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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
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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
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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
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