Page 2
May 4, 2016
at
Arrested School
C ontinued from f ront
situation.
The amended discipline state-
ment has some facts in her daugh-
ter’s favor, including an acknowl-
edgment that the other student
swung at her irst and the fact that
another student present had shout-
ed for Emaujah to be “left alone.”
A description of Emaujah calling
out that she wanted to “scrap”
with the other student involved
was removed.
“Why would someone say
‘Leave Emaujah alone’ if my
daughter was being the aggres-
sor?” Pratcher asks, “Emaujah has
never been in trouble for ighting
at Beaumont.”
Neither the original nor the re-
vised discipline form stated any-
thing about Emaujah striking the
substitute teacher.
“I took her to school at 9 a.m.
and at about 9:45 a.m. I get a
call from Emaujah saying ‘Mom,
they’re trying to arrest me! I didn’t
do anything!’ And then the phone
hangs up,” Pratcher recalls. “So
I’m calling the ofice trying to
igure out what’s going on [and
when someone answers] I hear her
screaming and crying in the back-
ground.”
When Portland police came to
Beaumont on the day of the arrest,
Emaujah was then handcuffed and
transported to a juvenile facility
where she took a mugshot photo
and was ingerprinted.
Upon returning to school, her
daughter received additional dis-
cipline referrals for miscellaneous
inane reasons, Pratcher said, the
last of which led to her permanent
separation from the school.
On April 15, she received an
email from Principal Vimegnon
saying that her daughter had been
suspended in order to investigate
grounds for expulsion. The listed
the reasons for her suspension as
“open deiance,” “insubordina-
tion” and “willful disobedience.”
Pratcher is upset that the i-
nal incident that got her daughter
into trouble was for having a cell
phone on her desk in math class,
not in use, but for refusing to hand
it over to her teacher when asked.
Principal Vimegnon said Beau-
mont does have a rule allowing
students to have cell phones for
academic reasons – such as cal-
culating – yet it was deemed by
Emaujah’s teacher that her inten-
tions were non-academic.
Pratcher said if her daughter
recorded a video with her phone,
then everyone would believe her,
but says the school is so stern, it
wants to keep phones away from
students.
For students at risk of expul-
Wells Fargo Presents the
sion, a hearing between the fam-
ily and school oficials is held to
determine a inal course of action.
Emaujah’s hearing was held at an
offsite location.
The over two hour long meet-
ing addressed some of the issues
at hand, yet didn’t tackle any of
the questions both Pratcher and
other organization members also
present at the meeting had about
Beaumont’s conduct. The only
real conclusion reached was that
Emaujah’s behavior did not con-
stitute grounds for expulsion.
Despite the school’s decision to
keep Emaujah at Beaumont, both
Pratcher and her daughter feel
uncomfortable with the school’s
practices and have chosen to re-
main at great distance.
“What student would want to
come back after being treated like
this? There are things happen-
ing in the school that need to be
addressed. My daughter is being
traumatized and arrested under a
false report, like why is that not
being addressed? The school is
being treated like a juvenile delin-
quency center, but only to speciic
2016 Good in the Hood
The
Music and Food Festival
Week in Review
Sprouting Recreational Leaves murder in the death of Ervaeua
The Oregon Liquor Control Com-
mission has approved its irst
group of marijuana growers under
the new recreational system. Eight
growers are the irst to receive Rec-
reational Marijuana Producer li-
censes, with the OLCC planning to
issue around 850 licenses this year.
June 24, 25, 26
Right Ballot on its Way
If you made a recent change to
your political afiliation, you may
end up receiving the wrong bal-
lot in the mail, and a short delay
in receiving the updated one. Any
changes made close to the regis-
tration deadline should get their
new ballots next week, elections
oficials said.
Saturday June 25th, at 11 AM, starting at King School
Airport Breastfeeding Rooms
Web—www.goodhood.org GITH hotline 971.302.6380
Volunteers needed—volunteers@goodnthehood.org
Want to be a sponsor—shawnpenney@goodNthehood.org
Festival Participation—feedback@goodnthehood.org
As part of a series of changes to
make Portland International Air-
port more comfortable and conve-
nient, new lactation rooms opened
up last week at PDX. The rooms are
designed for women traveling with
or without infants that need a com-
fortable place to express breastmilk
and to feed their children.
Three Charged in Woman’s Death
Three men have been indicted for
Established 1970
P ublisher :
e ditor :
Mark Washington, Sr.
Michael Leighton
e xecutive d irector :
Rakeem Washington
Ofice Manager/Classiieds:
c reative d irector :
Lucinda Baldwin
Leonard Latin
r ePorter /W eb e ditor :
Cervante Pope
Ronchelle Herring who was killed
in August 2014 in a suspected
gang-related shooting at an apart-
ment complex at Southeast 151st
and Powell,
police said
Tu e s d a y.
Herring, 21,
was
preg-
nant at the
time
she
was killed.
DeAnthony
Simmons, Geontae Brachaurd
Jones and Demetrius Ray Brown
also face burglary and weapons
charges.
Call to End Police 48-Hour Rule
The Community Oversight Ad-
visory Board formally requested
that both Mayor Charlie Hales and
Police Chief Larry O’Dea nix the
48-hour rule, which gives oficers
that use deadly force 48 hours be-
fore they are required to answer
any administrative questions. The
rule is part of the police union’s
contract with the city, which ex-
pires in the middle of the year, so
the next mayor will likely have to
address the issue.
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students,” Pratcher said. “They’re
just after Emaujah, trying to make
it seem like she’s a ‘problem
child.’ It’s classical conditioning.
They know if they approach in
a certain way that you’re going
to respond in a certain way, and
then you’re going to get a conse-
quence.”
Pratcher plans to take this case
to court on terms of defamation of
character. Her frustration grows
from not getting an adjudication
hearing or a formal petition re-
garding the case, even after three
attempts to contact the juvenile
facility.
She’s been told the district at-
torney has not yet responded to
the juvenile facility’s request,
leaving the exact reasoning for her
daughter’s arrest still unanswered.
As it stands, there are still no ofi-
cial charges against her daughter.
“Somebody else needs to be
held accountable. No one is being
held accountable for what they
did. I can’t trust anybody. I’m the
only person that can advocate for
her. She doesn’t know what’s go-
ing on, she’s 12,” Pratcher said.
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