Image provided by: The Willamina Museum; Willamina, OR
About The times of Willamina. (Willamina, Oregon) 1972-1974 | View Entire Issue (March 28, 1973)
10' WILLAMINA TIMES, Willamina, Oregon, Wednesday, March 28, 1973 of W illam ina-Sheridan Parents, students m eet A capacity crowd of concerned parents and students met Thurs day night, March 22, in the Sher idan Oddfellows Hall to discuss what to do about suspension and possible* expulsion of a large number of Sheridan High students following a sit-in the previous Friday. The main purpose of the meeting was to try to force the school board to declare an emergency meeting so that parents and stu dents could submit their griev ances. They failed in that effort, but were able to organize a commit tee to act as liaison between par ents and students on the one hand and the administration on the other. What promised to be a highly volatile meeting did, indeed, be gin with individuals voicing com plaints against the school board and administrators of Sheridan High. But after complaints were aired, the tone of the assembly changed from anger to construc tive action. Mrs. Donald Cooley summed up the problem when she said: “ The main problem we face is a total failure to communicate. Instead of trying to find who’s at fault or trying to condemn the actions of the administrators, we should set constructive goals and try to see that this sort of thing doesn’t happen again.” “ This sort of thing” was a reference to the sit-down demon stration March 16 over the stop ping of the sale of donuts and hot chocolate to students before lunchtime. Principal David Sears ordered the students to disperse and go back to. class. Upon failure to do so, the students were sent Back to business as usual, following a^stormy spring vacation, Sheridan High got back to the business of education on Monday. In spite of home under threat of suspension and, in a few cases, expulsion. “ This demonstration,” one par ent declared, “ obviously wasn’t only about donuts. There’s been a long history of students trying to make themselves heard by the administrators, and this donut business was just the final straw in a long chain of events.” The principal concern of many of the parents was the status of their children. Several did not know if their sons or daughters were suspended, expelled, or what. A large number present said that they were going to take their children back to school Monday and demand that they either be reinstated or that the over idle rumors of student boycotts or picketing, all was call11 as classes resumed, school give a thorough explana tion of why each student is being punished. With the uncertainty over wheth er some students have been sus pended, expelled or merely rep- remanded, estimates of the num ber of suspensions range from forty to seventy. Early in the meeting, when some parents were advocating im peachment of the principal, sup erintendent and/or the school board, Ralph Matlack,- the single' school board member attending, helped cool tempers by. explaining school disciplinary policy. Matlack stressed that he was not legally empowered to present school board opinion as such, but was willing, as much as he could, to clarify discipline codes and the possible outcome of some of the group’s proposed actions. Thanks to Matlack’s calm ex planations, the mood of the meet ing turned from angry demands for confrontation to realistic pro posals for opening up lines of communication with the board and administrators. It was stressed that the actions taken by Sears and Hilton, whe ther right or wrong, werelegally completely within their rights. Matlack summarized the school conduct code, outlining those steps which lead to reprimand, those which lead to suspension and those which lead to expul VOLUME 64 NUMBER 36 donut sion. He stated that -all worries of expulsion were only hearsay at this time as a student cannot be formally expelled until a reg ular meeting of the school board .is held. He was, of course, not able to predict what action the board would take when it did meet. Matlack said that the school board meets on the third Wednes day of each month, which means the next meeting .will be held April 18. In regard to the pe tition and the sit-in, Matlack said that if the students could not get a hearing from Sears or Hilton (there was some doubt as to whether the students actually did present their petition to Hilton) the correct procedure would have been to select a committee to present the petition at the next board meeting. But the sit-in had already been held. One student quoted from the stu dent body code which says: “ Freedom of expression -- one of the basic purposes of school is to prepare students for free expression of ideas in a free society . . . ” ■ “ If that’s so,” the student pro tested, “ why was I kicked out of school for three days?” The feeling among the students attending the meeting was that they had followed proper chan nels. After being laughed at by Hilton (if they were: one girl said that Hilton was laughing about, something else, not the petition) the students felt they had no other way to be heard than by a demonstration. The demonstration evidently was spontanious; some students had been heard discussing such an action, but nobody took it very seriously until it. actually hap issue pened. Mrs. Cooley expressed the mood of the parents when she said that while it was unfortunate that it took a demonstration to jolt par ents awake to problems at the school, and that while parents should have been listening ea r lier to the children’s problems, they were listening now and wil ling to help. When it came time to discuss what action to take, the point was stressed that the group of concerned parents did not want to act in such a way that they might be considered “ hotheads” or “ radicals.” “ We must act with respect for the integrity of the school board and administrators and each oth e r,” one parent said. “ We want to meet in a spirit of goodwill.” The action decided upon was to appoint a committee of parents to do what the students had tried to do: 1) write a precise history of what happened to cause the sit-in, 2) draw up a list of current grievances (relating to the sit-in), 3) draw up a. list of past grievances, and 4) go through the proper legal chan nels (principal, superintendent and school board) in order to be heard. No mention was made of what would happen if they were not heard. Elected to the Parent’s Com mittee were: Sandra Moritz, Louis Krauthoefer, Myrtle Cruickshank, Tony, Sartettelin and Jack Kenneth. Alternates are Edwina Willis and Marge Owens. The committee held an organi zational meeting Friday night, March 23 in the parsonage of the Methodist Church. Letter from superintendent explains adm inistration view Open Letter To The Editor: I am writing this letter in re gards to the recent problem ex perience at Sheridan high school, that which was referred to as the “ Doughnut Issue” by the news media. I note that some of the reporting was not quite accurate. Therefore, I would like to explain what actu ally took place from the beginning. Upon reviewing the finances of district programs, I found that the high school lunch program . was going further in the red each month. After receiving the February statement, I felt that something had to be done to cor rect the problem. The following alternatives were possible: 1.) discontinue the sale of dough nuts and other goodies, which possibly presented competition to the regular lunches; 2.) recom mend to the board that prices for lunches at the high school be increased immediately. Due to the fact the doughnuts were being sold by the cooks and the money passed on to the senior class, I decided that the best decision would be to do away with competition. The income from this project, I will restate, wasn’t going towards financing the lunch program. It is the fault of the administration that this practice ever started in the first place. Therefore, I didn’t feel that discontinuing it would be that big of an issue, due to the fact that I, as superinten dent, under board policy am r e sponsible for the financial ac countability within the district. I took this move in hopes that the competition was the problem. If the financial problem contin ues to exist, J will then have to recommend that an increase in the price of lunches become ef fective. Mrs. Daniels, head cook, was contacted and she in dicated that she, too, was con cerned about the decrease in p ar ticipation, which amounted to ap proximately 28 students per day over the past year’s. She in dicated to Mr. Sears and myself that she likewise hoped that the removal othese items might help. Students were informed on Thursday, March 8, that dough- —— ........ Ì w SXXXXXXÒ xì Princesses for the 1973 Grand Ronde Grade School Carnival, to be held April 7, are: Top, Nancy Strohmeyer and Rhonda Pond; Bottom, Viki Holmsten and Phyllis Thomas. One of these lucky girls will be chosen Carnival Queen on the big night. The Grand Ronde Carnival is sponsored by the P. T. 0. to raise money for college scholarships. Activities at the carnival include games, family entertainment and plenty of food. nuts, ice crea, etc. would no longer be sold starting Monday, March 12, This allowed two school days for the items on hand to be sold and not wasted. A group of six students met for approximately two hours with Mr. Sears, high school principal, and myself to discuss their con cerns. They felt that many high school students came to school without eating and needed the nutrition. I informed that they, the senior class, could possibly come in at 8:15 a.m. and sell doughnuts for 20-25 minutes,, but that they would have to be hand led by them through the con cession stand and not in the caf- etorium. Their general response was negative, due to the fact that too many students didn’t get to school until the beginning of the first class. On Friday, approximately 60 students participated in a “ sit- in” staged in opposition to my action. When contacted by the high school secretary, Mr. Sears was in conference with Mr. P ar ker, editor of the local paper, | informed her that I would be right over. Upon arriving at the high school, I waited for Mr. Sears to complete his conference with Mr. Parker at which time I asked that he and I meet. Mr. Sears informed me that he had instructed the students to go to their fifth period classes and that only six - eight responded. I then stepped out of the office and instructed all of the students to report to their classes or that they would be considered in open definance which would result in a three day suspension. Only one student left the group at that time. I returned to the office and in formed the office staff to tele phone the parents of all students who had not gone to class when I instructed them to do so, in forming that that their boy/girl was suspended for three days due to open defiance, as recored in the student conduct code. The students whose parents were un able to be reached were instruc ted to go directly home and to inform their parents of what had happened and that a letter would be received from the office the first part of the week of the 26th, Contrary to what was re ported in the Sheridan Sun, 1 didn’t bring' out the cards with personal histories which are very confidential, but rather used identification cards which have recorded on them the class schedules for each individual. In accordance with ORS 339.250, as ammended by the 1971 legisla ture, the local board adopted a student conduct code. This fif teen page document was issued to each student in grades 6-12. It specifically outlines the. rights and responsibilities of students attending the Sheridan Schools. It was adopted, unanimously, by board members on August 23, 1972, for the present school year. It also outlines disciplinary ac tion to be administered in the dis trict. All students were asked to take their copies home so that their parents could also review it. In fact, a lettef is attached to the students and parents. I am sorry that the incident happened, but I do not apologize for the action taken with those participating in the incident. I feel that much money is being expended for the education of the students within the district and that incidents of this nature which disrupt the educational process can’t be overlooked. In closing, I would like to apologize to the parents who were left up in the air as to whether their child had been suspended. I would be the first to admit, that with all the noise and actions by the students possibly caused misunderstanding by your child, but they were instructed to in form you of the incident and that they were suspended for three days. I would hope that the readers realize that it was difficult to administer the school under the conditions that existed. E s pecially so when the local news media representatives were try ing to interview students and tak Springtime for sure - - Enjoying the balmy weather last week, ewes and lambs frolicked about in the fields near Willamina wondering who that nut with ing pictures while were were in forming the students of their sta tus. I was later informed that the tape of interviews by KMCM included obscene words by the students, which had to be re moved before broadcasting. There was one other mislead ing statement which is very im portant to me personally. At no time did we receive a petition from the students. And the state ment made by a local patron that I laughted at the students and informed them that they hadn’t used (he proper forms was com pletely erroneous. I realize that this letter is rather lengthy, but I felt it im portant to inform the readers what happened from the offset. I appreciate your taking room to print it. Sincerely, . William A. Hilton, Superintendent Sheridan School District 48J Sheridan, Oregon 97378 a camera was who stalked through' their pasture to take their portraits.