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East Oregonian
Tuesday, March 16, 2021
School: ‘I think gradual approaches are appropriate’
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considering reducing required
distancing in schools from 6
feet to 3 feet, which would
allow students to get more
hours of in-person instruc-
tion.
However, Dean Sidelinger,
Oregon’s epidemiologist,
said the state would only
do so in a gradual manner,
and on Monday, March 15,
the Oregon Department of
Education’s newest guide-
lines for schools stuck with
the 6 foot rule.
“I think gradual
approaches are appropriate,”
said Josh Goller, board chair
for the Hermiston School
District. “But at the same
time, waiting until the fall to
get to a full day of school is
not appropriate.”
Federal officials in recent
weeks have urged schools
nationally to bring students
back to the classroom, citing
statistics showing it is safe
to do so if health and safety
guidelines, like mask wear-
ing and physical distancing,
are consistently maintained
in both the school and the
broader community.
Goller said he believes
that, by maintaining health
and safety guidelines, schools
can be open on a bigger scale
Bryce Dole/East Oregonian
A group of parents, teachers and students hold signs along West Highland Avenue in Hermiston on Saturday, March 13, 2021,
during a rally in favor of a full return to in-person schooling.
sooner rather than later.
“Is there potential risk
involved? Perhaps,” Goller
said. “But a slightly reduced
physical distancing, combined
with masks and cohorts that
are perhaps a little bit larger to
facilitate more student move-
ment in the building, those
sorts of things” can keep
schools safe.
Amy Robinson, a teacher
in Umatilla who is married
to Shane, said several of
her students who take
care of their siblings are
“failing miserably.”
“We’re sending kids out
into the world who are miss-
ing a year to a year and a half
of school, and that’s just not
OK,” she said.
Robinson said some of her
students struggle with mental
Redistricting: ‘A robust debate’ Data:
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detailed Oregon data by
April 1 of the following year.
Lawmakers have until the end
of their session on July 1 to get
maps of 30 Senate, 60 House
and either five or six congres-
sional districts to the governor.
If they can’t agree on a
redistricting plan, the secre-
tary of state takes over the
mapmaking with an Aug. 15
deadline.
But these are not normal
times.
COVID-19 crippled the
census count. The Legislature
received no data. No maps are
being drawn for the governor.
There’s no dispute for the
secretary of state to resolve.
The census officials in
Washington, D.C., have been
saying sorry for months. But
given all the upheaval in their
work, they now say data to
draw districts won’t get to
Oregon until Sept. 30. That
is six months late, and well
beyond constitutional and
statutory deadlines.
To employ an overused
term during the current
pandemic, the situation is
“unprecedented.” Transla-
tion: Nobody knows what to
do because it’s never been
done before.
Adding to the drama: The
official population numbers
are expected to earn Oregon
a sixth congressional seat,
its first in 40 years. The new
district will have to be shoe-
horned into the existing
congressional map.
Proposing a ‘back to
the future’ solution
The Legislature has a
“back to the future” solu-
tion. It’s asking the Oregon
Supreme Court to set the
deadlines aside, reset the
clock, and give lawmakers
another shot at redistricting
when the data arrives in the
fall. A special session of the
Legislature would meet to
approve the work.
Secretary of State Shemia
Fagan supports the idea.
The Legislature wants
up to 90 days after the data
arrives to create the maps.
Fagan does not support that
timeline.
Pushing redistricting into
December would be cutting
things close, Fagan has said.
Any hitch and there could be
no maps when candidates are
supposed to start filing for the
offices in January 2022. As the
state’s official election referee,
she might have to step in.
House Speaker Tina Kotek,
D-Portland, and Senate Pres-
ident Peter Courtney, D-Sa-
lem, filed a petition with the
Oregon Supreme Court this
week to stop Fagan from
drawing her own maps.
Fagan wants the Legisla-
ture to draw districts using
alternative data to the U.S.
Census. The Oregon Constitu-
tion doesn’t explicitly demand
redistricting be done with the
census numbers.
But it always has used the
census, lawmakers say. Doing
things differently than how its
been done for more than a
century would be a surefire
way to tangle with federal
courts wanting to ensure
Oregon was following civil
rights and voting rights laws.
While the court sifts
through the paperwork, the
Legislature is planning/
hoping/praying the Oregon
Supreme Court will pick its
solution. A way to move things
along in advance would be to
hold the 10 required hearings
— two in each of the current
five congressional districts.
Which brings things back
to COVID-19. The usual
“road trip” of lawmakers to
districts to hear from voters
aren’t happening this year
because of COVID-19. All 10
redistricting hearings will be
virtual.
Congressional District
2 covers a lot of
territory
The Wednesday, March
10, hearing was Congres-
sional District 2, a nearly
70,000-square-mile expanse
that share borders with Cali-
fornia, Nevada, Idaho and
Washington. Anyone living
east of the Cascades, plus a
chunk of the southwest part
of the state, lives in the 2nd
District.
All four of the other
congressional districts are
represented by Democrats.
The 2nd is solidly Republican,
with freshman U.S. Rep. Cliff
Bentz, R-Ontario, in the seat.
The hearing would require
something of a technical mira-
cle. Video testimony expected
from Wallowa County, Bend,
Medford, Klamath Falls, and
several other spots in the
district taxed the Legislature’s
internet capabilities. Balky
phone lines, echoing micro-
phones, stuck mute buttons
and more led to frequent silent
spots. Many of the people who
signed up to testify either
couldn’t get through or gave
up prior to their turn in the
queue.
Two who signed up
discovered they lived in other
congressional districts.
For over an hour, the
committee heard three main
themes: The district was much
too large, it included different
communities with different
identities and, in the case of
Malheur County, a completely
different time zone.
Finally, the desires of
people in the district were too
often ignored in the capitals of
Washington and Salem. How
they were ignored depended
on each testimonial.
In a written statement,
Umatilla County Commis-
sioner George Murdock struck
a note between hope and resig-
nation over the likely outcome
of the process.
“My greatest concern
is that our district could be
gerrymandered in order to
further diminish representa-
tion for a portion of Oregon
that reflects ideology, values,
and interests much differ-
ent than the remainder of
Oregon,” Murdock said.
New districts
should make sense
geographically
New districts should
“geographically make sense”
to retain an Eastern Oregon
voice in Washington and
Salem.
“If Oregon gets a new seat,
we are not naive enough to
expect more representation for
Eastern Oregon, but we would
like to retain what we have,”
Murdock said.
Todd Nash of Enterprise
said it would be difficult to
draw political maps with so
little population to pool into
a district.
“We have about 320 acres
per person,” he said.
Craig Martell, of Baker
City, said proximity and high-
way connections should guide
the grouping of communities
in districts.
“Baker City and La
Grande, only 44 miles apart
on Interstate 84, belong in
the same district,” he wrote.
“As lines are currently
drawn, Senate District 30 is
a grotesque gerrymandered
monstrosity.”
‘A robust debate’
Resolutions have been
introduced in the Legisla-
ture to move to a commis-
sion like those already used
in California and several
other states. Several speak-
ers endorsed such a plan. But
even if approved by the House
and Senate, the change to the
state constitution would need
voter approval. Any change
wouldn’t occur until the 2031
redistricting.
Joanne Mina, volunteer
coordinator for the Latino
Community Association,
based in Bend, said it was
important for lawmakers to
make sure that the census
numbers were a complete
count.
“The Latinx population
has grown from a few thou-
sands in the ‘90s to over
20,000 strong across all of
Central Oregon — our region
is united by commerce,
culture and values,” she said.
“Central Oregon is not what
it used to be, we are more
vibrant, enriched and bold
because of all the people that
make up our community.”
At the end of the evening,
Salinas, chair of the House
committee, said the gather-
ing of so many people from
so many places had been time
well spent.
“A robust debate,” she said.
The committee will hold a
second hearing on Saturday,
March 20, at 1 p.m.
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and infection rates based on
traits like age, gender, race
and ethnicity.
A common trend
Similar disparities have
been reported in Morrow
County, where Hispanic
residents have accounted for
nearly 57% of the county’s
1,053 total coronavirus cases,
according to data provided
by county officials on Friday,
March 12. And of the coun-
ty’s 14 reported deaths, six
were reported from Hispanic
residents.
Approximately 38% of
Morrow County’s population
is Hispanic or Latino, accord-
ing to 2019 U.S. Census data.
Hispanic residents make
up a sizable portion of both
Umatilla and Morrow coun-
ties’ essential workforce, offi-
cials from both counties say,
often working in food facto-
ries and other large agricul-
tural industries where they
are at increased risk of infec-
tion, and in some cases going
home to multi-generational
households afterward.
“They were hit hard by
this,” Joe Fiumara, Umatilla
County’s public health direc-
tor, said of the pandem-
ic’s impact on the Hispanic
community. “Whether we
didn’t get messaging to
them, whether they (had
to) come into work because
they needed a paycheck
or couldn’t do the work
remotely — I think all of
those things play into that.
And I think this data supports
those assumptions.”
Since the early months of
the pandemic, national data
has shown that Black and
Latino people are infected,
hospitalized and die from
COVID-19 at especially
high rates. The disparities
spanned across the country in
hundreds of urban, suburban
and rural areas and counties,
and in all age groups, accord-
ing to the New York Times.
Researchers point to
socioeconomic status,
unequal access to health care,
and workplace exposures in
frontline, essential and crit-
ical infrastructure jobs as
factors contributing to such
disparities.
In September 2020,
Hispanic and Latino people
had a disproportionate rate of
infection in 45 states and the
District of Columbia, accord-
ing to an analysis of national
coronavirus data from NPR.
Today, Hispanics and
Latinos are 1.3 times more
likely to contract COVID-19
than White or non-Hispanic
people, according to the
Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention. The popula-
tion is also more than twice as
likely to be hospitalized and
more than three times more
likely to die from COVID-
19 than White or non-His-
health problems, and when
hybrid classes began last week
in Umatilla, it was clear that
staying at home had made
them more socially awkward.
“The reason kids show
up is because of the connec-
tion with others,” said Tricia
panic people, according to
the C.D.C.
Hispanic Oregonians
have accounted for 34% of
all coronavirus cases since
the pandemic began, despite
making up just 13% of the
state’s population, accord-
ing to data from the Oregon
Health Authority as of March
10, 2021.
In Umatilla County,
Hispanic residents were
hospitalized with COVID-19
at a higher rate than non-His-
panic residents, but reported
fewer hospitalizations overall
in 2020, the data shows.
For reported COVID-re-
lated deaths in 2020, 10 were
from Hispanic residents in
Umatilla County, seven less
than non-Hispanic residents,
though 36 reported deaths
came from residents whose
ethnicity was unknown, the
data shows.
Working conditions
drive summer surge
The new data shows that
residents reporting their
ethnicity as Hispanic had the
greatest number of Umatilla
County’s cases in every
month from April through
August 2020.
The greatest dispar-
ity came in July, when the
county reported 1,435 cases,
more than any month in 2020.
In that month — a month
where Umatilla County
became the epicenter of high
infection rates in Oregon —
Hispanic residents accounted
for more than half of the
county’s cases.
Working conditions were
a major part of what drove
the summer COVID-19
surge in the county, Fiumara
said, adding that many of the
cases were traced back to
outbreaks in workplaces like
food processing plants.
In July, Hispanic residents
tested positive at a rate nearly
four-and-a-half times higher
than non-Hispanic residents,
the data shows.
Many of those cases were
reported in the 97838 ZIP
code that encompasses the
city of Hermiston, Fiumara
said. The area reported the
most COVID-19 cases in
2020, and more than twice
as many as Pendleton’s ZIP
code, which had the second
most, according to the report.
“When we look at where a
lot of our industry that was hit
hard by this is at, a lot of our
food processing, a lot of our
agricultural workers, a lot of
that falls into that ZIP code,”
Fiumara said.
Cases declined in the late
summer and early fall, but
rose again through Novem-
ber and December 2020.
At that time, more cases
were coming from social
gatherings around the holi-
days rather than workplace
outbreaks, and many of those
cases were reported in the
Pendleton area, Fiumara said.
“It was really (spreading)
in different circles,” he said.
“The summer wave seems to
Mooney, Hermiston School
District Superintendent, who
attended the rally. “That’s
where we’re hurting the most
is the connection with each
other, with the school, with
the community.”
Last week, Oregon Gov.
Kate Brown announced in
a press conference that she
was ordering public schools
to reopen by mid-April. That
announcement, however,
didn’t change plans for some
Umatilla County school
districts like Pendleton, where
K-5 students had returned to
hybrid schooling and plans
were already made to bring
back middle and high school
students soon thereafter.
Hermiston’s K-5 students
have already started hybrid
classes, and middle school-
ers and high schoolers will
soon join them in the coming
weeks. Mooney said the
school district has imple-
mented a variety of health
and safety protocols and sani-
tation services that will allow
students to return to classes
safely.
“For all of our kids, there’s
a limit to how you can inter-
act on Zoom,” she said. “The
conversations aren’t the same.
The kids’ interactions aren’t
the same. The interactions
with teachers aren’t the same.”
have heavily hit the frontline
agricultural food processing
worker. The November time
frame was more about the
family gathering piece.”
In October through
December, residents report-
ing non-Hispanic ethnic-
ity had the greatest number
of total COVID-19 cases,
though in every month of
2020, the county’s Hispanic
population tested positive at
a higher rate, the data shows.
Disclosing the data
County officials and
leadership have for months
said that Umatilla County’s
Hispanic and Latino popula-
tion had been hit especially
hard by the pandemic, but
were reluctant to publish
data showing this, fear-
ing the totals would create
a stigma, even as counties
across Oregon and the U.S.
had already begun doing so.
Morrow County released
data showing the pandemic’s
toll on its Hispanic commu-
nity in a public meeting in
January.
“There was already some
east county versus west
county finger pointing, and
if some of these numbers
were put out and it was so
black and white like this, it
was really going to do more
to inflate that as opposed
to helping solve anything,”
Fiumara said of the health
department’s initial reluc-
tance to publish the data.
The health department
chose to release the data now
in an in-depth report to allow
residents to see for them-
selves how the pandemic
impacted the county, officials
said. The report can be found
on the county health depart-
ment’s website.
Garcia said he remains
concerned that the data is
now public.
“Think about all the hate
crimes we’re seeing against
Asian’’ people, Garcia
said. In some areas of the
country, Asian Americans
have experienced higher
rates of violence during the
pandemic, which some crit-
ics say was fueled by racist
comments from former Pres-
ident Donald J. Trump, who
called the coronavirus “the
China virus” or the “Kung
Flu.”
“It might get to that point
here in Umatilla, where
people are pointing the finger
at you,” Garcia said.
Regardless, Garcia said
he is glad the data has been
published. He hopes that,
with the information out
there, it could encourage
people or organizations
to reach out and help his
community.
“It serves two ways,”
Garcia said of the new
data. “We might have some
people with racial biases,
like a stigma, but at the same
time, it’ll be good for the
experts to say, ‘Let’s focus
our resources on Umatilla
County and let’s get it done.’”