Regarding the March 10 Metro article “Autistic man in Md. fatally shot by police”:
A man with autism experiencing a suicidal crisis called police for a wellness check. He was fatally shot by three police officers after he approached them while holding a knife. This shooting was not warranted.
I am the grandmother of a young man with autism. I also worked for 28 years as an art teacher, working primarily with at-risk, learning-disabled students, including some with autism. The vast majority of young people with disabilities have gone through many, many struggles that most of the public will never appreciate, and those struggles include bullying, depression, anxiety and general disdain from others. They, and their families, are some of the hardest-working people you could ever meet, and most have very kind hearts and just want to be accepted by others.
This is a terrible tragedy. Violent approaches to solving problems, especially the killing of a vulnerable person in crisis, are unacceptable.
Pamela Michaels, Smithsburg, Maryland
Teachers need AI education
Regarding Jenny Anderson and Rebecca Winthrop’s March 10 online op-ed, “Schools are teaching AI — and making a massive mistake”:
The use of artificial intelligence is something I see every day at the high school where I teach. What students (and the wider American public) might not realize is that young people aren’t the only ones using it. Teachers are using it, too.
I cannot tell you how many meetings I have had to attend where the sole purpose is to introduce us teachers to another AI tool. Administrators are proactively encouraging teachers to use AI to benefit their students. However, just like our students, we aren’t being educated on the costs.
That is the only way to give teachers (not only students) agency to do something with AI in a more educated way. Teachers desperately need a more thorough lesson that prioritizes explaining how AI can be used to further educational outcomes and learning as opposed to reducing it to another “tool.”
Gabriel Nitro, Berkeley, California
Reassessing Maryland’s bus mandate
Regarding the March 5 editorial “Maryland’s electric school bus debacle”:
As a parent, I want my children to ride the cleanest school bus possible. Maryland should be lauded for mandating emission reductions in the school bus fleet. The limited delivery of electric school buses is not a fatal flaw of the program. And Montgomery County is not the only jurisdiction in the region that has been forced by budget constraints and timelines to purchase new diesel school bus fleets rather than alternative fuel fleets.
I’ve repeatedly heard legislators and regulators decry alternative fuels as an unacceptable “half-step” to decarbonization and particulate emission reductions. Allowing the perfect to be the enemy of the good is a mistake. Maryland could be reasonably faulted for mandating a single technology as the solution, rather than allowing multiple solutions to achieve crucial clean-air goals.
As an advocate for biodiesel and renewable diesel, I would like to see Maryland and other local jurisdictions mandate use of low-carbon fuels that are available today. These cleaner, better fuels can cut particulate emissions in half. Using a range of available technologies could serve as a stepping stone toward the zero-emission goal in the future.
Paul Winters, Fairfax
The writer is director of public affairs and federal communications for Clean Fuels Alliance America.
Regarding the March 2 Metro article “Md. district eyeing diesels”:
Less than four years after being enacted, Maryland’s Climate Solutions Now Act is showing its shortcomings.
The Climate Solutions Now Act dictated bus choices for pupil transportation, assuming zero-emissions buses were superior to other technologies and would meet all needs. The kicker of this state law is that its requirements can be met only if someone else (the federal government or private sector) helps to pay for it because of the much higher costs of zero-emissions buses compared with diesel. Or, in the case of Montgomery County Public Schools, a technology (electric bus) that cannot get the job done results in a waiver.
The MCPS’s finding that “current electric bus technology is not fully capable of meeting all of our transportation demands, particularly for longer routes, field trips and midday services that exceed charging capacities” was well-known before the state and county policy was implemented.
Investments in advanced diesel buses will best ensure that MCPS can live up to its stated primary focus: “ensuring safe, timely and reliable transportation for the more than 103,000 students we serve daily.”
According to our latest data, 84 percent of diesel school buses serving Maryland pupils today are the newest generation of advanced diesel buses, achieving near-zero emissions. That ranks Maryland seventh in the nation for having the cleanest diesel fleet.
To be more sustainable, bus fleets can switch to blends of renewable biodiesel fuels. Having choices for reliable and safe pupil transportation should take precedent over political ideology every time.
Allen Schaeffer, Frederick
The writer is executive director of the Engine Technology Forum.
The post When those who swore to protect choose to end a life appeared first on Washington Post.
