Bill to aid police in communicating with cognitively impaired

HANSON — When Laurie Hammond’s 14-year-old son is ready to take driver’s education and get his license, she knows he’ll face some added challenges should he ever have an encounter with police in traffic situations.

He has a form of autism — pervasive developmental disorder/not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS), which affects communication skills.

Hammond, from Hanson, researched the issue of drivers with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and developed a petition seeking a state law providing for placement of a voluntary symbol on drivers’ licenses indicating ASD or other cognitive disorders. Among the petition’s hundreds of signers were many law enforcement officers.

State Rep. Josh Cutler, D-Duxbury, filed a bill seeking the symbol with the Statehouse Clerk on Friday, Aug. 28.

“This symbol will provide the interacting officer with the knowledge that the operator of this motor vehicle may respond or behave in a unique manner,” stated Cutler’s  Legislative Aide   Richard Branca. “The legislation works to actively communicate between driver and police officer and we hope it will prevent potential miscommunication that could result in arrests or physical altercations  between driver and officer.”

“I’m seeing the need for it,” Hammond said of the symbol, much like that of an organ donor symbol on licenses. “After speaking with some law enforcement officers, I quickly got the impression that they do not have enough training. They also don’t know what to look for.”

The symbol should be something, such as a color-coded bar, that is not obvious to the casual observer but one first-responders and police would be trained to notice. Other cognitive disorders or disabilities such as deafness could also be noted by such symbols, Hammond said.

“It’s also gonig to protect law enforcement because they don’t always know what they’re dealing with,” she said. “It’s kind of a win-win.”

Similar laws have been enacted in other states, including Virginia and Texas.

Her son, and many other people on the spectrum, have a tendency to ask a lot of questions, perseverate over issues, and make infrequent eye contact, according to Hammond.

“After reading many articles on the subject and speaking with law enforcement. I realized that this could be problematic if a driver were to get pulled over for a routine traffic stop,” she said. “My son and a lot of his friends on the spectrum are going to look noncompliant — I know them well. They’re not going to do it on purpose.”

The lack of eye contact could make an officer believe the driver is nervous and may be hiding something, when this is clearly not the case. They may ask a lot of questions or behave or react in a way which makes them look non-compliant to the police officer, resulting in a sequence of events that could be frightening and dangerous.

They also have a black-and-white view of things, so intimidation and sarcasm are misunderstood. She noted a video she has seen in which a police officer asked an ASD person if they waived their rights, only to be puzzled when the person began waving at him.

“He’s waving because he’s being very literal-minded and an officer might take this as being noncompliant and obnoxious, when it’s not the case,” she said.

She sees the license symbol as a way of informing police who they are dealing with, while providing a level of comfort to the autistic person with whom they are interacting.

Her research indicates those with an ASD are seven times more likely to have contact with law enforcement. One in 68 is now diagnosed with an ASD.

“This is going to apply to a lot of drivers,” Hammond said.

The second annual Conley School Color Fun Run will be held Saturday, Sept. 19 with an 8:30 a.m. start from Whitman-Hanson Regional High School. This event is sponsored by the Conley Elementary School Parent Advisory Council (PAC) with all proceeds to benefit the Conley Elementary School.

This even is not timed. It is a 5K fun run/walk in which the participants will be blasted with color. All participants are encouraged to wear as much white as possible.

Those who register by Sept. 4, will receive a free Conley Color 5K T-shirt. The cost for the event is $25 per adult, $15 per student. Register at: Conleycolor5K.racewire.com. After Friday, Sept. 11 the registration fee will increase to $30 per person and will be available only if Color Fun Run is not sold out. T-shirts are limited.

Bib number and T-shirt pickup will be available Thursday and Friday, Sept. 17 and18 at the Conley School (details to follow). Last minute number pickup and race day registration, if available, is at 7:30 a.m. on race day.

Entertainment will be provided before and after the race and for those not participating. Children must be accompanied by an adult.

HANSON — New Hanson firefighters Christopher Harris and Tyler Bryant were sworn in by Town Clerk Beth Sloan.

Harris’ badge was pinned on by his mother and Bryant’s by his fiancée.

“Congratuations to our two newest firefighters and their proud families who were here to witness it,” Selectmen Chairman Bruce Young said after they took their oath.

Fire Chief Jerome Thompson Jr., thanked the board for the ceremony in his remarks.

“As we know, we’ve gone through some significant personnel changes, so they’re not the ‘newest,’ they’re ‘newer,’” Thompson said.

Thompson and the four department lieutenants interviewed each candidate, asking questions and evaluating their knowledge of EMS and situational scenarios, rating them on their performance and establishing a hiring list.

“We’re fortunate to have dual-trained firefighters — they’re firefighter/paramedics — and they come to us they are already trained as paramedics,” he said, adding that paramedic training is a requirement. The two things that get them to the swearing-in ceremony is passage of the nine-week firefighter academy course, both were members of recruit class 223 in February, and a one-year probationary period.

“I’m proud to say they did a pretty good job and their probationary period was over in July,” Thompson said.

A Plympton native, Harris was a call firefighter for five years and had worked for a private ambulance company “in a busy 911 system,” according to Thompson. Bryant grew up in Hanson and had been a student intern with the department through the WHRHS Community Service Learning program and also worked for a private ambulance service, but prior to being hired by HFD, had been a career firefighter in Halifax.

— Tracy F. Seelye

HANSON — Selectmen on Tuesday, Aug. 18, closed the warrant for the Monday, Oct. 5 special Town Meeting, placing and recommending 26 articles while placing holds on three others and removing one, which called for $1.5 million in raising or borrowing to demolish the Plymouth County Hospital.

“One of the most important things for anything to do with town meeting is where’s the funding going to come from,” said interim Town Administrator Richard LaCamera. He and Executive Assistant Meredith Marini had worked during the day on Aug. 18 to outline the funding source for each article for the board’s review.

“We’re fortunate that we received FEMA reimbursement from the [January] storm of $135,500, which means the tax levy now becomes available because we had to use the tax levy in order to offset the cost of those storms,” LaCamera said. “The Assessors notified us today that the new growth is $118,000 more than was used at [annual] Town Meeting.”

He explained that means there is $303,000 available through raise and appropriate that will not have to come from free cash, which has not yet been certified, to fund some articles.

LaCamera said, however, that the town should have about $200,000 available in free cash for the October Town Meeting. Another $302,441 is slated to come from raise and appropriate with the remainder of expenditures to come from other sources such as the Water Department.

Regarding financial issues surrounding the PCH demolition, LaCamera said demolition bonds must be paid in five years, not the 20 years Selectman Don Howard had argued might be possible to clear the site for possible development. Razing and renovation, by contrast, could be bonded over 15 years.

“We need to focus on the highway building first, and then focus on Plymouth County Hospital,” Selectman Kenny Mitchell said in advocating removal of the article. “We can’t take on two big projects all at once.”

He noted there are too many proposals on the table now. Selectman Bill Scott agreed, also arguing the town should more aggressively market PCH to potential developers.

Selectmen Chairman Bruce Young suggested the town might help fund demolition of the PCH building by auctioning off other tax title properties.

Selectmen voted 4-0-1 to remove the article and revisit it for the May Town Meeting to further research the financial issues and reword the article, with Howard not voting.

Among the articles placed on the warrant and recommended by selectmen were: $12,100 for Hanson’s 41.7-percent share in reimbursing the school district for a new water heater at WHRHS; $79,841 to reimburse the school district for repairs not covered by insurance in repairing damage cause by a clogged waste pipe at Hanson Middle School in the spring; and a by-law restricting service of selectmen.

Among the holds placed, for Town Meeting voters to decide, was an article to spend $10,000 for a study of Wampatuck Pond; investigating Main Street water flow and utilities for the food pantry.

The Hanson Food Pantry is seeking $10,000, but the article is for $25,000 due to a shortfall in the utility line item stemming from other town issues from lighting retrofitting. While the board supports leaving the issue to voters at Town Meeting, Scott expressed concern that the town might be setting a precedent for other nonprofit requests in the future.

Howard, who said Wampatuck’s water quality has improved a bit over the years, and Mitchell questioned the pond study article. Mitchell argued grant funds should be sought.

Selectman James McGahan argued that the DEP does not require specific action resulting from a study, so it would be something worth doing on such a heavily used pond.

“If you’re going to test one, you should test them all,” Howard said. He suggested a hold to further investigate a letter from state Rep. Josh Cutler, D-Duxbury, which notified the town of state grants for pond testing.

In other business, the board voted 5-0 to appoint Hanson resident Roberta Bartholdson as assistant director of elder affairs, a 19-hour per week position. Former Town Administrator Ron San Angelo made the recommendation after a group of five candidates — from a field of 23 applicants — were interviewed by San Angelo, Director of Elder Affairs Mary Collins and Marini.

“They were all great applicants. Any one of them could have done the job, but [Bartholdson] seemed like a perfect fit,” Marini said.

“I know her — a very good selection,” said Young.

“Her resume is quite impressive,” agreed McGahan.

Collins said Bartholdson would have to give a two-week notice at current employer, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care where she has worked as an executive assistant for 25 years, before she could start.

Selectmen also accepted the donation of a new shed, valued at $2,500, to the Senior Center from a couple who volunteer at the center.

The meeting was broadcast over Whitman-Hanson Community Access television.

HANSON — In a famous early television sketch, an overseer pauses while thrashing Roman galley slaves toiling at the oars, to ask them, “Is everybody happy?”

Is it possible that some might have been?

Can mass murderers claim to have been happy in their lives? Does anybody really know what happiness is — and can we be mistaken in our assumptions?

Hanson residents and philosophy professors Jennifer Wilson Mulnix (UMass, Dartmouth) and her husband M.J. Mulnix (Salem State University) examine the issue in their new book, “Happy Lives, Good Lives,” [Broadview Press, June 2015, 300 pages trade paperback, $24.57] through the examination of seemingly disparate examples such as mass killer Ted Bundy, physicist Stephen Hawking, Hugh Hefner, the Dalai Lama and fictional Truman Burbank from the 1998 film “The Truman Show.”

They hope readers glean a broader understanding of what happiness is and things they could do to now to make themselves happier as well as understanding the value we place on happiness.

“Where do we place happiness in our lives?” M.J. said.

Both are originally from the Midwest.

A professor specializing on the mind and what we know, Jennifer graduated from the University of Nebraska, Omaha and earned her master’s degree in philosophy from the University of Iowa. She became interested in philosophy as a high school student because she found it was challenging.

Teaching courses focused on value theory and morality, Michael, who goes by M.J., is a native of Denver, Colorado, and a graduate of Cornell College in Mount Vernon, Iowa. He, too, went on to the University of Iowa where he earned his master’s and Ph.D. He came to study philosophy almost by accident, taking his first class in the subject as a college sophomore and finding his interest had been piqued.

“It turns out that getting a philosophy degree pays pretty well,” he said. Tied with math, by mid-career, philosophy majors are among the highest earners, they noted, because of the critical-thinking skills instilled by the subject and ability to work independently.

Their careers brought them to Massachusetts and, ultimately, to Hanson.

“I’m down in Dartmouth and [he’s] up in Salem,” Jennifer said by way of explanation of how they came to move to Hanson almost eight years ago.

“We kind of like the feel of the town,” M.J. added.

The couple intends to provide copies of “Happy Lives, Good Lives” to the Hanson Public Library. They hope to do author talks at some area libraries, as well.

“This isn’t the area I studied when I was in grad school,” Jennifer said. “I focused my research initially on theories of the mind and knowledge, then as I started teaching I wanted to focus more on the practical elements of philosophy like … how we live a meaningful or valuable life.”

That led to her study of happiness.

“I felt my students could benefit from it and there wasn’t a lot out there on it,” she said. Much of the writing on happiness came under the self-help genre and she wanted to focus on its meaning.

“We both decided, especially for people who might not have much access to philosophy — or much introduction to it — this is a way to show what philosophy is about,” M.J. added. “What it means to have happiness in your life, what’s under your control and what isn’t.”

“All of us want to be happy, but many of us haven’t thought about what that means,” Jennifer said.

The book, designed for a broad audience — not just for college philosophy students — aims to bring the reader to a greater understanding of what they think happiness is and common causes and strategies for achieving a happier life.

“The Truman Show” — which has also been studied for themes such as Christianity, media ethics, existentialism and psychology — features a character adopted by a media corporation for the purpose of raising him, without his knowledge, as a reality TV character.

“One of our brainstorms for the book was to start each chapter with an interesting case study of someone who brought up questions about happiness,” M.J. said.

“What we found is, when you start thinking about happiness, you have these questions,” Jennifer said. “Do you have to be moral to be happy? Does your life actually have to be going the way you think it’s going to be happy? Do you have to have a reflective set of goals? Each case pushes those questions.”

Those who feel Truman was happy in his artificial life may be happy themselves, despite a life that’s not going the way they think it is ,because they view happiness as purely an internal state of mind, they write.

Bundy raises the question of whether one must be moral to be happy.

“Some people think happiness has to be the same for everyone, and that’s one of the questions we raise in the book,” she said. “Is happiness different for different people or do we all have to follow the same path?”

They also explore the more commonly conflicted thoughts surrounding childbirth or the coping with other physical pain such as Hawking’s ALS.

“Is it possible that someone could say that, while giving birth, it is the most painful but also the happiest moment in her life,” M.J. said. “If you make sense of that, maybe happiness isn’t — as the hedonists would say — just about experiencing pleasure and not experiencing pain.”

WATD’s ‘Morning Tour’ closes season in town

MARSHFIELD —  This summer has seen them travel to Hanover, Weymouth and Marshfield, and the WATD (95.9 FM) Morning News hosts Rob Hakala and Lisa Azizian will close out the season’s South Shore Morning Tour from the lawn of Whitman Town Hall on Friday, Aug. 28.

While the Town Hall itself is closed on Fridays, the station will be open to talking with Whitman officials, business owners and notable residents during their on-air time from 6 to 10 a.m.  They’re also going to he handing out free Honey Dew coffee and cinnamon stick pastries as well as offering residents a chance to give a prize wheel a spin for WATD prizes or gift certificates from local businesses. Whitman-Hanson Community Access TV hopes to similcast the show on Channel 12.

“We’re really looking forward to it,” said Azizian shortly after the duo signed off their show for the day on Monday, Aug. 17.

“We didn’t start this until last year,” Hakala said of the tour, similar to the Fox 25 Zip Trips. “It’s a radio version — it’s kind of a fun thing that we do to get out on the road and see people and visit the towns of the South Shore.”

The station covers more than 20 towns in the region.

They limit the Morning Tour to one per month, the last Friday of each month between May and August, because of the work involved in setting up remote broadcasts. On Thursday, Aug.13, Azizian and two engineers met with Town Administrator Frank Lynam to work out the logistics for power and Internet connections for a day when the Town Hall is closed to the public.

“We’ll be set up right there on the lawn,” she said.  “We’ll have a big tent. Rob and I broadcast from under the tent. You get to learn about the town from current events to history.”

“We’re very excited to come in,” Hakala said. “It’s fun to be on the radio and we take pictures for the website, but it’s fun to go out and meet people because we’re [in studio] four hours a day.”

The list of Whitman guests is still being finalized. While Lynam will be on vacation, Azizian and Hakala are hoping to arrange a mike-side visit with Superintendent of Schools Dr. Ruth Gilbert-Whitner on what will be the second day of the 2015-16 school year.

“We’ve been very lucky with our guest line up,” Azizian said. “It’s also a chance for folks to see what we do. We only meet listeners when we’re out on the road, so it’s a wonderful opportunity for us to say hi to people and for them to see what goes into a broadcast.”

That was one of the goals of the Morning Tour.

“It’s really a day for everyone to come out,” Hakala agreed. “We’re going to be out supporting local businesses.”