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THE ASTORIAN • SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2021
School: Students will still have online coursework Sports: Plans are still
Continued from Page A1
guidelines established by
the state that outline how
and when schools can open
given the local number and
rate of positive virus cases.
These metrics became advi-
sory in January, but districts
who want to stray from them
to reopen must comply with
other measures, including the
ability to provide on-site test-
ing of staff and students who
show any symptoms of the
virus.
As they dropped off their
children on Thursday , parents
told The Astorian they were
excited for schools to reopen.
The students are only return-
ing for three hours a day for
now, but it gives parents who
may be working from home
more breathing room. It is
especially welcome to par-
ents whose children may have
struggled with online course-
work or social isolation .
At Astor Elementary,
some students posed for a
traditional fi rst day of school
photo, beaming as their par-
ents snapped pictures on their
smartphones. Then school
staff gathered students and
talked to them about how to
keep a safe distance from each
other. One staff member had
them stretch out their arms to
Katie Frankowicz/The Astorian
Shane Robinson walks his son, Tristan, left, to Astor
Elementary on Thursday accompanied by his daughter.
show them what kind of space
they needed to maintain.
With their arms held in
front of them, they began to
line up on markers painted
on the pavement. When sev-
eral children began to group
up, chatting enthusiastically, a
staff member quickly jumped
in and reminded them to keep
their distance.
Inside the elementary
schools, red arrows and tall
orange safety cones mark out
“lanes” for students. There
are yellow signs depicting
two fi gures standing apart
from each other to remind
students and staff to keep their
distance. When they go home,
the students will still have
some online coursework.
Not all of the school dis-
trict’s elementary school chil-
dren will return to in-person
instruction, but Superinten-
dent Craig Hoppes has already
heard from some parents who
are now changing their minds
and want to send their chil-
dren to classrooms. For now,
the primary limit to the num-
ber of children who can return
at once is classroom capacity.
Under state guidelines, stu-
dents must maintain a cer-
tain distance from each other
within classrooms.
At Astor Elementary, with
its larger classrooms, this is
not so much of an issue. But
Lewis and Clark Elementary,
which serves grades three
through fi ve, smaller class-
rooms could be a barrier.
Other challenges will come
when the middle school and
high school reopen, Hoppes
warned board members at a
meeting Wednesday.
Even with just the ele-
mentary schools open for
three hours a day fi ve days a
week, buses are running con-
stantly as they shuttle differ-
ent cohorts of students to and
from school. When the higher
grades return, start times may
look different to accommo-
date possible transportation
schedules.
For now, though, Hoppes
said Thursday morning, it is
good to see students walk into
school buildings.
H is biggest concern as he
stood on the sidewalk outside
Astor Elementary was “to get
them in and get them used to
being in school.”
It was a concern Kate
Gohr, the principal at Astor
Elementary, shared.
“Is Miss Gohr happy?”
board member Jimmy Pear-
son had asked at the Wednes-
day night meeting after Hop-
pes briefed them on the
school reopening plans and
procedures.
“My biggest concern is just
getting (students) in and get-
ting them out,” Gohr replied.
“My concern is not about
having them in the building.
That’s the easy part.”
Shooting: ‘I think the system failed her’
Continued from Page A1
burglary at a home on Ore-
gon Lane. The homeowner
told police he saw Burns, who
he did not know, entering his
vehicle in front of his home
and taking his laptop.
The homeowner followed
her down the road, and during
that time she was seen return-
ing and entering his home.
Burns reportedly barri-
caded herself in an upstairs
bedroom .
At
around
1:40 p.m., Burns made threats
to kill police if they got closer
to her, and about 15 minutes
later, while still barricaded in
the room, she fi red off a round
from a gun.
According to the report,
the bullet traveled through
the room, a closet door and
an exterior wall east toward a
neighboring home.
“Police continued nego-
tiations and at times she
appeared to be making a con-
nection and at other times she
cursed the police,” the report
said.
About an hour after police
were called to the scene,
Burns reportedly burst from
the bedroom to an outside bal-
cony and then over a railing
onto the second-story roof.
Eslinger, another trooper
and a Seaside p olice offi cer
were tactically placed outside
and could see her holding a
9mm semi-automatic carbine
she had taken from the home.
Other police and sher-
iff’s deputies were gathered
nearby and were in Burns’ fi r-
ing range.
Burns was given com-
mands to drop the gun, accord-
ing to the report, but instead
she reportedly raised the gun
toward police. S he was shot
in the chest by Eslinger at
2:35 p.m. Police checked for
a pulse and called emergency
crews, but she quickly died.
The s tate m edical e xam-
iner’s o ffi ce concluded after
an autopsy that Burns died
from a single gunshot wound.
There were preliminary fi nd-
ings of THC, the active ingre-
dient of cannabis, along with
amphetamines, benzodiaze-
pine and buprenorphine in her
system, but confi rmation is
pending.
The Astorian has requested
to review the material gath-
ered in the investigation.
‘Two regrets’
People close to Burns told
the newspaper she had mental
health and drug abuse issues
and had been experiencing
what appeared to be psychosis
for about a month leading up
to her death.
Pattie Osborne, the mother
of Burns’ boyfriend, said she
believes the system failed her.
Burns had been arrested
a few days earlier for bur-
glary in the second degree,
theft in the second degree and
criminal mischief in the fi rst
degree. She was booked at the
county jail and released the
same day because of corona-
virus precautions.
Osborne said Burns had
been arrested other times
around that time frame, but
was released every time. She
said she wishes Burns had
been held in custody to pro-
tect herself and others.
Osborne said Burns had
been violent toward her son
and on a couple of occasions
tried to attack him with a knife
and hammer.
Earlier in the day before
Burns was killed, Osborne
said Burns was with her son in
his car near Sunset Beach. She
said her son called the police
reporting that Burns had tried
to stab him.
She said after police
arrived, Burns walked away
from the scene. Neighbors
told The Astorian that Burns
had tried to enter other homes
before entering the home
where she was killed .
“My son said he’s got two
regrets,” Osborne said. “One,
that he called the police. T wo,
that he didn’t let her stab him
so that they could have helped
her.”
Osborne said she wants
to know why police did not
arrest and book her earlier
that day. She wants to know
why her son, Burns’ mother
or the mobile crisis team from
Clatsop Behavioral Health-
care were not called to try to
help calm Burns down and
negotiate with her before the
shooting .
She said situations like
Burns’ death are not black
and white, but that progress
needs to be made to prevent
these types of deaths from
happening.
“I don’t think they tried
very hard to save this young
woman’s life,” Osborne said.
“Thirty-one years old, and she
was a beautiful girl. I mean,
her heart was beautiful. She
just had this problem.
“I believe, at the very least,
they failed her. And it’s not
Hospital: Deeper investigations are routine
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Jonathan Modie, a spokes-
man for the health authority,
said that after some deeper
investigation, the state’s epi-
demiological team deter-
mined the more recent cases
had no association with the
earlier related cluster. The
state considers virus cases
related — part of a workplace
outbreak — unless a more
likely alternative source is
identifi ed.
“Our epi team did some
deeper investigation with the
hospital and were able to iden-
tify several cases that were
originally associated with
the hospital who had more
probable exposure elsewhere
(largely due to social gath-
erings and other workplace
outbreaks that affected fam-
ily members),” he said in an
email. “After reviewing those
details, they updated the out-
break to refl ect only those
cases with probable exposure
at work.”
Modie said that some-
times it takes time to obtain
all of the appropriate informa-
tion and that going back for
deeper investigation is routine
practice.
“We collaborate with local
public health and employee
health at the hospital to deter-
mine both work and personal
exposures to identify probable
transmission,” he said. “We
obtained additional data for
the more recent cases, which
led us to recharacterize the
outbreak. It wasn’t due to any
undue concern.”
When the health authori-
ty’s initial report was released
on Jan. 27, the Astoria hospi-
tal objected to the state’s char-
acterization of the virus cases
as an outbreak. The hospital
said there was no active out-
break at that time and that the
27 cases were cumulative of
employees who tested posi-
tive for the virus over nearly
two months.
The hospital acknowl-
edged that fi ve employees
who tested positive for the
virus during the week of Nov.
27 “met OHA’s defi nition of
an outbreak.”
Nicole Williams, Colum-
bia Memorial’s c hief o perat-
ing o ffi cer, said she reached
out to the health authority and
provided the epidemiological
team the hospital’s investiga-
tory notes and context for the
virus cases. She said it took
about a week to get it com-
pletely resolved.
“We always conduct inves-
tigations right away when we
hear about a positive case from
an employee,” Williams said.
“So we do our own investiga-
tion into how they could have
acquired COVID , whether it’s
an internal or external source.
“They were very willing
to work with us, and even in
the future we’ll defi nitely be
more proactive about pro-
viding them that additional
information. The county pro-
vides them some investiga-
tory notes — that’s where
they were getting their infor-
mation from — but we’ll also
be providing our notes on it so
that they have our informa-
tion as well,” she said. “And
they said they’d be more than
happy to review those.”
like I want a particular cop to
be in trouble. I want aware-
ness. I want people to be edu-
cated about what to do in a sit-
uation like this. This happens
all the time with mentally ill
people.”
Osborne, a retired regis-
tered nurse, said Burns exhib-
ited signs of schizophrenia,
but she was never diagnosed.
She said the family tried to get
her to seek help.
“The sadness is that I was
just waiting for Alaina to
fi nally give in and go to the
hospital and get some help,”
Osborne said. “But I think the
system failed her.”
in the early stages
Continued from Page A1
“School sports play an
important role in fostering
students’ mental, emotional
and physical health. We
will proceed with caution,
to ensure that teams are fol-
lowing health and safety pre-
cautions to protect our ath-
letes, their families and their
communities.”
Clatsop County was
downgraded on Friday from
the extreme risk to high risk
category for the coronavirus .
Rub is hoping that trend
continues, so he can get back
to scheduling games and
events for the Fishermen.
“We’ll be able to get up
to 50 people in our gym, so
we’ll be able to get volleyball
going,” he said of the only fall
indoor sport. “The thing that
would be helpful moving for-
ward, with our return of stu-
dents to school and some form
of athletics, is that our COVID
numbers keep going down.
We need everyone to work
hard to do what they can.”
Plans are still in the early
stages, and Rub is anticipat-
ing questions that will arise.
Will spectators be allowed?
Will road trips be safe for
student-athletes? Will there
be junior varsity sports?
“Right now, the early dis-
cussion is if we’re able to
play a league season, the
league rule would be that
there would be no specta-
tors,” he said. “That’s not our
desire — it’s a safety-driven
decision. Our desire is to pro-
vide competition for our kids.
That’s our sole focus.”
For fans, “we will work
hard at all of our facilities to
provide some type of broad-
cast for our varsity events if
possible, to help our parents
and fans.”
Also, “we want to make
certain that we’re not going
to take any long bus trips,
if it’s not deemed safe to do
so. There are some trips on
our schedule right now that
might not be able to happen.”
For sports that have the
numbers, there will be one
level of junior varsity sports.
“A lot of this will depend
on how our numbers turn out,”
Rub said. “There will be some
kids or families who prefer to
wait until next fall. We under-
stand and respect that.”
The Oregon Health
Authority also stated that
schools in extreme and high
risk counties wishing to hold
outdoor contact sports must
meet requirements for sports
organizations and must also
have “at least limited in-per-
son instruction occurring,
with the goal of achiev-
ing hybrid or full in-person
instruction for students this
school year.”
Rub said, “I appreciate the
(Astoria) district offi ce, the
school board, the superinten-
dent of schools and all of our
administrators for working
so hard to get our kids back in
school.” Brown said, “To all
of Oregon’s high school ath-
letes: I am asking you now
to be leaders in your com-
munities. We’ve given you
the chance to play, but with
that opportunity comes great
responsibility. If COVID-
19 numbers spike, we may
have to shut down contact
sports again. When you are
off the fi eld, set the example
for your peers: wear a mask,
maintain physical distance,
and avoid social gatherings.”
Brown, who has been
under pressure over the past
six months to open class-
rooms and re start sports,
responded with a challenge
of her own.
“It is not lost on me that
this decision will allow high
school football to resume,
when too many high school
classrooms across Oregon
remain empty. To all the par-
ents of student athletes and
coaches who have called and
emailed me in the last year
asking for school sports to
resume, I am challenging you
now to devote your energy to
making sure in-person aca-
demics can resume for your
kids, too, ” the governor said.
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