A8
LOCAL/REGIONAL
Wallowa County Chieftain
Wednesday, May 19, 2021
Joseph Charter students
question Sen. Ron Wyden
By RONALD BOND
Wallowa County Chieftain
JOSEPH — Views
on education, the current
unrest in the Middle East,
the U.S. Capitol attack
and taxes were all among
questions Joseph Charter
School students asked U.S.
Sen. Ron Wyden during a
“Listening to the Future”
Zoom call Monday, May
17.
The afternoon vir-
tual meeting gave sev-
enth through 12th graders
at JCS an opportunity to
inquire of the Democratic
senator and chairman of
the Committee on Finance
anything they wanted.
One seventh-grade stu-
dent asked Wyden about
his thoughts on the U.S.
Capitol attack on Jan. 6.
The senior senator from
Oregon called it “horren-
dous,” and said his ﬁ rst
thought on it was that the
attack was something one
would hear about happen-
ing in other countries, but
not America.
“This was, in my opin-
ion, domestic terrorism,
because domestic terror-
ism is when you are will-
ing to resort to violence
to obtain a political objec-
tive,” he said. “In our coun-
try, the Founding Fathers
said absolutely peace-
ful protest, but violence
is absolutely out. That
applies in Portland, Ore-
gon, that applies in Wash-
ington, D.C. that applies
in rural communities. Vio-
lence, out.”
He was also asked about
education, and talked about
both the cost of it and
addressed a question about
trade schools. He brought
up a bill he has proposed,
the Retirement Parity for
Student Loans Act (though
he didn’t state it by name)
that would give employers
an option to pay into their
employees’
retirement
plans an amount equal to a
percentage of that employ-
ee’s monthly student loan
payment.
He was also asked why
education seems geared
more toward college rather
than trade school, and said
he is working to change
that.
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“I am spending a lot
of time trying to reimag-
ine education,” he said.
“A lot of trade schools are
a much better ﬁ t for a lot
of students. They can see
there is a path to a job that
pays good wages. For a lot
of young people, you may
decide you want to pursue
a trade.”
He said part of that
would be aided by compa-
nies coming into schools to
discuss their trades.
Sophomore
Maleah
Murray asked Wyden
where he stood in the
Israel/Palestine conﬂ ict,
which has heated up again
in recent weeks.
Wyden said in his opin-
ion, the best option is a
two-state solution.
“Right now we gotta
have a case ﬁ re. The Biden
people should be hip deep
in the middle of trying to
tell people ‘We gotta work
together,’” he said. “This is
doing enormous damage to
everyone in the region.”
He also was asked about
what employers should do
given the challenges hiring
employees — even with a
high number of job open-
ings — with the student
citing current unemploy-
ment beneﬁ t levels as part
of the reason people aren’t
going back to work.
Wyden said he is intend-
ing to soon introduce leg-
islation that would have
unemployment
beneﬁ ts
linked to the unemploy-
ment rate, that bring the
amount of beneﬁ ts down
as the rate decreased, and
vise versa.
“I think the fair
approach for employers
and for workers is let’s
make future beneﬁ ts tied to
real life unemployment in
our communities,” he said.
“That is the kind of thing
that I think is a winning
strategy.”
And when asked what
a citizen who is too young
to vote can do to get heard,
he said what was happen-
ing Monday in the students
talking to their senator was
an example of a step to
take.
“The fact you are par-
ticipating today is a way
to hold elected oﬃ cials
accountable,” he said.
Kathy Aney/East Oregonian, File
Seventeen-year-old Weston-McEwen senior Bailey Munck testiﬁ es remotely from Pendleton on March 25, 2021, for Senate Bill
649, known as Bailey’s Bill. The bill increases penalties for criminal sexual contact with an underage victim when the defendant
is the victim’s teacher.
Rarely used House rule saves Bailey’s Bill
By KATHY ANEY
East Oregonian
SALEM — Members of
the House Judiciary Com-
mittee dusted oﬀ a sel-
dom-used rule last week to
force a hearing for Bailey’s
Bill.
Oﬃ cially named Sen-
ate Bill 649, Bailey’s Bill
increases
penalties
for
criminal sexual contact
with an underage victim
if the oﬀ ender is the vic-
tim’s teacher. Currently, a
coach convicted of sexual
abuse in the third degree
receives harsher penal-
ties than a teacher who
commits the exact same
crime. The legislation is
named for Weston-McE-
wen High School student
Bailey Munck, who testi-
ﬁ ed on March 25 to the Ore-
gon Senate’s judiciary com-
mittee, telling of sexual
abuse in 2019 during a vol-
leyball road trip by Andrew
DeYoe, an English teacher
and scorekeeper for the vol-
leyball team.
Sen. Bill Hansell, R-Ath-
ena, and Sen. Kathleen Tay-
lor, D-Milwaukie, intro-
duced and shepherded
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the bill through the Sen-
ate. Members of the Senate
Judiciary Committee voted
unanimously to send the bill
to the full Senate, where it
was passed without opposi-
tion. The bill then headed to
the House, where it seemed a
legislative slam dunk.
Last week, however, com-
mittee Chairwoman Rep.
Janelle Bynum, D-Clack-
amas, indicated she likely
wouldn’t be scheduling a
hearing for the bill, essen-
tially stopping its progress.
nville police chief, said he
knew about the rule because
he studied the rulebook
the same way he studied
the criminal code as a law
enforcement oﬃ cer.
“It’s in my nature to get a
feel for what’s out there,” he
said.
Noble said committee
members tried other strat-
egies ﬁ rst. When eﬀ orts to
urge Bynum to schedule a
hearing failed, they ﬁ nally
resorted to House Rule 8.20.
Noble said all nine mem-
“PEOPLE WHO WE ENTRUST WITH OUR YOUTH
MUST BE HELD TO A HIGHER STANDARD.”
— Rep. Ron Noble, R-McMinnville
The deadline was Friday,
May 14.
So on Wednesday, May
12, Hansell feared the worst,
but by the end of the day his
worry had whipsawed to
jubilation. Rep. Ron Noble,
R-McMinnville,
called
to say that the nine mem-
bers of the judicial commit-
tee had invoked House Rule
8.20 that says if a major-
ity of committee members
request a hearing in writing,
the chairman must schedule
a hearing within ﬁ ve days.
“Every single Republican
and Democrat on the com-
mittee signed a letter request-
ing a hearing,” Hansell said.
“It’s scheduled for (Tuesday,
May 18).”
Chief House Clerk Tim
Sekerak mused that he had
never seen the rule invoked
in his almost 10 years at
the Oregon Capitol. He said
Deputy Chief Clerk Obie
Rutledge has worked there
since the early 2000s and
also doesn’t remember the
rule being used.
“This is an extremely rare
occurrence,” Sekerak said.
“When this many members
of a committee want to do
something, the chair usually
works something out.”
Noble, a former McMin-
bers simply thought the bill
deserved to be considered.
“People who we entrust
with our youth must be held
to a higher standard,” he
said. “They have to be held
accountable.”
Tactics kept bill stalled
Rep.
Bobby
Levy,
R-Echo, who is shepherd-
ing the bill on the House
side, felt relief when the bill
became unstuck. Bynum had
stopped by Levy’s desk to let
her know the bill was mov-
ing again.
Levy said she had com-
municated with Bynum
about her reasons for hold-
ing up the bill, but said, “I’m
going to let her speak for
herself.”
Bynum told Oregonian
reporter Chris Lehman that
she is frustrated about legis-
lation designed to dial back
the eﬀ ects of Measure 11
that is stalled. She expressed
no reservations about Bai-
ley’s Bill, but seemed to be
using it as a bargaining chip.
“I don’t have any prob-
lems with the bill itself,” she
told the Oregonian. “I just
have a problem with pick-
ing and choosing who gets
justice.”
Levy is all in. She hopes
to meet Munck, now 17, and
tell her how proud of her she
is.
“It’s criminally wrong
that teachers aren’t held to
the same high standard as
coaches,” she said. “Chil-
dren are our greatest assets
and we need to protect
them.”
Levy planned to testify
May 18, along with Hansell,
Munck and others.
While testifying remotely
to the Senate Judiciary Com-
mittee of the Oregon Legis-
lature in March, the teenager
was direct.
“What is the signiﬁ cant
diﬀ erence between a teacher
and a coach? Do coaches
somehow carry more author-
ity than a teacher might?” she
asked the senators. “Coaches
and teachers should be pros-
ecuted equally as they both
have responsibility for stu-
dents’ safety and they both
have positions of author-
ity and power over their stu-
dents and players.”
If
Munck’s
abuser,
DeYoe, had been a coach,
he might have been con-
victed of a Class C felony, a
crime that carries sentences
up to ﬁ ve years in prison and
a $125,000 ﬁ ne. But DeYoe
wasn’t technically a coach.
Instead, DeYoe, 31, got a
lighter sentence. In the plea
deal, he forfeited his teach-
ing license, terminated his
housing lease in Athena
and agreed to have no con-
tact with minors who are not
family members. He spent a
night in the Umatilla County
Jail and will serve ﬁ ve
years probation. He wasn’t
required to register as a sex
oﬀ ender.
Adding the words “and
teachers” to the existing law
would close the loophole,
said Munck and others who
testiﬁ ed that day. This is a
simple ﬁ x, they said.
“This is a solid bipar-
tisan bill,” Levy said. “It
should pass out of the House
with full support and go to
the governor’s desk to be
signed.”