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WEEKEND
FRIDAY EXTRA • 2C
142nd YEAR, No. 248
EDITION
FRIDAY EXTRA • 3C
FRIDAY, JUNE 12, 2015
ONE DOLLAR
Serial
An alternative for a better life
burglar
says he’s
‘sorry’
Man says he
meant no harm,
was cold, hungry
By KYLE SPURR
The Daily Astorian
Photos by JOSHUA BESSEX — The Daily Astorian
Graduate Sarah Clark, right, hugs instructional assistant Deanna Rascoe during the Gray School Campus Alternative Education Program
graduation ceremony at the Capt. Robert Gray School Thursday.
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By EDWARD STRATTON
The Daily Astorian
Clatsop County’s alternative
high school education program just
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date Thursday.
Gray School Campus Alterna-
tive Education Program, operated
by Astoria School District to help
struggling students from through-
out the county, celebrated 11 of its
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school throughout the year.
The graduates came from As-
toria, Warrenton and Seaside to be
AHS students studying mostly on-
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Robert Gray School building. At
Gray, lead teacher Alexa Knutsen,
counselor Rachel Rollins, assis-
tant Deanna Rascoe, teachers and
counselors from the high school
and community volunteers help the
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get a diploma.
Knutsen, in her third year, said
this is the program’s best perfor-
mance since she joined. She said
AHS Principal Lynn Jackson and
Superintendent Craig Hoppes have
given her and the staff free rein to
create the kind of program that
shepherds its students to graduation.
On Thursday, Knutsen and Rol-
lins handed out awards to the grad-
uates, from Biggest Heart and Mr.
Motivation to Most Organized and
the Master of Mindfulness.
Community effort
Knutsen also thanked the large
number of volunteers who help
Graduate Kylee Pitts hugs school nurse Lisa McClean during the
alternative high school graduation ceremony at the Capt. Robert
Gray School Thursday.
who volunteer their time to pro-
vide food, tutoring, mentorship and
emotional support to the students.
“I’ll cry a lot today,” a teary -
eyed Knutsen said, asking students
to send letters of thanks to Dan “The
Carrot Man” Strite, who comes in
every Tuesday to hand out fresh car-
rots, apples and magic tricks but has
been sidelined by health problems.
Shortly thereafter, Strite sur-
prised the graduates, stopping in
for graduation. Also there was
Frank Loyd, pastor at the Astoria
Christian Church, which provides
goody bags and meals to help hold
students over the weekend.
“They’re not here to pat them-
selves on the back,” Knutsen said.
“They’re not here for their own
accord. They’re here because they
believe in what we’re doing.”
The Gray clique
Jordan Lance greets Dan “The Carrot Man” Strite, a regular volun-
teer with the Gray School Campus Alternative Education Program
during graduation at the Capt. Robert Gray School Thursday.
make the campus click, from the
teachers, counselors, school nurse
and administrators at the high
school to the community members
Most of the students at Gray
work part- to full-time jobs; a few
have children of their own; and
most faced bullying or other chal-
lenges at their previous schools.
Brittany Alley, 18, said her
sophomore year, she was suspend-
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High School and ended up leaving
to go the college to get her GED.
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a bunch of older students, she
said, made her uncomfortable. Her
counselor from Seaside, Travis
Cave, called Knutsen, who then
reached out to Alley and helped her
enroll at Gray.
See GRADUATION, Page 8A
Claws! Monster machine remakes jetty
By KATIE WILSON
EO Media Group
The Astoria man responsible for
several South Slope burglaries wants
the
victims
to know their
homes
were
not invaded by
some sinister
criminal, but
rather someone
struggling to
survive.
Before be-
ing sentenced
to two years in
Jesse
prison Thurs-
Allan Pitts
day in Clat-
sop
County
Circuit Court, Jesse Allan Pitts, 32,
apologized to the multiple victims,
claiming he understood the fear and
diminished sense of security he cre-
ated. None of the victims attended
the court hearing.
“Coming from my heart and soul,
I say to you all, forgive me for my
actions during a drastic period of
See BURGLAR, Page 8A
Lawyers
seek to
split trials
in toddler
murder
Seaside couple
blame each other
in statements
By KYLE SPURR
The Daily Astorian
Lawyers representing the live-in
boyfriend accused of murdering his
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a motion Thursday asking the court
for separate trials.
Dorothy Ann Wing, 25, and Ran-
dy Lee Roden, 27, are co-defendants
set to face trial April 5, 2016.
In the motion to sever, Roden’s
defense lawyers, Conor Huseby and
Robert Axford, argue the two are not
charged with the same crimes and
both have made numerous and ex-
tensive statements about the events
and both implicate the other.
“Mr. Roden and Ms. Wing do not
have the same charges. The charges
See TRIAL, Page 8A
CAPE DISAPPOINTMENT, Wash. — The rock looks
like the prow of a ship. At 11 tons, it could easily crush the
two men who are overseeing its placement on the jetty be-
low. It dangles above them, held tight in enormous metal
claws operated by a massive crane.
Jetty stones — some weighing in as heavy as 27 tons
— have been arriving at Cape Disappointment State Park
in Ilwaco for months now as critical repairs on North Jetty
continue. The repairs are just one small piece of a massive
effort to rehabilitate and repair all three jetties at the mouth
of the Columbia River. The system is long overdue for such
work, according to reports by the U.S. Army Corps of Engi-
neers. The two largest jetties, Washington’s North Jetty and
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tecting channels that keep the river open and accessible to
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The Corps, tasked with maintaining the jetty system, is
ahead of schedule on repairs to North Jetty and hopes to
DAMIAN MULINIX — EO Media Group
See MACHINE, Page 8A
Quarried rocks as large as 27 tons are swung into place
by an enormous crane operating on top of North Jetty.
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