DETROIT – Home videos of Lilliana Kerr show her spirit and enthusiasm for life -- and her mother will need all that energy as she takes on a massive hurdle: Helping to create Lilliana’s Law.
Six months ago, a folding table collapsed at a Dearborn Heights preschool, killing 3-year-old Lilliana. Many schools today are no safer than the day Lilliana died, said Tabetha Kerr, the girl’s mother.
The idea is that Lilliana’s Law would prevent this tragedy from happening to any other children.
“You would never think you would be terrified of going to school,” Kerr said.
And she doesn’t want anyone to be scared of school. Lilliana died when a wall-mounted table at St. Albert the Greats collapsed and fell on her. She is one of several children who has been killed across the country in folding-table accidents at school. Lilliana’s Law would protect kids by making school officials accountable for dilapidated and dangerous equipment.
“It’s important to me,” Kerr said. “(Lilliana is) not here, but it’s like, in a way, she is. She's helping.”
The family’s lawyer is suing the Archdiocese for $10 million, but that’s not enough, he said.
“... We want to change the law,” said Greg Rohl, the Kerr family’s attorney. “We want to impose a duty -- an obligation, if you will, to do it the right way, and to include these tables as part of a canvassing. That doesn’t happen right now. (Schools) can just blow it off, and they have.”
There need to be laws aimed at prevention, Rohl said.
“Unfortunately, sometimes it takes a tragedy like this to bring it to the forefront,” state Sen. Steve Bieda said. “But it’s a tragedy that would be an even bigger tragedy if we didn’t learn from it.”
Bieda and state Rep. Klint Kesto are taking on the issue.
“I have to look at a solution to come up with a safe spot for these children,” Kesto said. “And that’s what I’m looking to do.”
The state of Ohio passed a law following a table death, and then repealed it a few years later, saying it was too expensive. But that won’t happen in Michigan, lawmakers said. It may cost more money initially, to buy an updated table or to update the building code for safety reasons, but in the long run, it will save lives, Bieda and Kesto said in a discussion with Local 4 Defenders and the Kerr family.
Tabetha Kerr said this issue can’t revolve around politics. It has to be about people, she said.
“(Because) if you don't learn from the past, it’s just bound to happen again,” Kerr said. “I don't want to hear about some other parent (who) loses their child, or a sibling losing sisters or brothers -- watching that or living in that, it’s cold.”
Kerr spoke of her other two children, Lilliana’s brother and twin sister.
“(My daughter) started this new thing when, after I give her hugs and kisses, she goes, she kisses her hand and puts it on her chest,” Kerr said. “She’s like, ‘That’s for (Lilliana).’”
The lawmakers plan to introduce Lilliana’s Law this current session. They don’t expect much pushback, and said children's lives are at risk and they must be protected.