Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (March 10, 2021)
Page 4 March 10, 2021 Madison Renamed C ontinued froM P age 3 Adams High School, and then as vice-principal at Madison. He was one of only a handful of Black High school principals in Oregon in the 1980s and was tasked with leading Madison through desegre- gating and bussing. “His sudden death in 1987 left the Portland community reeling and his school heartbroken,” the renaming committee said. To this day, McDaniel’s impact Photo Courtesy M ultnoMah C ounty lives on with a $10,000 annual scholarship in his name awarded to a senior at the school who has struggled. The renaming also marks the second time this year the board voted to change a school’s name. In January, Woodrow Wilson High School in southwest Port- land was renamed after Ida B. Wells-Barnett, a Black investi- gative journalist and activist who was born into slavery during the Civil War in 1862. h arris v ideo & P hotograPhy 503-730-1156 Funeral and Memorial Coverage Capturing the Services For You, For Others Forever! $5.00 TEES CLUBS FAMILY REUNIONS SCHOOL CLUBS BUSINESSES SCREEN PRINTING 971-570-8214 CoMMuniCations Bishop Stewart Minnieweather was the first to get his COVID-19 vaccine during a community clinic last Friday, Feb. 19. BIPOC-focused Vaccine Clinic Held Hundreds of seniors turned out for COVID shots Multnomah County’s Commu- nicable Disease program teamed up with the REACH Program, High- land Haven and community part- ners to vaccinate nearly 400 seniors in the county’s first large event for elders in communities experiencing the highest rates of COVID-19 in- fection, hospitalization and death. The Feb. 19 clinic at the High- land Christian Center, a historically Black and diverse congregation in east Portland, focused on provid- ing free and low-barrier COVID-19 vaccines to elders 70 and older from Black and African American, immi- grant and refugee, indigenous and other communities of color. Eligible residents had to sign up for slots and complete a health screening before arriving at the clin- ic. At the door, specially assigned C ontinued on P age 6 Hardesty Subject of False Report C ontinued froM P age 3 nomah County Republican Party and two others, Angela Todd and Gabriel Johnson, reported “break- ing news” of a hit-and-run they said came from Portland Police. The trio were gleeful to report Hardesty’s alleged involvement, repeating the allegations as fact and not offering much respect or credit for her history of navigating for police reforms on behalf of the Black community and others. Hardesty made clear she could not be a suspect in an auto wreck, because she has not driven for months, as her car has been disabled and parked in the same spot for the last six months with a dead battery. “As you all know, I use Lyft when I’m going somewhere I can’t walk,” said Hardesty. “I’ve become an avid pedestrian since the COVID-19 pandemic began.” “When you have taken on po- lice accountability issues for as long as I have, you come to expect these kinds of attacks. I’ve expe- rienced them in the past, and I ex- pect I will continue to experience them in the future,” the city com- missioner concluded. In-Person Learning by Month’s End C ontinued froM f ront dating that all K-12 public schools provide universal access to in-per- son learning by the month’s end for students up to fifth grade and by mid-April for older students. The state’s coronavirus case numbers have fallen sharply in recent weeks, allowing greater access to the classroom under COVID-19 prevention proto- cols. State education officials have until March 19 to revise their guidelines for in-person instruc- tion to help districts facilitate the return of students, Brown said. “It’s very positive and defini- tively a step in the right direction — and frankly, it’s about time. Clearly, it’s been hard for dis- tricts to figure out what’s going to be best for their students, and it’s taken a long time,” said Katie Chrisman, who has a child each in elementary school, middle school and high school in the Portland suburbs. Her children “haven’t had a ton of suffering, but they’re definitely not thriving — and for me, that’s been the biggest concern,” she said. Rylee Ahnen, spokesman for the Oregon Education Associ- ation, the state’s largest public school employees union, said in a statement that teachers support returning to the classroom if it can be done safely. The union understands the frus- trations of both school districts and parents, he said, as everyone navigates how to return to class. He added that most districts were already planning to some sort of in-person learning in the coming weeks. “We hear, understand, and share the frustration expressed by many in our communities about the uncertainty this pandemic has caused for our public education system,” he said. The union represents 44,000 K-12 teachers across Oregon. Oregon started vaccinating teachers in January ahead of se- niors, but the state health depart- ment can’t say for sure how many educators have been vaccinated because it does not track the pro- fession of recipients. The union also could not say what percent- age of teachers have received the vaccine. Portland Public Schools, the state’s largest district with 49,000 students in 81 schools, was al- ready planning to bring elementa- ry students back in April.