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About The Siuslaw news. (Florence, Lane County, Or.) 1960-current | View Entire Issue (April 4, 2018)
THESIUSLAWNEWS . COM ❘ / SIUSLAWNEWS ❘ @ SIUSLAWNEWS WEDNESDAY EDITION COAST CENTRAL SCHOOL NEWS A&E — INSIDE INSIDE ❘ APRIL 4, 2018 ❘ $1.00 S OFTBALL SMILES SPORTS — B 128TH YEAR ❘ ISSUE NO. 27 SERVING WESTERN LANE COUNTY SINCE 1890 FLORENCE, OREGON B u nn y b o u n t y PHOTOS BY JARED ANDERSON/ SIUSLAW NEWS undreds of area youth flocked to the field on Saturday at Miller Park to gather a multitude of sparkling egg prizes at the Community Easter Egg Hunt, sponsored by the Siuslaw High School Interact Club and the Rotary Club of Florence. The fun was over almost as quickly as it began as youth and families went home with bicycles, prize baskets and spring-themed candy. Club members filled and “hid” 4,000 plastic eggs in the grass before the event. H Former mayor, civic Siuslaw third-grader starts book drive project Kindness club inspires student to share love of reading with less fortunate leader Ternyik dies B Y M ARK B RENNAN Siuslaw News B Y M ARK B RENNAN Siuslaw News Well-known and respected by political leaders at both the local and state level for decades, long-time Florence resident Wilbur Ternyik passed away this past Sunday at the age of 92. Ternyik was an iconic civic leader who served multiple terms as mayor of Florence, as well as 16 years on the Florence City Council and 29 years as a commissioner on the Port of Siuslaw. Ternyik was a veteran of World War II and received the Purple Heart award after being wounded by machine gun fire in a battle on Okinawa in 1945. Ternyik had a lifelong inter- est in plants and the unique ecosystem of the Oregon Dunes and was a driving force in establishing the Oregon Coastal Conservation and Development Commission in Wilbur Ternyik 1971. The group was empanelled by former Gov. Tom McCall and was tasked with the responsibility of developing guidelines for the management of coastal resources. The work done by the commission was considered a model for other states when developing proto- cols for coastal conservation across the nation. Ternyik testified before Congress on numerous occa- sions, lobbying for Federal See TERNYIK 9A T HE Third-grader Quoyle Kramer loves to learn. He is also a member of the Kindness Club at Siuslaw Elementary School. According to his mother, Ariel Kramer, Quoyle loves to read about all types of things, especially books having to do with science and nature. His curiosity and his love of books have been part of who Quoyle is for much of his life, she said. He also worries that other young people don’t have the opportunity to read about all the things he finds interesting in the world. “My son is in the Kindness Club at school and they each needed to come up with a service project,” Ariel said. “He really loves to read and thought it would be nice for kids who don’t have the same opportunities that he has, to have the chance to read their own books. So he came up with the idea for a book drive for kids.” Kramer has contacted Siuslaw Outreach Services (SOS) and the support organi- zation will be taking some of the donations to distribute to children in crisis. Other books will be donated to the Department of Humans Services for distribution. SOS Director Bob Teter said the willingness of students involved with the Kindness Club to think of how they can help others is inspiring to stu- dents, but also to the volunteers and staff at SOS. “The Kindness Club was at SOS recently for a tour and Quoyle found about what we do here. He loves to read and he wanted to share his love of books with kids,” Teter said. “He wanted to give kids that are unhappy or in a crisis situ- ation the chance to read about something they might like or be interested in. MARK BRENNAN/SIUSLAW NEWS See BOOKS 9A Books of all types can be donated at Siuslaw Elementary. RIGHT OF THE PEOPLE TO KEEP AND BEAR ARMS Part II: Examining school shooter Kip Kinkel and how mental health plays into gun debate B Y J ARED A NDERSON Siuslaw News INSIDE Kipland (Kip) Kinkel always had trouble in school. His parents, Bill and Faith, were popular and successful local teach- ers, as reported by Elisa Swanson in a 2000 University of Oregon publi- cation on Kinkel’s life. Swansons’ work, along with research into Kinkel in 2000 by PBS’ Frontline, are the basis of the following article. Kinkel had been having problems since the first grade with reading and Classifieds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B6 Community . . . . . . . . . . . . . A3 Kid Scoop . . . . . School News Library Tidings . . . . . . . . . . . A3 writing. The problem was so bad that he was held back a year. The prob- lem turned out to be dyslexia, for which he was placed in a special education program for reading. By contrast, Kinkel was also in a gifted program for his skills with math, which were impeccable. This juxta- position between his feelings of achievement and embarrassment, success and failure, would eventual- ly stoke the slow-burning embers of mental illness that had yet to be identified — or fully acknowledged. Kinkel would go on to be a mass shooter, killing both his parents and two others at Thurston High School, located in Springfield, Ore, in May 1998. How he came to that moment is a complicated study on the intersec- tion of mental health, guns and mass shootings. As the current gun debate Opinion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A4 Records . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A2 Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B Weather Data . . . . . . . . . . . A2 intensifies, Kinkel’s story raises questions about how much mental health plays into mass shootings, how to keep guns away from those with serious mental illness and the logistics of creating and implement- ing legislation. The gun debate also raises ques- tions surrounding the perceived stig- ma of mental illness, and how that may play a major role in propagating mass shootings. The answers to these questions are not easy to ascertain, but an examination of Kinkel could pro- vide a path forward in addressing the issue of mental health and mass shootings. “I sound so pitiful” When the Thurston shootings happened, people considered it with equal parts shock and cynicism. THIS WEEK ’ S Much of the focus centered around the kind of music Kinkel listened to, like Marilyn Manson, or the violent movies he watched. It was brought up that he was picked on at school, and how that might’ve sent him over the edge. But it was also pointed out that he had recently been arrested for purchasing a gun from a class- mate. He was just a bad kid. Looking at Kinkel’s history, it’s easy to see where that assumption came from. While the stigma of being in special education had worn on him, as Kinkel grew up, he began having problems beyond his learn- ing disability, particularly from being bullied. Though his parents reluctantly agreed to Kinkel’s request for karate lessons, Faith wanted more of what she felt were positive outlets for his TODAY THURSDAY FRIDAY SATURDAY 59 48 53 49 55 48 51 44 WEATHER Full Forecast, A3 issues. She allowed him to use their home internet connection in hopes of expanding his interests. This led to Kinkel, now a seventh-grader, and some friends looking up how to make bombs and ordering the bomb- making book, “The Anarchist Cookbook.” When Faith found out, she began to worry about the friends her son was hanging out with. Those concerns were later under- scored when, in 1997, Kinkel and a friend were charged with tossing rocks from an overpass — with one hitting a car. No one was injured, and a psychologist with Skipworth Juvenile Facility stated that Kinkel was not typical of the delinquents he usually saw, remarking that he was remorseful and quite straightfor- ward with his role in the crime. See S IUSLAW N EWS 3 S ECTIONS ❘ 22 P AGES C OPYRIGHT 2018 SPECIAL SERIES 6A
