LANSING, Mich.  May 31 2021— A bipartisan bill moving through the Michigan legislature aims to create school safety requirements one mother says could have saved the life of her daughter.

While inspections are required for cars, elevators, school buses, and many more things in Michigan, there are currently no annual health and safety inspections required in Michigan’s schools. Now, a mother who has never stopped fighting for her kids is fighting to change that.

Lilliana Kerr was just three years old. She was a picky eater, fearless, loved to play dress-up, loved singing and dancing, Mickey Mouse, and Frozen.

“She was extremely smart,” Tabatha Kerr, her mother said. “I would sit on the chair with her, and one of her favorite books was actually a dictionary. And she would go through the pages and she would point at a word and I would tell her what the word was.”

Her mother dropped her and twin sister Tieranie off at an early learning education center on January 20, 2017. They were supposed to go bowling for the first time later that day. They never got the chance.

“Within a couple of hours I got the phone call” Tabatha recalled.

A recalled A-frame cafeteria table had fallen on Lilliana. Just like that, she was gone.

“If she was just two inches away she would’ve been fine. The corner of the table hit her,” Tabatha said.

The loss left a hole not just for her mom and brother, but for Tieranie.

“Her twin sister pretty much had to relearn her life as a twin-less twin,” Tabatha said

Lilliana’s case has been classified as a “never event,” but it happened – and it’s not the first time. In 2007, a rusted flagpole fell on a five-year-old Michigan girl and killed her.

Every day that lawmakers have been in session for the last few weeks, Tabatha has taken her chair, wagon, and a handful of posters to the Michigan State Capitol lawn. She sits all day until she has to head back home to the Detroit suburb she lives in. During her day, she makes conversation with the people who come across the lawn and occasionally confronts lawmakers about HB 4167, known as “Lilliana’s Law.”

“It was my way of letting them know that I’m watching and I’m waiting for them to vote,” Tabatha said.

Lilliana’s Law would require annual health and safety checks at Michigan schools.

Sponsor Ryan Berman, R-Commerce Twshp., took over the bill from his predecessor, who had been unsuccessful in passing it during his term in the Michigan House. Rep. Berman, a father himself, sees the legislation as common sense.

“I’m not one to give up. It’s going to continue to be working on this bill to try to get it passed,” Berman said.

While some schools take it upon themselves to do their own inspections, many don’t.

Tieranie Kerr and brother Jayden Jones visit the grave of their sister Lilliana, who would have been eight on May 23, 2021. Photo courtesy of Tabatha Kerr.

Thus far, special interests have blocked the bill for at least two terms now, citing costs. The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, plus school lobbyists and superintendents, have specifically pushed back on the bill, according to Berman.

Tabatha points out that while there would need to be an investment to get safety inspections in schools, some schools are already paying for the repercussions of not having inspections in place in the form of repercussions of children’s injuries and deaths, like medical expenses, public relations, and payouts in some cases.

Lilliana’s Law looked like it was going to be voted on in the Michigan House this week, but after a push from outside groups, it was referred back to the House Committee on Rules and Competitiveness.

“They’re playing games with our children’s safety,” Tabatha said. “If you have a business, you get surprise inspections. You get inspections on top of inspections. We don’t get that in the education system.”

As of the writing of this article, there is no publicly available number on how many children in Michigan have been injured or killed in schools.

sbgtv.com

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