THURSDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2020
THE OBSERVER — 5A
SCHOOLS
Continued from Page 1A
demonstrating excitement
about on-site learning again
being offered. Teachers and
staff at the school district’s
three elementary schools
also are elated.
“Overall it is fabulous
for us, just having kids,”
said Central Elementary
principal Suzy Mayes.
Kelli Aken, a sec-
ond-grade teacher at Green-
wood Elementary, will
likely never forget the sense
of anticipation she felt last
weekend just before stu-
dents were about to return.
“It was like I was a fi rst-
year teacher all over again,”
she said. “I was so excited
I could not sleep the night
before.”
Greenwood Elementary
Dick Mason/The Observer
Yolanda Conrad, a teaching assistant at Island City Ele-
mentary School, gives a thumbs up signal Tuesday, Oct.
6, 2020, as students prepare to board a bus after school.
fi rst-grade teacher Katie
Burright said she has been
impressed with how much
the students learned while
they were being taught
online.
“It has been amazing to
see how much has soaked
MCBURNEY
cheering and waving along
the route.
She said at Eggleson
Corner, a number of people
were waving signs and
emergency vehicles —
including the Joseph Fire
Department — added to the
escort.
Continued from Page 1A
The injuries
“The license plate of
the vehicle actually sev-
ered Keelan’s leg, and the
impact broke the tibia and
the fi bula and dislocated the
fi bula, as well, and cut the
femoral artery,” Jett said.
Another artery and a liga-
ment that connects to the
knee also were severed.
As she was heading out
to get McBurney, her hus-
band, Lem McBurney,
arrived home. A part-timer
with the Wallowa County
Sheriff’s Offi ce, the elder
McBurney asked if his son
was bleeding.
“I didn’t even think to
ask,” she said, “so I called
the boys back and I said,
‘Keelan, are you bleeding?’
He said, ‘Mom, my shoes
are fi lled with blood.’”
She called Wallowa
Memorial Hospital to alert
it they probably would be
there in about 20 minutes.
The McBurneys arrived
at the accident scene as it
was getting dark. They saw
their son in the driveway on
his side in a pool of blood.
“As I was saying, ‘We
need a tourniquet,’ my hus-
band was taking off his
belt,” Jett said.
The tourniquet was
applied above the left knee,
where it would stay for
more than seven hours.
The fi rst emergency per-
sonnel to arrive were from
the Joseph Fire Department,
Jett said.
They got the teen’s
clothes off, put him onto a
clean sheet and wrapped
him in a back brace and a
neck collar. Soon, a two-
TESTING
Continued from Page 1A
“But colder, rainy
weather is coming and Ore-
gonians will be spending
more time indoors where
COVID spreads more
easily. If we’re sick of
COVID-19 now, it’s only
going to get harder.”
Since Aug. 31, the
number of COVID-19 cases
has risen 25%, caused
largely by social gatherings,
said Patrick Allen, Oregon
Health Authority director.
It marks the end of a fi ve-
week downward trend.
As of Wednesday, there
were 35,634 confi rmed and
presumptive cases and 583
deaths, according to the
OHA website.
The rapid Abbott
BinaxNOW antigen testing
kits are being deployed
nationwide. In Oregon,
once the communities
affected by wildfi re get the
test kits, it then will go to
test migrant and agricul-
tural workers, communities
of color, tribal communities
and senior citizens. Eventu-
ally, communities will have
in,” Burright said.
She said it is hard to
tell when teaching virtu-
ally how much content stu-
dents are picking up. One
reason is you can only see
a student’s face online and
can’t view how children are
doing on assignments the
same as walking around a
classroom.
Goodwin and Island
City third-grade teacher
Holly Wagner are delighted
to have students back in
their classrooms because
like all primary grade
teachers they provide
reading instruction during
a critical phase of children’s
lives, when they are best
able to learn to read.
“It is much easier to
teach fundamentals like
letter sounds (in person),”
Goodwin said.
She also said it is easier
Stepping forward
After nearly three weeks
in the Spokane hospital, the
McBurneys brought their
son home June 3 to a com-
munity that welcomed them
with open arms.
Jett said Lisa Collier
organized “a parade, if you
will,” with a police escort
from the Lewiston Highway
all the way to their home
in Joseph. People were
Given the timing of the
accident — schools were
closed for the COVID-19
pandemic — McBurney
missed only a month of
school. Now a sophomore,
he said he made up missed
work in about a week and
a half.
“All the teachers said I
did fantastic on all the work
that I had to make up,” he
said.
McBurney continues
physical therapy — mostly
various workouts and
stretches — as well as
regaining his activity.
He also returned to some
of the outdoor activities he
loves. While he hasn’t been
able to water ski or wake-
board this year, there’s been
no shortage of swimming,
fi shing and less-taxing
activities.
But despite the trauma
Jett has encouraged him
to become active again,
insisting he drive since
he obtained his learner’s
permit and to do physical
activities he feels up to and
safe doing.
“I think at times I actu-
ally push him to do the
things I know he can,” she
said. “He’s been a bit ten-
uous about approaching
things — he gets scared.”
McBurney agrees Mom
has been an encourager.
“She’s let me be very
independent,” he said.
tive, then you have COVID,
but if it’s negative you don’t
have the results for the two
viral targets it tests for.”
By state law, labs are
required to notify the state
of any testing results and
positive cases resulting
from the saliva tests will be
treated the same as other
lab results, said Morgan
Emerson, Deschutes
County Health Services
spokeswoman.
“By expanding our
testing capacity, it will cast
a wider net, identify more
cases and cut off more
paths the virus can use to
spread especially in coun-
ties experiencing large out-
breaks,” Allen said. “These
tests are fast. They are
accurate positive results,
but they have strengths and
limitations. “
But they can result in
false negatives even among
those with symptoms,
Allen said. A negative test
is not a free pass and means
people can stop taking pre-
cautions, he said.
The state’s additional
testing capacity also means
the metrics to reopen
schools can be reevalu-
ated, Brown said. That will
occur over the next couple
of weeks as health offi cials
and school administrations
talk to parents, teachers and
staff.
Test kits will be sent to
health centers to test stu-
dents and staff who have
symptoms or have con-
tact with someone who has
symptoms at kindergarten
through grade 12 and at col-
lege campuses, Allen said.
The Oregon Health
Authority will distribute
these tests to local public
health authorities, Emerson
said, which then will send
them to rural hospitals,
rural health centers and
federally qualifi ed health
centers.
Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain
Chantay Jett, left, stands with her son, Keelan McBurney,
at their home in Joseph in from of the buggy she said will
be a project for her son to work on with his grandfather.
McBurney, a cross-country runner, suffered a severe inju-
ry to his left leg in May, but he is on the road to recovery.
person ambulance crew
arrived from the hospital.
“Since there were a lot
of us, we decided we could
lift him into the ambulance
because the driveway’s
really steep and a gurney
would have been diffi cult,”
Jett said. “But we didn’t
even go to Wallowa Memo-
rial Hospital, we just went
right to the Joseph airfi eld
and jumped on a LifeFlight
to Walla Walla.”
At the hospitals
There they gave
McBurney a full-body MRI
and did a vascular assess-
ment. The hospital staff
determined the damage
was limited to the left leg,
but because of the vascular
damage, decided he needed
to go to Sacred Heart Med-
ical Center in Spokane.
“Because of Walla Wal-
la’s fantastic assessment,
they were able to assemble
three surgical teams in Spo-
kane, who were waiting for
us, and they took Keelan
a supply to use in contact
tracing efforts.
The goal with testing is
the more tested, the more
the spread can be con-
tained, Brown said. The
new supply of tests allows
the state to revise its testing
guidelines and now test
even those who don’t show
any symptoms but have
been in close contact with
someone who tested posi-
tive for the virus.
Meanwhile, Safeway/
Albertsons stores with
pharmacies in Oregon and
southern Washington now
offer at-home COVID-19
test kits using saliva. The
kits, which cost $139.99
each can be picked up at
a store or delivered by
mail. Results are avail-
able within 72 hours by
email or text, said Stephen
Certo, Safeway/Albert-
sons director of pharmacy
operations.
At the moment, insur-
ance does not cover these
tests, Certo said. And there
are no restrictions on the
number of kits requested.
“We have plenty of
supply,” Certo said. “It’s
98% accurate. If it is posi-
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back for the fi rst round of
surgeries that was about
seven hours,” Jett said.
The worst of his scars
is the result of one of the
operations where surgeons
did a fasciotomy, a surgical
procedure where the band
of tissue beneath the skin
is cut to relieve tension or
pressure commonly to treat
the resulting loss of circu-
lation to an area of tissue or
muscle.
The procedure allayed
the McBurney family’s
worries about their son pos-
sibly losing a leg.
Coming home
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in person to get children
to become familiar with
books and how to hold
them.
Familiarizing children
with how to use computers,
ironically, proved harder
while teaching online,
Wagner said.
“Things we think are
simple, like using a mouse
to drag something across
a screen, took a lot of time
to teach students,” Wagner
said.
All on-site K-3 students
have to follow extensive
school district protocols
to protect everyone from
COVID-19. Students are
kept with their classmates
all day, are served meals
only in their classrooms,
must social distance and
more.
Burright said the chil-
dren are adapting well to
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‘restorative services.’”
Lee remains in custody
at the county jail. The
Union County Sheriff’s
Offi ce will transfer Lee to
the Oregon State Hospital.
According to the court
order, after a 60-day eval-
uation, the state will
determine if Lee can
stand trial in the future.
The state also will submit
progress reports every 180
days through the length of
Lee’s commitment, which
will be no more than three
years.
Conspiracy to commit
murder in Oregon carries
a minimum sentence of
seven-and-half years, and
conviction for murder car-
ries a minimum sentence
of 25 years.
The court in May
stayed the proceedings
in the case against Lee’s
co-defendant, Steve
Edward Hamilton, 66,
of La Grande, pending
the outcome of Lee’s
case. Hamilton also faces
charges of murder and
conspiracy to commit
murder.
Hamilton in March
pleaded guilty to two
counts of hindering pros-
ecution for providing
Lee with transportation
and concealing physical
evidence.
He remains in the
county jail.
Continued from Page 1A
Lee was hospitalized
after suffering a stroke
in January 2020 while
in custody at the Union
County Correctional
Facility, La Grande.
He then underwent a
mental evaluation.
The court canceled
the murder trial after Dr.
Michael Saul Farris, a
Portland-based psychi-
atrist, determined Lee
was danger to himself or
others because of a mental
disorder and he requires
hospital care due to the
dangerousness and the
acuity of symptoms of the
disorder, according to the
judge’s order. The court
received Farris’ report
Oct. 1.
Lee’s attorney Dean
Gushwa, of Pendleton,
fi led to postpone the trial
in January, which Judge
Powers granted with no
objections from Dis-
trict Attorney Kelsie
McDaniel.
“Due to two strokes
while in custody at the
jail, Mr. Lee has been
found to be unable to aid
and assist in his defense,”
Gushwa said. “The court
has ordered that he be
transported to the Oregon
State Hospital to receive
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school rules for protecting
them from COVID-19.
She noted her students are
maintaining 6-foot dis-
tances from one another for
social distancing purposes
and are being courteous by
keeping their distance from
classmates.
“That is not typical of
fi rst graders,” Burright
said.
Greenwood Elementary
fi rst-grade teacher Jessica
Troutman also is impressed
with how students have
taken to wearing masks.
“It is not a big deal for
them at all,” she said.
Troutman also noted
said students are learning
to interact without really
touching each other.
“Instead of doing high
fi ves,” Troutman said,
“they are doing elbow
bumps.”
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