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.