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Sept. 9, 2022 | Vol. 3 Iss. 36
Miller, Huntsman donate $1 million for teen centers
By Becky Ginos becky.g@davisjournal.com
FARMINGTON—There are 1,300 children in Davis County who are experiencing homelessness, making it difficult to come to school and succeed. The Davis Education Foundation has worked to create teen resource centers that offer those students the help they need to reach their full potential and to give them hope for the future. The first center opened at Clearfield High in April 2021. Now with a $1 million joint donation from the Larry H. & Gail Miller Foundation and the Huntsman Foundation there will be five more with plans to construct three more at Syracuse, Bountiful and Viewmont high schools. Gail Miller and the Huntsmans were recognized for their donation at Tuesday night’s school board meeting. “This is an opportunity to honor amazing people who believe in our children,” said Davis Education Foundation Executive Director Jodi Lunt. “This $1 million will give children hope for a brighter future and level the playing field for things that are out of their control.” Teen Centers offer students a safe place to study, do laundry, eat and have access to counselors and other resources. Centers at Northridge High, Layton High, Mountain High and the Renaissance Academy opened in the fall. The Woods Cross High teen center is under construction. “We couldn’t have put five in this year,” Lunt said. “You got us on our way. This money will allow us to complete the other
DAVID HUNTSMAN SPEAKS TO THE board with his sister Christena Huntsman Durham (left) and Gail Miller by his side. The Huntsman Foundation and the Larry H. & Gail Miller Foundation made a $1 million joint donation to build teen centers in the Davis School District.
Photo by Roger V. Tuttle
three. Thank you for valuing and investing in children in the Davis School District.” This is humbling, said Miller. “I can say I know a little bit about poverty. My parents married in 1928 and had their first child in 1929. They had five children during the Depression. We had no money or possessions to speak of. That’s why I want to be involved here with these student efforts.” What the world needs now is love, she said. “We need to serve each other and do everything in our power to provide a safe and secure place where they can have a fulfilling future. I hope this center is temporary for them, that they can realize their
dreams and have success so they can elevate the community and watch out for the next generation.” “We did the easy part,” said Huntsman. “What an example this is in Davis County. We see it as an investment not a donation. We believe in investing in people early on to give them the tools to succeed and do the best they can.” It’s so easy for teens to be discouraged, said Miller. “They think, ‘what’s the use? I'm an outcast’ they’re hungry and don’t have a place to sleep. It makes it hard to come to school and fight those battles every day. This gives them a chance to become part of the student body.”
Davis County should be the model for everyone throughout the state, said Huntsman. “They’re doing it right.” Homelessness is a silent and pervasive problem in Davis County, said Lunt. “They need a place where they can get wraparound services where they can feel warm and safe to ensure they stay in school.” Lunt also announced plans for a 16 bed facility in Layton for overnight teen resources. “Everyone leaned in to do what’s right,” she said. These students are the most vulnerable, said Lunt. “They aren’t children who are in trouble, they just need someone to reach out to them.” l
9/11 memorial evokes emotions from that day By Becky Ginos becky.g@davisjournal.com FARMINGTON—Everyone who is old enough remembers where they were when the towers fell on Sept. 11 and the aftermath that followed. Davis Remembers – the 911 project, a memorial exhibit on the events of that day, opened Sept. 7 and runs through Sept. 10 at the Legacy Events Center in Farmington. “I was on a mission in Santiago Chili on Sept. 11,” said Jennie Taylor, founder of the Major Brent Taylor Foundation whose husband was killed in Afghanistan in 2018. “This exhibit is to remember, experience and commit. It is meant to push you to look with an intent to commit all that frustration and hurt Please see 911: pg. 7
JENNIE TAYLOR, founder of the Major Brent Taylor Foundation, whose husband was killed in Afghanistan in 2018, stands in front of one of the exhibits.
Photo by Becky Ginos
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NEWS BREAK More Americans express approval of labor unions
Seventy-one percent of Americans now approve of labor unions. Although statistically similar to last year’s 68%, it is up from 64% before the pandemic and is the highest Gallup has recorded on this measure since 1965. These data are from Gallup’s annual Work and Education survey, collected Aug. 1-23. The latest approval figure comes amid a burst of 2022 union victories across the country, with high-profile successes at major American corporations such as Amazon and Starbucks. The National Labor Relations Board reported a 57% increase in union election petitions filed during the first six months of fiscal year 2021. Support for labor unions was highest in the 1950s, when three in four Americans said they approved. Support only dipped below the 50% mark once, in 2009, but has improved in the 13 years since and now sits at a level last seen nearly 60 years ago.
Red flag laws seldom used in the nation
Chicago is one of the nation’s gun violence hotspots and a seemingly ideal place to employ Illinois’ “red flag” law that allows police to step in and take firearms away from people who threaten to kill. But amid more than 8,500 shootings resulting in 1,800 deaths since 2020, the law was used there just four times. It’s a pattern that’s played out in New Mexico, with nearly 600 gun homicides during that period and a mere eight uses of its red flag law. And in Massachusetts, with nearly 300 shooting homicides and just 12 uses of its law. An Associated Press analysis found many U.S. states barely use the red flag laws touted as the most powerful tool to stop gun violence before it happens, a trend blamed on a lack of awareness of the laws and resistance by some authorities to enforce them even as shootings and gun deaths soar.
Student test scores much lower after pandemic
Math and reading scores for 9 year olds in the U.S. fell between 2020 and 2022 by a level not seen in decades, a foreboding sign of the state of American education two years after the COVID-19 pandemic began. The results were part of the National Assessment of Educational Progress long-term trend reading and math exams, often called the “Nation’s Report Card,” conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics. The exams were administered to age-9 students in early 2020 before the pandemic and then again in early 2022, the group said. The average scores in 2022 declined 5 points in reading and 7 points in math compared to 2020 – the largest decline in reading since 1990 and the first ever decline in math, the organization said.