FEBRUARY 3, 2016
Portland and Seattle Volume XXXVIII No. 18
25
CENTS
News ..................................3,10 A & E .................................... 6-8
Opinion ...................................2 Recording Grand Juries 10
Calendars ........................... 4-5 Bids/Classifieds ...............10-11
CHALLENGING PEOPLE TO SHAPE A BETTER FUTURE NOW
PHOTO VIA GOFUNDME
‘SUPER’ DAVE RETIRES
Christopher Kalonji, 19, Oak Grove (at right), died
Thursday after a standoff with law enforcement.
Two Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office deputies
are on paid leave after firing shots, but the exact
manner of death has not been released.
Deputies on
Leave After
Shooting
C
hristopher Kalonji, a 19-year-old
Black man from Clackamas Coun-
ty, died last week following what
Clackamas County Sheriff ’s offi-
cers described as an eight-hour stand-
off that began as a mental health crisis
intervention.
According to a press release from
the Clackamas County Sheriff ’s Office,
two officers are on paid administrative
leave after using force last Thursday
against Kalonji. Sgt. Tony Killinger,
who has been with the sheriff ’s office
for 15 years, and Deputy Lon Steinhau-
See SHOOTING on page 3
Kam Talks
to Marlon
Wayons
His latest comedy is
‘Fifty Shades of Black’
page 7
Local Events for
This Week
page 4
Seattle Parks and Recreation Deputy Superintendent Christopher Williams gives “Super” Dave Gilbertson a hug when arrives at his retirement party on
Friday January 29th at Meadowbrook Community Center. Mr. Gilbertson worked for over 30 years for the department and close to 100 people came to
his retirement party to celebrate his service to the community.
Jefferson and Roosevelt Make Highest Leaps
School’s across Oregon see gains across the board in graduation rates
By Donovan M. Smith
Of The Skanner
N
ew numbers released
by the Oregon De-
partment of Educa-
tion show that two of
the state’s most historically
underserved schools made
the two greatest leaps in
graduation rates.
Jefferson
and
Roos-
evelt High Schools came
in at first and second, re-
spectively, for best turn-
arounds in the 2014-2015
school year, with Jefferson
achieving a 25 percent in-
crease from the year previ-
ous, graduating 81 percent
of its seniors on time, and
Roosevelt making a 9 per-
cent bump, sending 67 per-
cent of its seniors across
the stage.
Leaders at Jefferson are
crediting much of their
success to an ongoing part-
nership with Self Enhance-
ment, Inc. that targets
increasing the success of
at-risk students, through
its Whole School Model.
“We believe education
starts at home, well before
you get into a classroom,”
Tony Hopson Sr., presi-
dent and CEO of Self En-
hancement, Inc., told The
Skanner before adding
that Self Enhancement has
offered the programming
and had extended funding
this year. “We can bridge
[both]. Whether that’s get-
ting people actual housing,
providing support around
food and shelter, heat, all
those necessities in life
that a family would want
to have, we find that a lot
of our kids just don’t have
that.”
When the Whole School
Model was introduced
to Jefferson High School
just over 5 years ago, Jef-
ferson’s graduation was
under 44 percent. In the
years since, the number
of students that have en-
rolled in the program and
the outcomes for the North
Portland school have in-
creased each year.
These gains match state
trends, where graduation
rates are up two percent.
However despite those
advances, Oregon contin-
ues to report some of the
worst graduation rates in
the country--especially for
African Americans. De-
spite making up less than
3 percent of the state’s pu-
pils, Oregon has the third-
worst track-record of grad-
uating Black students in
the country.
Jefferson — a school that,
in recent years, was con-
See GRADUATION on page 3
Culturally Relevant Education
Know Your City, Teaching With Purpose push to
include more diverse stories in education
By Arashi Young
Of The Skanner News
W
hen Katherine Quaid spoke
to Portland City Commis-
sioners, she wanted them
to know what it was like to
be a person of color seeing history
through a White lens.
A citizen of the confederated tribes
of Umatilla, Quaid described a shal-
low representation of indigenous
peoples in history lessons.
She said maybe students knew
about the Trail of Tears or Wounded
Knee, but they did not get a deep un-
derstanding of indigenous culture.
“What we do not learn is about the
contemporary American Indian cul-
tures, issues, policies … and how our
history has been skewed by the pen
of the colonizers, favoring those of
European descent while shutting out
See EDUCATION on page 3
PHOTO BY ARASHI YOUNG
By Christen McCurdy
Of The Skanner News
PHOTO BY SUSAN FRIED
19-year-old Christopher
Kalonji is dead following
a mental health crisis
Brett Bigham, Katherine Quaid and Cameron
Whitten testified at City Hall last week about the
importance of culturally inclusive education.