Seasonal prevention focus

To the Editor:

As the 2012 summer kicks off, families will be enjoying cookouts, pool parties and trips to the beach.  

This time of year is a good time to remind others of two important risks which lead to child deaths from neglect every year.  

Drowning is one of the leading causes of accidental child deaths, yet child drownings are totally preventable. Designate a water watcher to ensure an adult is always responsible for child supervision. It is important to recognize it is actually a risk when multiple adults are nearby water with children because each adult assumes somebody else is watching the children.  

Fatalities also increase during the summer months due to children being left in hot cars. It might sound unbelievable, but parents do forget about children being in the backseat. This is another completely preventative child death.

There are things you can do in your community to help ensure this does not happen in your area.  One idea is to put up signs up in local daycares to remind the parent who does not regularly drop off the kids to daycare to check the backseat.

Make the 2012 summer season safe and please support community child abuse prevention efforts in your neighborhood! For more information go to: www.osceolakids.com

Joy Chuba, executive director, Osceola Children’s Advocacy Center, Kissimmee

Non-partisan election petition is a sham

To the Editor:

I urge the Osceola County commissioners to vote against placing the (Kissimmee/Osceola County) Chamber of Commerce supported nonpartisan amendment issue on the ballot because it is a sham.

What the short version of the petition fails to mention is that the proposed amendment would allow the position of Osceola County commissioner to be elected without ever facing a general election vote. The amendment states non-partisan elections, but the full text of the amendment specifies that a candidate receiving a majority of votes in the primary election need not face the non-partisan voters in a general election.  Florida primary election voters tend to be party affiliated. Independent voters tend not to vote in primary elections because they are not allowed to vote in the Democratic nor Republican primaries. By allowing the election of county commissioners to occur in primary as opposed general elections, they would in effect be disenfranchising the independent Osceola County voters from voting in County Commission elections. Why is does the short version of the petition fail to say this?  This amendment as worded in the full text favors the election of county commissioners by voters having political party affiliation at the expense of those voters who choose to remain independent. Because of this oversight, the petition should be declared to be illegal and the county commissioners should vote to protect the public from this injustice.

Keith Laytham

Poinciana