Page 8A
OFF PAGE ONE
East Oregonian
Wednesday, June 6, 2018
Political momentum building for family leave law
By CLAIRE WITHYCOMBE
Capital Bureau
SALEM — Advocates
are optimistic that in 2019,
Oregon could become one
of a small but growing hand-
ful of states to require some
form of paid family and
medical leave.
“We do believe 2019 is
our time,” said Lili Hoag,
political director for Family
Forward Oregon, a nonprofi t
advocacy organization.
About six months out
from the start of the 2019
legislative session, it’s not
yet clear what a specifi c pro-
posal would look like, says
House Majority Leader Jen-
nifer Williamson, D-Port-
land. But a group of advo-
cates, legislators and other
stakeholders has been meet-
ing to discuss ideas as part
of a work group focused on
issues related to developing
a paid family leave program.
“The vast majority of
Oregonians do not have
access to paid family and
medical leave. That means
too many families are forced
to make impossible choices
when it comes to caring for
a new child or a seriously ill
family member,” William-
son said Friday in a written
statement. “... Momentum
is certainly building as we
head toward the 2019 ses-
sion. It’s past time for our
policies to catch up with the
realities of how Oregonians
live and work.”
Five states pass
Photo contributed by Ben Verhoven
Peoria Gardens owner and operator Ben Verhoeven of Albany offers his year-round
employees 12 weeks of paid family leave when they become parents. He took two
weeks of paid family leave to help his wife, Kathryn Weeks, when their children,
3-year-old Thea Verhoeven and 3-month-old John Dallas Verhoeven, were born.
legislation
The federal Family and
Medical Leave Act, signed
into law in 1993 by Presi-
dent Bill Clinton, requires
certain employers to allow
employees to take up to 12
weeks of unpaid leave to
care for a new baby, adopted
or foster child, or to take
care of a sick relative. A paid
leave law would effectively
require that new parents and
those taking care of sick rel-
atives who take time off
work for those duties have
an opportunity to get com-
pensated for that leave time
in some way.
Attempts to pass paid
family leave legislation
failed this year and in 2017.
Five states — California,
New York, Rhode Island,
New Jersey and Washington
— have passed paid family
leave laws, as has Washing-
ton, D.C.
Ben Verhoeven, owner
and operator of Peoria Gar-
dens Inc., a nursery in
Albany, gave himself a
paid, two-week paternity
leave and then took some
half days when his daugh-
ter was born in 2015. After
that experience, and after his
wife started volunteering for
Family Forward, he decided
to offer 12 weeks of paid
parental leave to his year-
round employees.
“I couldn’t stand there
and applaud her while I
didn’t offer generous poli-
cies like that to our employ-
ees,” Verhoeven said. “So
we just did it, because I
could afford to take two
weeks off, but I knew there
were a lot of my employees
who couldn’t afford that, let
alone 12 weeks. That’s just
not fi nancially feasible for
many families.”
Verhoeven, who also
took two weeks off when his
son was born early this year,
has 24 year-round employ-
ees. He hires about 40 sea-
sonal workers every spring,
but doesn’t offer paid leave
to those workers, he said.
‘It’s ready to pass’
Some business groups
are wary that a state paid
family leave program could
raise costs for employers.
Jenny Dresler, director of
state public policy for the
Oregon Farm Bureau, says
many of the state’s agricul-
tural employers are already
feeling the squeeze.
The state’s minimum
wage will continue to
increase gradually during
the next several years, and a
paid sick leave law that went
into effect in 2016 requires
employers with 10 or more
employees to provide up to
40 hours of paid sick leave
per year.
“Commodity prices are
fairly low in the global and
domestic commodity mar-
kets, so you’re looking at
folks who have very lit-
tle capital left to expend
on additional programs,”
Dresler said.
If the paid family leave
proposal includes a new
tax to fund the program —
such as a payroll tax — that
would require a three-fi fths
majority vote in both the
House and the Senate.
Hoag thinks 2019 will
be different from previous
years, now that lawmak-
ers have assembled a work
group devoted to the issue
and have the long legislative
session ahead. “We believe
they have the time and
expertise and have really
worked through the details
of this bill enough that in
2019, it’s ready to pass,” she
said.
Advocates hope the pro-
gram is a benefi t run and
administered by the state,
allowing at least 12 weeks
of paid time off, and that it
covers close relationships
between people who are not
blood relatives, or “chosen
families.”
Family Forward Oregon
hosts a screening of a doc-
umentary, “Zero Weeks,”
about the lack of paid family
leave in the United States, at
Southeast Portland’s Clin-
ton Street Theater at 7 p.m.
on Tuesday, June 5. The fi lm
will be followed by a panel
discussion with Williamson,
Yee Won Chong, a racial
and transgender justice
consultant and strategist,
and Reyna Lopez, execu-
tive director of PCUN (Pin-
eros y Campesinos Unidos
del Noroeste), a Woodburn
farmworkers’ union.
BELIEVE: Nurse examiners soothe the victims
and assure them that they are safe and in control
Continued from 1A
Contributed photo by Karen Fulbright
Marie Norris displayed some of her Quilts of Valor on
Saturday during Flora School Days.
NORRIS: Driven about
creating military quilts
Continued from 1A
or no quilting experience.
The 62-year-old spent
hours upon hours happily
designing, cutting, sew-
ing, basting, quilting and
binding.
Perfection wasn’t the
object, she said. The goal,
she believed, wasn’t to
craft quilts devoid of fl aws.
“The last, but possibly
one of the most import-
ant aspects of this quilt are
the mistakes and imperfec-
tions,” Norris wrote about
one of her earlier quilts. “I
worried and fretted over
these but then realized how
important they are as they
are the human aspects.
While we may have been
made in the image of the
Good Lord, we are still
only human, and as such
we make mistakes and are
not perfect.”
Her creations contained
plenty of red, white and
blue. She gifted them to
veterans on formal occa-
sions and also during
impromptu
moments.
Often, Norris would read
out loud about the veteran’s
service and then drape the
quilt around the person’s
shoulders.
“She called it ‘wrapping
a vet,’” Webb said.
“She wrapped them
with honor, warmth and
respect,” said Annette Frye.
Norris coached Frye
during her fi rst attempt at
quilting.
“She gave me pep
talks,” Frye said. “She said,
‘You can do this.’”
According to a 2012
East Oregonian article,
Norris started quilting at
six years old, accompany-
ing her grandmother to a
quilting circle in a church
basement. Later, she cou-
pled her love of quilting
with her passion for vet-
erans. Family members,
including her father served
in the military.
Her quilter buddies
described Norris as driven
about producing her mili-
tary quilts.
“She had such a heart
for our veterans,” Frye
said.
“She was full of love for
them,” Webb said.
“And it just got stron-
ger,” said fellow quilter
Colleen Blackwood, who
added that Norris never
got political, she just loved
veterans.
In 2002, before Nor-
ris joined Quilts of Valor,
one of her quilts was fea-
tured in an international
art exhibit on display in the
home of the U.S. ambassa-
dor to Pakistan. The quilt,
which took 600 hours to
create, incorporated a col-
orful patchwork of hands
and feet. The quilt, a state-
ment against racism, sug-
gested beauty in diversity
and appeared with 50 other
works in an exhibit called
Roots of Racism: Igno-
rance and Fear.
Karen Fulbright, of Pilot
Rock, was one of the last
local quilters to see Nor-
ris since they both attended
Flora School Days. Norris,
she said, displayed a few
of her Quilts of Valor and
chatted up passersby about
the organization.
Fulbright admitted she
hadn’t known her long, but
said Norris was a woman
who motivated others.
“She was a person who
created inspiration,” Ful-
bright said.
———
Contact Kathy Aney at
kaney@eastoregonian.com
or 541-966-0810.
talk to community groups,
law enforcement agencies and
other organizations. The mes-
sage encompasses more than
rape and other forms of sexual
assault.
“It can also be bullying
and domestic violence,” Davis
said. “If somebody comes to
you about something, you start
by believing.”
At the emergency room,
the nurse examiners soothe the
victims (mostly women, but
not all) and assure them they
are safe and in control.
“When I start my exams,
not only do I tell them we
believe them, but I tell them
everything is in their control,”
Davis said. “I’m just there for
them.”
The victim can pick and
choose. If she wants forensic
evidence collected, but not to
report the crime, that’s fi ne. If
she simply wants to spill her
guts, that’s OK too. Prophy-
lactic drugs to guard against
STDs are another option, as
well as HIV testing.
“We let them be the driver,”
Stephens said.
A victim may choose to
have evidence collected, but
not report. The evidence,
labeled only with a number,
will go to the Oregon State
Police Crime Lab where it
will stay in cold storage indef-
initely. If the victim later
decides to report the assault,
the evidence will be there.
Many of the victims come
in during late night and early
morning hours, but not always.
The busiest time of year is
during the Christmas holidays.
“I’ve had some victims
who are hysterical and cry-
ing, but adamant they aren’t
going to report, but want evi-
dence collected,” Davis said.
“They’re not able to talk about
it at that moment — it’s still too
overwhelming.”
Staff photo by E.J. Harris
When a sexual assault victim is examined nurses will record as much detail as pos-
sible in the head to toe examination.
Victims often blame them-
selves, Stephens said.
“They tell themselves ‘I
liked him and thought I was
safe with him, but maybe I
shouldn’t have kissed him,’”
she said. “All of us should
have the right to go out on a
date, have a drink, kiss a boy
or kiss a girl and not feel like
we’re going to be raped.”
The nurses work closely
with the Hermiston Police
Department, especially investi-
gative detective Randy Stude-
baker. Studebaker supports the
Start by Believing effort. He
said victims often wait days,
weeks, months or years to
report sexual assault if they do
at all. The #MeToo movement
kicked off changes in thinking,
he said, and now this effort is
going along a parallel track.
“Historically, it’s not very
good how society has treated
victims,” he said. “As the prob-
lem comes out of the dark, we
develop and grow and evolve.”
He said he starts by believ-
ing when a victim comes
forward.
“False reports, while they
do happen, are exceedingly
rare,” he said.
From there he and fellow
detectives see where the evi-
dence leads. Often there isn’t
enough to convict.
“Sexual assault cases can
be incredibly challenging,” he
said. “In a lot of these cases,
only two people were present
and it happened years ago in
the dark.”
The detectives knock on
doors looking for anyone who
might have seen or heard any-
thing, comb through emails
and texts and look at phys-
ical evidence. The depart-
ment is currently working on
about a dozen cases. Most
attacks, however, will never be
reported.
“This is a societal prob-
lem,” Studebaker said. “In my
own personal life, I know peo-
ple who chose not to report.
How do you quantify that? I
don’t know. One is too many.”
Meghan Thomas, of the
National Sexual Violence
Resource Center, said the Start
by Believing effort gets peo-
ple thinking about society’s
tendency to brush off victims’
claims.
“We need to ask ourselves,
‘Why am I questioning? Why
don’t I believe?’” Thomas said.
“There is an inherent distrust
people have. It’s an uncomfort-
able subject.”
Even if victims choose not
to report, she hopes they will
fi nd someone who starts by
believing.
“Talking about it can be
really healing,” she said.
The nurses hope the Start
by Believing program will lead
to acceptance and ultimately
more reporting and convic-
tions. Convictions have the
potential to thwart additional
rapes.
“Rapists attack an aver-
age of six times,” Stephens
said. “Hopefully, if we have
an increase in reporting, we’ll
have more perpetrators off the
street.”
“One supportive response
could mean fi ve fewer vic-
tims,” Davis said. “If some-
one comes to you, start by
believing.”
———
Contact Kathy Aney at
kaney@eastoregonian.com or
541-966-0810.
LITERACY: Incoming
students are more prepared
Continued from 1A
EO fi le photo
Principal Lori Hale reads a clue for a group of kinder-
gartners on a scavenger hunt during their fi rst day
of school at the Hawthorne Early Learning Center in
Pendleton.
to try to boost pre-kindergar-
ten literacy.
Matt Yoshioka, the dis-
trict’s director of curriculum,
instruction, and assessment,
said fi rst grade teachers are
starting to notice incoming
students are more prepared
for fi rst grade than they had
been previously.
For school board member
Steve Umbarger, the data
was vindication.
“This is just the proof of
why we chose to do the early
learning center,” he said.
“It’ll be exciting to see how
this progresses on through.”
Finished in 2015, the early
learning center is a central-
ized kindergarten in addition
to offering space to Head
Start and daycare centers.
———
Contact Antonio Sierra
at asierra@eastoregonian.
com or 541-966-0836.