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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (May 14, 1981)
r 1 For the children o f A llama and fo r all children who are hungry, suffer and live in fear. Cawthorne plan saves Adams, Jefferson schools Herb Cawthorne moved .Monday night to halt the expected closure of Adams High School. Cawthorne said his motive was to save the fine facil ity a! Adams and io protect Jef ferson from overcrowding. The proposed closure o f Adams, w ith the assignment o f students from W oodlaw n, F ranklin and possibly Vernon to Jefferson, and the closure o f W’ashington/Monroe with assignment o f King, Boise and Eliot to Jefferson, would create an attendente area with 2493 students. The Jefferson building has a capacity o f 1700 students and cur rently includes 199 magnet program students. The Adams and Jefferson atten dente area contain the second and third largest numbers o f students in the d istrict, although a large per centage o f those students attend other schools. During the past ten years it was the policy o f the district to recruit Black students out o f the A lbina schools in order to replace them with white pre-school children for the purpose o f desegregation. A situation was created where there was not room in the schools for the neighborhood children, requiring heavy recruiting o f ‘ ‘ administrative transfers’ ’ because the schools were filled, students who did transfer out could not return to their neigh borhood schools. The desegregation plan adopted last fa ll reversed that policy and provided space for every child that wants to attend the neighborhood school. In light o f that policy, Cawthorne asked how the board could justify a pian that wouid over enroll Jeffer son to the point (hat 1,000 students w ould have to be recruited out. ‘ ‘ Does that not create the kind o f pressure that necessitates making sure that Black children don’ t go to Jefferson - that a huge percent don't go to Jefferson?” This overcrowding will lead to the perception that Jefferson is not a good school, he said. It is necessary to say that Jefferson is not a good school to get the Black students out. ‘ ‘ They would not consider over enrolling Lin co ln or W ils o n ,” Cawthorne told the Observer. They have over enrolled Black schools to force the students out fo r desegregation. I f they want to desegregate let then over enroll Lin coln and Wiison; let them have just one school on the West side. Then they could force white students out o f their neighborhoods and let them do the desegregating.” Saying he is no longer interested in numerical quotas or percentages o f Black students, Cawthorne recalled that many Black students from the Jefferson area attend Washington/Monroe and Jackson, schools now slated fo r closure, “ and I hope they return to Jeffer son.” Cawthorne proposed that Adams be retained and pledged to assist the com m unity to rebuild the school program . He also recommended that the magnet programs at W ashington/M onroe, previously Monroe High School, be transferred to Adams since many o f the girls in those programs are from the Jeffer son, Grant and Adams areas. He also proposed that only W ashington/M onroe and Jackson be closed, and that further study be done before closing a th ird high school the following year. Cawthorne said he has received considerable support from parents o f Monroe students. A more controversial proposal was to establish the Tubman Middle School at Boise’ s building and to assign Boise’ s 6th through 8th graders to Tubman. Boise’ s Pre-K through 5th graders would go to the E lio t b uilding . The new E lio t building could house the Boise and E lio t resident students and ap proximately 100 transfer students. Opposition to the Boise site came from Ronnie H erndon, Co- chairm an o f the Black United Front, at the Tuesday night public hearing. H erndon asked that the promise to place Tubman at the Eilot site be kept and that Boise be retained as a Pre-K-8 school. Reverend John Jackson asked that before a decision to place the school at Boise is made, the community be involved in the decision. Ed Washington, Chairman o f the (Please turn to Page 7 Col 3) PORTLAND OBSERNER USPS 959-680-855 ™ Sykes represents Jefferson PRINCESS VENESSA SYKES Representng Jefferson High School in the Rose Festival Court, is Venessa Ranae Sykes, 17-year-old graduating senior. Participation in the Rose Court has been a long time dream o f Venessa, who twice was in the finals lo r Jr. Court selection. Represen ting Jefferson is especially exciting, since she is very proud o f her school. When enrolling at Jefferson as a freshman, Vanessa set four goals for herself: National Honor Society, Rally, Jefferson Dancers and P rin cess. Now she has achieved all o f her goals. A student in the Performing Arts Program, Vanessa is a member o f the Jefferson Dancers and the Per form ers G roup. She has been a member o f the rally squad for three years. She also is class Historian. Vanessa is on the advisory board o f the N o rth /N o rth e a st M ental Health Clinic - representing young people. She teaches Sunday school at (¡race and Truth Church and has been active in March of Dimes fund raising. She participated in Debutante 1981 She plans to attend the University ol Oregon, majoring in performing arts and communications. She is the daughter o f Earl and M a rilyn Sykes. She has a sister, (. armen, 19, who is a freshman at Southern Oregon College and a younger brother. Lari, Jr., 11. Police meet with citizens A public forum w ill be held Monday night. May 18, at 7:30 p .m ., at King Neighborhood Facility. Proposals will be submittedto the Police Bureau on May 23rd, 9:31) a.nt., at Bourbon Street Restaurant. The purpose o f the meeting, ac cording to Nyewusi Askari o f the Observer, who w ill chair the meeting, is to review the inform a tion acquired at the three preceding forums, consider citizens’ concerns, and develop a series o f recommend ations to be presented to the police bureau. Among the areas to be dis cussed are police hiring and tra in ing, citizen complaint procedures, abuse o f force, directions for ■humane policing of the area. . Police o fficers met with cotn- % unrry members last Saturday: Donald W arren, Ray Jones, Sgt. l ari Johnson, Detective Tony New man, and Captain Dennis Daley. Donald Warren expressed his in terest, as a Black officer, in serving the com m unity. He is at times criticized by peers because he spends "to o much time” with com plaints. Sgt. Johnson attempts to train the 23 officers he supervises by spending time with them. Since their conduct is a reflection on him, he is sensitive to complaints, he said. He considers police to be hindered in the Black com m unity by lack o f assistance from persons who are aware of Black on Black crime. Detective Newman feels there is not an adequate com m itm ent to hirin g Blacks and that two-day seminars in human relations do little to change police attitudes. Training should be continued, with continued emphasis " fr o m the to p ." The only way to affect which o ffice rs is to have them w orking with Black officers. O ffic e r Ray Jones, a 17 !zi year veteran, said his role is to “ protect you" and that “ nobody is out there arresting people because they are Black.” (.'ailing police “ minorities” he explained the isolation police feel when they are rejected by friends because o f their jobs. He estimated only 10 percent o f Blacks are criminals. He "has nothing against Blacks” but does not approve o f the "tw o list” hiring system that would enable more Blacks to be hired because the Black o ffice rs m ight never be accepted by their peers. Captain Daley newly assigned head o f Community A ffairs, called the police bureau a “ service organi z a tio n .” Daley came under fire when he disputed the firing o f two police officers who threw possums - saying he was not sure it was racist or vicious. He did not believe that incident would have a bearing on an o ffic e r ’ s judgement in deciding whether to shoot and kill. As for the firing, “ Should the baby be thrown out with the bath?” Among the concerns expressed by citizens were the attitude o f officers toward Blacks, lack o f commitment to hirin g Blacks, lack o f o p p o r tunity fo r citizen participation in policy making. ACT-SO: No excellence? by Pam Smith The date May 6th; the time 7:00 p.m.; the place the Willamette Cen ter dow tow n; the event, the final Portland ACT-SO com petition. This is the awaited night when the Portland representative w ill be selected to compete in the national competitions in Denver, Colorado . . . only no one was chosen. One could sense the excitement upon entering the auditorium. Par ticipating students roamed the lobby along with their parents, coaches, and friends anxiously awaiting the performances which students had spent the last few months perfec ting. The students whose works were not in the area o f performing arts were also able to exhibit their projects as they were attractively displayed on tables outside the auditorium. It was time fo r the program to start. Master o f Ceremonies, A rt Alexander o f KOAP Radio, began the show by introducing 1981 Chairperson Commissioner Gladys M cCoy. She delivered a b rie f welcome and explanation o f ACT- SO and a sincere appreciation for all those who participated in this year’s event. That was follow ed by a prayer by Reverend L. Fisher Hines o f Bethel AM E Church. I t ’ s finally over. The program was enjoyed by all who attended and participated. Now comes in te r mission time. Students gathered in the lobby w ith their fam ily and friends wearing smiles. Congratu lations were being expressed every where you turned and the students were eagerly awaiting the moment when the awards would be given out and the 1981 national competition announced an honor that each participant had hoped for. A fte r 15 minutes or so o f inter mission, people started entering the auditorium as music from the Broadway hit musical “ The W iz” and music o f other great Black artists provided a pleasant back ground. I hat 15 minutes was just the beginning of the waiting that was to come. A rt Alexander explained several times to the audience that the judges were having an extremely d iffic u lt time m aking a decision. Almost 45 minutes went by before the judges fin a lly emerged from their room. No one would have ever guessed what words Commissioner McCoy was going to speak as she ap proached center stage. Unlike her opening address, this one was not b rie f and one could sense from her tone o f voice that something was strange. She again thanked everyone for participating and explained that everyone was a winner simply by virtue o f the fact that they had gotten themselves in volved in this Olympics of the Mind. But the sudden, penetrating shock came when she staled that no one was going to the nationals because the judges had decided that no one was excellent enough. The ex planation was that the judges had made a criteria which stated that all those students scoring total points above 9() in each o f the four major categories w ould be judged to determine who the overall winner was, and thus the national represen tative. Each o f the students received a copy o f that crite ria the night before the final competition at dress rehearsal. Com m issioner M cCoy stated that the ACT-SO committee and judges didn't want to send any body to nationals to be embarassed. “ There was no one,” she went on to explain, ‘ ‘ Who scored in the90’ s, so instead o f not awarding anyone, the judges have decided to give one Silver Medal and two Bronze Medals.” In the area o f the performing arts the Silver Medal was awarded to Stephina W’aldon o f Jackson High School and the two Bronze Medals went to Corey Pritchett o f Benson and Stacey Washington of Jackson. No other awards were given in the other three m ajor categories o f Visual A rts, Hum anities and Science, and no explanation was given as to why there were no awards or mention o f the students. Later the chairperson explained that the judges were under so much pressure that evening that they sim ply neglected to acknowledge the winners in each o f those catego ries. Now a reception has been planned to honor these winners. It w ill be held May 27th at 5:30 p .m ,, at Bethel AM E Church. “ O f course it w ill never undo the hurt and dis appointm ent o f that n ig h t,” said (Please turn to page 8 col 5) C aptain Dennis Daley, new ly assigned director of C om m unity Affairs Division, explains his role at P olice/C om m unity forum . Seated to D eley’s right are: S e a rg e n t Earl J o h n s o n and d e te c tiv e T ony N ew m an. (Photo: Richard Brown) New code 'defines interference' The P ortland C ity C ouncil a- dopted two new ordinances on April 9th that affect police work. Captain Vcrn McCabe, commander o f the North Precinct, asking that the o r dinances be publicized, said, “ I'm hoping our cooperation in p u b licizing these ordinances w ill avoid both disagreement and arrests o f people who really do not intend to violate them, but are acting out o f an interest in the community.” The code, “ In te rfe rin g w ith a police o ffice r (Section 14.08.140) states that a police officer has the a u th o rity to leave the area o f an arrest, custody or stop and to remain at least ten feel away from the officer. The distance can be ex tended beyond ten feet if the officer reasonably believes that necessary because there exists a substantial risk o f physical danger to any per son. To enforce this ordinance the of- ficer must be engaged in effecting an arrest, a custody or a stop; the o f ficer must be identified as a police officer; the person must be directed to leave the area; the officer must show that the person refused to remove himself or that he did move but returned to the area. An extension o f the area beyond ten feet must be a reasonable (lis tannee and for a reasonable time. It should only be attem pted when thercis substantial risk o f physical danger. This ordinance does not restrict verbal interference. Officers have been asked to use it “ ju diciously" and "correctly.” The second ordinance, "A u th o rity to restrict access to cer tain areas” (Section 14.24.170) allows officers to restrict access to the public under certain conditions. The a u th o rity to deny access exists when here is a threat to public health or safety, such as fire , ex plosion, accident, national disaster, or when public safety is threatened by riot, presence o f an armed person or a hostage situation. Or, authority exists when it appears necessary to preserve a crime scene or collect evidence o f criminal acts. Any o fficer can restrict or deny access to these areas. They can be buildings, rooms, enclosures or open areas. When possible, they should be cordoned o ff with ropes; persons, or other means. The ordinance makes it unlawful for any person to enter or refuse to leave unless the person has specific a u th o rity to be there or has per mission o f the ranking police o f ficer. V io la tio n ol both ordinances is punishable by up to 6 months in jail, a $500 line, or both, and are Class It Misdemeanors.
