The Bulletin., January 21, 2021, Page 6, Image 6

A6 THE BULLETIN • THURSDAY, JANUARY 21, 2021
TODAY
THE INAUGURATION
Day One
Continued from A1
But Biden, facing the debili-
tating coronavirus pandemic, a
damaged economy and a riven
electorate, is intent on demon-
strating a sense of urgency and
competence that he argues has
been missing under his Repub-
lican predecessor. “There’s no
time to start like today,” Biden
said in his first comments to
reporters as president.
Biden wore a mask as he
signed the orders in the Oval
Office — a marked departure
from Trump, who rarely wore
a face covering in public and
never during events in the Oval
Office. But virus precautions are
now required in the building.
Among the executive actions
signed Wednesday was one
requiring masks and physical
distancing on federal property
and by federal employees.
Biden’s order also extended
the federal eviction freeze to aid
Evan Vucci/AP
President Joe Biden signs his first executive order in the Oval Office on
Wednesday hours after taking the oath of office.
those struggling from the pan-
demic economic fallout, created
a new federal office to coordi-
nate a national response to the
virus and restored the White
House’s National Security Coun-
cil directorate for global health
security and defense, an office
his predecessor had closed.
But Biden’s blitz of executive
Inauguration
Continued from A1
Redemption and reclamation were
the themes of the televised and lives-
treamed inauguration of the 46th pres-
ident of the United States and the 49th
vice president, Kamala Harris. Their
very presence, along with a much
smaller than usual crowd of invited
guests, former presidents and congress-
people, made the point that democracy
had prevailed despite the challenges of
the past four years, culminating in the
Capitol insurrection of Jan. 6.
Gone were the noose that rioters
erected in the building’s shadow and the
Confederate flag paraded through the
Union’s most hallowed halls. In their place
was a return to civility, order and proto-
col — and the guarded hope that America
will finally stop eating itself alive.
The 59th inauguration
Conventional wisdom about inau-
guration ceremonies — that they are
routine because they happen every four
years, and that they are remarkable for
the very same reason — rang true, even
as circumstances, from the scourge of
COVID-19 to the threat of more vio-
lence, led the 59th installment of this
grand American tradition to be pared
down to essentials. On a chilly day with
the occasional flurry of snowflakes,
many finally found the chance to ex-
hale, and to mourn the victims of the
pandemic, inside of that relative quiet.
“Somehow we’ve weathered and wit-
nessed a nation that isn’t broken, but
simply unfinished,” said Amanda Gor-
man, 22, of Los Angeles, whose inaugu-
ral poem “The Hill We Climb” embod-
ied the changing of the guard, and the
reflective mood, with its words about
Schools
Continued from A1
In that year, there was a
19-percentage point gap be-
tween the two groups at Sum-
mit and a 14-point gap at
Mountain View. In 2020, those
gaps shrunk to about 1 and 2
percentage points, respectively.
Summit has a fairly small
Latino student population —
only 7.5% of Summit students
in the class of 2020 identi-
fied as such — which means
data like graduation rates can
quickly fluctuate. But Moun-
tain View’s Latino population
is larger, representing about
16% of the class of 2020, giving
extra heft to that group’s 90.2%
graduation rate.
Michael Hicks, principal at
Mountain View, declined to
be interviewed, but noted that
his school’s rising Latino grad-
uation rates was “wonderful
news.”
Katie Legace — Bend-La
Pine’s executive director of
high schools and deputy su-
perintendent — noted that
graduation rates rose for many
groups of underserved stu-
dents districtwide in 2020,
from students learning En-
glish to students with disabili-
ties. She credited these boosts
with the district’s recent efforts
to fight chronic absenteeism
and help students with mental
health struggles.
“We have been working very
hard to decrease those gaps
over the years,” Legace said.
La Pine High School’s grad-
uation rate rose sharply to
76.7%. However, the school
had Oregon’s third-lowest
graduation rate for a nonchar-
ter high school with at least
100 students in the graduating
actions went beyond the pan-
demic. He targeted Trump’s
environmental record, calling
for a review of all regulations
and executive actions that are
deemed damaging to the envi-
ronment or public health, aides
said Tuesday as they previewed
the moves.
Another order instructs fed-
resilience and opportunity. “We, the suc-
cessors of a country and a time where a
skinny Black girl descended from slaves
and raised by a single mother can dream
of becoming president only to find her-
self reciting for one.”
And as a trio of former presidents
from both parties stood, in unity, to wit-
ness the transfer of power, the view was
dappled with bipartisan purple — the
color chosen by Harris, former Secretary
of State Hillary Clinton, and former first
ladies Laura Bush and Michelle Obama,
whose long coat and gold belt gave her
the appearance of a superhero.
In Harris’ case, it was also a tribute to
Shirley Chisholm, the first Black ma-
jor-party presidential candidate. Like
Chisholm when she became the first
Black woman elected to Congress in
1969 and later launched a campaign for
the Democratic presidential nomination,
Harris made history Wednesday when
she was sworn in as the first woman and
person of color to become vice president.
The gravity of the moment was under-
scored further by the presence of Eugene
Goodman, the Capitol Police officer who
almost surely saved the lives of elected
officials by leading rioters, among them
white supremacists, away from the Sen-
ate chamber during the Jan. 6 breach.
Goodman, who is Black, escorted Har-
ris to her seat; the first Latina Supreme
Court justice, Sonia Sotomayor, admin-
istered Harris the oath of office.
‘Let’s start afresh, all of us’
Such moments added to the poignant
nature of the ceremony, which repre-
sented both historical change and a po-
tential return to normalcy, striking a
deft balance between turning the page,
dealing with today’s challenges and
reckoning with our past.
class, only ahead of Springfield
and Reynolds high schools, ac-
cording to state data.
A few high schools in the re-
gion with previously high grad-
uation rates — Bend, Sisters
and Ridgeview — essentially
held steady, all with about a
91% graduation rate or higher.
Bend Tech Academy at Mar-
shall High School — which
just finished transitioning from
a traditional alternative high
school to a technical-education
magnet school — had a lower
graduation rate than Bend-La
Pine’s four large high schools,
at 62.7%. But it also saw the
biggest jump in its rate, with a
16 percentage point increase.
Sal Cassaro, principal at
Bend Tech, said his goal is to
eventually catch up to Bend-La
Pine’s traditional high schools.
Bend Tech’s combination
of rigorous academics and
hands-on career and technical
education is driving this in-
crease in graduates, he said.
“That is the magic recipe,”
Cassaro said.
The local traditional high
school with the biggest jump in
graduation rates was Redmond
High School, rising 8 percent-
age points to 83%. In partic-
ular, Latino students at Red-
mond High excelled in 2020,
with a 12-point bump to an
80.9% rate, state data showed.
Principal Audrey Haugan
cited multiple factors in this
increase, including programs
like Juntos and ¡AVANZA!
designed to reach out to local
Latino families.
“There are a lot of things in
place that have been going on
for the past 3-4 years we felt
this senior class would benefit
from,” Haugan said.
Madras High School, which
eral agencies to prioritize racial
equity and review policies that
reinforce systemic racism.
His press secretary, Jen Psaki,
held a briefing for reporters,
a practice the Trump White
House had all but abandoned in
the final two months of the pres-
idency. Psaki said she intended
to restore regular briefings as
part of the White House’s com-
mitment to transparency.
“I have deep respect for the
role of a free and independent
press in our democracy and for
the role all of you play,” she said.
Also Wednesday, three new
senators were sworn into of-
fice Wednesday, securing the
majority for Democrats in the
Senate and across a unified
government.
In a first vote, the Senate
confirmed Biden’s nominee
for Director of National Intel-
ligence, Avril Haines. Senators
were working into the evening
and overcame some Republi-
can opposition to approve his
“Let’s start afresh, all of us,” Biden im-
plored during his inaugural address, in
which he also pledged to defeat “politi-
cal extremism, white supremacy (and)
domestic terrorism.” “Politics doesn’t
have to be a raging fire, destroying ev-
erything in its path. Every disagreement
doesn’t need to be a total war.”
His message was bolstered by a cer-
emony that wove together the tradi-
tional and the new: Lady Gaga sang
the national anthem in a billowing red
skirt and blonde Greta braids; Jennifer
Lopez, dressed in the crisp, clean white
of a fresh start, belted out a medley of
“This Land Is Your Land” and “America
the Beautiful,” replete with a message in
Spanish and the urge to “Get loud.”
No mention of Trump
And then there was the glaring ab-
sence of former President Donald
Trump, who left the capital for Mar-A-
Lago rather than admit he’d lost the elec-
tion. Instead, it was left to now former
Vice President Mike Pence to show up in
a demonstration of basic decency, while
now-Senate Minority Leader Mitch Mc-
Connell — who only recently began to
come out more forcefully against base-
less claims of election fraud — later ad-
dressed Biden in a particularly awkward
moment while he and House Speaker
Nancy Pelosi gifted the new president
and vice president a pair of U.S. flags.
It was clear that things had shifted
quite dramatically.
The National Mall featured 200,000
flags in place of those who could not at-
tend the ceremony because of pandemic
restrictions and tightened security, and
on Tuesday evening 400 lights illumi-
nated the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting
Pool to honor the 400,000 who have died
in the U.S. from the coronavirus. And
Biden’s self-described first “act as presi-
dent” was asking for a moment of silent
prayer for those lost to COVID-19, their
loved ones, “and for our country.”
Those attending the inauguration
— speakers and Sens. Amy Klobuchar
and Roy Blunt, Supreme Court Justice
Amy Coney Barrett and likely future
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg
among them — all wore masks while
looking on, and the lectern was wiped
clean between each speaker.
Biden never mentioned his predeces-
sor, who defied tradition and left town
ahead of the ceremony, but his speech
was an implicit rebuke of Trump. The
new president denounced “lies told for
power and for profit” and was blunt
about the challenges ahead.
Central among them: the surging virus
that has claimed more than 400,000 lives
in the U.S., as well as economic strains
and a national reckoning over race.
“We have much to do in this winter of
peril, and significant possibilities. Much
to repair, much to restore, much to heal,
much to build and much to gain,” Biden
said. “Few people in our nation’s history
have been more challenged, or found a
time more challenging .”
Swearing the oath with his hand on a
5-inch-thick Bible that has been in his
family for 128 years, Biden came to office
with a well of empathy and resolve born
by personal tragedy as well as a depth of
experience forged from more than four
decades in Washington. At age 78, he is
the oldest president inaugurated.
Both he, Harris and their spouses
walked the last short part of the route
to the White House after an abridged
parade. Biden then strode into the Oval
Office, a room he knew well as vice
president, for the first time as com-
mander in chief.
Class of 2020 high school graduation
rates in Central Oregon
Nearly every major high school in Central Oregon saw graduation
rates rise for the Class of 2020 — a group that ended high school in
a pandemic. All major local high schools’ graduation rates surpassed
the state e average except La Pine
ine H
High
igh S School and Bend Tech
y, the latter
er of which is in the midst of tr
transitioning fr
Academy,
from an
ernative
tive school t to a technical
echnical educa
education magnet school.
alternative
2019-20
igh school
scho
High
2018-19
P ent gr
Percent
graduated
Summit
94.4%
90%
Culver
94.1
91.8
Sisters
92.3
91.2
Mountain
ountain View
92.1
86.3
91.3
94.7
Crook
ook County
Bend
91.2
91.2
Madras
91.2
90.8
Ridgeview
90.9
88.9
83
Redmond
75
76.7
70.3
La Pine
Bend Tech
Academy
Statewide
Source:
e: Oregon Dept. of Education
has seen its graduation rate
skyrocket in the past few years,
essentially held steady in 2020
with a 91.2% graduation rate.
But there were major shifts un-
derneath the surface of Central
Oregon’s most ethnically di-
verse high school.
Latino students in Madras
earned diplomas at about the
46.2
first Cabinet member in what’s
traditionally a show of good
faith on Inauguration Day to
confirm at least some nomi-
nees for a new president’s ad-
ministration. Haines was con-
firmed 84-10.
Vice President Kamala Har-
ris drew applause as she entered
the chamber to deliver the oath
of office to the new Democratic
senators — Jon Ossoff, Raphael
Warnock and Alex Padilla —
just hours after taking her own
oath at the Capitol alongside
Biden. The three Democrats
join a Senate narrowly split
50-50 between the parties, but
giving Democrats the major-
ity with Harris able to cast the
tie-breaking vote.
Taken together, their ar-
rival gives Democrats for the
first time in a decade control
of the Senate, the House and
the White House . At the same
time, the Senate is about to
launch an impeachment trial
of Trump .
62.7
82.6
80
Alan Kenaga/For The
he Bulletin
same rate as 2019, at 94.3%.
But white students’ gradua-
tion rate leaped from 81.8% to
over 95%. And Madras’ Native
American students saw their
graduation rate fall for the first
time since 2016, slipping from
92.9% to 81.2%.
Brian Crook, principal of
Madras High School, was un-
available for comment.
Crook County High School
— which had the region’s high-
est graduation rate in 2019 at
94.7% — saw a slight dip in
2020 to 91.3%.
Central Oregon’s small-
est high school, Culver, had a
94.1% graduation rate — about
2.5 percentage points higher
than 2019.
Did COVID-19 impact
graduation rates?
When COVID-19 shuttered
schools in mid-March, the
state ordered that classes would
become pass/fail, and students
who were already passing
their classes at the time would
would automatically receive
class credit.
School leaders, both locally
and statewide, had mixed feel-
ings on whether this impacted
graduation rates. Gill, the state
schools chief, said he doesn’t be-
lieve the students who received
automatic passing grades im-
pacted graduation rates very
much. Those students were
likely to earn those credits in
June and get their diploma
without this change, he said.
Gill did acknowledge, how-
ever, that many school staffers
gave extra focus to struggling
students as the pandemic be-
gan, which could have boosted
graduation rates.
Haugan, Redmond High’s
principal, said the state’s
changes in grading, and the
cancellation of state profi-
ciency testing, absolutely im-
pacted graduation rates.
“I do think the graduation
rates this year were inflated ,”
she said. “We expected to see a
rise, but certainly not a leap.”
ý
Reporter: 541-617-7854,
jhogan@bendbulletin.com
Today is Thursday, Jan. 21, the
21st day of 2021. There are 344
days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On Jan. 21, 2020, the U.S. re-
ported its first known case of the
coronavirus, in Washington state.
In 1793, during the French
Revolution, King Louis XVI,
condemned for treason, was
executed on the guillotine.
In 1924, Russian revolutionary
Vladimir Lenin died at age 53.
In 1942, a court banned pinball
machines in New York City, call-
ing them gambling devices.
In 1977, on his first full day in
office, President Jimmy Carter
pardoned almost all Vietnam
War draft evaders.
In 2007, Lovie Smith became the
first Black head coach to make it
to the Super Bowl.
In 2019, Kamala Harris entered
the Democratic presidential race.
Ten years ago: Arizona Rep. Ga-
brielle Giffords was transferred
to Texas Medical Center to un-
dergo months of therapy.
Five years ago: The Obama
administration tightened restric-
tions on European and other
travelers who had visited Iran,
Iraq, Syria or Sudan in the previ-
ous five years.
One year ago: A rancorous
dispute over rules marked the
first full day of President Donald
Trump’s impeachment trial.
Today’s Birthdays: World Golf
Hall of Famer Jack Nicklaus is 81.
Opera singer-conductor Placido
Domingo is 80. Singer-songwrit-
er Billy Ocean is 71. Former U.S.
Attorney General Eric Holder
is 70. Actor Geena Davis is 65.
Basketball Hall of Famer Hakeem
Olajuwon is 58. Singer Emma
Bunton (Spice Girls) is 45.
— Associated Press
Arrest
Continued from A1
After his arrest Jan. 7,
prosecutors filed a motion
to forfeit Dahl’s security.
Instead, Dahl offered to re-
turn to jail if the state did
not seize the thousands of
dollars his relatives posted
on his behalf.
On Wednesday, Dahl ap-
peared by video from the
jail before Judge Beth Bagley
to hear the new charges read
against him. In one case, he’s
accused of attempting to
kidnap and rob Redmond
man Adam Wattenbarger.
In the
other case,
filed days
later, he’s
accused of
threaten-
ing Wat-
tenbarger
Dahl
with a
handgun
and attempting to get him to
not testify against him.
He pleaded not guilty in
those cases. Trials in the
three cases are scheduled
for the spring.
Dahl’s legal problems be-
gan in May, when he and
Taylor were hanging out
and Taylor started to think
Dahl was hitting on his
girlfriend, according to a
search warrant request filed
in circuit court. They got
into a heated argument be-
fore going “separate ways,”
the document states.
Several days later, on May
5, Dahl called Taylor say-
ing he’d like for them to get
together, smoke weed and
“squash the beef.”
Dahl picked up Taylor in
his gold Chevrolet Tahoe be-
hind the Shop Smart in La
Pine and drove to a railroad
access road off Reed Road
and parked. Dahl got out
and walked to the passenger
side door, sprayed Taylor in
the eyes with pepper spray
and “ripped” Taylor out
of the Tahoe, according to
court documents.
Dahl allegedly pulled
off Taylor’s prosthetic leg,
threw it in the brush and
punched Taylor repeatedly
in the head. After the al-
leged assault, Taylor told
police that Dahl poured
gasoline on him and began
flicking a lighter, threaten-
ing to burn Taylor alive.
Dahl reportedly put Tay-
lor in the back of his Tahoe
and drove him to Taylor’s
girlfriend’s house, where he
threw Taylor on the ground,
rang the doorbell and drove
away.
ý
Reporter: 541-383-0325,
gandrews@bendbulletin.com