Local News
Army
Bomba to Hip Hop
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should not be taking financial
consideration into account in
a mental health diagnosis, she
said.
``This is the opposite of
everything that we are work-
ing for,’’ Murray said. ``It is
very disheartening to see this
in writing.’’
The Army Surgeon Gener-
al’s office also has asked psy-
chiatrists from Walter Reed Army Medical
Center to evaluate the mental health of more
than a dozen soldiers who complained that
the Madigan team had unfairly dropped
their PTSD diagnoses as they prepared for
medical retirement. Some said the team
‘This is the opposite of
everything that we are working
for. It is very disheartening to
see this in writing’
such as a battlefield casualty. Symptoms
can include recurrent nightmares, flash-
backs, irritability and feeling distant from
other people.
Soldiers are often diagnosed with PTSD
as they move through the Army medical
system. The forensic team at Madigan has
been charged with making a
final diagnostic review of sol-
diers under consideration for
retirement.
At Madigan, the team’s vali-
dation of a PTSD diagnosis
can help qualify a soldier for a
medical retirement with con-
siderable benefits that include
lifelong health insurance for a
retiree, spouse and dependents
and monthly pay, and also can help qualify
a retiree for disability benefits from the
Department of Veterans Affairs.
Madigan is located at Joint Base Lewis-
Some said the team branded
them as malingerers who were
lying or exaggerating their
symptoms
branded them as malingerers who were
lying or exaggerating their symptoms.
PTSD is a condition that results from
experiencing or seeing a traumatic event,
PHOTO BY SUSAN FRIED
Sen. Patty Murray
Tyrone Crosby with Kutt ‘N’ Up teaches a workshop in Hip Hop Feb. 4 at
Southside Commons. The cross cultural community event included a
Bomba workshop taught by Angel Reyes and a Hip Hop workshop with
Crosby. The event was sponsored by Goddard College and the Intra-
Afrikan Konnection.
McChord, about 30 miles south of Seattle,
which has sent tens of thousands of soldiers
to Iraq and Afghanistan.
The September lecture was intended to
help social workers, nurse case managers
and others understand the role of the foren-
sic team in the Medical Evaluation Board
system.
Library
continued from page 1
people won’t smack you up side the head
like your friends would,” Farr said.
The teen advisers agree that one advan-
tage to this service learning opportunity is
the flexibility.
“It seemed interesting because a lot of it is
‘do it on your own time,’ like the book
reviews and blogging. It’s not a huge time
commitment,” said Madeline Ewbank, Bal-
lard High junior.
The teens earn credit hours by creating
podcasts, reading and reviewing books for
the library’s card catalog, posting on the
library’s teen blog, “Push to Talk,” and
planning and volunteering at library events.
“I have technically enough service hours
by now, but I come back just because it’s
fun,” said Ewbank. “It’s a good table out
there, it’s always nice people. I think there’s
always something to be gained in the
library.”
Rebecca Wong, a sophomore at Garfield
High School, is starting her first semester as
a teen adviser. Prior to this she frequented
the library for DVDs, CDs and fiction
books.
“I want to read. I think coming here would
give me more access, I use the online ency-
clopedia and the links on the website and
that’s usually helpful for homework,” said
Wong.
Bass said overseeing the teens is the most
rewarding part of her job. “A lot
of adults may never come into
contact with teenagers and they
will forget that there are so many
smart, articulate, thoughtful,
engaged teens out there. We want
to help put them on the forefront,”
she said.
Over the years Bass has seen the
program evolve into a diverse,
safe space for learning. She added that often
these teens wouldn’t necessarily hang out
with one another. At the Central Library
they come together and understand each
other’s perspectives.
Students form relationships, express
themselves through creative writing, and
have an added incentive to engage with lit-
erary material outside of the classroom.
“I think it’s a unique program,” said
because I am a really fast reader, my family
has three (e-readers) and we can download
books, so that means I don’t have to be at
the library every other day getting a new
book,” said Farr. “I can just download a
bunch of them at the beginning of the
week.”
Ewbank said she refuses to touch a
Kindle.
“There’s something to be said for a
book; it’s more of a sense of accom-
plishment when you get to the end,”
---Madeline Ewbank she said.
Check out what the teen advisers at
Seattle Public Library are doing on
their blog “Push to Talk” (at
vides these swift readers with a free service www.pushtotalk.spl.org). New applicants
are accepted every semester and there is no
that could easily weigh them down.
“I don’t buy books because I just read term limit.
them really fast and I would spend a fortune
Breanna Lai is a student in the University
on paper if that was the case,” said Ewbank.
“It’s also kind of a way to give back because of Washington Department of Communica-
I have used so much of the resources here tion News Laboratory.
and I’m not a taxpayer.”
The teens debated the issue of e-books.
“I actually like the electronic catalog
Ewbank. “It’s more of an outlet because
there is a lot that we don’t do in school and
I would like to. Like books that we don’t get
to read because it’s not part of the curricu-
lum.”
Borrowing books from the library pro-
‘I think there’s always something
to be gained in the library’
Murder
continued from page 1
dren’s Administration at the Department
of Social and Health Services, said state
authorities work closely with courts to
determine whether supervised visits
should be allowed and whether they
should be held at a parent’s home or at a
neutral site.
“If there had been any indication of
suicidal thoughts, or anything that we
would have thought there was an intent
to harm the children, we would have
taken immediate action,” she said. “If we
had thought that, we would have done what
we could. I don’t think there’s anything else
we could have done.”
And as devastated as Susan’s parents are
to have lost her and now her sons, they
aren’t critical of how the custody case was
handled, said their attorney, Steve Down-
ing.
“They knew that legally he would proba-
ing said. Powell had been having
supervised visits with the boys twice a
week, three hours at a time, for about
four months.
The court ordered a psychological
evaluation of Josh Powell last Octo-
ber. After it was completed, the psy-
chologist received information from
police in West Valley City, Utah, about
undisclosed materials found on his
computer during a search in 2009.
That material prompted the psychologist to
recommend a psycho-sexual evaluation
before Powell be given custody or expand-
ed visitation rights.
For his part, Josh Powell had argued in
court papers that it was unfair for his chil-
dren to be removed from his care based on
something his father had done. In super-
vised visits, twice a week for three hours
apiece, he demonstrated his love of the boys
It was their belief he had
something to do with Susan’s
disappearance, and that
ultimately he could harm the
children
bly have supervised visitation,” Downing
said. “It was their belief he had something
to do with Susan’s disappearance, and that
ultimately he could harm the children. But
they believed the state had listened to them
and had taken appropriate measures to pro-
tect them. They don’t know what more the
state could have done.”
Supervised visits are typically ordered to
take place at a neutral site in cases of docu-
mented abuse or domestic violence, Down-
and his competence as a caregiver, he insist-
ed. He believed that a Child Protective
Services investigation completed Nov. 30
clearing him of negligent treatment or mal-
treatment of his boys should have paved the
way for their return home.
“No child wants to be taken from their
parents and it is not reasonable to continue
this process,” he wrote in a court declara-
tion last Wednesday. “At this point, it is
only by bending and breaking the rules that
anyone even tries to keep it going.”
The judge disagreed, ordering the psycho-
sexual evaluation.
Powell’s attorney, Jeffrey Bassett, said
Powell was extremely upset about the deci-
sion.
“The last conversation I had with him, we
were looking to move forward, to comply
with the evaluation and go from there,”
Bassett said. “This is a total shock.”
February 8, 2012 The Seattle Skanner Page 3