Lombardo signs Carson High graduate’s bill

Gov. Joe Lombardo on Thursday provided Senate Bill 80, the education measure addressing Return to Play policies for students with concussions or head trauma, its ceremonial signing for its youth sponsor Carson High School graduate Stella Thornton.

Along with several of her Nevada Youth Legislator colleagues, Thornton’s mother Diane Thornton, athletic trainer Adam Hunsaker, fellow CHS graduate Alivia Aschenbach and NYL program facilitator Tina Ashdown were present to celebrate her success in the bill’s passage.

“It was so awesome to see the bill in progress,” said Madeline Krieger, a fellow Nevada Youth Legislator in the program from Reno. “Stella has put so much work into it, it’s amazing.”

Dillon Moss, another student from Reno, agreed.

“A lot of kids are going to get a lot of great help from her bill. This program is one in a million. It provides students with such a great opportunity to get knee-deep in our legislative process where they can affect real, actual change, it’s fantastic.”

Thornton said she was thankful Lombardo had time to meet with her and repeated her appreciation for her supporters within the Carson City School District, the legislators she worked with directly and for those who helped as she experienced difficulties with her own concussions.

“I think I feel very grateful for this whole process and validated that this is an important piece of legislation and all the effort and the work that went into meant something,” Thornton said. “You’re able to make change. You’re never too small to make change, you’re never too young to make change no matter what people tell you. I was lucky. I never had anybody within my circle tell me I couldn’t do it. … But no one ever told me no, and I truly appreciate for that for everyone who ever helped me. We can do it.”

Diane Thornton said she was proud of her daughter.

“She really championed this bill through the whole entire process from the fruition of the ideas to the actual signing of it by the governor,” she said. “That’s astounding. Most adults can’t do that. She did that all on her own and with the help of the Nevada Youth Legislators and Dr. Nicholas Murray.”