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