleanse a school of reading material based on what a vocal faction finds objectionable.”

In addition to Khogali, the letter was signed by ACLU of Michigan Legal Director Dan Korobkin and ACLU of Michigan staff attorney Jay Kaplan.

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The ACLU’s letter was sent to hundreds of superintendents and school board presidents throughout the state, State Superintendent Michael Rice and Michigan Board of Education President Casandra Ulbrich.

Organized efforts to challenge certain books from school libraries, many of which are books that contain LGBTQ+ characters or themes, have grown since last school year.

A recent from PEN America — an organization that advocates for the protection of free speech — found that from July 2021 to June 2022 there were 2,532 instances of individual books being banned in 32 states.

Michigan, which ranked sixth in the nation for most books bans, had 41 book bans in four districts in the first nine months of the 2021-22 school year.

“In the end, schools become another arena for political warfare, rather than a space of learning for our youth. Neither students nor their communities are well-served by this practice,” the letter reads.

is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Michigan Advance maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Susan Demas for questions: info@michiganadvance.com. Follow Michigan Advance on and .