Polk County Education/News
14A Polk County Itemizer-Observer • June 1, 2016
This has only
been a test
By Jolene Guzman
The Itemizer-Observer
JOLENE GUzMAN/Itemizer-Observer
Kyle Smith will graduate with the Falls City High School Class of 2016 on Thursday.
Falls City helps grad heal, grow
By Jolene Guzman
The Itemizer-Observer
FALLS CITY — Kyle Smith
was just 9 years old when his
life changed.
His mom had died, and
his father decided to move
Kyle and his younger broth-
er to Falls City to start life in
a new community.
Soon, Smith discovered
Falls City was a place he
could heal — and grow.
At first Smith, now 17,
thought he would struggle
making new friends. That
wasn’t something that came
easy for him anyway, he
said.
Those fears evaporated as
people in Falls City took an in-
terest in getting to know him.
“People were just opening
up to me, asking me a bunch
of questions, really allowed
me to not be so introverted
and come out of the little
shell I had built for myself,”
Smith said. “That’s probably
the best thing, how accept-
ing people are here and how
willing they are to try find
out who you are as a per-
son.”
Thursday evening, Smith
will graduate from Falls City
High School, whose com-
munity taught him so much
more than what it takes to
earn a diploma.
“Kyle is really conscien-
tious of trying to do the right
thing all the time, and he
puts other people’s feelings
before his own,” said Falls
City teacher Micke Kidd,
who has had Smith in a class
every year since he was in
fifth grade. “He’s one of
those kids who is going to be
a lifelong learner.”
That is Smith’s objective.
Next fall, Smith will begin
studying in Oregon State
University and Linn-Benton
Community College’s degree
partnership program to be-
come a zoologist.
“I want to be a zoologist
Pomp and
circumstance
What: Falls City High
School graduation
Where: Falls City
High School, 111 N.
Main St.
When: Thursday, 7
p.m.
so I can study animals and
help preserve wildlife,”
Smith said. “I like to be out-
side. That’s the main reason
I want to be a zoologist, to
be able to adventure and ex-
plore. And get to see a bunch
of wildlife, which is what I
like to do in my spare time.”
Smith also wants to share
what he discovers about en-
dangered animals with oth-
ers.
“Once they are gone, they
can’t come back,” he said.
“That’s not something that
most people appreciate, but
I think it would be impor-
tant to do something to help
people understand.”
Teaching is something
Smith has begun while at
Falls City.
Smith is one of four “stu-
dent teachers” in Family Ac-
ademic Community and En-
richment for Success (Faces)
program’s “Roller Coaster
physics” class. He’s taken it
all five years it’s been of-
fered, so the material is fa-
miliar.
Kidd teaches that class
and decided to add an extra
level of difficulty for a hand-
ful of his veteran physics
students.
He’s having them create
lessons and lead the class
under his supervision. For
Smith, that meant the intro-
vert had to become the in-
structor.
“I still have a hard time
talking in front of people,”
he said. “This has been a
good challenge for me.”
See SMITH, Page 13A
POLK COUNTY — State,
county, and city govern-
ment agencies in a three-
state region, along with the
Federal Emergency Man-
agement Agency, will con-
duct the first major test of
emergency plans in prepa-
ration for the predicted a
9.0 Cascadia subduction
zone earthquake.
The exercise, called
“Cascadia Rising,” will
begin on Tuesday and end
June 10 and includes agen-
cies in Oregon, Washing-
ton and Idaho.
In Polk County, the Con-
federated Tribes of Grand
Ronde is one of the exer-
cise partners. It will be
conducting a major
causality scenario on
Thursday. Members of
Polk County (CERT) will
assist with that exercise.
Polk CERT’s coordinator
Kimber Townsend will ob-
serve Cascadia Rising from
the state’s emergency op-
erational center in at OEM
in Salem.
Townsend suspects be-
cause this is the first test of
this size, agencies will find
there’s plenty that could be
tweaked and improved
upon in the systems that
are in place.
“I think it’s going to have
huge ramifications, a steep
learning curve,” she said.
“Until you test it, you don’t
know how good it is.”
Polk County is not for-
mally participating in the
exercise. Dean Bender,
Polk County’s emergency
manager, said agencies
were asked to confirm
whether they would par-
ticipate when Polk County
Sheriff’s Office was in the
midst of layoffs.
Bender said county will
use the Cascadia Rising ex-
ercise dates to test some of
its own procedures, in-
cluding having employees
practice “drop, cover and
hold” protocol and evacu-
ation processes.
Communication sys-
tems will be tested be-
tween the county “emer-
gency operations center”
(EOC) and Dallas’ EOC
and Salem Health West
Valley. This will be the first
time those connections
will be tested since they
were set up.
Strengthening emer-
gency communications
systems has been a focus
for Polk County.
For more: polkio.com.
Get emergency your kit started:
The American Red Cross has designed a 24-week cal-
endar to build a two-week home disaster kit. The fol-
lowing is the first week. The I-O will occasionally supple-
ment the checklist with tips from local experts.
Week 1
• Two gallons of water.*
• One jar of peanut butter.
• Three cans of meat.*
• One hand operated can opener.
• Permanent marking pen.
Additional items, if needed:
• Pet food, diapers and baby food.
Action steps:
• Put dates on perishable foods.
• Decide who should be your out-of-area contact
who can coordinate information between family mem-
bers in different locations.
* per person
— Source: The American Red Cross.