Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (April 6, 1978)
I » France» Schoen-Neeapaper Rooa U n iv e r s ity o f Oregon L ib r a ry tu g en e, Oregon 97403 PORTLAND When Joyce Swan needed help from the police she did not get help, but harassment. OBSERVER Volume 8 Ne. 15 Thursday, A pril 6, 1978 I was on my way home from work at Montgomery Ward in Beaverton at about 10:30 Monday night when I ran out of gas on the freeway. I didn't know where the nearest service station w w so I walked from the freeway up to College and Broadway and called my mother from n phone booth. “While I was waiting for her to call back and tell me if my brother could help me, a lot of police came up the street, appearing to be looking for someone.” 10c pet' copy Persistence pays off A recent graduate of Marylhurst Col lege is Bob Boyer, 38 year old father of five. Graduation is of special significance to Boyer because it took him ten long years. Boyer has been a warehouseman at Waterway Terminals during the ten years he has attended school - at Portland Community College, Mt. Hood Community College, Portland State Uni versity and, finally. Marylhurst. He is still at Waterway Terminal but is looking forward to establishing his own business. He considers his degree a key to fields that previously were not open to him - a way of unlocking doors. “It has been very hard, with young children yet having to work and go to school. My wife could understand my goals and was a great support to me. Often when a man wants to go to school his wife doesn't want to make the sacrifice or does not see the long range benefits and that makes it hard.” Boyer has also devoted much time to community service. He was chairman of the Headstart parent's committee, was on the Model Cities Citizen's Advisory Board and was chairman of the Youth Commission, represented Humboldt and Boise neighborhoods and organized youth sports. He served on the Portland Metro politan Steering Committee board and was a scoutmaster. Currently Boyer is chairman of the NAACP National Convention fiscal com mittee. Regardless of family and employ ment responsibilities, he will always find a way to be involved in the community. One officer yelled, “You better stop, boy, or I’ll shoot.” The young Black man stopped and they went up to him. “I was still standing near the phone booth when they came toward me. The first officer who came up asked my name and started putting his hands on me. I pushed him away and told him not to touch me." Mrs. Swan explained that she was asked for ID and said she had left it home. Asked by the officer if she had anticipat ed being asked and already had checked and she told him that she had looked in her purse for credit cards and found that her billfold wai not there. About that time the phone rang and knowing it was her mother, she answered it. She told her mother what was happen ing and talked to her until her brother, David James, arrived. She signaled to him and when he drove up she told the police that this was her brother coming to help her get gas. At that time she was again surrounded by police. “When one officer came up and asked what was happening, the first officer called me a 'bitch' and said I was giving him trouble. I told the police that I was going to leave so I could get gas and go home. “They said they were going to arrest me and started grabbing. I tried to fight them off. They twisted my arms, broke my fingernails, cut my finger. They started asking questions again but 1 said if they were going to arrest me i would say nothing.” One of them even pulled out his gun. Mrs. Swan was handcuffed and taken to jail, where she remained until released on bail about 1:30 a.m. Wednesday morning she appeared in court to plead not guilty to charges of assault in the fourth degree and resisting arrest. The charge read that she “did unlawfully, knowingly and recklessly cause injury” to a policewoman by strik ing and biting. “I don't know why they charged me with assaulting her. She wasn't even involved. Some time during the struggle with the four or more men, she walked up and told them they could arrest me for assault. I didn’t do anything, but if I assaulted anyone it certainly wasn't her.” Mrs. Swan, 28, is married to Hank Swan and is the mother of two small children. “All I wanted to do was get gas in my car and get home to my family.” The police officers involved were not available for comment. Beaumont school opinion divided As community meetings on the issue of changing Beaumont to a middle school continue, public opinion is divided. Some community members are adamantly op posed to the change and have organized against it. Others favor the idea of a middle school or believe it is inevitable because of dropping enrollment and school district policy. Mr. Beck, Beaumont's principal, sup ports the middle school for educational reasons and his advisory committee agrees. Among the concerns voiced by the audience at Wednesday night's meeting were: • Will there be a community vote? Beck explained that there is no school district policy calling for a vote but after listening to community concerns he fa vors a vote. He will consult with the school advisory committee, which meets April 12th. Bab Boyer has reached < ! of Us goals, a college degree, after tea years of work aad • Will the School Board listen if the community opposes the plan? Will this part-time school. issue come up again every year until it passes? • If the lower grades are sent to another school, where will they go and will they stay at that same school? At first parents were told they could send their children to Alameda or Sabin, but later were told that after the first year or voters and areas where registration was 4th. The tenth anniversary of the two there will not be enough space for all low. On the basis of this information, ten assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, predominately Black precincts were tar Jr. Phil McLauren, one of the AVREC ' at Alameda. • Where will the children go during geted for concentrated voter registration organizers said this date was chosen to efforts. rennovation? Current plans are to send remind citizens that voting rights was them to the Monroe High School building. The registration program included sta one of Dr. King's principle goals. “The • What are the differences in academic tions at frequently used grocery stores most revolutionary thing a Black person achievement in middle schools? The dis and a house to house campaign prior to can do now is to register and vote. The trict has no data. the Primary and General Elections. only way we will be able to demand The results were significant - a four political influence is to be able to produce One parent from Alameda advised the teen percent increase in the 32 precinct the votes." parents to look at some of the primary areas of Albina, and a seventeen percent and middle schools and to broaden their The success of the effort and the future increase in the ten percent target area. sense of community. “We in Alameda of Black political power will depend on The 1978 effort was announced April aren't that different.” the efforts of volunteers who are willing Middle schools offer a program design to help with the house-to-house registra* ed for that age group with special classes tio or man registration booths. in science, music and other fields. Teach Persons who would like to help can call er ratio in these schools is eighteen to the King Neighborhood Facility (288- one. In Kindergarten through eight 0371) and leave their names and address schools the teacher ratio is twenty to one es so they can be contacted. and special classes are not provided. AVREC co-chairmen are Eric Harper Beaumont is faced with loosing teaching and Dr. Lee Brown. Darrel Milner is specialists for its upper grades and coordinator of the location registration. combination of lower grades. Voter registration project seeks volunteers The Albina Voter Registration and Education Committee, Inc. (AVREC) is seeking volunteers to canvas the Albina area to register voters. AVREC was formed in January of 1976 to coordinate and conduct voter registra tion activities in Albina. Agencies sup porting and contributing to the effort included the Albina Ministerial Alliance, the NAACP, the Urban League of Port land and numerous other social clubs and organizations. A group of recent college graduates conducted a survey to identify Black Beaumont parents picket to show opposition to proposal to turn Beaumont into a middle school for the Alameda-Beaumont-Sabin cluster. Beaumont currently has approximately 400 students and according to Beck needs 500 to 600 students to operate a good Kindergarten to eighth grade program. Of the four hundred students, ninety are upper graders transferred from Sabin. If the school becomes a middle school, all of Sabin's sixth, seventh and eighth graders will go there. The school advisory committee will meet on April 12 to determine whether to recommend the middle school or whether to refer it to the people. Desegregation coalition reports community forum findings The Community Coalition for School Integration reported last week on the findings of its Community Forums and related research. The four major concerns expressed by persons attending fifteen forums were: 1) Inequity; 2) Lack of interracial under standing; 3) Quality of education; and 4) Neighborhood integrity. Inequity * u 1 Of all the Black students in the school district, 34 percent are bused for desegre gction while less than two percent of the white students are bused for this pur pose. Of 2,973 administrative transfer students, 90 percent are Black and include those who are transferred volun tarily and those who are bused because grades have been eliminated in their schools. Fewer than 800 white students are voluntarily transferred to Early Child hood Education Centers and of these, 444 are in kindergarten and pre-kindergarten programs. More whites than Blacks mentioned inequity as a concern. Interracial Understanding Concerns included need for more com munication and understanding, and need for preparation in receiving schools. Quality Education This concern was expressed more often by whites and was expressed by some as a fear that desegregation could lower the educational standards. Neighborhood Integrity All of those listing this concern were white. They expressed a desire to keep children in their neighborhoods with their friends. Some mentioned inte grated housing as a solution. Other concerns mentioned included: need for Black staff, need for environ ment where minority students can achieve positive self image, need for district commitment to desegregation, need for education of desegregation ef forts; need for desegregation/integraüon goals. Persons who attended the forums and completed questionnaires were: 82 per cent parents and 18 percent non parents; 74 percent white and 26 percent Black; 58 percent female and 42 percent male. Parents were from all fourteen high schools and 41 of the 87 grade schools. The Coalition plans to submit its final report and recommendation to the School Board in June. Bustos seeks Labor Commissioner position Charles Ford has been a key telephone volunteer during the past four Easter Seal Telethons, staff members report, and he was back on the job April 2nd to help raise money for the physically handicapped during the 20-hour program. People who man telephones record pledges called In during the event; p r e l i m i n a r y total of pledges throughout Oregon this year was about (265,000. Money supports non-profit Easter Seal services which include the Easter Seal School and Treatm ent Center in Eugene, physical therapy services provided state-wide, speech and hearing clinics, an equipment loan program. Camp Faster Seal on the Oregon Coast, and an information and referral service. Ford, an employee of Miller's Egg Ranch, said his child had been the recipient of Easter Seal services. More than 95c out of each dollar he helped raise Sunday will stay in Oregon to provide direct patient services to people who are physically disabled, according to Easter Seal officials. Jose Bustos is considered a minor candidate among a field of eight vying for the Democratic Party nomination for I^abor Commissioner. Although Bustos is not one of the "big three" who are expected to pull the votes, he says he is a serious candidate, and that he expects to win. I believe the l^abor Commissioner should be strong and independent - independent of the labor unions and industry. A Commissioner too closely identified with labor cannot have the independence to take action in controver sial rases involving the unions.” One of Bustos' opponents is an AFL-CIO official and another has heavy labor support. "The Labor Commissioner has tradi tionally been elected with strong union support and as a politician has to depend on receiving that support again.” Bustos emphasizes that he is not against labor unions, but that he just feels that considering the discrimination in unions and their important role in the apprenticeship programs, the Labor Bu reau should be more independent.” Among Bustos' solutions for the unrea sonable waiting period in civil rights and wage and hour complaints, would be to assign those cases that appear to have simple solutions to an investigator well versed in the law and in public relations. “Many rases could be settled with a phone call or a compromise worked out between the employer and complainant. Most employers don't want to go through an investigation and possibly a hearing over a small complaint. Thia would greatly decrease the number of cases that would require extensive work.” Bustos, a former migrant worker, is well versed in affirmative action/civil rights law as well as in problems related to wage and hour, apprenticeships, and unemployment. Until March, he was employed by the Oregon State Employ ment Service as a minority representa tive. A Mexican American, Bustos has work ed extensively with the Valley Migrant league and other migrant organizations; serves on the Washington County Council on Aging and the Nutrition Council; is a Spanish teacher and translator; and is a commentator on KWRC in Woodburn. As Labor Commissioner he would take a leadership role in coordinating services to migrant farm workers; would work to include minorities and women in appren ticeships; would use his office to influence unions to include minorities more fully; would work to insure better job training for the unskilled and uneducated. He is particularly concerned about the working and living conditions of migrant workers who must live in labor camps provided by employers. This makes a nearly “slave” situation where workers are not free to change employers because they would lose their housing, in this situation employers can overcharge for housing and food provided and to some extent can limit outside contacts. He would like to see the development by non profit agencies (with federal funds) of housing areas where workers could rent and be free to select their employers. This is the type of activity that he believes the I^bor Bureau should encour age. JOSE BUSTOS
