>>This week on NewsNight, Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey announces a zero policy for rowdy students to stop the school to prison pipeline.

But does the sheriff have the authority to change school policy?

And could that policy create systemic inequality?

Also, as of January 1st, there is an insulin price cap for those who have Medicare thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act.

But experts say more needs to be done.

And the city of Orlando is approving funds to help homeless displaced after Hurricane Ian, as the active 2022 hurricane season adding to the housing shortage in central Florida.

NewsNight starts now.

[MUSIC] Hello, I'm Brendan Byrne, filling in for Steve Mort, welcome to NewsNight.

Let's start with some recent interest in addressing school discipline, specifically in Brevard County.

In late November, Brevard Sheriff Wayne Ivey held a Facebook live in front of the jail alongside him with school board chair Matt Susin and state Attorney Phil Archer announcing a new zero tolerance policy that school discipline is going to be put back in place in Brevard Public Schools.

It's worth mentioning that no media was invited to attend.

Several school board members and school district leaders did not know about the announcement.

NewsNight spoke with Brevard School spokesperson Russell Bruhn.

He says no law enforcement agency can create policy rules for public schools without going through a voting process and allowing public input.

And the school is already enforcing their policy.

>>So there's a clear division there.

So, you know, the school district handles and sets expectations for behavior, sets expectations for conduct and handles student discipline.

Law enforcement, whether it's a sheriff's office, police department or a guardians are on campus to ensure security and safety from, you know, anything that may happen.

Fortunately, they take thier job very seriously.

They're very good at it.

And we're we're very thankful that they're on our campus, but they handle security.

The school district handles behavior and discipline, and there's a division.

There is a discipline policy.

Last winter, they updated it as a as normal procedures.

And that policy is what guides us at that at the school level.

And then eventually sometimes that district level as well, if we're needed.

And so that's always been in place.

And so that's what is used.

When it comes to classroom management, it's multiple, multiple layers.

It is making sure that the teacher has a professional training, professional development support in this in the classroom as well, to make sure that the learning environment is safe and secure.

Goal number one, whether it's the school district, working with our law enforcement partners, is to make sure that our students and their families and our staff feel like they are in a safe and welcoming environment, both physically safe and emotionally safe.

And so that's something that we're always trying to improve.

>>According to a report published by the U.S. Department of Education's Civil Rights Office, widespread racial disparities exist in terms of how students are punished.

To weigh in on this topic, let's bring in our panel now to break it all down.

Joining us in the studio this week, Tammy Fields from Spectrum News 13 and Karla Ray from WFTV.

Thank you both for being here.

>>Thank you for having us.

>>Well, Tammy, let's let's start with you and talk broadly about the social injustice and zero tolerance in schools.

What correlations are you seeing in your reporting?

>>When you look at the numbers, the data, there's been a lot of studies conducted on the zero tolerance policy.

And what they have found, researchers have found, is that there can be some disparities when it comes to how kids are treated.

And I think that's why there is some pushback about this policy.

It's not anything new, but it has been controversial for some time.

The American Psychological Association, they literally created a task force.

They looked at some 20 years worth of data and they found some specific problems with zero tolerance policies.

They even looked at some reporting from the Tampa Bay Times that found that a small child, ten years old girl, her mom, packed lunch, put an apple in a lunch box and put a small knife in there for her to cut her apple with.

The girl was expelled from school because it's a zero tolerance policy for having any type of weapon at that school.

So a lot of people feel like you're creating this policy.

And even though there can be some waves, some differences, that's not taking into account.

By the same token, at the time when the Tampa Bay Times did their reporting, their special report, they found that a child was talking on the phone, on a cell phone when he should not have been while his mother was deployed and was a soldier in Iraq.

And she had one specific time to call her son.

She'd been away for 30 days, and that was his chance to talk to his mom.

That child, too, was dealt a heavy hand because the policy said at that time at that school, no cell phones.

You're not to talk on your cell phones during school.

>>So it takes away the nuance of the gray areas like that.

And it's interesting to see these policies pop up because for years we've been trying to move away from this to more of a restorative justice.

That's what they've done in Orange County public schools, because several years ago there was reporting that showed that black and brown students were being disciplined at a far greater rate than white students, which is what we see happen oftentimes with these zero tolerance policies.

And so Orange County tried to move away from that because they were seeing that the results of that, too many students being expelled and kicked out of school.

And so there's got to be a middle ground.

>>Exactly.

Tammy, you lead the Justice for All, which is a 30 minute roundtable discussion on issues the black community is facing when it comes to public and even private schools.

What are some of the issues you're hearing from from our community when it comes to education?

>>There's a long list.

>>Yes, I'm sure there are.

>>There's a long list-- >>Anything happen this week?

>>Yes.

Yes.

>>Yeah.

Well, starting with one huge thing when it came to this AP African-American studies course that the governor specifically is not happy about and said that a portion of it had no educational value.

And so people are really upset about that feeling like of all things.

African-American studies, especially an AP course that was crafted by folks, educated folks with doctorates.

A lot of people very unhappy that the governor would step in and say, hey, it didn't have an educational value.

We shouldn't be talking about some of these things as a part of that class.

And so that's one thing.

But you got to think about the students who are not going to have that opportunity to learn those things, but also the fact that there's a microscope on teachers and students could possibly have a teacher sued depending on what they're talking about, if it has anything to do with sexual identity or has something to do with race and a child feels uncomfortable.

So there are all of these laws that do impact what's happening in the classroom.

>>And we're seeing teachers getting rid of their school, their classroom libraries now because of these rules, because they would just rather not take the risk.

>>Right.

Going back to Brevard County, this call and changes to Brevard school came from the sheriff on a Facebook Live post without any media present there, as we heard.

Some school board members didn't even know about it.

Karla, how extraordinary is it that the sheriff is stepping in when it comes to a school policy issue?

>>Well, I think you got to know Sheriff Ivey and understand that this is not all that unusual for him to go to social media and to get his message out there without taking questions from the press or the public.

I wouldn't say it's that unusual for law enforcement to have a vested interest, of course, in what goes on in our schools, because they are providing the SROs in most cases for our local school district.

So we've seen that, you know, out of Apopka, there was grand jury report that was released last year regarding school safety.

And Orange County was dinged because of some issues that Apopka law enforcement had raised about discipline in schools.

We've also seen it in Osceola County after an SRO got some heat for a video that circulated very widely online of an SRO taking down a teenage girl who was involved in some sort of fight at the school.

So it's not unusual to hear them speak out about discipline issues.

I would say the method that Sheriff Ivey used, again, you'd have to know Sheriff Ivey, I think that that's more likely what he would do, but it's not necessarily the norm.

>>It has rubbed a lot of parents the wrong way.

>>I was going to ask you, what are you hearing from from parents?

>>To see that it's not administrator who is going to be handing down the discipline, but it's someone you know who's at the highest level, law enforcement.

So there are questions about that.

We know that in our schools and even just across the board, we have a mental health crisis in this country when it comes to young people.

So we know that they're facing a lot.

Sometimes the answer isn't always that you're arrested or you're taking down to jail to be dealt with.

>>It creates that relationship then with student and law enforcement at a very young age, that is a negative connotation.

>>Mm hmm.

And Tammy, briefly, we heard about some of the issues with the zero tolerance policy and how it affects students.

Is there actually any benefit in reducing crime in schools?

>>Well, that's the problem.

The data hasn't shown and hasn't proved that There's still a lot of assumptions that come from a zero tolerance policy.

But what researchers have found in study after study after study is sometimes you don't get the intended outcome.

And I think we know that there is an issue with behavior in our schools.

We know from Brevard specifically, we were told that a great number of teachers were leaving.

Bus drivers were leaving because they were being hit, scratched, choked, which as a parent, not even as just a journalist.

I'm stunned because our teachers at one of the most important places, we leave our kids for the day.

So we know that there is an issue there and it does have to be addressed.

But there are a lot of parents that have questions about how it's going-- >>There are other ways to address that.

Well, a reminder, you can find much more content on our website, including past episodes of the program and full length interviews on our website, wucf.org/newsnight.

Next tonight, as the price of groceries, rent and living essentials continue to rise, a federal law passed last summer, the Inflation Reduction Act took effect January 1st.

Part of that act ensures that senior citizens and those enrolled in Medicare won't pay more than $35 a month for insulin prescriptions.

They should give welcome relief to many since, according to Juliette Cubanski, deputy director of the program on Medicare policy at Kaiser Family Foundation, insulin users are rationing the life saving medication because of the costs.

>>Prices for insulin have skyrocketed and without really a great explanation for why, except for the fact that drug companies do this, you know, the prices for drugs kind of go up from one year to the next.

And in the case of insulin, that can be a real problem.

You know, it's a life sustaining drug.

And for people who need insulin, you know, they don't have any choice but to take the drug in order to keep themselves alive.

So, you know, high prices for insulin that make the drug unaffordable for people is a real problem.

So policymakers in the case of the Inflation Reduction Act, policymakers implemented this provision that caps the monthly cost of insulin for people with Medicare to $35.

That doesn't you know, doesn't lower the price, but it does bring the out-of-pocket costs down for people with Medicare to, you know, to keep the drug within an affordable price range so that people don't have to make heart wrenching decisions about skipping their insulin so that they can pay their grocery bill.

That's just a choice that people should not have to make.

So the hope is that this $35 cap will prevent those sorts of awful decisions from having to be made and ensure that people with Medicare are able to afford this this drug.

But it doesn't get at the underlying problem of that, you know, the list prices are high and they are rising from one year to the next.

The Inflation Reduction Act does include some provisions that will help on the drug pricing side, allowing the federal government requiring the federal government to negotiate the price of a small number of drugs, as well as penalizing drug companies that increase the price of their drugs faster than inflation from one year to the next.

Those are steps that the government is taking to try to deal with high drug prices in this country.

But, you know, until we start to see those prices come down, or at least, you know, the price growth will stabilize measures like capping the out-of-pocket costs that patients pay is kind of a short term solution to to dealing with the affordability challenges that people face.

>>Skipping insulin to pay for groceries.

That's startling.

Tammy, in what way could this price cap create a huge impact for those that are on Medicare?

>>Well, let's just be real.

Any time you can save money, it's a big deal.

And especially when you're someone who is already has diabetes, there's about 1.3 million Americans who are rationing their insulin.

That's a huge issue because not only can you get sick, you can die from it.

You get sick.

Your hospital bill, emergency care, an ambulance bill is a lot higher than what it would have been if someone had helped you out by reducing the cost of that insulin.

So it's going to have a huge impact.

>>Mm hmm.

Karla, the Inflation Rate Reduction Act will allow Medicare to negotiate these prescription drug prices.

I mean, is there any evidence that suggests that this will stop companies from price gouging prescriptions?

>>It'll certainly put more checks and balances in place than we've seen before.

It requires the government to negotiate, as you mentioned, and it requires drug companies to pay rebates to Medicare recipients if the costs go up more quickly than inflation, which is a huge deal, because right now we're seeing that the rate of inflation is so rapid that, you know, people's paychecks are just not keeping up.

You know, companies are not keeping this in mind when they're going through their annual evaluations of whether they need to, you know, look at salaries and things like that.

So it certainly it will help.

It's not going to hurt.

And I think that everybody to Tammy's point, they're watching every dollar that they can right now.

>>Yeah.

To to balance what you have to do for to save your life with with your groceries as is staggering.

Tammy, well all remember the EpiPen scandal when when prices rose from $100 to $600 in 2016, despite the cost of manufacturing being only something like a dollar?

Is there any evidence that this Inflation Reduction Act will prevent this from happening?

I mean, it seems like there are these checks and balances, but will this will this work?

>>It's certainly the hope.

It's going to be something that we have to watch.

But whenever you're talking about especially like a state like Florida, where we have so many seniors who live here and so many people who come here to retire and want to have a healthy, healthy lifestyle, I think the pressure is going to be on lawmakers that we see some real action and not just talk.

We've heard about importing drugs from Canada.

We've heard about all these kinds of measures.

And typically in political seasons, we hear a lot about it, too.

But I think that these days people are really trying to hold government officials accountable to do something to lower these costs and price gouging, like when you set a dollar to make something in the United States of America, that you would have people really struggling or having to borrow or pawn something or skip eating to have a medication that will save their lives as is, I think for many people too far.

>>And EpiPen, knowing that that's a moment of life or death.

And sometimes that that's that's crazy.

So.

Karla, Florida was the first state in the country to apply for the Canadian drug importation program that Tammy mentioned there.

But that was delayed by the US Food and Drug Administration State is still waiting for an answer, but the goal is to get cheaper prescription drugs.

Could this be another kind of solution in the toolbox for for people that need some assistance?

>>And we're getting now some support from other states.

Florida was first, as you mentioned, but now Colorado, New Hampshire and New Mexico have all joined in asking for this same program.

And it really puts pressure on the Biden administration to act on this.

And check in my notes here because I want to get this number right.

The governor said that this will save the state between 80 and 150 million in the first year it's implemented, thinking about, you know, using those drugs in places like our prison system, you know, any public support system through the Department of Health where people are reaching out to the state for assistance.

So it could make a big impact on our budget.

>>Mm hmm.

And Tammy what about solutions on the state level?

You mentioned the governor touting touting this program.

But are there any other solutions that maybe the state legislature or even Governor DeSantis might be able to push for to for some relief here.

>>Or the Republican-led legislature?

I would think that they would want to work together to come up with some kind of solutions, because, again, we were always touting tourism.

We're always, you know, we have lots of snowbirds that live in this part of the country.

And I know the governor is always talking about the free state of Florida.

Come here.

This is a great place to live.

What better way to attract people to the state than to make it a healthy state where people can afford to live, but they can also afford to get medications and get prescriptions and not have to juggle when it comes to money.

>>Mm hmm.

But will that happen with this legislature, this this session?

>>Well.

>>They'll have to see priorities are, you know?

That sometimes I feel like when they get together in Tallahassee, it becomes what is the the topics that are going to make the most headlines and not necessarily the topics that are going to help the most people.

>>And that's where voters come into play.

If someone that you voted for, it's very important to hold them accountable and say, hey, we're banking on you to get something done, so let's see what you can do.

>>We'll have to watch.

A legislative session starts, what, March 7th, so just a few weeks away.

Well, we'd love to hear your thoughts on this discussion.

Be sure to join the conversation on social media.

We're at WUCFTV, on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Finally tonight, Central Florida.

And in fact, much of the state is still dealing with the aftermath of a very active 2022 hurricane season.

With the devastation of Ian shaking up the already fragile housing market.

Recently, the city of Orlando approved more than $600,000 in HUD funds to help 20 to 30 families as part of the Rapid Rehousing program.

The families being helped were homeless, but in temporary housing before Ian.

Then, the units they were living in were damaged in the storm.

According to the Orlando Housing Division manager Sonia Carnaval.

Another challenge faced by those without housing is that they don't qualify for some hurricane assistance.

>>The homeless people could not apply for FEMA assistance.

So this will be our priority to really work with people who are unsheltered.

All this puts a lot of pressure because we don't have a lot of housing units.

And the focus of rapid rehousing program is really to put people into housing units.

And when you don't have the housing units available.

We know where we will probably have to actually place people in hotels just to get them off the streets.

>>Tammy, let's start with you from from your reporting.

Broadly, just just how bad is the homelessness situation here in central Florida?

What are some of the root causes?

>>The situation really is at a crisis stage, and I'm going to tell you a couple of different measures of that.

Besides Justice for All, I also put together A-plus teacher segments and teachers, many of them feed children when they walk into the classroom.

And I don't mean hot lunch, but snacks, because they'll they'll explain that my kids are showing up at school and they're hungry.

Many of those same teachers have what they call homeless closet.

And those are clothes and belts and shoes so that if a child comes to them and says, I'm kind of embarrassed, I don't have a belt, keep up my pants, my shoes are flapping.

Teachers, teachers are keeping things from other parents and people in the community who donate to give to those children.

We've even featured schools that have places for children, children to come and get food, to put in a backpack to take with them on the weekends.

>>For siblings too.

>>And for their siblings as well.

Many of these children are unhoused, meaning their parents and them live in a car, travel different places, wash up in bathrooms at stores we frequent, go in and out of that you might never notice.

So those are these invisible people that are unhoused.

They're a part of it.

And then we have the folks that many of us see when we go to lunch or go to dinner around downtown Orlando.

Even we we heard the mayor say after the election, recent election that homelessness was a big issue.

We see people who have mental health issues and it's clear it's clear that they're having some kind of crisis.

Those are homeless people as well.

So it runs a spectrum.

They're the people that we don't see, we don't know of, you know, unless through reporting.

We hear about it.

And then they're the people that we do see.

But there's a broad spectrum of people out there.

And now that housing is so tight and there's not a lot of affordable housing out there, it is really difficult for people.

>>Mm hmm.

Karla, we heard about that HUD program.

We hear about some of the things that Tammy mentioned from her reporting about teachers helping their students.

These are all Band-Aid fixes to a problem.

They're temporary solutions.

Are there long term solutions to to the housing crisis and affordability here in central Florida?

>>I mean, we really hope so.

I mean, the affordable housing crisis is not just a homeless issue.

It's it's it's really running the gamut of everyday people not being able to afford to live in Orlando right now.

You know, you talked about the HUD program.

There's also $58 million in American Rescue Act funding that just came into the city of Orlando.

>>A substantial amount.

>>That's a good amount of money.

And they're saying that this is the top priority right now for the city.

One of the things that we should see in the near future that they're doing with that money is providing more day programs.

You know, we have the overnight situation where people can go to a shelter overnight if they need a place to sleep.

But to Tammy's point, where are they taking a shower during the day?

Where they doing their laundry?

So providing those types of services, a place to go where you could, you know, not just the library, but other places where you can go and get assistance applying for jobs, you know, applying for government programs.

And so we'll hopefully we'll see some of that money in short order put toward those more daytime programs.

>>Those programs are really critical.

We have seen some programs where they are trying to take a place like a mall and put housing there, but also have social services in our reporting so that people can go and talk to people and get the kind of services they need all in one place.

I had a conversation with someone who called the station who has an infant.

She qualifies for the program to get the aid to take her child to daycare every single day.

But after she leaves her job, she doesn't have a place to stay.

Sometimes they stay in the hotel, sometimes they don't.

She has one blip on her credit that doesn't allow her to qualify for an apartment, even though she has a job.

>>Wow.

Wow.

>>It's very tough.

>>Yeah.

So as we mentioned, the price of housing is expensive.

Tammy, first time homebuyers are finding it almost impossible to afford a home with prices doubling.

>>Yeah.

What happened to first time?

Your first home?

What happened to the starter homes?

There are no.

There are.

>>No starter homes.

>>No such thing anymore.

>>So I think I know the answer to this question.

Is there any evidence of this will balance out in the near term?

>>We have been seeing financial reports that say, you know, in Orange County, things seem to be getting better.

They're not as bad as they were maybe six months ago or eight months ago.

But when you talk to people who are looking for homes, it's still pretty tight.

>>And even, you know, the housing prices may have dipped a little bit in the last six months, but the interest rates have gone up.

We saw a little dip over the last week or two on interest rates.

But for most people who are financing a home, what they could afford a few years ago, based on the interest rate, it three or 4%.

They're not getting anywhere close to that now.

So it's a major issue.

>>In about the 30 seconds we have left, to curb rent prices, Orange County passed a tenants bill of Rights.

Karla, do we think that this is going to help or is there more questions on the horizon when it comes to renting in central Florida?

>>Unfortunately, it doesn't do anything to cap rent prices.

It does require landlords to notify a tenant if their rent is going to increase more than 5%.

But it doesn't stop them from putting that increase in place.

So it just it's giving the tenants more of a heads up.

But it doesn't mean that they're still at the mercy of their landlord.

>>Lots to keep an eye on.

I'm glad you both are reporting on these important stories.

So as always, you can find more information on our discussion by visiting us online at wucf.com/NewsNight.

That's all the time we have for this week.

My thanks to Tammy Fields from Spectrum News 13 and Karla Ray from WFTV.

Thank you both so much for being with us tonight.

We'll see you next Friday night at 8:30 here on WUCF.

From all of us here at NewsNight, take care.