Daycare bill killers

A bill to require all Alabama daycares be inspected and licensed died this year in the Alabama Legislature. Rep. Jim Carns, Sen. Shay Shelnutt, Sen. Larry Stutts, and Rep. Randall Shedd worked hardest to kill the bill. Now a 5-year-old boy is dead.

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Sometimes the Alabama Legislature seems like a comedy, set on a stage below spectators in the State House gallery. Political theatre in the round.

In 2014, Rep. DuWayne Bridges, R-Valley, introduced a bill to legalize the display of the Ten Commandments in courthouses, schools and other public buildings. However, during the debate with Alabama House Democrats, he could name only a few of the holy decrees, and he got one completely wrong.

Rep. Alvin Holmes, D-Montgomery, badgered Bridges in Holmes' peculiar, discombobulated style -- flying in orbit around reality without ever touching it.

"Did God give the Tenth Amendment to the people of Israel before or after they crossed the Red Sea?" Holmes asked.

It must have been before that, Bridges said, because Moses never made it to the Promised Land.

Holmes asked Bridges to name all the commandments.

He couldn't.

"Is one of them 'love thy neighbor'?" Holmes asked.

Bridges said that it was.

(Correct Answers: The Tenth Amendment was ratified on Dec. 19, 1791 as part of the Bill of Rights. God gave Moses the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai after the people of Israel had crossed the Red Sea from Egypt. Moses died before they crossed the Jordan River about 40 years later. "Love thy neighbor" is not one of the Ten Commandments, but came from Jesus, much later.)

You wouldn't have to read the good book to pass this test. You need only have watched the movie. Heck, if there's an episode of Comedy Central's Drunk History about the life of Moses, it's probably closer to the bullseye than Bridges got, and the lobbyist-paid cocktail hours across the street don't even start until after five.

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I wrote a column that day about the the things I learned in that long, tedious, ceaseless debate, and the next year that column even won an award -- for humor.

But this stuff isn't comedy, and it's not funny anymore. These things have consequences.

Every year, Alabama lawmakers make a big fuss over silly, stupid stunts like Bridges' Ten Commandments bill while important legislation sits in the basket, waiting for a turn that never comes.

One such bill this year was HB277, which would have required church-affiliated day cares be licensed and regulated like all other day cares. Alabama is one of seven states where this is the case, and our law doesn't even define what a church is, so it's ripe for abuse.

5-year-old Kamden Johnson, who was found dead on August 21, is pictured here in a photo taken around the Christmas holiday. Johnson was found deceased in the driveway of a home in the 2100 block of Demotropolis Road.

And it has been abused often, as AL.com's Anna Claire Vollers has reported extensively.

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Let's be clear here -- we're not talking about mandating curriculum to teach evolution or anything like that. Rather, these regulations require things like criminal background checks of day care employees so parents can be confident their children aren't being watched by child molesters.

It's about basic health and safety of children. Simple as that.

The bill received overwhelming support among lawmakers of both parties. In the Alabama House, it had 18 Republican cosponsors and 14 Democrats.

It was a no-brainer, but unfortunately it had to pass through the Alabama Legislature, where brains are in short supply. The way Alabama's legislative process works, it is far easier to kill a bill than to pass one, and kill it they did.

Let's name names.

The first badge of dishoner goes to the Eagle Forum of Alabama, which fought the bill with scaremongering, paranoia and misinformation. Unfortuately, Alabama lawmakers pay attention to that sort of thing.

In the Alabama House, Rep. Jim Carns, R-Vestavia Hills, and Rep. Randall Shedd, R-Fairview tried to rally opposition against the bill, but were unsuccessful.

The bill made it to the Alabama Senate where it got ambushed by Sen. Larry Stutts, R-Tuscumbia, and Sen. Shay Shelnutt, R-Trussville.

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And here's where all that silly business of the going-nowhere bills matters. Late in the session, the process turns into a logjam, and the Alabama Senate has a rule it invokes for a rocket calendar. One Senator can kill a bill.

At first that Senator was Stutts, an OB-GYN who has already stained his reputation by trying to repeal a law named after a patient who died in his care. However, Stutts was absent in the late hours of the last day of the session.

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So Shelnutt took his place. When he walked up to the mic to filibuster, the chair carried the bill over. It never came up for a vote before time ran out. It was dead, and Shelnutt gave it the fatal wound.

A lobbyist who worked to pass the bill told me that one of the supporters worried aloud and wondered: What innocent victim would they name the bill after next year if some poor kid died? Because it was only a matter of time, right?

Unfortunately, yes.

Five year old Kamden Johnson was found dead in Mobile this week, left by the roadside after he cooked to death in a day care van. An unlicensed church-affiliated day care.

The day care employee authorities say is responsible has a rap sheet that spans 25 years and three states, according to prosecutors. The woman's attorney says her identity was stolen and the charges are not hers.

When a bill like HB277 comes before the Alabama Legislature next year, you can bet your bottom dollar it will be named Kamden's Law. But let us pray that it's only Kamden.

So no matter how amusing our lawmakers' political theater might be, never mistake it for comedy.

It's a tragedy.

As tragedies go, this wasn't Julius Caesar. Caesar was no innocent victim.

But Kamden was.

And Senators Shelnutt and Stutts, and Representatives Carns and Shedd have blood on their hands.

Kyle Whitmire is the state political columnist for AL.com. You can follow his work and other public interest and accoutability journalism through Reckon by AL.com.