The SpokeSman • WedneSday, February 2, 2022 P5
FBI monitors event decrying pandemic mandates
“Someone with a mental illness
could sit back and take (Stuart’s
comments) as a signal to, ‘We need
to do something about this, and we
need to do something bad.’ And we
don’t want to take that gamble.”
BY BRYCE DOLE
The bulletin
REDMOND — The FBI monitored
local members of the far-right People’s
Rights group as they planned for what
has become an ongoing 10-day pro-
test against pandemic rules outside of
Redmond High School.
The bureau’s concern, expressed
in an update to Redmond Police on
Jan. 19, prompted Chief Devin Lewis
to inform Redmond School District
Superintendent Charan Cline that of-
ficers would be present at the school,
according to documents obtained by
The Bulletin. The FBI told police that
the protest group is expected to grow
to as many as 200 participants next
week.
In an interview, Lewis said police
are not concerned about the protest
nor the people involved, noting that
they have not yet broken any laws.
The FBI would not provide further
comment.
“The FBI does not comment on
what may or may not be an investi-
gative matter,” said FBI spokesperson
Beth Anne Steele. “However, we regu-
larly exchange information with local,
state, and federal partners concern-
ing potential threats and public safety
matters, especially when there are
possible threats in a school setting.”
Both Lewis, and the FBI, acknowl-
edged the group’s First Amendment
rights. But there is a line they can’t
cross, Cline said Tuesday.
“People have a right to protest in
America. But they don’t have a right
to disrupt school operations,” he said.
“So we’ve asked them to stay off our
campuses, because that’s not OK.”
Scott Stuart, a Deschutes County
Commission candidate and Redmond
resident who sent vaguely threatening
email to the Redmond School District
in recent months, organized the pro-
test, he said in an interview Wednes-
day.
“It was my idea,” Stuart said, laugh-
ing. “I’m having fun.”
— Clifford Evelyn, Redmond city
councilman
dean Guernsey/The bulletin
A group against wearing masks rallies Thursday as students walk by at Redmond High School.
Stuart said the group will gather at
the Nolan Town Center from Jan. 24-
Feb. 4 and give students literature that
they claim shows that pandemic man-
dates are lawless. The group will also
hand out gift cards for free lunches at
local fast food establishments to entice
students into rebelling against things
like masking and vaccines.
Stuart, who sparked community
concern last year after wielding a Con-
federate flag in a local Fourth of July
parade, described the gift cards as a
counter to state-run vaccine incentives
meant to encourage students to get
vaccinated against the coronavirus.
The protest has only involved small
groups of people daily. On Wednes-
day, they went home early because it
was too cold, Stuart said.
And the protest has had little to no
impact on students, except for making
some students late to class due to long
lunch lines at McDonald’s, said Red-
mond High School principal Audrey
Haugan.
“The kids just seem most interested
in the gift cards they’re getting over
there,” Haugan said. “I don’t know
what their messaging has been ver-
bally to our kids. But all the kids have
come back and said they got a free
lunch.”
Haugan said it has seemed to her
that there has been an increased po-
lice presence around the school and
nearby town center this week, but
Lewis said that’s not true.
Haugan said she doesn’t mind pro-
tests. Her only concern is if the group
provides misinformation about the
constitution, student rights, or mask
requirements, she said.
Redmond Police are not concerned
about Stuart’s comments, Lewis, the
chief said. {span}“We hear lots of
things,” Lewis said.{/span}
But Redmond City Councilor
Clifford Evelyn said he is concerned
about Stuart and the protest.
In the emails, obtained by The Bul-
letin and published this week, Stu-
art said he is “praying God will allow
the public gallows to return” for Gov.
Kate Brown and others who create
pandemic rules. He also sent vaguely
threatening messages to the district’s
school board members and Cline, de-
scribing a “day of reckoning” for pub-
lic officials if pandemic rules are not
removed.
Evelyn, a former commander of
the Clark County Sheriff’s Office in
Washington, said Stuart’s messaging
raises “red flags.” While Stuart said
earlier this week that he wouldn’t per-
sonally inflict harm upon a school
board member, emphasizing a goal
of “peaceful noncompliance,” Evelyn
said Stuart’s comments run the risk of
inciting violence.
“Someone with a mental illness
could sit back and take (Stuart’s com-
ments) as a signal to, ‘We need to do
something about this, and we need to
do something bad,’” he said. “And we
don’t want to take that gamble.”
As a former law enforcement offi-
cer who served on boards focused on
issues related to mental illness, Evelyn
said “when people like Mr. Stuart say
the things that he says, it’s very simple
to spark somebody in the wrong di-
rection or cause a problem.”
“When we start dragging kids into
it, that becomes more problematic,”
Evelyn said. “We don’t want some
young teenager to get so pressured by
what he believes this man is saying
that he takes up arms and goes to a
school and does something harmful
to our children.”
Stuart’s email to Redmond edu-
cators also drew concern from state
and local officials earlier this week.
Deschutes County District Attorney
John Hummel said Stuart’s messages
“should disqualify him from serving as
an elected official” but were not crimes
because they were not directly threat-
ening. A spokesperson for the gover-
nor said that although Brown encour-
ages free speech, “it is disheartening
when disagreements are expressed as
threats — especially when coming
from a candidate for political office.”
People’s Rights is an extrem-
ist group founded in 2020 by Am-
mon Bundy, an activist who was the
leader of the 2016 armed takeover
and standoff at the Malheur National
Wildlife Refuge. The group pushes
back against what it calls government
overreach, and decries pandemic re-
strictions.
e
Reporter: 541-660-9844,
bdole@bendbulletin.com
PREP BOYS BASKETBALL
NONLEAGUE
‘DOG
FIGHT’
FOR
32
MINUTES
Mountain View Cougars overtake Ridgeview Ravens with
late-game heroics from Quincy Townsend in 54-49 victory
BY BRIAN RATHBONE
The bulletin
REDMOND — A non-
league, inter-classification
basketball game between two
teams destined for the postsea-
son seemed like the perfect op-
portunity to take it easy before
gearing up for the final stretch
of the regular season.
Wrong.
As Mountain View coach
Bob Townsend put it, it was a
“dog fight” for 32 minutes at
Ridgeview High in Redmond
on Tuesday night.
In a battle of former — and
future — Intermountain Con-
ference foes with a combined
24 wins between them, 6A
Mountain View squeaked out a
54-49 win over 5A Ridgeview,
taking the lead in the final
minutes after trailing nearly
the entire game.
The Cougars (11-4 overall,
2-3 Mountain Valley Confer-
ence) had two things work-
ing in their favor the final two
minutes once the Ravens (10-
6, 1-1 IMC) took their largest
lead of the game of nine points.
The first was a 1-2-2 zone-
press defense. The Ravens
built a 47-38 lead after a sev-
en-point scoring spurt by Ryan
Asplund, but once Mountain
View went to its press, Rid-
geview had no answer. In the
span of 30 seconds, the Cou-
gars forced three turnovers in
the backcourt and scored seven
straight points to cut the Ra-
vens’ lead to 47-45.
“That was the hardest we
played,” Townsend said. “We
are a really good defensive
team when we compete and
play hard.”
brian rathbone/The bulletin photos
Mountain View’s Quincy Townsend backs down Ridgeview’s Ryan As-
plund during the Cougars’ 54-49 win over the Ravens Tuesday night in
Redmond.
Still, with just over a minute
remaining, Ridgeview took a
49-47 lead following a pair of
Aidan Brenneman free throws.
Then the second prong of
Mountain View’s comeback
came into play — a 15-year-
old who has long dreamed
about being a varsity player for
Mountain View.
Ways you
can support
Thelma’s Place:
• Vehicle donations
• Cash donations
• Sponsorships
• Volunteer
CHILD CARE
AN INTERGENERATIONAL PROGRAM
Your support makes a difference!
Redmond: 541-548-3049
Day Respite and Support Groups
www.thelmasplace.org
Freshman Quincy
Townsend scored seven
points in the final minute — a
3-pointer to give the Cougars
the lead, then closed out the
game by going 4-for-4 at the
free-throw line — to lift Moun-
tain View to the five-point win.
“I love basketball and that is
what I love to do,” said Quincy
Townsend, who scored a game-
high 33 points. “I love those
moments when the game is on
the line.”
The Cougars trailed 27-24
at halftime, and the young
Townsend sensed that he
needed to shoulder more of
the scoring load in the final 16
minutes.
“Tonight I was trying to
pass and get my teammates
involved, but when I needed
to shoot, I shot,” said Quincy
Townsend, who scored 21
of the team’s 30 second-half
points.
It would not be surprising
if moments like Tuesday night
were envisioned in the high
school gym in The Dalles —
where his dad coached for nine
years before the family moved
to Bend in 2014.
“He would pick me up from
preschool every day and I
would try and practice with
the players and that is where it
all started,” Quincy Townsend
recalled. “Since then all I’ve
wanted to do is be a varsity
basketball player.”
It is often a tricky balancing
act for a coach who is watching
his son blossom into a basket-
ball star from the sideline, as
the team’s success takes priority.
“You want to be excited
in the moment, but you
Ridgeview’s Ryan
Asplund glides in
for a layup during
Ridgeview’s 54-49
loss to Mountain
View on Tuesday
night.
are a coach first,” said Bob
Townsend, who took over as
head coach at Mountain View
in 2018. “I’m excited for him
because he is my son, but I’d be
excited if it was any of our play-
ers. After the game you look
back at what happened and he
deserves to have his parents ap-
preciate what he is doing.”
Tuesday night’s win will be
a fun one to look back on, but
both Mountain View and Rid-
geview are in the hunt for post-
season berths. The
Ravens are ranked
No. 9 in this
week’s 5A coaches
poll and will face
The Dalles in an
IMC matchup on
Thursday.
Mountain View
will travel Friday
to face Sprague,
which is unde-
feated in MVC
play. The Cougars
will go into that
game as healthy as they have
been all season, according to
Townsend.
“I feel pretty good that we
are 11-4 through the main
stretch,” Bob Townsend said.
“It will be nice to have all the
bullets in the chamber. We
have to continue to compete,
but I like where we are sitting
and the opportunity that is in
front of us.”
e
Reporter: 541-383-0307,
brathbone@bendbulletin.com
Worship Directory
Baptist
Non-Denominational
Highland Baptist Church
Seventh Day Adventist
3100 SW Highland Ave., Redmond
541-548-4161
Barry Campbell, Lead Pastor
945 W. Glacier Ave.,
Redmond, OR
541-923-0301
Sunday Worship Services:
Get great
service &
great rates.
Blended - 8 & 9 am
Contemporary - 10:30 am
(Worship Center)
hbc Español - 10:30 am
Acoustic - 6 pm
(Youth Room)
*9 am & 10:30 am live-streamed on
website: www.hbcredmond.org
Family Night Wednesdays
(January 2 - March 16)
5:30 pm - Dinner in Gym (free)
6 pm - Practical classes for all ages
Joe A Lochner Ins Acy Inc
Joe A Lochner, Agent
www.joelochner.com
Redmond, OR 97756
Bus: 541-548-6023
See website for a list of classes!
How can hbc pray for you?
prayer@hbcredmond.org
Sabbath School 9:30 am
Worship 10:45 am
Roman Catholic
St Thomas Roman Catholic
Church
1720 NW 19th Street
Redmond, Oregon 97756
541-923-3390
Father Todd Unger, Pastor
Mass Schedule:
Weekdays 8:00 am
(Except Wednesdays)
Wednesday 6:00 pm
Saturday Vigil 5:00 pm
First Saturday 8:00 am (English)
Sunday 8:00 am, 10:00 am (English)
12:00 noon (Spanish)
CHECK YOUR AD
On the first day it runs to
make sure it is correct.
Call 541-617-7823 for corrections.
Confessions on Wednesdays
From 5:00 to 5:45 pm and on
Saturdays From 3:00 to 4:30 pm