A p ril 6, 2011
$ortlanh (Dbsmier HOUSING special edition
Page 19
O pinion
Highs, Lows 10 Years after Police Shooting
W hat has
changed since
the death of Jose
M ejia Poot?
by M artin G onzalez
and
D an H andelman
Last Friday, April 1 marked 10
years to the day since day laborer
Jose Santos Victor Mejia Poot was
shot and killed by Portland Police
officers responding to a 9-1-1 call
inside a mental hospital. Such an
anniversary seems a good time to
examine where we were as a city
then and what has changed.
Mr. Mejia did not have a mental
illness, but rather was suffering a
seizure from epilepsy when he found
himself 20 cents shy of bus fare two
days earlier.
Officers called to the bus dragged
Mr. Mejia out and reportedly beat
him. Once released from jail, Mr.
Mejia, a Native American from the
Yucatan peninsula who did not
speak English nor much Spanish,
confused and penniless, was misdi
agnosed as having a mental illness
and brought to Gateway center on
March 30,2001.
Two days later, a staff nurse
called the police after Mr. Mejia got
out of his room and allegedly threat
ened staff with a pencil. Officers
responded, including the Crisis In
tervention Team (CIT) trained of
ficer who knew how to de-escalate
a situation.
Mr. Mejia was returned to his
room without incident. A few hours
later, he got out again, the nurse
called again, but the CITofficer was
no longer on duty. The officers who
responded confronted Mr. Mejia,
who allegedly grabbed the alumi
num push rod from a door, and they
shot and killed him.
To its credit, the City put to
gether a series of forums to hear
from the community about what they
would want to see changed. The
community had put forward a list of
10 demands for the City, the police
and forTri-M et.
However, a few steps taken drove
the wedge between community and
police further: Chief Mark Kroeker
awarded two of the officers involved
in the shooting with medals; then,
community members seeking to
appeal the finding o f "no miscon
duct" for the beating on the bus
were prevented from using the City's
Citizen Review Committee by ad
ministrative declaration of the Inde
pendent Police Review Division di
rector, the City Auditor, and the
City Attorney.
Since then, the hospital settled
with the family and closed its doors;
the city settled with the family for a
small amount of money and an agree
ment to conduct at least one hour of
CIT training and training about epi
lepsy forali officers, and the agree
ment to buy less lethal weapons as
an alternative to firearms.
So what has changed at the Port
land Police Bureau?
One of the community demands
that grew out of the incident was to
get CIT training for all officers. That
happened, but not until after the
death of James Chasse Jr in 2006.
Am ong the ten specific de
m ands from the comm unity fo
rums after Mr. M ejia's death was
the creation o f a citizens police
review board and changes to
deadly force policies.
The IPR was created in 2001 and
strengthened some in 2010; how
ever, it still falls short of community
expectations for a strong oversight
body.
In 2008, Chief Sizer changed the
use of force policy to encourage
officers to use the least force neces
sary; that new rule is clearly up to
interpretation as officers have been
involved in 9 shootings since Janu
ary 2010.
It is certainly a healthy change,
however, that there have been no
awards given out for controversial
shootings in recent years, and that
current Chief Mike Reese called the
number of shootings "unaccept
able" and pledged to find ways to
avoid future incidents.
Another demand was for diver
sity training, which has been of
fered to officers with mixed success
and little input from the community.
Looking at other demands from
2001, the community wanted strict
standards for officers dealing with
individuals with disabilities, hir
ing officers to reflect the size of
Portland's Latino population, and
for the City to pass an ordinance
against police brutality.
On these points, we are still wait
ing.
Martin Gonzalez was the coor
dinator of the Justicefor Jose Mejia
Poot Committee and currently sits
on the Portland School Board. Dan
Handelman also participated in
the justice committee and is a mem
ber o f Portland Copwatch.
Investigate Standardized Testing in Schools
Fake improvement
doesn’t help our
students
by
J udge G reg
M athis
For several years, ever
since the No Child Left
Behind Act took effect, students,
teachers and school districts have
felt the pressure that comes from
living in a nation that uses standard
ized tests as its sole method for mea
suring student proficiency.
When too many students at one
school perform poorly on these tests,
teachers can be been fired, principals
replaced and schools closed. Hun
dreds of teachers fired in Washing
ton, D.C. schools because of poor
performance by students on test. The
stakes are high. But no one would
have guessed that the pressure would
lead to alleged cheating on these
exams.
An investigation by USA Today
shows into drastic test score turn
arounds at Noyes elementary, a
Washington, D.C. public school, re
vealed that seventh grader students
in one classroom at the school each
No one is sure but one thing is
had, on average, nearly 13 wrong certain: if it’s happening in D.C., De
answers that were erased and changed troit and Atlanta, it is happening in
to the correct answer.
other cities.
Coincidence? Maybe not.
Changing test answers to fake
In 2006, 10 percent of the improvement doesn’t help our stu
school’s students “passed” the dents. It hurts them. That is why a
standardized math test. In 2008, federal task force needs to be formed
nearly 60 percent did. Tests to investigate drastic improvement
scores showed the school made on standardized test at our nation's
similar gains on the reading portion public schools.
of the test.
We want to believe that our teach
Perhaps the teachers simply ers and principals are honest but we
worked harder and ensured students also know that fear - of being fired if
absorbed the lessons? Maybe. But students perform poorly - or greed -
it’s important, for comparison, to note teachers and principals at Noyes re
that the average wrong to right era ceived bonuses when scores im
sure for seventh graders throughout proved - are powerful motivators.
the D.C. public school system was
There also needs to be another
less than one.
way to measure student perfor
Noyes Elementary School isn’t mance. We cannot simply rely on
the only one with questionable score standardized tests. Periodic moni
improvement. Fifty-eight Atlanta toring can easily show how stu
schools are under investigation be dents and teachers perform in the
cause high rates of wrong answers classroom. Required essays and
changed to right on student answer math ‘projects’ will show us that
sheets raised flags. Similar occur students can actually apply what
rences have raised red flags in Detroit they are taught.
as well.
Greg Mathis is a retired Michi
If this is, in fact, cheating, who is gan District Court judge and cur
responsible?Teachers? School prin rent syndicated television show
cipals?
judge.
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