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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 30, 2017)
WEEKEND EDITION DAWGS TAKE DOWN EAGLES NO PAIN ... LIFESTYLES/1C FOOTBALL/1B PRICE RESIGNS OVER TRAVEL NATION/9A SEPTEMBER 30-OCTOBER 1, 2017 141st Year, No. 250 $1.50 WINNER OF THE 2017 ONPA GENERAL EXCELLENCE AWARD HERMISTON Busy birds, horse sale test EOTEC facilities Board talks options for fi xing damage in barns, prepares for largest event since county fair By JADE MCDOWELL East Oregonian Staff photo by Kathy Aney Nick Berg, of the Umatilla Tribal Police, and Rachele Burke, of Lifeways, engage in a role playing exercise where an offi cer is called by a gas station owner because a woman on the premises is acting strangely. Burke displayed symptoms of mental illness, fl irt- ed heavily with Berg, insisted she would soon be a famous actress and refused to give him her name. The exercise was part of Lifeways-led Crisis Intervention Training on Friday at New Hope Church in Hermiston. CRISIS TACTICS Lifeways trains law enforcement to deal with mental, social disorders By JAYATI RAMAKRISHNAN East Oregonian What was their reality? It may seem an odd question, but as local law enforcement are learning, it can be an important one. This week, Lifeways held a Crisis Intervention Team training for police, parole and corrections personnel about the different ways mental and social disorders can manifest themselves, and how they can better deal with someone having a mental health crisis. “In the old days we would have just said, ‘He’s just a knucklehead,’” said H. O’Brien, a corrections offi cer at Two Rivers Correctional Institution, Umatilla, for the last 18 years. “Now we get to fi gure out some of the specifi c things that may be going on.” O’Brien was one of 22 people from agencies around the county who took the week-long training, which discussed how offi cers can better understand and deal with a variety of issues, including autism, personality disorders, mental illness in the elderly, de-escalation of people with psychotic disorders, suicidal subjects and addicts. Offi cers learned that a person having a mental health crisis may perceive reality differently than those around them. Staff photo by Kathy Aney Travis Stark, of the Umatilla County Sheriff’s Offi ce, acts the part of an offi cer called to a convenience store when a parent cannot get their 12-year-old autistic child to leave the store. When he and another offi cer arrive the girl (played by Saudi Ibarra, of Lifeways) is in a fetal position on the fl oor. “What we see doesn’t match up with what they see,” said Nancy Jones-Batch, a Lifeways employee. On Thursday, the trainees heard from presenters about personality disorders, and about things they might encounter with people on the autism spectrum. Jones-Batch went over the different clusters of personality disorders — suspicious, anxious, and impulsive/emotional. She talked about how law enforcement might encounter each disorder, how the person may act, and the best way for offi cers to respond. A person with antisocial personality disorder, Jones-Batch said, may be involved in anything from a minor incident to a major crime, and may be looking for high stimulation or excitement. “Your communication should be direct,” she said. “Set up options, and be simple and concise.” Alternatively, she said a person with a narcissistic personality disorder may have an infl ated sense of importance, and get angry when an offi cer doesn’t give them special treatment. “They may be over-familiar, or try to establish you as an equal,” Jones-Batch said. She advised offi cers to be calm and try to talk to the person in a way that shows the mutual benefi t of complying with their requests. Jones-Batch discussed some personality disorders that can be more violent, such as borderline personality disorder. In such a scenario, she said, a person may be angry at getting rejected or betrayed, and offi cers should speak softly and create a sense of safety for the person, while setting boundaries. Offi cers also learned about how these disorders develop. “Personality disorders are coping strategies to deal with childhood experiences,” she said. “As a result of chaos or abuse and a personality disorder, brain function is altered.” Trainees also learned about how to deal with people on the See CRISIS/12A Walden tours new BMCC facilities Congressman visits day after FARM grand opening By GEORGE PLAVEN East Oregonian One day after Blue Mountain Community College celebrated the grand opening of its new Facility for Agricultural Resource Management, U.S. Rep. Greg Walden (R-Oregon) arrived Friday in Pendleton for a tour of the latest developments on campus. Walden, who visited Boardman Foods at the Port of Morrow earlier in the morning, praised BMCC for keeping modern following the completion of three new buildings paid for by a $23 million capital construction bond in 2015 — See WALDEN/12A Staff photo by E. J. Harris Rep. Greg Walden shakes hands with BMCC sophomore Jeff Priester in the diesel technology lab on Friday in BMCC. Walden helped Priester with fi nancial paperwork that allowed him to at- tend college. The Eastern Oregon Trade and Event Center in Hermiston was not built for the birds. Yet interim manager Nate Rivera told the EOTEC board Friday that birds are pulling apart the insulation on the ceilings of the barns and nesting in it. A bid for netting to protect the insu- lation came in at $196,000 and John Eckhardt of Knerr Construction said that even lower cost options would be “well into the $160,000 range.” Board vice chair Dan Dorran ques- tioned whether the insulation’s benefi ts are worth the maintenance expense to save it. “We don’t have $10, let alone $200,000,” he said. Eckhardt said the insulation serves to eliminate condensation dripping down, reduce the sound of the wind rattling the roof and keep a cooler temperature inside the barns during the summer. Rivera said it is easy to defer maintenance projects due to initial cost, but that often means more expensive fi xes down the road. The board wanted to see what other options were out there for deterring the birds. Phil Hamm and Tim Weinke of the Hermiston Agricultural Research and Extension Center discussed dust and weed control with the board, offering up the center’s expertise on what types of vegetation could be used on the unpaved, un-irrigated parking areas to See EOTEC/12A Supreme Court case could drain Oregon unions By PARIS ACHEN Capital Bureau The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to consider striking down mandatory fees that support collective bargaining by public sector labor unions in Oregon and several other states. The justices will hear the case of Mark Janus, a child support specialist at the Illinois Department of Health- care and Family Services, who objects to paying dues to the union. A decision to strike down the law would reverse a nearly 40-year prece- dent that the court set in 1977 to permit the mandatory fees. “The case has the potential to kill public sector unionism as we know it,” said Keith Cunningham-Parmeter, a law professor at Willamette University who specializes in labor law. “Manda- tory dues are the lifeblood of most unions so if the Supreme Court says that unions can no longer collect those dues, that is going to be a serious cut to the union budgets.” A reversal would likely drain the monetary resources and activities of public sector unions in 22 states, including Oregon, where obligatory fees are legal. The other 28 states that have “right- to-work” laws that make all union dues voluntary have lower participation rates, according to research by a group of social scientists who support labor See UNION/11A
