March 13, 2019 The Skanner Portland & Seattle Page 3
cont’d from pg 1
tary School building,
which Portland Public
Schools closed the year
before as part of a dis-
trict-wide restructuring
effort.
Oregon Public Broad-
casting reported last May
that the school would be
losing its lease – which
had initially been writ-
ten to last through 2026,
with options for up to
three extensions of up to
10 years. But officials said
the school’s payments
to PPS — of more than
at St. Charles, we shared
about each other’s pas-
sions and each other’s
ministry and we found
we’re so alike, this will be
a great partnership if it
happens -- and thankful-
ly it did happen,” Leong
said.
Both
communities
serve families of modest
means, Leong said. De
La Salle also has a higher
proportion of minori-
ty students than many
other Portland schools,
and a high percentage
“
After exploring more than
40 sites over the past three
years, we are thrilled to have
found a new and permanent
home for De La Salle North
Catholic High School
$33,00 a month — were
too steep.
In 2015 De La Sal-
le North officials ap-
proached PPS, offering
to buy the building, ne-
gotiate a 60-year lease
extension or terminate
the lease earlier than
2026. The district chose
the third option, and
three years later officials
learned the school would
be losing its lease.
“After exploring more
than 40 sites over the
past three years, we
are thrilled to have
found a new and per-
manent home for De
La Salle North Catholic
High School,” said Pat-
ti O’Mara, chair of the
board of trustees of De
La Salle North in the
school’s press release.
“The first time I visited
St. Charles Parish, I could
envision our students
filling the classrooms
of this building. We are
very grateful to establish
this long-term partner-
ship with St. Charles and
to become a vital mem-
ber of the Cully neigh-
borhood.”
By the time De La Salle
North president Oscar
Leong stepped into his
role last July, the board’s
search for a new school
site was well underway.
“I really give credit to
board chair Patti O’Mara
and the rest of the board
members to opening
their eyes about this op-
portunity,” Leong told
The Skanner.
Many of the other sites
officials looked at were
not quite right in some
way, Leong said: too
large, too small or too
far away. The new loca-
tion in the Cully neigh-
borhood is not far from
Kenton, and felt “like a
place where De La Salle
students belong.”
“The first time I actu-
ally met Leif Kehrwald,
the pastoral administra-
tor of St. Charles Parish,
of low-income students
for a private school: ac-
cording to demographic
information released by
the school, 33 percent of
De La Salle students iden-
tify as African American,
38 percent of students as
Hispanic, 10 percent as
Caucasian, 8 percent as
multiracial, 3 percent as
Asian and 8 percent as
other or unknown. More
than half qualify for free
or reduced lunch.
Eighty-nine percent of
students receive a schol-
arship to attend and 68
percent have full schol-
arships, with no student
being turned away for an
inability to pay – and al-
though students start on
average a year and a half
behind in reading and
math, a full 100 percent
are accepted to college on
graduation.
The school is also
known for its replica-
tion of the corporate
work study program pio-
neered by Chicago’s Cris-
to Rey Jesuit High School,
which allows students to
work one day a week to
partially finance the cost
of their tuition while
learning office skills and
making connections.
Leong said officials told
students Tuesday during
a senior ring ceremony
that the current senior,
junior and sophomore
classes would be the last
three to graduate out of
the current building; in
fall of 2021, De La Salle
students who are fresh-
men now will be seniors
on the St. Charles cam-
pus.
“A big cheer went up,
and it was really exciting
to hear -- really exciting
and humbling and emo-
tional,” Leong said.
The new facility will ac-
commodate 350 students,
and the school is current-
ly accepting applications
for the class of 2023. For
more information, visit
www.delasallenorth.org.
Forest Service Celebrates Scholarship Recipients
The USDA Forest Service held a reception for the recipients of The Skanner Foundation’s scholarship on March 12 in Portland. The
Skanner Foundation, in partnership with the U.S. Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Region, awards two scholarships of $1,500 each to
an eligible graduating high school senior and/or an eligible college student in the Portland/Vancouver/Seattle areas. Normally these
scholarships are awarded at The Skanner Foundation’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. Breakfast, but this year the Forest Service -- the
only federal partner with The Skanner Foundation – was not able to attend. This year’s winners were Ganiyat Karimu and Nikki Nguyen,
seniors at De La Salle North Catholic High School. Pictured here are Glenn Casamassa, Regional Forester, PNW Region (left); scholarship
recipient Ganiyat Karimu; Shoni Pilip-Florea, director, office of communications and community engagement, USDA Forest Service,
Pacific Northwest Region; scholarship recipient Nikki Nguyen; and Shandra L. Terry, regional community engagement and inclusion
programs coordinator for the USDA Forest Service.
Wade
cont’d from pg 1
‘not compliant’ with the terms
of probation, this is a space that
someone could go instead of get-
ting sanctioned to jail,” Stamp
said.
“Instead of ‘Go do five days in
“
At the Diane
Wade House,
she said, ‘The
women get to be
themselves’
jail because you’re screwing up,’
the response could be, ‘I have a
resource for you that could help
you get more stability and head
on the road towards wellness.’”
The house is largely staffed by
peers — women who have them-
selves been involved in the justice
system. Sonja Freeman, a certi-
fied recovery mentor at the Diane
Wade House, said her experience
with incarceration and in tran-
sitional housing has given her
insight into how a more cultur-
ally specific program can benefit
women of color.
“I talk loud,” Freeman said.
“I talk with my hands. I was
known as aggressive or threaten-
Arrest
cont’d from pg 1
bic slurs at him. The other Proud
Boys member hasn’t yet been ar-
rested.
A request for comment Tuesday
evening from police about the
timing of Flippo’s arrest wasn’t
immediately answered.
On Monday, Wheeler called for
“
ing when culturally
it’s different. I’m just
passionate.
That’s
how we communi-
cate. At the Diane
Wade House, we un-
derstand that. We’re
not intimidated by
that. We can read the
body language, we
know the tone.”
Freeman told The
Skanner about her Diane Wade House staff embrace a tearful client at a Feb.
own
interactions 23 community gathering for the grand opening of the Diane
with the justice sys- Wade House, a new transitional facility offering Afrocentric
tem: Separated from services for women transitioning out of the criminal justice
her family at an ear- system.
ly age, she turned to
a shared kitchen. At the Diane
drugs and alcohol to cope with Wade House, she said, “The wom-
trauma. Being biracial proved to en get to be themselves.”
be a social barrier, and she found
Freeman herself is in recovery,
that she was most accepted in cir- and explained that her work at
cles where substance abuse was Diane Wade House, specifically
prevalent.
under the mentorship of Bridg-
“I did do county time,” Freeman es to Change program manag-
said. “I was on probation one time er O’Nesha Cochran, has been
for 10 years. I had 15 convictions life-altering for her.
that I got expunged, that are now
It is also a fitting homage to the
completely off my record” as of facility’s namesake, who served
last week.
as a parole and probation officer
She recalled living in a tran- for more than a decade until her
sition home where she didn’t death in 2010.
feel comfortable enough to cook
Read more at TheSkanner.com
her favorite comfort foods in
PHOTO BY
De La Salle
PHOTO BY JERRY FOSTER
News
In what city is
it legal to en-
gage in a street
brawl?
a change to laws if they don’t allow
police officers to arrest brawlers
and vowed that anyone fighting
will not go unpunished.
Wheeler also said prosecutors
were being too timid and not en-
forcing existing law.
Wheeler mentioned an Oct.
13 fight outside a downtown bar
in which members of the right-
wing group Patriot Prayer and
left-wing Antifa used fists, batons
and even bear mace. Police were
present but did not attempt any
arrests.
Wheeler said officials in Mult-
nomah County District Attorney
Rod Underhill’s office told may-
oral aides that prosecutors could
do nothing because the law allows
for “mutual combat” between
people fighting.
“That was an unacceptable
answer for me,” Wheeler said.
“C’mon folks, we’re overcompli-
cating this. You’re not allowed to
fight on the streets of the city.”
The police department is under
scrutiny after it was revealed last
month that a lieutenant in charge
of containing protests texted re-
peatedly with the leader of Patri-
ot Prayer, detailing the movement
of a rival protest group.
Brent Weisberg, a spokesman
for Underhill, said prosecutions
are “incredibly complex” and
some elements have been over-
simplified “by individuals other
than prosecutors.”
Sometimes prosecutors cannot
determine the initial aggressor,
he said, making it legally and eth-
ically questionable to file charges.