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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (July 15, 2015)
News Pregnancy Youth Picnic continued from page 1 Clubs of Portland Metro, Latino Network and Native Amer- ican Youth and Family Center. Tony Hopson, CEO of Self Enhancement Inc. said in a press release about the grant; “SEI applauds the County on its forethought to include culturally-specific organizations in this effort. We look forward to increasing our collective impact to help young people.” The first year of the grant is a dedicated to planning. The county will convene these groups to create a dialogue about the best way to reach their youth and will provide the evi- dence-based sexual health curriculum. Ramachandran said the county is taking a support and capacity building role within the ACT program. “We’re not going to be making those decisions for com- munity partners,” she says. “We’ll basically convene folks and ensure that everyone has the information they need to accurately make choices for the community that they serve and represent.” One of the goals of the ACT project is to build capacity for organizations to do their own sexual health education and outreach. Money from the grant will be used to train sex ed edu- cators from these partner organizations. Over the five year grant cycle the county plans to take the lead in teaching in the first years, and then become co-teachers with their part- ners in later years. PHOTO BY SUSAN FRIED The grant will focus on areas in the region with large populations of Black, Latino and Native American students, which also have high poverty rates as well Makaylah Chambers, Jenny Vo, Zion Thomas, and Killian Woods attended the Community for Youth Summer Picnic July 11 at Seward Park in Seattle. All four high school students applied to be in Com- munity for Youth mentoring program next school. Community for Youth helps students achieve their goals through mentorship and a supportive community. The grant will focus on areas in the region with large populations of Black, Latino and Native American students which also have high poverty rates as well. Teens in these neighborhoods have higher teen pregnancy rates or higher sexually transmitted infection rates. The areas of focus are: • St. Johns/Portsmouth • Inner Northeast Portland • Cully • Parkrose School District • David Douglas: Hazelwood/Mill Park/Powellhurst • Centennial • Rockwood • East County school district areas Meeting with partners and parents will attempt to reach within youth their own communities with culturally relevant messages and values. Read the rest of the story online at www.theskanner.com Governor continued from page 1 grams, including STEM funding, as other schools. There was also a big issue in Port- land Public Schools with disproportionate discipline. There has been some legislative action on the second issue in the last couple of years. What can we do at a state level to make sure that students get a safe education and also that they get equal access to educa- tion where they live? Governor Kate Brown: I think that’s obviously very important. In my work as Secretary of State, we completed an audit on what was technically called the achieve- ment gap. I call it the opportunity gap audit. It was really clear from the numbers that we saw across the state, specifically we saw at the eighth-grade level, in math and reading, we saw clear gaps between white students and students of color. We also saw huge gaps between economically disadvantaged students and economically advantaged stu- dents. Not only do we have the gap in terms of ‘I think the key thing is to do everything we can to introduce the opportunity gap’ students of color, we have the gap in terms of economically advantaged versus disad- vantaged students. When you put those two factors together, it’s extremely distressing. For African-American students, it looks like two years behind in math, which is very distressing, given the importance that math will play and is continuing to play not only in our Oregon economy but our econ- omy across the United States and across the world. I think the key thing is to do everything we can to introduce the opportunity gap. That’s why I felt so strongly about working to invest in early childhood, making sure that children are ready to learn when they reach kindergarten. The next piece is obviously making sure that all of our students are ready to read at third grade. If we can make significant in- vestments in these arenas, I think that will help close the opportunity gap. But that’s not enough, and the audit made this really clear. There are key components that we need to see in all of our schools across the state, around leadership, about setting really high standards, about using what I call da- ta-informed instruction. All of these pieces need to be happening at every single school in the state. That’s something we can drive at the state level. Our new deputy superintendent of instruc- tion, Salam Noor, has a pattern and a record of closing that achievement gap in the Sa- lem-Keizer School District, and so he’s go- ing to bring that leadership and that knowl- The encounter, caught on an onlooker’s video, triggered protests. Coupled with police killings of unarmed black men else- where in recent months, Garner’s death be- came a flashpoint in a national debate about “The victory will come when we get jus- tice,” Eric Garner’s mother, Gwen Carr, said Tuesday. “Justice,” added one of Garner’s children, Emerald Snipes, “is when somebody is held edge to the department. In terms of the funding piece, that’s ab- solutely unacceptable. I’d want to see the numbers on that. I haven’t seen the specific numbers but it’s absolutely unacceptable in this state, but we need to figure out a way to tackle that as well. TSN: You mentioned a $62 million pledge for affordable housing. What are we doing about affordable housing, more spe- cifically? KB: First of all, I have to tell you, I know $62 million sounds like a drop in the bucket. The full package that I introduced was 100 million, so we had to step back a little bit. But $62 million is a significant investment. We are looking at at least a couple thousand units and I think that’s huge. Read the rest of the interview online at www.theskanner.com Garner continued from page 1 two officers were killed by a gunman in De- cember, some officers turned their backs on the mayor at the funerals. De Blasio made sure to be inclusive in his remarks on Tuesday. “All lives matter,” he said, before explic- itly saying that while it should be self-evi- dent, it must be still said that “Black lives matter” and, after he praised the police, “Blue lives matter.” The settlement came nearly a year after the 43-year-old Garner died, having repeatedly pleaded “I can’t breathe!” as Officer Daniel Pantaleo took him to the ground with an arm around his neck. Garner lost consciousness and was pronounced dead later at a hospital. He had refused to be handcuffed after be- ing stopped on suspicion of selling loose, untaxed cigarettes on a Staten Island street. Garner’s death became a flashpoint in a national debate about relations between police and minority communities relations between police and minority com- munities. “’I can’t breathe’ spurred the nation- al movement,” and it won’t end “until we change how policing goes,” the Rev. Al Sharpton said at a news conference Tuesday with Garner’s relatives. accountable for what they do.” The city medical examiner found the police chokehold contributed to Garner’s death. But Pantaleo’s lawyer said the officer had used a permissible takedown maneuver known as a seatbelt — not a chokehold, banned under New York Police Department policy. A grand jury declined to indict Pantaleo. The U.S. Justice Department and the U.S. attorney’s office in Brooklyn are investi- gating whether there’s evidence to warrant charges that the officer deliberately violat- ed Garner’s civil rights. Such cases are rare after grand jury inaction or acquittal at the state level. Police Commissioner William Bratton de- clined to comment Tuesday on the Garner case. The settlement came before any law- suit was filed, though the family had filed notice of its intention to sue. The city did not admit any liability. Associated Press writers Tom Hays and Jennifer Peltz in New York contributed to this report. July 15, 2015 The Portland and Seattle Skanner Page 3
