October 18, 2017
The
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INSIDE
Week in Review
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Access Academy students, teachers, and parents gather outside the Portland Public Schools administra-
tion building in north Portland to protest a proposal that would split Access students across eight schools.
Gifted School Protests Closure
Academy faces
breakup after
KairosPDX saved
Portland Public Schools Monday
to call for keeping their diverse
school intact and rejecting a new
proposal to split Access’s students
across eight schools.
The latest plan avoids the po-
tential displacement of KairosP-
by D anny p eterson
DX, now home to a public char-
t he p ortlanD o bserver
Students, teachers, and parents ter school serving mostly African
of Access Academy gathered out- American students at the former
side the administration building for Humboldt Elementary on North
Arts &
ENTERTAINMENT
O PINION
C LASSIFIEDS
C ALENDAR
Gantenbein Avenue in the heart of
the African American community.
Last month, Portland Public
Schools proposed moving Access
to Humboldt thereby forcing Kai-
rosPDX to find another home. But
the proposal fell through after much
criticism from the black communi-
ty and public officials, who decried
C ontinueD on p age 6
Esteemed Couple Win Payouts
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Unfair job
termination and
profiling cases settled
by D anny p eterson
t he p ortlanD o bserver
Two esteemed members of the
African American community,
Erious Johnson Jr. and Nkenge
Harmon Johnson, who are mar-
ried, both settled separate lawsuits
against the State of Oregon, it was
announced last week.
Erious Johnson Jr., who was
the top civil rights lawyer for the
Oregon Department of Justice
until Friday, ended his racial pro-
filing case against the state for
$205,000, but he also resigns his
employment with the state as part
of the terms of the settlement.
Nkenge Harmon Johnson, the
president and chief executive of-
ficer of the Urban League of Port-
land, ended her lawsuit claiming un-
fair termination for being a whistle
blower in the office of former Gov.
John Kitzhaber. She was awarded
$70,000 to settle her case, according
Erious Johnson Jr.
to terms of the settlement.
In 2015, Erious Johnson Jr.
found out that he was surveilled
online by one of his colleagues,
James Williams, who used a
tool called “Digital Stakeout” to
search for terms like “Black Lives
Matter” on social media. Johnson
had been using a Black Lives Mat-
ter hashtag and made references to
rap group Public Enemy on Twit-
ter. Williams prepared a memo,
at the request of his supervisors,
detailing the social media activity.
The surveillance and memo
may have constituted racial profil-
Nkenge Harmon Johnson
ing and violated laws against gath-
ering information on a person’s
political outlook without evidence
of a crime being committed, At-
torney General Ellen Rosenblum
determined.
As former Gov. Kitzhaber’s
ex-communications
director,
Nkenge Harmon Johnson was
dismissed three days after she
questioned
then-First
Lady
Cylvia Hayes’ involvement in
Kitzhaber’s re-election campaign
and policy issues at a 2014 staff
meeting. Harmon Johnson said the
firing was unjust.