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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2015
Rare turtle washes up in Tolovana Blueprint:
Oregon has fourth
lowest graduation
rate in the nation
Chances for
survival are slim
By DANI PALMER
EO Media Group
Staff at the Seaside Aquari-
um rescued an olive ridley sea
turtle after it washed ashore
south of Tolovana early Mon-
day morning.
The roughly 50-pound tur-
tle was retrieved around 8:30
a.m. and hypothermic — like-
ly a result of being pushed into
colder waters by recent strong
winds, aquarium Administra-
tive Assistant Tiffany Boothe
said. Juvenile olive ridleys
travel in warm currents off-
shore.
“With the weather patterns,
we weren’t surprised to ¿nd
one,” Boothe said.
Last year, ¿ve sea turtles
were found off the coast. Three
were dead upon arrival and
one died in transit. The ¿fth
was successfully transported
to San Diego.
Monday’s olive ridley tur-
tle was found south of Tolova-
na near Briar Street around 8
a.m. Tracy Sund with Cannon
Beach’s Road and Streets De-
partment placed cones around
the animal until volunteers ar-
rived around 8:30 to pick it up.
Aquarium staff wrapped
the turtle in blankets and slow-
ly warmed it up to avoid shock
while awaiting U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service pickup.
Continued from Page 1A
Dani Palmer/EO Media Group
This olive ridley sea turtle, found in Tolovana, is headed for the Seattle Aquarium for a
chance at recovery.
Seaside Aquarium Manager
Keith Chandler said staff try to
make the animals as comfort-
able and stress-free as possible
until Fish and Wildlife arrives.
Laura Todd, Newport Field
supervisor for the U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service, said the
Seattle Aquarium is “working
on her now.”
Live turtles are normal-
ly taken to the Oregon Coast
Aquarium in Newport, but
aquarium is already rehabili-
tating one found in Paci¿c City
earlier this month.
If a turtle survives, it is re-
leased in Southern California
waters, often after hitching a
ride with an agency such as
the U.S. Coast Guard during a
training trip.
Unfortunately, the chances
for survival at this stage are
slim, Chandler noted, with a
75 to 90 percent mortality rate.
The turtles become hypother-
mic in colder waters and are
often tossed around in the surf.
Todd said Cannon Beach’s
turtle was at 50 degrees when
it arrived in Seattle. The tur-
tle’s normal temperature is in
the low 70s.
“The odds are against
them,” Chandler said.
But the faster the turn-
around, the better the chances,
Todd said.
Sea life rescuers expect to
see more turtles beached along
the coast with this year’s El
Niño. “Usually when we get
one, we get a few,” Boothe said.
Todd said the turtles normal-
ly remain south of San Diego.
However, she added, they do
sometimes travel farther north
in warm currents searching for
food. It’s not unusual to see a tur-
tle beached in Oregon per year.
Care: Triggers can be hard to pin down
Continued from Page 1A
The class, designed for peo-
ple taking care of folks with
mental illness and developmen-
tal disabilities, laid out a game
plan for confronting behaviors
that can cause physical or emo-
tional harm to the consumer or
caregiver.
Beverly’s emotional out-
bursts are one of several types of
challenging behaviors that care-
givers deal with daily, along with
yelling, cussing, threatening,
withdrawing, physical aggres-
sion, sexual aggression and leav-
ing home without telling anyone.
For people who have trouble
expressing their needs in words,
these behaviors are a way to
make people listen. That’s why
it’s important not to dismiss their
behavior as merely “acting out.”
“They’re communicating
very clearly, but you’re just not
paying attention,” Shelly Ed-
wards, the trainer, said.
Support plan
So how should caregivers
get to the bottom of Beverly’s
behavior, which seems to be part
of a pattern?
First off, don’t ignore it; ig-
noring the behavior may only
escalate it.
The caregivers should ac-
knowledge the feelings behind
Beverly’s behavior. Beverly
isn’t just throwing a tantrum
for fun, she is distraught. “Most
times, they have no control over
why it’s coming out,” Edwards
said.
Though it would be natural
to grow angry with her, it would
accomplish nothing. Rather, the
caregivers should try to model
the calm, respectful behavior
they want from Beverly.
Joshua Bessex/The Daily Astorian
Shelly Edwards leads a group discussion with caregivers
about patient care during a free training class held Thursday.
Now the caregivers get to
play detective. Their case: de-
termine the triggers that pre-
dictably set Beverly off. This
investigative work is more
straightforward with individuals
who can speak, but in Beverly’s
case it may entail talking with
her family or closely monitoring
her behavior.
As it turned out, the trigger
was her mother and the change
in Beverly’s routine. Her moth-
er was taking her out for far
too long, overstimulating her
and allowing the parent-child
dynamic to fall into the same
dysfunctional rut that convinced
Beverly’s mother to place her in
foster care in the ¿rst place.
With that information, the
caregivers can work out a sup-
port plan with Beverly — for ex-
ample, one in which she doesn’t
spend so many hours away from
home with her mother.
Even if a person can’t
communicate, “for their own
well-being and self-worth, you
need to involve them in the plan
as much as you can,” Edwards
said. “You do not want to solve
the problem, you want to help
them solve the problem.”
Lastly, the caregivers should
evaluate the results and follow
up with Beverly, her mother and
the rest of the care team.
First-line interventions
Triggers can be hard to pin
down.
When someone withdraws
socially, it could mean some-
thing untoward happened with
another facility resident. Or it
could be signs of illness. Or of
embarrassment stemming from
vision problems or hearing loss.
When someone acts restless
or depressed, he or she could be
reÀecting on a personal loss. Or
that person may be experienc-
ing a side-effect of too much
medication, too many different
medications or the wrong med-
ication.
“Every behavior has a rea-
son,” Edwards said. “All of
these things can bother us, so
why wouldn’t they cause prob-
lems for somebody who can’t
communicate in the same way
that we do?”
But these triggers have
greater impact on people who
lack the language skills to assert
themselves or control their envi-
ronment, Edwards said.
Many challenging behav-
iors, though, can be traced back
to four main triggers: the person
needs to use the bathroom, is in
pain, is hungry or is bored. For
¿rst-line interventions, caregiv-
ers should keep these in mind,
especially because they, more so
than the consumer, can change
these conditions.
For the most part, she said,
“we are the ones who can
change, not the person with the
mental illness, or the develop-
mental issue, or dementia ... or
somebody who’s just sick.”
No labels
It can be tempting to simply
label these individuals “behav-
ior problems.” But that attitude,
apart from dehumanizing them,
lets their caregivers off the hook.
“One of the things I dislike
intensely is labeling people,”
said Edwards, who reminded
the class that not everyone who
exhibits challenging behaviors
suffers from a mental illness or
disability. “Every single person
in this room can have a chal-
lenging behavior when they’re
in the right mood.”
The trick is to prevent the
challenging behavior from aris-
ing in the ¿rst place. And a good
place to start is by engaging
them in hobbies and activities
that give their lives purpose, that
get them out of bed in the morn-
ing, like painting classes or trips
to a nearby animal shelter.
“You need to help them ¿nd
a way to connect back with the
community,” Edwards said.
“Even if it’s just one-on-one.”
expand the Of¿ce of Small
Business Advocate. The of-
¿ce provides assistance to
small business owners and
helps them cut down time
spent mired in bureaucratic
red tape. Brown established
the of¿ce when she served
as secretary of state, before
an ethics scandal forced
Gov. John Kitzhaber to re-
sign and elevated her to the
state’s highest of¿ce.
Supporting existing busi-
nesses is important because
70 percent of job growth
stems from expansion of
those companies, Brown said.
She said government also
would assist in boosting the
economy by continuing to
seek out trade opportunities
in growing Asian markets.
The governor suggested
the state needs to invest more
in education but provided no
plan to meet that need. The
Tuestion grows more dif¿-
cult to answer as the state
faces mounting costs asso-
ciated with the Public Em-
ployees Retirement System,
as speakers at the summit
pointed out.
Education
innovation of¿cer
Earlier Monday, Brown
announced the addition of
a new education innovation
of¿cer position to her ad-
ministration to help boost
the state’s dismal high school
graduation rate.
“The position will assist
me, my education team and
the Legislature in dedicat-
ing resources to increase
the number of students who
graduate from high school,”
Brown said from prepared
comments.
“There is no question that
our education system must
be accountable to better stu-
dent outcomes, including
increasing our high school
graduation rate,” Brown
said.
“But accountability also
means ensuring that, as a
state we are empowering the
best and most effective prac-
tices in our classrooms that
support student success,” she
said.
The administration has yet
to complete a job description
for the position and to post
the job, said Brown spokes-
woman Kristen Granger. She
gave no timeline for hiring.
Oregon now has the
fourth lowest graduation
rate in the nation, up from
the country’s worst in 2013.
Oregon’s graduation rate is
72 percent, compared to a
national average of 81.4 per-
cent.
The graduation rate is
65.6 percent in Astoria, 66.7
percent in Warrenton, 65.9
percent in Knappa and 76.3
percent in Seaside.
John
Tapogna
of
ECONorthwest said Mon-
day the state’s graduation
rate mars Oregon’s reputa-
tion in the eyes of employers
considering relocating to the
state.
The graduation rate is
perplexing because it doesn’t
align with the state’s test
scores, Tapogna said.
“It is really damaging
to the state’s reputation in a
very tangible way,” the pub-
lic-policy consultant said.
Edward Stratton con-
tributed to this report. The
Capital Bureau is a collab-
oration between EO Media
Group and Pamplin Media
Group.
Saranpaa: She remains in
custody on $15,000 bail
multiple baggies of meth-
amphetamine and
a black and white
A detective on
polka dot bag be-
scene noticed a
longing to Shufelt.
beer can that had
The bag contained
been cut in half in
a digital scale, four
a trash can. The
unused CO2 canis-
bottom half of the
ters, two keys on a
can was missing.
key ring, a broken
Drug users com-
marijuana pipe and
monly use the bot-
four small baggies
tom of cans to heat
of meth, accord-
up drugs before
Lacey
ing to the police
injecting or inhal-
Saranpaa
report.
ing them, accord-
Saranpaa is accused of
ing to the detective.
When the detective asked ¿ve other drug-related cas-
Saranpaa if he could look es dating back to January.
inside her purse, she pulled She remains in custody on
out the other half of the beer $15,000 bail.
She is due back in court
can and a syringe, which
gave probable cause to ar- next month for an early res-
rest her. Saranpaa also had olution conference.
Continued from Page 1A
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