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About The Bulletin. (Bend, OR) 1963-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 13, 2021)
THE BULLETIN • SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2021 A7 “We are still looking at several more rounds. We will see snow increase again mainly tonight as it comes back into the area.” Snow Continued from A1 But the weather service still extended a winter storm warning until 4 p.m. Saturday because a winter storm is ex- pected to arrive Friday night and bring 3 to 8 inches of snow to the High Desert. More snow is expected again Sunday night. Temperatures were freezing early Friday morning when the thermostat dropped to 12 de- grees. The cold weather is ex- pected to continue Friday and Saturday nights with lows of 15 degrees, the weather service predicted. “We are still looking at sev- eral more rounds,” Lohmann said. “We will see snow in- crease again mainly tonight as it comes back into the area.” Like Elliott, weather service forecasters were surprised to see so little snow Friday in La Pine. Lohmann, who considers La Pine the snow capital of Ore- gon, said the weather pattern was warmer than expected and didn’t produce as much snow. “It took a little bit longer for the rain to change over to snow,” Lohmann said. Before it started to snow, La Pine and Sunriver had freezing rain that made the roads slick. — Marilyn Lohmann, a hydrologist with the National Weather Service in Pendleton Despite temperatures in the teens, a solo surfer carves the wave at the Bend Whitewater Park early Friday. Greg Johannsen, of Bend, takes advantage of the fresh snow to cross-country ski around Drake Park. “That always makes it more challenging when you have that freezing rain under the snow,” said Kacey Davey, a spokesperson for the Oregon Department of Transportation. Davey said there were some accidents reported Thursday night as the freezing rain and snow started to fall in Central Oregon, including a wreck that closed U.S. Highway 97 south tation and mobility director of the city, said he was happy with how plowing had gone so far, and said most main roads in the city are in good shape. “The phones are pretty quiet ... and that’s a pretty good thing because it means we are not getting a lot of calls for service, instead of having the phone ringing off the hook,” Abbas said Friday morning. Ryan Brennecke/Bulletin photos of Sunriver for about a half an hour. “We saw some accidents when the snow hit and people started commuting last night,” Davey said. “But our accidents slowed down throughout the night.” With more winter storms in the forecast, ODOT crews are busy keeping the state high- ways clear. St. Charles Third graders at Ponderosa Ele- mentary School in northeast Bend eat their lunch outdoors on the snowy day of Jan. 28. Some ele- mentary classes in Bend-La Pine go outdoors for lunch to limit the spread of COVID-19 while students take off their masks to eat. Continued from A1 Submitted photo Bend-La Pine Continued from A1 At some schools, like Silver Rail, staffers watch from com- mon areas. In others, teach- ers stay in the classroom, near an open window. And some teachers even take their class outdoors to eat. The school district’s 19 ele- mentary schools all have dif- ferent strategies, due to their wildly different buildings, said Paul Dean —Bend-La Pine’s safe healthy schools coordina- tor, who oversees COVID-19 safety for the district. “Because of the complexi- ties of all our schools, we didn’t want to lock everybody into ‘you must do,’” he said. “We wanted to have some variety to accommodate the needs of each building.” It’s a different story for the other noneducational part of the school day, recess. School playgrounds all have zoned off areas, so classes can stay sep- arate from each other, Dean said. Supervisors keep an eye on students, pulling kids apart who are very close for a pro- longed amount of time, or ensuring they keep their face masks on. But recess may not be the only time students leave the building. Some elementary teach- ers have opted to move their classes outdoors for lunch, as COVID-19 transmission is weaker in the open air, Dean said. Certain school buildings with roof overhangs provide a covered outdoor space for eat- ing even when there’s snow on the field, he said. Dean didn’t know how many teachers’ students eat lunch outside. He also emphasized the choice is entirely up to the educator, regardless of weather. “They’re able to look out- side and make judgment calls themselves,” Dean said. “They’re really good at that, Positive Continued from A1 Many breakthrough cases were reported during the Mod- erna and Pfizer COVID-19 vaccination trials. Those cases tended to be asymptomatic or mild, and so far, Oregon’s cases fall into either of those two cat- egories. “Our crews are out there working around the clock,” Davey said. “They are on their snow plow routes, and we are using all of our tools to keep the roads open and safe.” In Bend, city officials are monitoring the forecast and will have snow plow contrac- tors on standby if snow condi- tions worsen. David Abbas, the transpor- and they always have the kids’ interest at heart.” At Tuesday night’s Bend-La Pine School Board meeting, board member Julie Craig said she wanted the school district to more heavily encourage, or require, classes to eat lunch outside. She noted that stu- dents already go outside for re- cess and physical education. “It just seems like a no- brainer,” Craig said Tuesday. “They’re already outside mul- tiple times a day in the cold ... they’d probably be OK if they spend 15 minutes outside eat- ing their food.” Superintendent Lora Nor- dquist told the school board Tuesday that the district is en- couraging outside lunch, but it isn’t a requirement. For classes that eat lunch in- side the classroom, students are kept at their desks — which were already spaced 6 feet apart — after taking off their masks, Dean said. Granted, that 6-foot barrier can sometimes be broken if a child makes a mess with his or her food — but teachers have contingency plans for that, he said. “If someone spills their milk and starts to cry, a teacher might need to get within 6 feet to help them,” Dean said. “So students stop eating and put their masks on, the teacher helps with the student who’s upset, steps back to the safe part of the classroom, says ‘masks off,’ and the eating con- tinues.’” To improve ventilation, many teachers also open their windows or doors and stand nearby, he said. For students who didn’t bring sack lunches, school ad- ministrators wheel around a cart of school-provided meals, delivering them classroom by classroom, according to school district spokesperson Alandra Johnson. There are some elementary schools that still use the cafete- ria for lunch, although it looks much different than in years past, Dean and Johnson said. Students still go through a line to pick up school meals, but supervising staff ensure students stand 6 feet apart while waiting, Johnson said. After grabbing their food, kids go back to their 20-stu- dent classroom, placed on op- posite ends of the cafeteria. Within those groups, students sit at marked spaces at the ta- bles, 6 feet apart, while eating. No more than 50 students total can be in the cafeteria, so not every student in these schools eats there, Dean said. However, this strategy is usually only used in school with staffing limits, Dean said. While teachers take their breaks, fewer support staffers are needed to observe a large space of students, rather than putting one in each classroom. But also, some teachers pre- fer the cafeteria, he said. “There’s some influence of teachers, who were saying, ‘It feels to us that being in the caf- eteria, with high ceilings, more doors, added ventilation, with students spread more apart — that feels safer to us than being in a classroom,’” Dean said. At some schools, teachers don’t supervise the students — support staff do. But even in some of those schools, like North Star Elementary, teach- ers eat lunch in nearby com- mon spaces and keep an eye on their classes. Kindergarteners aren’t al- ways the best at following so- cial-distancing rules, but they are getting better, said North Star kindergarten teacher Kate Tibbitts. “I think it’s a challenging grade for this, and there are definitely risks,” she said, “but in general ... they’re getting better.” State epidemiologist Dr. Dean Sidelinger said that’s good news, considering the COVID-19 death toll for non- vaccinated Oregonians is close to 3,000. Vaccines keep you from get- ting seriously ill, even if you get sick, he said. Sidelinger said these break- through cases underscore the importance of continuing to follow pandemic safety mea- sures like wearing masks and socially distancing even after receiving the vaccine. Until enough vaccinations have been administered to achieve herd immunity — something that is still months away — break- through cases will continue to happen. e e Reporter: 541-617-7854, jhogan@bendbulletin.com The suit names St. Charles surgeon Dr. Jeffrey Mathisen and anesthesiologist Dr. Blake Van Meter. The Bend-based health care system has yet to be served with the suit, filed Wednesday in Deschutes County Circuit Court. A St. Charles spokeswoman de- clined to comment. Danae Risch had cerebral palsy and a developmental disability. In 2009, she was di- agnosed with a rare form of muscular dystrophy and re- quired the use of a wheelchair. On Nov. 7, 2018, Risch was admitted to St. Charles for a procedure to remove her gall bladder. The lawsuit states that a preliminary chest X-ray showed an enlargement of her heart that should have raised red flags with Mathisen and Van Meter. The lawsuit states that prior to the surgery, Mathisen and Van Meter told Risch’s par- ents she had fluid around her lungs, but “reassured them this was common with gall bladders and was not a reason to postpone the surgery.” Risch was taken to the op- erating room and as anesthe- sia was being introduced, she went into cardiac arrest and stopped breathing. Risch was resuscitated and moved to the hospital’s intensive care unit, where she stayed on a ventila- tor for two days before dying Nov. 14. Risch lived at home with her parents into adulthood Abbas said crews would be out clearing off areas Friday, such as sidewalks near round- abouts and bridges. “We are really trying to pro- vide a higher level of service for all users, not just vehicles on roadways,” he said. e e e e Bulletin reporter Brenna Visser contributed to this report Reporter: 541-617-7820, kspurr@bendbulletin.com but experienced a full life, her mother wrote in annual guard- ian reports filed with the court. “Danae, as ever, is enviably happy and a social star,” Cav- iness wrote in 2009. “She is funny and fun to be with. Da- nae has developmental delay, as ever, but it never affects her personality.” Risch took part in commu- nity activities, volunteered at her church and enjoyed a close bond with her parents. “Your commitment to Da- nae is obvious,” a probate com- missioner wrote to Caviness in 2016. “You are fortunate to have such a close relationship.” The suit states Risch’s parents will be haunted by their deci- sion for the rest of their lives. e e Reporter: 541-383-0325, gandrews@bendbulletin.com