May 19. 2010
a'*!‘’ ^Lìortlanò (Observer
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Coalition Keeps Pressure On
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Advocating for
police reforms
H ealth
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The Albina Ministerial Alliance,
a coalition o f several faith and com
munity organizations, reacted Mon
day to several significant develop
ments with the Portland Police Bu
reau.
Last week, a traffic stop in north
east Portland ended with a man dead
and an officer wounded. The inci
dent has raised more questions
about how the police handle en
counters with the mentally ill, with
questions lingering about the exact
circumstances o f the event. The city
also settled a protracted lawsuit
brought against it from the family o f
James Chasse, a schizophrenic man
who died while in police custody.
Mayor Sam Adams appointed a new
police chiefafter a public falling out
with now former C hief Rosie Sizer.
Speaking to reporters at the Allen
Temple in northeast Portland, Rev.
Leroy Haynes, vice president o f the
AMA, said that his group was re
joicing with the Chasse family,
which settled the suit for a record
$1.6 million, bringing to a close a
three year battle that has scandal
ized the city.
Haynes said that the develop-
f?ev. Leroy Haynes, vice president of the Albina Ministerial
Alliance, calls police to task for another shooting of an African
American man during a traffic stop.
ment did not carry the same force as
if the family had won the lawsuit in
court, but did send a clear message
to the city. He also noted that the
AMA was looking forward to the
release o f internal documents kept
secret for three years while the city
grappled with the suit.
continued
on page 22
Benson-Jeff Merger Draws Fire
New option gets
thumbs down
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C lassifieds
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? O pinion
B l page 18-19
F ood
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The Jefferson High School com
munity had a clear message Mon
day for school board members and
Superintendent Carole Smith: Don’t
tinker with the high school redesign
proposal anymore.
On Saturday, the school board
asked district officials to consider a
new option on Sm ith’s controver
sial plan to reduce the number o f
high schools, including a sugges
tion by Board M em ber Martin
Gonzalez to transfer Benson High
School’s vocational-technical pro
grams into Jefferson High School.
Sm ith’s original plan called for
turning Marshal, High School in
southeast Portland into a focus
school, making Benson Polytech
nic School into a part-time program
open district-wide to junior and se-
n io r stu d e n ts, and b o o stin g
Jefferson’s place in the community
as a comprehensive neighborhood
school.
Tony Hopson, the head o f Self
Enhancement, Inc., a public charter
school serving students o f color in
northeast Portland, which spon
sored the Monday night forum, told
Smith and several school board
members, that Jefferson had been
systematically stripped o f resources
and set up for failure for decades
under a number o f proposals from
the district.
He suggested that further revi
sions to Jefferson were on the table
because the school was perceived
as the path o f least resistance.
“The district has systematically
raped Jefferson over the past 40
y e a r s ,” said an im p a ssio n e d
Hopson, who drew wild applause
from the packed room.
Interestingly, most people who
spoke at the forum supported
Sm ith’s proposal, which would re
quire students to attend their neigh
borhood schools, bringing in more
funding and equal course offerings
to sch o o ls like Jefferso n and
Roosevelt.
“That’s what this proposal does,
is it allows us to grow the good
things at Jefferson,” said Andy
Kulak, a teacher at Jefferson. “I speak
in support o f this proposal, and 1 ask
the board, please don’t walk away
from this proposal.”
O thers noted that Jefferson,
which some consider to have a bad
reputation, has a strong sense o f
community, and a lot going for it
that people don’t recognize.
A Beaverton woman said that
she considered herself part o f the
Jefferson community and was al
ways impressed with the sense o f
continued
on page 22