Open Letter to Governor Doug Ducey

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Open Letter to Governor Doug Ducey

The facts are clearly reported by the Florence Fire Department – “Fire officials say eight [8] Florence students have been treated after being exposed to tear gas that blew into the air near their school late Wednesday morning.”

What isn’t clear is why did this happen? What would have happened if those kids had a respiratory illness e.g. asthma or other that are negatively affected by the exposure of chemical agents?  

This was no accident. Poor planning does not make it an accident. These things happen because someone didn't pay attention to the details required to do this safety. 

Fact is the Arizona Department of Corrections was very negligent in is training session used for controlling inmate compliance issues. Instead of the chemicals reaching the training grounds it went right over to the K-8 elementary school near the Pinal Parkway and Butte. A proximity that should have been calculated in the exercise as a possible misdirection of the chemical agent deployment. 

Instead of using or choosing open spaces, the ADC chose to use an area nearby the town or worst, a school. We are lucky for the sake of public safety, all that was reported was throat and eye irritation. It could have been much worse.
So while the ADC laughed at their own mishap, children suffered needlessly. Fire officials initially reported that more than three dozen children had been affected, but district administrators later said only six were being treated for watery eyes and nausea. 

The fact remains, somebody screwed up and nobody is held accountable as these ‘investigations’ are normally moot or germane in nature without any serious consequences for those who ill planned this exercise by taking the first rule of dispersing chemical agents, “wind direction”, for granted.

DOC authorities say they "are taking action" to avoid this happening in the future, and are continuing to investigate the incident. This is not a sufficient response. The governor should demand more. Where is the responsibility? Where is the accountability? Where is the ADC’s public safety message on this matter?

Exposing children to OC chemicals in no joke yet in their minds, they can’t stop laughing about it. 

We expect more from an agency that has a 1 billion plus budget. The governor should be asking more questions and somebody should be held accountable for this matter. The media covered it but as usual, the ADC had no comment.

If one child would have breathing complications, the whole thing would
not have been a laughing matter.