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. ' iJ D T t hit! b (i)h S CtU e t Established 1970 --------- ~ --------- USPS 959-680 ________________ _______ ________ 4747 NE Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd., Portland, OR 97211 ffa te * uBiôhap 3i. £ .