Adelyn Baxter

The Juneau Empire reports that Rep. Sam Kito III will not run for re-election this fall.

Kito represents House District 33, including Skagway, Haines, Klukwan, Gustavus, downtown Juneau and Douglas.

Kito could not be reached for comment Tuesday. He told the Empire he made his decision Friday due to financial concerns. Last week, the Legislature let the State Officers Compensation Commission cut per diem payments for lawmakers living within 50 miles of the state capitol.

That means Juneau’s three state lawmakers will not receive a daily allowance on top of their annual salary during regular or special sessions. Lawmakers had 60 days to pass legislation rejecting the commission’s recommendation, but did not act.

Kito spoke about the recommendation at a meeting of the House Labor and Commerce Committee on March 7. The single parent said he had saved money during his career as an engineer for his daughter’s college tuition. He said his job as a legislator was forcing him to draw from his savings.

“With this reduction I am in a situation now of having to choose whether I run again or whether I take money out of my daughter’s college account to continue this job, and I’m not prepared to do that,” he said.

Kito said the increasing length of regular and special sessions has made it a nearly full-time job. He said he has not been able to bill hours through his consulting job for three years due to the time commitment.

“If the choice or the decision of the compensation commission was to pressure legislators to not run, they’ve succeeded, at least if this goes forward,” he said.

Kito, a former civil engineer and legislative lobbyist, was selected from among nine other applicants to former Rep. Beth Kerttula’s open seat in 2014. He’s been re-elected twice.

So far, Democrat Sara Hannan and independent Chris Dimond have filed to run for Kito’s seat.

Rep. Justin Parish confirmed Tuesday the he plans to run for re-election. The Democrat represents District 34 which covers the Mendenhall Valley and Auke Bay. He said the loss of per diem pay will not impact his decision, but acknowledged that he does not have any children or a mortgage to worry about.

“It’s unfortunate that a lot of people don’t feel like they can run for public office for financial reasons and it’s unfortunate when diligent public servants like Rep. Kito leave public service for financial reasons.”

Parish called the compensation committee’s recommendation “unabashedly political.”

Juneau’s Deputy Mayor Jerry Nankervis, a Republican, is running for the seat.

KTOO’s Jacob Resneck contributed to this report. This story has been expanded with comment from Rep. Justin Parish. 

In this newscast:

• The top official overseeing Alaska’s national forests will retire in April,
• Fred Meyer says it will stop selling guns and ammunition altogether,
• and child welfare workers in Southeast Alaska report an increase in referrals for child abuse and neglect.

Social workers’ caseloads for child neglect and abuse are dramatically increasing in Southeast, and, apparently, statewide, according to the head of a regional service provider. Threats to state children’s service workers are also increasing.

Erin Walker-Tolles, executive director of Catholic Community Service in Juneau, testified before the House Finance Committee earlier this month. She asked for more funding to deal with a 59 percent increase in referrals to her nonprofit’s child advocacy center, or CAC. It deals with cases of children who may be victims of abuse and neglect across Southeast.

“It’s dramatic, it’s pervasive and, from what we’ve heard from the other CACs, it is statewide. And I’m here to ask you to consider increasing the funding for CACs statewide,” she said.

In Juneau, the S.A.F.E. Child Advocacy Center performs forensic interviews and, when necessary, physical examinations for evidence of sexual abuse. It’s one of 13 across the state. Accredited CACs work to minimize the trauma victims experience by sharing their stories and increase the likelihood of successful prosecution. Workers also assist families with navigating the legal system should their case go to trial.

In Southeast, victims usually travel to Juneau from remote communities by plane or ferry to be interviewed by staff. The center operates out of an undisclosed location to protect victims’ identities.

The number of children referred to the center shot up from 97 in 2016 to 154 last year. Half came from outside of Juneau.

Program Manager Susan Loseby has worked at the center for six years. She said they’re not sure what caused the increase.

“I would hope that more kids aren’t being abused. It’s just that more people are reporting what they suspect as abuse,” she said.

One thing is clear: They need more people to deal with the workload.

The center has three full-time employees and three on-call nurses who perform medical examinations. Walker-Tolles and Loseby are asking for $77,000 to hire and train an additional staff member.

Loseby said working with children who have been abused and even raped takes a significant toll on staff, especially when they’re constantly on call. Secondary trauma for interviewers is a constant reality, and self-care and time off is key to being able to continue working in the field.

“It’s a lot to digest, hearing all of the disclosures that children are making and then working with the families who are also in trauma. It has, of course, increased the hours that we work, it has decreased the time that we can take off to heal and get the respite that we all need.”

The majority of funding for CACs comes from federal welfare grants that the Office of Children’s Services distributes statewide.

Walker-Tolles said despite the costs, the service is desperately needed.

“Ethically it’s the right thing to do. And if you want to talk about money, honestly it’s a cost-savings to the entire community and the state. If these kids are able to heal, be safe, grow up, go to college or school or find a vocation that inspires them and contribute to the economy, instead of falling into despair, failing school, not having job opportunities. The outcomes can be pretty grim.”

Meanwhile, the state’s Office of Children’s Services plans to place security officers at its Kenai and Fairbanks offices. Director of OCS Christy Lawton said the department has seen an increase in threats to workers over the years.

It came to a head in 2015 when the Anchorage office feared an active shooter scenario.

Since then, security personnel have been installed at field offices in Anchorage, Wasilla and Juneau.

“It’s not uncommon to be threatened, it’s not uncommon to be name-called, but when it starts to be people potentially laying hands on our staff that really draws the line. Our staff take a lot of abuse, and we do so because we understand the pressure and stress families are under, but there’s a line there and of course worker safety has to be a priority.”

Lawton said the security measures are also an effort to better comply with Occupational Safety and Health Administration standards for worker safety.

OCS was fined following an OSHA complaint after a worker was shoved at the Fairbanks office.

They also plan to create a safety officer position based in Anchorage to help coordinate security efforts among the department’s 24 field offices.

Juneau high school students took part in Wednesday’s national walkout calling for action on gun violence.

More than a hundred Juneau-Douglas High School students walked out of class and marched to the state Capitol building Wednesday morning to call on legislators to take action on gun violence in schools.

Senior Theo Houck led the march up to the Capitol building and encouraged students to continue making their voices heard.

“Above us right now are our legislators, our governor, our lieutenant governor, the people who will make these final decisions,” Houck told the students and adults gathered. “So let’s let them hear us. Who are we?”

“Alaskan students!”
“What do we want?”
“We want to live!”

Gov. Bill Walker and Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott were also in the crowd, and applauded as students spoke. Many legislators also attended.

“Too many lives have been lost because of our country’s lack of progress in fighting gun violence,” said sophomore Katie McKenna. She called for an end to the “thoughts and prayers” politicians routinely share after school shootings.

Teenage survivors of the Parkland, Florida, school shooting have called on lawmakers to cut ties with the National Rifle Association and for stricter gun laws. In Juneau, the student organizers said their protest was not meant to advocate any specific political platform, but McKenna did call for teens to take action and register to vote in the November midterm election.

“Alaska legislators, we urge you to look at your colleagues around the country who are moving gun legislation forward and follow suit,” she said. “We are watching, and if you don’t act for the sake of our safety, you will be voted out by our generation. When leaders act like children and children act like leaders, you know change is coming.”

Across town a little over a year ago, police investigated reported threats by a student at Thunder Mountain High School. Dozens of students there also walked out Wednesday and remained outside for 17 minutes in honor of the 17 killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.

Hilary Rehfield-Green, a survivor of the Route 91 Harvest Festival shooting in Las Vegas last October, joined about 50 students at TM and encouraged them to continue their activism for policy change. She said students spoke as well and they took photos to pass along to survivors of the Parkland and Las Vegas shootings.

“What I saw today was a group of students who had a purpose,” Rehfield-Green said. “They followed through with their intent on that purpose and then they returned to their responsibilities as students and I’m just really proud of them for making that a respectful and responsible choice.”

Walking back to school from the Capitol, Juneau-Douglas sophomore Molly Minick said students feel fear every time they hear about another shooting or take part in an active shooter drill at school.

“Today was actually Spirit Week and it was Future Careers Day, so we’re out here representing who we want to be when we’re older,” Minick said. “And if we’re dead tomorrow, we’ll never get to do that.”

After returning to the school campus, JD students gathered on the turf field for a moment of silence for victims of gun violence. As it ended, Houck spoke up again.

“I don’t want to ever have to do that again, and I know you guys don’t either. But we probably will,” he said. “But it’s things like this, students like us, that are gonna change that. So that there isn’t another student killed at school. And we can use this turf to, like, play soccer and stuff.”

All told, students at JD missed about an hour of school and TM students were outside for about half an hour. The district said beforehand that normal consequences would apply for any unexcused absences during the walkout.

Watch Gavel Alaska coverage of the rally at the Capitol: 

The skies cleared Tuesday morning, allowing Juneau Mountain Rescue volunteers to continue the search for two climbers who have been missing since last week.

Weather has been a huge hindrance to rescuers looking for Ryan Johnson of Juneau and Marc-Andre Leclerc of British Columbia.

The experienced climbers were due back last Wednesday after making an ascent of the north face of the Mendenhall Towers.

Jackie Ebert of Juneau Mountain Rescue said a team took off in an Alaska Army National Guard helicopter shortly after 10 a.m. and will search as long as they can.

Searches were extremely limited over the weekend and the weather window Monday allowed only a brief flight.

“Now, we have the problem where we’re battling weather to get back to the search location and then before we even consider putting in any ground crews, we need to assess avalanche conditions,” Ebert said.

Searchers located some of the climbers’ gear at the base of the towers last Thursday. Since then, Ebert said about 2 to 3 feet of fresh snow has fallen.

“We are working it as an active rescue mission,” she said. “We’re going to continue to work it that way and work as hard as we can to get out there at every available weather opportunity.”

Family and friends of Johnson and Leclerc have set up GoFundMe pages to help support searchers and defray costs for helicopter flights.

Johnson’s fundraiser also says it will be a “care/life/college fund” for his 2-year-old son, Milo, if he does not make it back alive.

Juneau high schoolers will join students across the country by walking out of class Wednesday to protest inaction on gun violence in schools.

Students from Juneau-Douglas and Thunder Mountain high schools worked together to plan separate but related events for the one month anniversary of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School mass shooting in Parkland, Florida.

At Juneau-Douglas, students will walk out at 10 a.m. and march to the state Capitol, where there will be speakers and a protest.

Thunder Mountain students will walk out at 10 a.m. and remain outside the school for 17 minutes to commemorate the 17 people killed.

“It’s not just a Thunder Mountain High School walkout or a Juneau-Douglas High School walkout,” said Kathy Tran, a senior and the student body president at Thunder Mountain.  She appeared Monday on KTOO’s “A Juneau Afternoon” with other student organizers. “We’ve unified and said, ‘We’re walking out together and making our voices be heard.’”

Tran reached out to students at Juneau-Douglas after some of her peers asked her to plan something in solidarity with the national call for students to speak out about gun violence.

Following the tragedy in Florida, students who survived the shooting organized and called on President Donald Trump, state legislators and national lawmakers to do more to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous individuals.

Those students plan to march March 24 with other gun reform advocates in Washington, D.C.

The organizers of the Juneau walkouts say they are not advocating for any specific political platform.

Instead, they are calling out the inaction that has allowed school shootings to persist in the U.S.  

Juneau-Douglas senior Theo Houck said the school culture needs to change.

“We have been having active shooter drills in our schools that create this atmosphere of terror on a regular basis knowing that this is a reality for us, that somebody at any moment could come in with a gun and end the lives of your peers and your own life,” Houck said. “It is not something that should be seen as normal or OK.”

It’s disruptive, mentally and educationally, Houck said.

The students encourage adults to participate. At both events, the youths ask that adults stand behind students so they remain the focus.

It’s time for youth activists to make their voices heard in the national conversation about school safety, Houck said.

“That culture of fear needs to end and this is our way of standing up and saying that we are going to make that change and we need to see that change happen.”

The Juneau School District said it supports students’ right to protest and will not discipline students who choose to walk out Wednesday. However, classes will continue as normal and normal consequences will apply for unexcused absences.

Theo Houck occasionally works for 360 North.