Tuesday’s Rotary Club of Bogalusa meeting belonged to local attorney Brad Lewis.

Each year, Lewis spearheads the club’s Milltown Classic, which is scheduled for May 30. The 5K walk/run, which begins at 8 a.m. at Cassidy Park, is one the club’s largest fundraisers of the year.

Registration for the race is $10 for adults who register by May 27 and $15 on race day. Registration for children younger than 12 is $7. Race day registration begins at 6:30 a.m. Each participant will receive a T-shirt.

Registration forms can be obtained at the office of The Daily News at 525 Avenue V in Bogalusa as well as at some other area businesses.

For more information, call 985-735-9003.

Lewis said that for the second consecutive year, Whitney Bank has signed on as the event’s largest sponsor. Other major sponsors include International Paper, Dunaway’s Screen Printing, Joe N. Miles & Sons Inc., The First Bank and Edward Jones Investments.

After giving the club a brief update on the Milltown Classic, Lewis began his program for the day. It focused on the many absurdities involved with passing legislation in Louisiana.

“What I want to point out to you is the way people pass laws in Louisiana,” said Lewis. “I think everybody passes laws they don’t read.”

He noted that each session 4,000 to 6,000 bills are introduced, and of those 2,000 to 3,000 are passed.

“These laws are not getting passed because the populace is in the streets demanding it,” said Lewis.

To illustrate his point, Lewis spoke about Act 837, introduced by Rep. John Schroder of St. Tammany and passed in 2014. The act is aimed at protecting the identity of students from would-be predators, but does so through overly restrictive and somewhat vague means. Besides requiring each student to be issued a unique student ID number that is different from his or her Social Security number, it also forbids public school system employees from divulging “personally identifiable information.” Such information includes the student’s name, biometric records, Social Security number, date and place of birth and mother’s maiden name.

This means that programs for events such as graduation or athletic events, which regularly contain student’s names as well as other possible forbidden information, are in violation of Act 837.

Having realized the difficulty this act will present to local school districts, the Legislature is this year considering HB 718, which will allow local districts to modify Act 837.

“So you have a state crime that is different from parish to parish,” Lewis noted.

“This law passed because people don’t read the bills,” Lewis continued. “We’ve got to change more than our Legislature. We’ve got to change our system.”