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C HALLENGING P EOPLE TO S HAPE A B ETTER F UTURE N OW
School
Use of
Force
25
MINIMUM WAGE DAY
Family seeks answers
after Madison student
put in a choke hold
By Lisa Loving
Of The Skanner News
See CHOKE on page 3
INDEX
News ..............1,3,9-10
Opinion .....................2
Calendars ..............4,5
A & E .........................6
Bids/Classifieds ........11
PHOTO BY SUSAN FRIED
A
Madison High School mother is tak-
ing a stand after her daughter was
placed in a choke hold by a school
vice principal during a minor scuffle off
campus last winter.
Video has surfaced of the encounter,
inflaming local parenting activists in part
because of the recent death of New Yorker
Eric Garner from a New York police choke
hold which was also videotaped – but also
because of the history of choke holds in
Portland’s Black community, which
includes one of the most reviled incidents of
law enforcement uses of force on record.
The Portland Parents Union, led by organ-
izer Sheila Warren, emailed the Madison
High School choke hold image to the Port-
land Public Schools Superintendent’s office
last Wednesday protesting the lack of reso-
lution in the case, which occurred on Dec. 8,
2014.
On Friday evening, Portland Public
Schools’ Ombudsman Judi Martin respond-
ed:
Dear Ms. Warren,
Thank you for sharing your concerns on
behalf of a parent and student at Madison
High School.
Your email was shared with me by the
Office of the Superintendent to allow me to
be a further resource. PPS takes allegations
of employee misconduct very seriously.
Because your concern regards alleged mis-
conduct by specific employees, it will be
addressed through the PPS Human
Resources personnel process. Your concern
has been referred to the Chief Human
Resources Officer, Sean Murray, and these
allegations will be investigated thoroughly.
Lisa McCall, the Senior Director for Madi-
son High School will be contacting you
directly.
Please call me if you have any questions.
Thank you again for bringing this matter to
Washington State Sen. Pramila Jayapal, who represents the 37th district of Seattle, hands out some literature to a
Starbucks employee about the April 1 wage increase. Jayapal joined about 100 people for a march and rally on
Capital Hill March 28 to celebrate the increase in the minimum wage.
Long-Term Kidney Patient Thrives
Patience, perseverance help Seattle woman get organ transplant
By Cynthia Flash
Special To The Skanner
News
F
rom the time she was
diagnosed with Type 1
diabetes at age 13, Jackie
Brown remembers hearing the
unspoken message that she was
going to die.
Though doctors didn’t say it
in so many words, that’s what
Brown understood after she lost
60 pounds during the summer
between seventh and eighth
grade.
“From the moment I was diag-
nosed, it was all doom and
gloom,” said Brown, who lives
in Renton. “It was the best
secret never told. ‘You have
Type 1 diabetes. You won’t
grow to adulthood.’ I felt like I
was going to sit and wait to
die.”
That was 1987 in Chicago.
Luckily, Brown moved in 2002
to Wisconsin, where she met a
nurse educator from the Univer-
sity of Wisconsin who asked,
“Who said you had to die?”
“I never thought of it in those
terms,” said Brown, who had
been taking insulin injections all
that time. The nurse educator
also told Brown that her condi-
tion could lead to chronic
kidney disease, which often
happens in people with diabetes.
Brown was encouraged to mon-
itor her blood pressure, cut back
on salt, watch her diet and exer-
cise.
March is National Kidney
Month, a time to note that
Brown is among more than 10
percent of American adults who
have chronic kidney disease.
Many don’t find out about the
silent disease until the damage
is severe and irreparable. In the
African American community,
the incidence of kidney disease
increases four-fold because
African Americans are also
more likely than Caucasians to
have diabetes, heart disease and
high blood pressure, which are
common causes of kidney dis-
ease.
Although African Americans
make up 12 percent of the U.S.
See KIDNEY on page 3
CAT Lauches Comic on Renters’ Rights
Facing eviction? Worried about discrimination? This book is for you
By Arashi Young
Of The Skanner News
C
andace walks up to her apartment
and finds an eviction notice taped to
the door. She had been behind on her
rent and making partial payments, but her
landlord wants her out. Clutching the
notice, she wonders what she is going to do.
Candace’s tale is one of three stories rep-
resented in the new Community Alliance of
Tenants’ comic book “Know Your Rights:
Don’t Get Evicted.” The free comic was
released on March 30 at the Oregon Public
House.
The comic book is a reference to help peo-
ple understand their legal rights as a renter.
It covers the process of eviction and what to
do if you are faced with eviction. It also
addresses termination notices, evictions
court, being locked out by a landlord and
more.
Educating people on eviction is a formida-
ble challenge according to Justin Buri,
executive director for the Community
Alliance of Tenants.
“There are so many different ways that
evictions take place and so many different
See COMIC on page 3