WWW . THESKANNER . COM
M ARCH 7, 2012
P ORTLAND , O REGON
V OLUME XXXIV, N O . 10
25
CENTS
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C HALLENGING P EOPLE TO S HAPE A B ETTER F UTURE N OW
School
to Prison
Pipeline
COMMUNITIES
Suspensions and
Expulsions Part 2:
Solutions and Failures
By Lisa Loving
Of The Skanner News
PHOTO BY THOMAS LE NGO
A
n anonymous caller phoned The
Skanner News office to say 5-year-
old Camron Tarver is a real brat, and
that fact hadn’t been adequately reported in
our Feb. 23 story, ‘Suspensions, Expulsions
of Black Students: The School to Prison
Pipeline?’
While he admitted he doesn’t know the
family and has never been to the school but
has “friends who do,” the man angrily
insisted that Camron’s nine suspensions
since the start of kindergarten are not about
race.
In early February Camron’s mom, Tam-
berlee Tarver, testified about her little boy’s
well-documented disabilities and her con-
sistent inability to access special education
services from his school before Gov. John
Kitzhaber’s Oregon Education Investment
Board in Salem; subsequently the OEIB set
up a public forum, held Tuesday, March 6 at
the Center for Self Enhancement; the crowd
was standing-room only.
Sheila Warren of the Portland Parents
Union is worried that the families most
impacted by the racial disparities around
discipline aren’t heard often enough – in
part for the same reasons the anonymous
caller tried to defame the courageous
kindergartner and his mom last month.
“Partnerships and teamwork are the key,”
Warren says. “We must be intentional as
well as persistent and consistent in relation-
ship building through restorative listening
and dialogue,” she said.
The simple fact is that families caught up
in the school disciplinary process are often
not listened to, are often disrespected and
shamed; they’ve “done something wrong.”
It’s a process that continues as the chil-
dren grow older and are disproportionately
drawn into the criminal justice system –
where, again, the families are not listened
to, but rather disrespected and shamed.
Representatives from the Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon went to Salem to raise awareness about policy
issues that impact API communities.
Report Busts ‘Model Minority’ Myth
Racism hurts Asian Pacific Islanders more in Portland than rest of USA
By Helen Silvis
Of The Skanner News
W
ith national figures
showing Asian and
Pacific
Islanders
outstripping Whites in educa-
tion and earning power, many
people believe racism doesn’t
affect Asians. That’s just
wrong— at least in Multnom-
ah County.
A dense, 225-page report
released this week by the
Communities of Color Coali-
tion
shows
Multnomah
County’s Asian and Pacific
Islander communities fare far
worse than their national
counterparts. From education
to health, earning power and
more, the county’s more than
two-dozen Asian and Pacific
Islander groups have more in
common with other people of
color than with Whites.
Rev. Joseph Santos-Lyons,
coordinator with the Asian
Pacific American Network of
Oregon, says the report is an
important milestone that
shows successes as well as the
grim realities facing Asian and
Pacific Islander communities.
‘What is really heartbreak-
ing about the report is that it
exposes that certain Asian and
pacific Islander communities
are in serious poverty, facing
significant educational barri-
ers and are living in poor
health,” he said.
“This is a wake-up call, not
just for policy makers but for
all Communities of Color to
work together to ensure racial
equity and racial justice in our
public and private institu-
tions.”
The report paints a complex
picture, where disparities vary
among the many different
Asian and Pacific Islander
communities. About 74,000
Asian and Pacific Islanders
live in Multnomah County, but
they consist of more than 55
different communities, who
speak different languages and
bring their own unique histo-
ries and cultures.
Yet looking at the entire
community, local and national
figures a pattern emerges,
which shows local Asian and
Pacific Islander communities
See REPORT on page 3
See SUSPENSIONS on page 5
INDEX
News ......2,3,5,7,10-12
Opinion .....................4
Church ......................6
A & E ......................8,9
Bids/Classifieds ........13
Scrutiny of Bank Overdraft Practices
‘Candid discussion’ on why customers pay billions in unfair fees
By Charlene Crowell
NNPA Columnist
W
hen the Consumer Financial Pro-
tection Bureau visited New York
City on Feb. 22, a roundtable dis-
cussion with bankers and consumer
advocates began a day of focused discus-
sion of bank products that cost customers
billions per year in unfair fees. In his open-
ing remarks, CFPB Director Richard Cor-
dray called for a “candid discussion” and
noted how less than 10 percent of checking
account customers bear the brunt of more
than 80 percent of all overdraft fees charged
by banks.
Director Cordray announced new a new
initiative wherein the agency will examine
the practice of reordering customer transac-
tions to boost overdraft fees. CFPB will also
look at disclosures and marketing, particu-
larly with an eye toward impact on the
low-income and young consumers.
Roundtable participant Rebecca Borne,
senior policy counsel with the Center for
Responsible Lending, advised that overdraft
fees are the number one reason bank cus-
tomers lose their checking accounts.
See BANKS on page 3