KIRKLAND, Wash. — Students at Lake Washington High School are taking what they’ve learned in the classroom to the state legislature, and pushing for change for those they say are often overlooked.
On Tuesday, a group of Lake Washington High School seniors testified in front of a State Senate Committee in support of SB 6070, which would expand the current Endangered Missing Persons Advisory (EMPA) to include those with cognitive disabilities.
“A lot of people don’t think about people with special needs or cognitive disabilities as much as they should,” said Mia Huisman, one of the students who drafted the proposed bill.
“I urge you to support this legislation to ensure that when a person with a disability goes missing, their safety is treated with the same urgency as anyone else,” said student Geethika Burugupally while testifying.
“It’s kind of shameful that we don’t have something in place already to help these people,” said fellow student Benjamin Milstein.
Drafting legislation is an additional requirement if you’re a student of Mr. Dawson’s or Mrs. Shoda’s AP Government classes.
“My goal is to teach these kids how they can be involved in the process, how they can see a problem within the society and within their community and work towards solving that,” teacher Michael Dawson explained.
The students researched and pitched their proposal to Senator Manka Dhingra in the fall. Their proposal helped redefine what is currently considered an ‘endangered’ person, and gives EMPA the color Purple, much like the current AMBER or Silver alerts.
The students say they focused on this need because it hits close to home. Another teacher at their school, Irene Pfister, has a younger brother with autism who went missing last year. Jonathan Hoang has been missing since March 30, 2025, and Pfister says no alert went out until five days after he disappeared.
“Her story sort of inspired us to begin working on the bill, but then once we sort of began that research we saw so many other cases across Washington,” said student Jonah Kim.
“I 100% believe that if a Purple Alert had been in effect in our state at the time in which he went missing, he would be home right now,” Pfister said. “Time is so critical in a missing person’s case and potential abduction case.”
“It’s really sad what happened with Jonathan,” Huisman said. “We can’t change the past and all those previous cases, but we can definitely change the future.”
Teacher Bethany Shoda says it was a special moment watching the kids testify in support of the Purple Alert Bill.
“I was so proud of the students,” she said. “The heart that they put into it, the care that they’ve put into every step of this process.”
The bill advanced out of committee on Thursday.
The students hope to see the bill become law and possibly stand with the governor when he signs it.