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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 21, 2019)
OREGON Saturday, September 21, 2019 East Oregonian A9 Bend school brings back alumni for 100th anniversary The school is Bend-La Pine’s oldest remaining school building By JACKSON HOGAN EO Media Group BEND — Patty Stell has many memories of her six years at Kenwood School in the early 1960s, but the one that stands out was the day she brought a goat for show and tell. She walked the goat into the Kenwood courtyard, where it stayed for students to gawk at and interact with all day long. “It was kind of like having a small part of a petting zoo,” recalled Stell, 64, laughing. Kenwood — known as Highland Magnet at Ken- wood School — is turning 100 this fall, marking a cen- tury’s worth of memories for many who grew up in its hall- ways and classrooms. The brick building on Newport Avenue welcomed its fi rst students in the fall of 1919, when Bend’s population was about 5,400, according to the U.S. Census. Although he didn’t grow up in Bend, Kenwood Prin- cipal Brian Kissell said he understands that his job requires him to not only oversee daily operations, but also to serve as a steward for Bend-La Pine’s oldest school. “In a positive way, I feel a lot of pressure to have that really good experience for people to come back and visit their old stomping grounds,” he said. “It’s not something I’ve taken lightly since I’ve been here.” Simply mentioning that he’s the principal of Ken- wood in conversation can make about 25% to 30% of people in Bend suddenly start sharing memories of the school, Kissell said. “It’s not your typical school, where I can have that many people all around town, or even outside of town, have a good chance of them hav- ing some connection to this building,” he said. When walking through the hallways of Kenwood School, it’s hard to tell that the building was built a cen- tury ago. But even after an exten- sive, $4 million remodel of Kenwood in 2015 put a clean, sleek sheen on the school’s hallways and class- rooms, there are plenty of quirks intact from its his- tory. Right by the front entrance, a metal radiator from the 1940s remains for nostalgic reasons, although it no longer works. And all the classrooms that were part of the initial 1919 structure have their origi- EO Media Group Photo/Ryan Brennecke Brian Kissell, principal at Highland Magnet at Kenwood School, reads a newspaper clipping from the 1940s while reviewing poster boards created for the school’s 90th anni- versary on Wednesday. Several of the poster boards will be on display during a 100th anniversary celebration for the school on Saturday. nal wood fl oors, with vis- ible marks and stains from decades-old desks. Larry Blanton, the for- mer Deschutes County sher- iff who works for the Bend construction fi rm Kirby Nagelhout, attended Ken- wood from fourth through sixth grades in the late 1960s. Every day, he walked to and from Kenwood from his home on Columbia Street, lugging his trombone with him, he said. “It was three or four blocks away, but at that age, it felt like the proverbial uphill both ways,” said Blanton, 62. For fi fth and sixth grades, Blanton was taught by Jack Ensworth, who would later be named National Teacher of the Year in 1973. Blanton said Ensworth taught him and his classmates many skills outside the typical aca- demic subjects, such as fl y fi shing and American Sign Language. “I’m a little rusty on it right now, but I certainly used it in my law enforce- ment career,” Blanton said of learning sign language. Redmond resident Phil- amena White, 45, said she remembers running around Kenwood’s gym as a fi fth- grader in the mid-1980s while the hit song “Eye of the Tiger” was playing. Stell, who served as Bend’s city recorder later in life, said although typically, she walked home for lunch every day, on occasions when her mother wasn’t home, she got to eat at Kenwood’s caf- eteria. She said those occa- sions were “a treat.” “They had the most won- derful dinner rolls in the whole world,” she said. “It’s still hard to fi nd any that compares.” Kenwood’s students also lived through historic Amer- ican moments. White said her fi fth-grade class took a fi eld trip to Central Oregon Community College to see Geraldine Ferraro, the fi rst woman to run as vice pres- ident from a major party in 1984. Ferraro was stumping for her running mate, Walter Mondale. Stell said that one day in fourth grade, a student came back from the offi ce and informed the class that President John F. Kennedy had been shot. She said her teacher began to get teary- eyed, and soon, a voice on the school intercom told the stu- dents to pack up their things and go home. All the students walked home “with purpose” and didn’t play around like on most days, Stell said. Stell said she was con- fused that day, because she had always mixed up Ken- nedy and her principal, Henry Hall. “I thought Mr. Hall had been killed, and I was very upset,” she said. “He wasn’t, of course.” When the roof of Ken- wood’s gym collapsed due to heavy snowfall in 2017, more memories surfaced for Ken- wood’s alumni. Because his new company Kirby Nagel- hout was tasked with tearing down and rebuilding Ken- wood’s gym, Blanton said it was an unusual feeling, see- ing his old stomping grounds in disarray. “I remember standing at the edge of the founda- tion, looking into what used to be the basement,” he said. “Quite a number of peo- ple had gathered around; it wasn’t a good time for a lot of people.” On Saturday, Kenwood will host an open house from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. for commu- nity members to reminisce. Kissell said visitors will see “memory boards” in each classroom, where people can write notes about their expe- rience at the school. When walking through Ensworth’s former class- room, Kissell noted that its wood fl oor was ragged and patched up with old putty. He chuckled at how the authen- tically worn surface had become trendy. “People pay to have this put into their homes now,” Kissell said. “It’s just here.” Group seeking to decriminalize drugs in Oregon Portland research shows vaping illness may not be new By JEFF MAPES Oregon Public Broadcasting PORTLAND — An infl uential national group that has led the way on can- nabis legalization around the country is looking at asking Oregon voters to decrimi- nalize the possession of all illegal drugs. The Drug Policy Alli- ance, which has received major funding from billion- aire investor George Soros, has fi led a proposed initia- tive for the 2020 ballot and hired a team of political con- sultants in Oregon. Matt Sutton, the spokes- man for the New York-based alliance, said his group has not decided whether to move forward on the mea- sure, known as Initiative Petition 44. “We’re really just assess- ing the situation,” said Sut- ton, adding that the group is looking at “how we can move away from a system of criminalization to a more health-centered approach.” Sutton said his group is also looking at similar mea- sures in other states that he declined to name. Oregon has long been a leader in lowering pen- alties for illegal drugs. In 1973, it was the fi rst state to decriminalize the pos- session of small amounts of marijuana, making the pen- alty a fi ne equivalent to a traffi c ticket. And in 2014, it was third to fully legalize the drug, behind only Wash- ington and Colorado. Since, the state has low- ered several penalties for possession of illegal drugs. But treating possession of drugs, such as heroin or methamphetamine, as a minor noncriminal violation could spark a fi erce political debate. “Decriminalizing all drug possession would be an extremely reckless move,” said Washington County District Attorney Kevin Barton. While seeking to decrim- inalize drug use, the alli- ance’s ballot measure would require the state to make major increases in fund- ing for drug addiction treat- ment in Oregon. The state would have to pump at least $57 million in the fi rst year into treatment, with the amount growing each year thereafter. The money would chiefl y come from taxes on mari- juana sales, which are pro- jected to produce about $120 million a year for the state. Additional money would be redirected from savings on prosecution and incarcera- tion costs. Janie Gullickson, the executive director of the Mental Health and Addic- tion Association of Oregon and one of the chief spon- sors of the initiative, said that Oregon is among one of the worst states in the coun- try in terms of providing access to drug treatment. “The wait list to get treat- ment is months long, and in some rural counties, there is practically no treatment at all,” Gullickson wrote in an email. At the same time, the initiative has worried some treatment groups. Mike Marshall is the director of Oregon Recov- ers, a coalition of provider groups pushing the state to upgrade its addiction treat- ment programs. He said he plans to hold a community meeting next month to dis- cuss the initiative’s fl aws. He said he sympathizes with the group’s goals but calls the measure “too little, too soon and too dangerous.” Marshall said legislators, state offi cials and health care providers are working on plans to upgrade treat- ment programs and bet- ter tie them into the overall health care system. He said the measure’s treatment goals are not well thought out. And he said it doesn’t provide an alterna- tive way of channeling peo- ple into treatment that often occurs when addicted drug users are forced into the legal system. Barton, the Washington County district attorney, said that’s one of his major concerns. “If we completely decriminalize drugs, there will be a whole host of peo- ple that will not get the treat- ment that they need,” he said, adding that many of these are “more dangerous and more addictive drugs.” Peter Zuckerman, a communications consul- tant working on the pro- posed ballot initiative, wrote in an email that the cur- rent approach to drugs has failed. “We need to start treating addiction as a health issue, not something we crimi- nally punish people for,” he said. “Criminalizing drugs disproportionately harms poor people and people of color, and punishing peo- ple who are suffering from drug addiction ruins lives, is more expensive and less effective than treatment.” Zuckerman said he is working with two longtime Oregon political consul- tants, Mark Wiener and Liz Kaufman. All three worked on the successful 2014 cam- paign to legalize recre- ational cannabis in Oregon. The political arm of the Drug Policy Alliance con- tributed about $1.7 million of the $4 million campaign waged to pass that bal- lot measure. The alliance played a key role in similar pro-cannabis efforts around the country. Polls show voters around the country support mari- juana legalization by strong majorities, and many social justice groups argue that criminalizing drug use has been devastating to many minority communities. The opioid addiction crisis, which has hit many rural areas hard, has also spurred a rethinking of how to han- dle illegal drug use. By KRISTIAN FODEN-VENCIL Oregon Public Broadcasting PORTLAND — In 2011, Cathy Markin, a lung doc- tor at Legacy Good Samar- itan Hospital in Portland, had a 42-year-old patient who came to her with seri- ous breathing problems. She had suffered from a cough and a fever. She had also vaped for about seven months. Markin looked at the fl uid in the patient’s lungs and diagnosed lipoid pneu- monia. That’s the appear- ance of oil in the lungs. Reg- ular pneumonia is mucus in the lungs. Markin suggested she stop vaping, and her lungs cleared up. She wrote an article on the case, which appeared in CHEST, a pub- lication for the American College of Chest Physicians. Markin said she had another case three years ago, so she’s not sure what’s new with this recent outbreak. “I think part of it is that more people are vaping. More physicians are rec- ognizing that vaping could be playing a role in unex- plained respiratory failure. But I also think that there’s something different going on out there. We wouldn’t see this cluster of cases unless there was some- thing that was changing out there,” Markin said. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is not ruling out contaminants. It just activated an Emer- gency Operations Center to continue investigations into 380 cases across 36 states. The Food and Drug Administration is testing more than 100 samples from those states, and has not ruled out problems linked to contaminants, such as THC, Vitamin E acetate, nicotine, diluting agents, cannabi- noids, additives, pesticides and poisons. Oregon Health Author- ity offi cials said the agency is still investigating cases in the state to determine the cause of the latest illnesses. ’s Annual Heritage Luncheon “ A Right Yorkshire Lass: Fannie Kay Bishop and the Founding of Pendleton Woolen Mill ” Guest Speaker John Bishop Sat rday October 5, 2019 12pm-2pm Pendleton Convention Center Sponsored by the “Pendleton Insurance Center” ABC’S OF MEDICARE Helping you through the Medicare Maze October 1st, 2019 Heritage Luncheon 2019 tickets UCHS Members/ $50 General admission/ $55 Purchase tickets in advance at Heritage Station Museum or call 541-276-0012. Ticket price includes a catered lunch from CG Catering. The Saddle Restaurant. (We’ll buy the coffee!) Session one @ 9am and Session two at 4:30pm Looking for a fun, no-pressure way to learn more about Medicare? Join us at an upcoming event. We’ll answer any question you have about Medicare. Do you have the right plan for you? Even if you already have a plan, there are many different options to fi t your needs and budget Terry Becktold • Sr Health Care Specialist 541-276-0367 • terry@pendletoninsurancecenter.com Sponsored by:
