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Saturday, April 24, 2021
East Oregonian
A9
Election: Spencer will fight for equitable education
Award: Kidney
and partial liver are
CANDIDATE PROFILES
living donations
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donations are rare in hospi-
tals the size of Good Shep-
herd, as most patients that
would be a candidate for
donation end up being
transferred to a larger
hospital for care first. Good
Shepherd’s last such dona-
tion was in 2008.
In November, however,
a Good Shepherd employee
recognized that a patient’s
organs would be able to
be donated if the patient’s
family agreed to do so
before the patient was
removed from a ventilator.
“You have to recognize
really quickly that, that
potential exists,” Thomp-
son explained, noting doing
so can be difficult in the
midst of trying to save a
life.
In an all-hands-on-deck
effort, staff from multiple
departments worked to
make arrangements and to
support the family as they
made the decision with a
chaplain and other advo-
cates by their side. Once
the decision was made,
doctors, nurses and other
staff lined the hallways in
a silent “honor walk” as
the patient was wheeled
to surgery. Director of
Acute Care Services Sara
Camden said such honor
walks are a way to show
respect for the patient and
their family.
“We know it takes cour-
age to make those deci-
sions,” she said.
Some of the staff who
participated in the honor
walk have a personal
connection to organ and
tissue donation, and know
how it can save or dramati-
cally change a life. Camden
said she is a living donor
— she gave up one of her
kidneys for her stepfather
a few years ago. And Vice
President of Nursing Brian
Patrick was overjoyed his
daughter got a call in the
middle of the night that
there was a kidney for her
and she needed to rush to
the hospital immediately.
April is Donate Life
Month, to bring awareness
to the need for organ and
tissue donations. Andrea
Vandomelen, hospital
development manager for
Pacific Northwest Trans-
plant Bank, said there are
more than 100,000 people
in the United States who
are on the waiting list for
an organ transplant, which
can mean years of waiting
— time not everyone on the
list has.
MORE
INFORMATION
For more details about
organ donation in
Oregon and Washing-
ton, or to register to be
an organ donor, visit
donatelifenw.org.
Some organs can come
from living donors, such
as a kidney or a part of
one’s liver. Tissues, such
as corneas, can be donated
in many circumstances
after a patient has already
died. But other lifesaving
organs, such as a heart or
lungs, are only available
in very specific circum-
stances — a patient must be
declared brain dead by two
different doctors but still
have healthy organs that
continue to work. Accord-
ing to the PNTB website,
less than 1% of hospital
deaths meet the criteria for
organ donation.
T he Hop e Awa rd
presented to Good Shep-
herd from PNTB is shaped
like a teardrop, represent-
ing the tears of those who
have lost a loved one and
doctors who have lost a
patient, but also the tears
of joy from transplant
recipients and their loved
ones. Recipients and donor
families are able to make
choices about whether
they would like to share or
receive information about
each other, either on an
anonymous basis passed
through a third party, or
with the intent to speak
directly and perhaps form
an ongoing relationship.
Thompson encouraged
everyone who would wish
their organs to be donated
in the event of their death to
register for the Donate Life
Northwest Donor Registry,
a legally binding authoriza-
tion. For those who aren’t
on the registry, but are a
candidate for organ dona-
tion, the decision is made
by the deceased’s next of
kin. Whether people regis-
ter or not, Thompson said
they should discuss their
wishes with their family
members now, so that their
loved ones are not blind-
sided or asked to make a
decision not knowing what
they would want.
PNTB is the feder-
ally designated transplant
bank for Oregon, Southern
Washington and Western
Idaho. In 2020, there were
523 organ donations in the
PNTB service area.
for 20 years gives him some
unique insights as he helped
connect children from around
the world with Eastern Oregon
high schools.
With the Pendleton School
District beginning to resume
full-day classes after a year-
long COVID-19 shutdown,
Thompson anticipated that
many of the students strug-
gled with the time out of the
classroom and needed to
make up for lost time.
He recalled the year his
childhood school in Douglas
County opened late because
Interstate 5 construction made
the school building inaccessi-
ble. Despite starting the school
year in October, Thompson
said the school made up for
it by holding classes six days
a week and every day that
wasn’t a holiday.
“I’m probably the only
person I’ve ever talked to
(who) went to school the day
after Thanksgiving,” he said.
Like many of the other
candidates, Harrison praised
the district for how they were
able to adapt to the pandemic,
noting that Pendleton’s
reopening plans were more
workable than some of the
others she’s seen.
Position 4
This is the first time either
Preston Eagleheart or Joey
GrosJacques have run for the
Pendleton School Board, but
both have already built up a
record of public service.
GrosJacques grew up in
Pilot Rock, and he “fell in
love” with education after he
started serving on its school
board in 2015. Getting hired
to help lead Blue Mountain
Community College’s TRiO
Student Support Services
program spurred a move to
Pendleton and cut short his
term in Pilot Rock.
But GrosJacques is ready
to get back in the saddle in
Pendleton, where he hopes
to use the same “students
first” mindset that he does at
BMCC.
An enrolled member of the
Confederated Tribes of the
Umatilla Indian Reservation,
Eagleheart is the managing
director of Cayuse Govern-
ment Services, a tribal enter-
prise that provides technology
services for city, tribal and
state governments.
Beyond his work, Eagle-
heart touted his experience
as a member of the Oregon
Native American Chamber
Board of Directors and the
Oregon STEM Investment
Council, a group charged
with working with the state
to double the percentage of
fourth and eighth graders
POSITION 1
Beth Harrison
Age: 49
Occupation: Stay-at-home
mother, volunteer and
dietician
Birthplace: Seoul, South
Korea
Years in Pendleton: 12
Highest level of education:
Master’s degree, University
of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill
Family: Married, seven
children
Rodney Thompson
Age: 79
Occupation: Retired
Birthplace: Anniston,
Alabama
Years in Pendleton: 42
Highest level of education:
Bachelor’s degree, Oregon
State University
who are proficient in math
and science, and doubling the
number of students who earn
post-secondary degrees in
STEM fields.
When either Eagleheart
or GrosJacques takes office
to fill the Position 4 seat held
by George, they’ll have to
deal with a budget that’ll be
affected by legislative nego-
tiations at a state level and is
still missing the $300,000 in
local revenue from a previous
levy, which was voted down
by Pendleton residents in May
2020.
“There’s a lot of unknowns
moving into this next fiscal
year,” Eagleheart said. “And
really understanding where
these dollars are allocated to
is going to be very important.”
For his part, GrosJacques
said he’s tracking the ongo-
ing negotiations in Salem,
noting the Oregon School
Boards Association feels like
the state’s education budget
proposal is still insufficient.
Eagleheart was arrested
on DUII charges in 2002 and
2003. Eagleheart said those
incidents were the result of
bad decisions he made in his
20s, and he felt lucky that he
didn’t hurt himself or others
at the time. He said he’s taken
steps to move past those
mistakes, and Oregon court
records show he hasn’t faced
criminal charges since 2003.
A third candidate, Chris
Garrigues, will be listed on
the ballot, but he’s no longer
seeking the seat.
At a Monday, April 19,
school board meeting, McBee
announced that Garrigues had
been hired as a math teacher
at Pendleton High School.
Because state law prohib-
its district employees serv-
ing on the same school board
Family: Married, two chil-
dren and two grandchildren
POSITION 4
Preston Eagleheart
Age: 45
Occupation: Managing
director at Cayuse Govern-
ment Services
Birthplace: Pendleton
Years in Pendleton: 40
Highest level of education:
Master’s degree, Gonzaga
University
Family: Married, four chil-
dren
Joey GrosJacques
Age: 28
Occupation: Project director
of TRIO and student support
services at Blue Mountain
Community College
Birthplace: Pendleton
Years in Pendleton: 2
where they work, Garrigues’
campaign is effectively over.
“I have heard nothing
but good things about Joey
and Preston,” he wrote in an
email. “The school district
will benefit to have either of
their voices representing the
community.”
Position 7
In the race to succeed
McBee for Position 7, both
candidates pointed to their life
experiences as inspirations for
their campaigns.
Like many students in the
Pendleton School District,
Briana Spencer said she spent
her childhood dealing with
issues like poverty, the foster
system and providing care for
younger family members.
An enrolled member of
the CTUIR and an activist
who helped organize local
Black Lives Matter protests
over summer 2020, Spencer
said a willingness to engage
in public service should be a
shared responsibility.
“I’m running to continue
that fight of improving and
providing a quality and equi-
table education for all students
and to continue ... an upward
path of providing an education
that will ensure children have
a bright future and (a) fighting
chance in society,” she said.
Gregg grew up in Wilson-
ville near Portland, and he
felt like the quality education
he received helped propel
him toward future success.
Although he chose a career in
law, Gregg said he’s the child
of an educator and a police
officer, and they helped instill
a sense of public service in
him.
With two of his three chil-
dren now moving through
the Pendleton school system
Renovations:
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Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian, File
A sign advertises COVID-19 testing at the Pendleton Con-
vention Center during a testing event sponsored by CHI
St. Anthony Hospital on Feb. 8, 2021.
COVID:
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extremely rare blood clots
in women who received the
shot.
The Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention
has launched an investi-
gation into the case of an
Oregon woman who died
two weeks after receiving
the Johnson & Johnson
vaccine. The Oregon Health
Authority does not know if
there is a causal connection
between the vaccine and the
woman’s death.
Still, The New York
Times reports federal offi-
cials appear to be inching
closer to lifting the Johnson
& Johnson moratorium as
cases of clots have remained
uncommon.
Vaccines from Pfizer-Bi-
oNTech and Moderna have
remained available through-
out the pause and thousands
of Oregonians are getting
vaccinated each day.
OHA director Patrick
Allen said, at its current
daily inoculation rate,
80% of Oregon adults
could receive a first dose of
vaccine by July 4.
“Sustaining that pace
depends on Oregonians
continuing to choose to get
vaccinated,” he said.
Oregon has reported
more than 178,000 coro-
navirus cases since the
pandemic began and 2,484
related deaths.
2018, the burden of housing
and caring for people in crisis
shifted to the jail, officials say.
Now, with the closure of
the Aspen Springs Psychiatric
Hospital in Hermiston, which
provided the county and state
with sorely needed mental
health treatment beds for
patients needing acute care,
some officials are concerned
the jail could see an even
greater influx of inmates in
crisis.
“We’ve made a crimi-
nal out of somebody who is
in crisis when they’re not a
criminal — they’re just some-
body who’s in crisis,” Shafer,
who worked for the Umatilla
County Sheriff’s Office for 18
years, said. “And now, because
of COVID and everything
else, we have a lot of people
who are in crisis, and we have
no place to take them. We
don’t have a Blue Mountain
Recovery Center or Aspen
Springs. Now, we’re relying
on this jail.”
This, officials say, places
jail staff in a difficult position.
“Law enforcement and
corrections deputies don’t
have the training or exper-
tise in treating those in crisis,”
Umatilla County Sheriff Terry
Rowan said. “That’s where the
genuine need is.”
Rowan said he would prefer
that inmates struggling with
mental health or addiction be
housed in facilities geared
specifically toward treatment.
Ben Lonergan/East Oregonian
Jail uniforms sit on shelves at the Umatilla County Jail in
Pendleton on Thursday, April 22, 2021.
“We have become a sort of
ad hoc mental health facility,”
he said. “If I had it my way, we
wouldn’t house those individ-
uals. We would find them a
local resource where they can
be housed and stabilized and
where they can get the treat-
ment that they need.”
Building new facilities
where inmates with mental
health struggles can be sepa-
rated from those incarcer-
ated for more serious offenses
could provide an answer.
“Our mission in the county
is to get the sheriff’s office out
of mental health,” Murdock
said. “We openly don’t feel the
sheriff’s office should be play-
ing such a major role in deal-
ing with mental health. And
they don’t either because that’s
not what they’re trained for.”
Years in progress
Faced with limited
resources and the chal-
lenges presented by the rural
locale, Eastern Oregon law
enforcement houses inmates
in the jail not only from
Umatilla County, but also
from Wallowa, Union and
Morrow counties, as well as
the Confederated Tribes of the
Umatilla Indian Reservation,
according to officials.
The jail also serves as a
“transfer hub for many other
correction facilities in several
western states,” according to
Murdock.
This is partly why the jail
population has increased
over time, officials say. In its
early years, the jail’s average
daily population was just 135
inmates. Today, that number
has increased to more than 230
per day, making renovations
crucial, officials said.
“Some of the infrastruc-
ture that was assumed back at
that lower population doesn’t
meet the needs of the future,”
Rowan said.
Mu rdo ck s a id t he
“expanded utilization” of
the jail has compromised its
ability to maintain safe and
secure facilities, noting the
jail was “designed to handle
far less prisoners than the
Highest level of education:
Master’s degree, Western
Governors University
Family: Single
Patrick Gregg
Age: 36
Occupation: Attorney at
Corey, Byler & Rew
Birthplace: Portland
Years in Pendleton: 12
Highest level of education:
Law degree, Willamette
University
Family: Married, three
children
Briana Spencer
Age: 30
Occupation: Computer
support technician
Birthplace: Pendleton
Years in Pendleton: 30
Highest level of education:
High school diploma
Family: Single
and his wife working as the
ASPIRE coordinator at Pend-
leton High School, Gregg felt
ready to contribute at the
board level.
One of the most persistent
aspects of the Pendleton
School District is an achieve-
ment gap between American
Indian and white students.
Whether it’s math or English
scores, graduation rates or
attendance, American Indian
students tend to perform lower
than their peers in Pendleton.
Spencer said part of the
solution could lie in a better
understanding of tribal
customs and traditions
surrounding funerals and
exercising treaty rights to
hunt, fish and gather.
But Spencer said the
district could also play a
more active role by regularly
attending meetings for the
Nixyaawii School Board, the
CTUIR Education and Train-
ing Committee or the Tribes’
Head Start Policy Council.
Gregg said the board
would need to ask the super-
intendent why there’s a gap,
and then set benchmarks to
address the issue.
“If a particular approach
isn’t working, then I think we
shouldn’t be hesitant to revisit
that approach and figure out,
‘OK, we’ve tried this, that
hasn’t helped close this gap,’”
he said.
Spencer has experience
serving on a school board,
having previously served a
term on the Nixyaawii School
Board. She was recently
elected again to the board after
spending some time away,
and if she wins the seat on the
Pendleton School Board, she
will have to choose which one
to serve on in accordance with
state law.
current load.”
“In the end, the biggest
overriding reason for the
renovation of the jail is to deal
with the fact that it isn’t able to
accommodate the number of
inmates we’re keeping there,”
Murdock said.
This makes it even more
important to keep inmates
struggling with mental health
or addiction separated from
other groups, officials say.
“It’s for their own safety,”
Rowan said. “Because the
behaviors they display are
unfavorable to others. So if
they start acting out, then it
could upset the other people
housed with that individual.
It’s a matter of safety for them
to reduce the risk of anything
like a fight breaking out or
something like that.”
Rowan said he’s optimistic
that the funding will come this
time around.
“I’m very hopeful,” he said.
“We’re ready to go. We have
bid-ready documents that we
can send out once funding
is secure. Then we’ll have a
better timeline on when we
can start and finish the proj-
ect.”
Murdock noted that
lawmakers have long been,
and remain, invested in
supporting the project.
“We’ve been working on
this for a long time,” Murdock
said. “Just when you think
you’re there, you aren’t. But
I think there are a number of
key people in Salem in the
Senate and the House who
are very supportive of our
program, understand it, and it
will, I hope, prevail.”