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News Fine continued from page 1 said. “We have 5000 safety officers in New York schools, and they all work for the NYPD. “If you live in New York you cannot sep- arate education from criminalization. So watch out because it’s coming here too. “The primary public sectors waiting for Black kids right now are prisons and the military.” Fine told the story of New York principal Mark Federman, who was arrested after try- ing to intervene when police arrested a senior who had arrived at school early to study and meet with a teacher. Teachers, not police should be in charge of school disci- pline, she said. In a talk that ranged from budget cuts in education to how to do research with youth, Fine urged the audience to look carefully at who benefits from budget and policy deci- sions and how they affect young people. The move to judge schools by test scores and to close down schools that don’t do well has benefited the testing companies, she said. Yet across the country schools are closing in the name of accountability. “We need to be asking, ‘Why are you spending money on all those tests you’re cutting teachers and closing schools,” she said. “What is your evidence that testing is effective? What is your testing that closing schools is effec- tive?” The only study on the impact of closing schools, (by the Stanford University’s CREDO research center) suggests that stu- dents lose out, she said. “The evidence is that there is an academ- ic loss the year of the closing, because it is so traumatic. “And what happens to those dispersed bodies? Most kids get enrolled in equally crummy schools. Some never enroll in a new school and become part of the dropout/pushout statistics.” Fine pointed to the differences between schools serving poor students and schools serving well-off families. She said Brandeis High School, for example, was closed down before being reopened as four different schools: two serving poor students of color; a third that also serves poor students was a “second chance school” offering credit recovery courses; and the Frank McCourt School for Journalism, which selects stu- dents based on grades. The result is separate and unequal system, a kind of educational apartheid, Fine said. “In New York, we’re closing down schools for Black and Brown kids and reopening them for the gentry.” Recently, Fine has been working with youth through the Public Science Project to document young people’s experiences. About 40 youth worked on the ‘Polling for Justice’ survey of 1000 of their peers. The ‘What is your evidence that testing is effective? What is your testing that closing schools is effective?’ survey looked at young peoples’ experi- ences with school, family, police and health care. It also asked about illegal drug use, sexual risks and violence. When youth are involved in scientific inquiry, they ask different questions because they have knowledge that adults don’t have, Fine said. The youth researchers rejected calls from adult researchers to ask what they saw as overly intrusive ques- tions about sex, for example. But they added questions that delved deeply into the way young people are treat- ed in public spaces. “I would not have known about 60 percent of the neg- ative interactions with cops in the last six months,” Fine said. “It relates to depres- sion, it relates to missing school.” The research into “Circuits of Dispossession,” showed that the youth who have the most difficult life experi- ences are likely to be from Lewis & Clark’s Michelle Maher, left, with Michelle high-poverty neighborhoods, Fine, keynote speaker for the college’s School of to be youth of color, and/or Education and Counseling commencement to be LGBT(Lesbian, gay bisexual or transgender). Boys tended to be harm: belonging to a youth group and hav- ing a supportive adult in their lives. more affected than girls. That’s important to know, Fine said. But the survey also showed that between “So many kids live in circumstances 30 to 44 percent those ‘most dispossessed’ youth were not using illegal drugs, taking where if they just stand still, they are in risks with sex or behaving violently. Two harm’s way.” factors showed up as protecting youth from Free Community Clinics for Whooping Cough Vaccinations in Vancouver Clark County has experi- enced an alarming increase in whooping cough (pertus- sis), with nearly 140 confirmed cases reported since January 1, 2012. Only 23 cases were reported at this time last year. The Washington Department of Health has declared a whooping cough epidemic in the state, with more than 1,500 reported cases. Whooping cough spreads easily through coughing and can cause life-threaten- ing illness in infants under 6 months old. In a coordinated effort to contain the spread of the disease, Clark County Pub- lic Health is partnering with Kaiser Permanente North- west to provide free vaccinations against whooping cough for unin- sured or underinsured children and adults. Vacci- nation clinics will be held each Thursday and Friday in June from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at Kaiser Permanente Cas- cade Park Medical Office, 12607 SE Mill Plain Blvd. in Vancouver. There also will be a Saturday clinic, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. June 16. “We are especially con- cerned about babies because they are just beginning their immunization series,” said Diana Antoniskis, MD, a Kaiser Permanente infec- tious disease specialist. “Babies most often catch whooping cough from a family member or caregiver, and the infection can be life- threatening. It’s essential that parents, teachers, health care workers, and others who are in close contact with infants get vaccinat- ed.” All adults and teens should receive the adult booster shot, called Tdap, if they have not already received one. Haglund Kelley, Jones & Wilder LLP A T T O R N E Y S Jim Francesconi 503-225-0777 Page 8 The Portland Skanner June 6, 2012 • Civil rights • Personal Injury • Employment • Small Business www.hk-law.com
