APRIL 4, 2018
Portland and Seattle Volume XL No. 27
25
CENTS
News .............................. 3,8-10 A & E .....................................6-7
Opinion ...................................2 Dr. Jasmine ......................9
Calendars ........................... 4-5 Bids/Classifieds ....................11
CHALLENGING PEOPLE TO SHAPE A BETTER FUTURE NOW
PHOTO BY PHOTO BY KATE NACY
VOLUNTEER FOR DEMOCRACY
Students walk past Jefferson High School Feb. 9
at a walkout that began at Ockley Green Middle
School.
After students and
parents rally, PPS
announces it will not
terminate Ockley Green
teacher Chris Riser
By Christen McCurdy
Of The Skanner News
ortland Public Schools an-
nounced Tuesday afternoon it
would not terminate an Ockley
Green Middle School teacher who
was placed on leave March 23 in con-
nection with a Feb. 9 student walkout.
“Following the February 9 walkout at
Ockley Green middle school, the Dis-
trict received multiple accounts of stu-
dent safety concerns. We began an in-
vestigation into the event,” write Kylie
P
COURTESY PHOTO
See TEACHER on page 3
Steven Slaughter,
a 9th grader,
dreamed of
playing football
for a major
college. He was
murdered at 14
while walking
home from a local
store.
Teenage
Murders
Every Week
page 8
50 Years After
Dr. King page 10
PHOTO BY SUSAN FRIED
Suspended
Teacher
Reinstated
Mayowa Aina, the communications director for Common Purpose explains the next steps in the process during the third meeting of Wave 1 of Common
Purpose March 31 at Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute. Common Purpose is a civic engagement program that helps people become active in
democracy. Common Purpose launched at the beginning of March 2018. The Seattle-based nonprofit provides an on-ramp to citizen education, voting,
and elections, with people making commitments to engage in voter registration and electoral campaigns. The program runs in two waves each of the
next three years: twice in 2018, twice in 2019, and twice in 2020. Each year participants will commit to providing at least one week of hands-on action
in (a) a late-spring early period focused on voter registration and/or (b) in an autumn period focused on distribution of election material, door-knocking
and phone calls, or get-out-the-vote support.
Musicians Support Health Care with the Blues
The annual Inner City Blues Festival and fundraiser will take place April 21
The Skanner News Staff
n its seventh year, the
annual “Inner City
Blues Festival: Healing
the Health Care Blues”
kicks off at the North Port-
land Eagles Lodge on April
21.
The one-night concert
event is largely a fundrais-
er for Health Care for All
Oregon – a volunteer-run,
statewide coalition of over
120 organizations work-
ing to bring an equitable,
affordable, and publicly
funded health care to Ore-
I
gonians.
With over a dozen acts,
the six-hour blues festival
will also feature a silent
auction, food and beverag-
es, and tabling by commu-
nity organizations. With
around 800 attendees last
year, the festival raised
$28,000 for the cause.
This year’s installment
will showcase performanc-
es by Bloco Alegria, I&I
Band Reunion  with New-
ell Briggs and Obi Addy,
Ken  DeRouchie Band with
Mz. Etta, King Louie Pain
Quartet, and the Norman
Sylvester Review with Sar-
ah Billings and Lenanne
Sylvester-Miller,
plus
many more. Inner City
Blues will be MC’ed by Re-
nee Mitchell,  Ken Boddie
and Paul Knauls.
The alliance among
health care advocates and
blues musicians is a natu-
ral pairing, said its orga-
nizers. “The blues is about
worry, depression, and
melancholy. That’s what
people feel around our
current insurance system,”
said Tom Sincic, a retired
family nurse practitioner
and president of Health
Care of All Oregon.
“Whether you go with
the
Mississippi
Delta
blues, the Memphis blues,
the St. Louis blues, or the
Portland blues – it’s all
across the country,” con-
tinued Sincic. “People have
all kinds of worries about
whether they’re going to
get the health care they
need, and about the finan-
cial loss attached to it. It
causes a lot of stress, so the
blues is a perfect type of
See FESTIVAL on page 3
Clayborn Collins Taken Into Custody After Theft Indictment
Former leader of Emmanuel Community Services
accused of stealing more than $50,000 from nonprofit
The Skanner News
layborn Collins, the former
leader of the defunct North
Portland nonprofit Emmanuel
Community Services, has been
taken into custody on a charge of ag-
gravated theft in the first degree, po-
lice said Wednesday.
According to Portland Police Bu-
reau spokesperson Sgt. Chris Burley,
Collins turned himself in to police
C
March 26.
A Multnomah County grand jury
indicted Collins March 8 on one
count of first-degree aggravated
theft, and a warrant was issued for
his arrest. Collins is accused of steal-
ing more than $50,000 belonging to
Emmanuel Community Services in
2016 or 2017, local media reported
March 23.
Collins was the subject of a 2014 in-
See COLLINS on page 3
Clayborn Collins