U of Portland
Student Still
Missing
Searches come
up empty for
Owen Klinger, 18
Established in 1970
See Local News, page 3
Next stop
Tokyo
Olympics
Simone Biles
smashes records
in world
championships
See story, page 2
PO QR code
Volume XLVIII • Number 41
‘City
of
Roses’
www.portlandobserver.com
Wednesday • October 16, 2019
Committed to Cultural Diversity
Campus Police to Keep Guns
PSU outlines
decision; students
call for boycott
b everly C orbell
t he p ortland o bserver
The decision over whether Portland
State University campus police can contin-
ue to carry firearms has been put to rest,
and the answer is, yes, they can.
Following a contentious PSU Board of
Trustees meeting Thursday and a contro-
versial 2014 decision to arm campus po-
lice in the first place, Stephen Percy, PSU’s
interim president, issued an 18-page report
outlining details for keeping students safe
on campus that calls for more training,
more types of responses to emergency or
critical situations, and the ability of cam-
pus police to keep their firepower.
The decision was based in part on a
210-page report by Margolis Healy and
Associates that was issued in February and
one that makes 115 recommendations re-
lated “to campus safety policies, practices,
training, recruitment, hiring, facilities and
technology.”
Percy’s report, “A Holistic Plan for
Campus Public Safety at Portland State
University,” was in response to the first-ev-
er PSU campus police shooting on June 29,
by
photo by b everly C orbell /t he p ortland o bserver
Portland State University alumna and graduate student Olivia Pace addresses the PSU Board of Trustees Thursday to strongly
criticize the university’s decision to continue arming campus police with guns. The decision, part of a new campus safety plan,
follows the first ever PSU officer-involved shooting that killed a black man breaking up a fight outside a bar near campus last year.
2018 when Jason Washington, a black fa-
ther, postal worker and U.S. veteran, was
shot to death by campus police when he
tried to break up a fight outside a bar near
campus while armed with a legal gun. PSU
decided to arm its public safety force in
photo by b everly C orbell /t he p ortland o bserver
Tears flow as Michelle Washington, widow of Jason Washington, the black father killed by Portland State University campus
police while responding to a fight outside a bar near campus last year, tells the PSU Board of Trustees how painful it is for her
and her daughters to go through life without him.
2014 in a decision that was loudly opposed
by students and faculty at the time.
The tragic death of Mr. Washing-
ton shook the PSU campus to its core. It
prompted the University to reexamine
campus safety systems.” The report can be
viewed at pdx.edu/president.
James Dewey and Shawn McKenzie, the
two officers involved in the shooting, have
left the campus security force. Michelle
Washington, Jason Washington’s widow,
notified the university of a pending lawsuit
against the university in June on behalf of
herself and her three daughters.
Michelle Washington spoke tearfully at
the Board of Trustees meeting before Per-
cy released the new report in a room filled
with student protesters holding signs and
visibly uncomfortable board members.
Washington described how difficult life
has been since her husband’s death.
“I honestly don’t know how to go on
without him and I’ve worked so hard to
try and make people understand what it’s
C ontinued on p age 5