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