JANUARY 31, 2018
Portland and Seattle Volume XL No. 18
25
CENTS
News .............................. 3,8-10 A & E .....................................6-7
Opinion ...................................2 Bail Reform ......................8
Calendars ........................... 4-5 Bids/Classifieds ....................11
CHALLENGING PEOPLE TO SHAPE A BETTER FUTURE NOW
PHOTO VIA TRIMET
KING COUNTY APPROVES
LEGAL ASSISTANCE
TriMet introduced its e-fare program, Hop FastPass
in 2017 and in February retailers and its website
will stop selling paper tickets and passes, offering
FastPass cards instead.
By Christen McCurdy
Of the Skanner News
T
riMet will end the sale of paper
passes in stores and through the
website this week — though tick-
ets will still be available at kiosks
at MAX stations. Riders paying in cash
can continue to do so at MAX ticket ki-
osks and as they board buses.
It’s part of the transit agency’s slow
conversion to Hop FastPass, a system
that allows riders to buy and preload
See TRIMET on page 3
Harriet Walden, with Mothers for Police Accountability, speaks during a King County Council Meeting Jan. 29. Walden testified in favor of an ordinance
that would provide the families of people killed by the police with an attorney at the inquest held to determine the facts leading up to a police involved
fatality. After hearing emotional testimony overwhelmingly in favor of the ordinance the council voted unanimously to approve it.
Black Lives Matter Vancouver Seeks Volunteers
Vancouver, Evergreen public schools have partnered with the organization
to celebrate Black History Month
By Christen McCurdy
Of The Skanner News
CREATIVE COMMONS/PIXABAY
B
Research has also revealed that Chicago students,
on average, repeatedly outperform their peers
outside the city.
Chicago Public
Schools Are
Closing the Gap
page 9
lack Lives Matter
Vancouver has part-
nered with two Clark
County school dis-
tricts to formalize their
Black
History
Month
celebration — and the
organization is seeking
volunteers to help gather
feedback.
Previously, the school
districts celebrated Black
History Month less for-
page 7
of what they were doing.”
Towner has been work-
ing with the school dis-
trict to provide some dis-
trict-wide programming,
including stories which
will be read over the loud-
speaker in schools every
morning, and inspiration-
al quotes. Evergreen High
School’s Black Student
Union will also be holding
an Empowerment in Uni-
ty social event Friday in
conjunction with the BLM
chapter.
Towner is also seeking
volunteers to contact the
schools throughout the
month to solicit stories
– hopefully “feel-good
stories” — about how the
Black History Month cele-
bration is going.
Spokespeople
from
both school districts said
they’ve always celebrated
Black History Month, but
are doing so more formally
this year.
See BLM on page 3
Midwife Aerlyn Pfeil on Aiding Rohingya Refugees
Pfeil spent two months in a Bangladesh refugee
camp with Rohingya survivors of sexual violence
By Melanie Sevcenko
For The Skanner News
T
Kam Reviews
‘Mama Africa’
mally and, according to
residents, not consistently.
“Last year, I had people
reach out to the school and
they were told that teach-
ers could, at their own
discretion, participate in
Black History Month or
not. It was about whether it
fit into what they were do-
ing,” said Cecelia Towner,
the founder of Vancouver’s
Black Lives Matter chap-
ter. “There was nothing
schoolwide, districtwide —
and there was no tracking
o date, more than 650,000 mem-
bers of the minority Muslim Ro-
hingya community have taken
refuge at the Kutupalong camp
in Cox’s Bazar in southern Bangla-
desh.
In the final week of August 2017,
hundreds began making the deadly
journey over the mountains from
their homes in Myanmar’s north-
ern province of Rakhine, after fac-
ing persecution at the hands of the
Myanmar military in the form of sys-
tematic rape, murder and arson.
Last October, Portland-based mid-
wife Aerlyn Pfeil traveled to the Ku-
tupalong camp with Médecins Sans
Frontières (MSF), or Doctors With-
out Borders, a global health organi-
zation that brings medical care to
See MIDWIFE on page 3
PHOTO BY AERLYN PFEIL
Agency continues to
push electronic fare
system – but the rollout
is bumpy
PHOTO BY SUSAN FRIED
TriMet
Rolling
Back Paper
Passes
The Kutupalong refugee camp in southern
Bangladesh is home to hundreds of thousands
of minority Muslim Rohingya. In August
2017, they began fleeing their homes after an
outbreak of brutal violence at the hands of the
Myanmar military.