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SPORTS PULLOUT, A5-8
DESCHUTES 911
COVID-19 concerns in Bend-La Pine
Schools labor to keep students
safe despite ‘insane’ crowding
For suicide
calls, county
may send
counselors,
not police
BY GARRETT ANDREWS
The Bulletin
It happens an average of three times
a day in Deschutes County: A suicidal
person or someone concerned about one
calls 911.
Dispatchers here and around the
country have traditionally routed these
calls to law enforcement agencies, but a
proposal being developed in Deschutes
County would dispatch two mental
health professionals to the door of the
person in crisis — no police in sight.
“There’s a lot left to figure out, but we
know this can be done safely because
it’s been done lots of places around the
country,” said Holly Harris, Deschutes
County’s mental health program man-
ager for crisis services.
About a year ago, after the murder of
George Floyd by a Minneapolis Police
officer and widespread calls for police re-
form, Harris began meeting with repre-
sentatives of Deschutes 911 and local law
enforcement agencies to identify calls
where subjects would be better served by
mental health workers.
See Dispatch / A13
Submitted photo
Students crowd the hall at Summit High School in this photo sent to The Bulletin by a Summit High parent.
Scenes of shoulder-to-shoulder students at Bend high schools concern families
O
n April 14, an anonymous user
posted a photo on Reddit of
a Bend High School hallway
where students were packed in
shoulder-to-shoulder. The picture — ti-
tled ”Social Distancing at Bend High”
— prompted over 100 comments to the
Bend-specific forum of the popular web-
site, many about the safety of students in-
side schools during a pandemic.
“It’s insane,” Bend High School senior
Jade Jager told The Bulletin. “It’s nearly
impossible to maintain 3 feet of distance,
let alone 6 in the hallways.”
Jager said simply walking through the
hallways can be nerve-wracking. She’s con-
cerned about accidentally bringing home
COVID-19 to her high-risk brother, who
can’t attend in-person school, she said.
“I’m not only worrying about myself, but
also my family,” said Jager, 17. “I know a lot
of other people are in similar situations —
there’s a deadly virus going around.”
This has been the case since Bend-La
Pine Schools left its hybrid schedule on
April 12 for middle and high schools.
Thousands of students are in school
“The message
has been
pretty simple:
Keep moving.”
— Michael McDonald,
principal of Summit High School
in-person, all together for the first time
since COVID-19 forced school online in
March 2020.
Bend-La Pine administrators are aware
of hallway crowding in their schools. Their
solutions include releasing students from
class at different times to keep hallways
more open, using multiple lunch pickup
locations and asking students to not stop
and chat.
“The message has been pretty simple:
Keep moving,” said Michael McDonald,
principal of Summit High School.
Paul Dean, Bend-La Pine’s safe healthy
schools administrator and de facto
COVID-19 czar, said he and high school
administrators immediately went to work
on changes after seeing the crowded hall-
way photo at Bend High School.
The goal of the changes is to alleviate
“pinch points,” which is what Dean calls
congested portions of hallways. He noted
that these sections are only extremely
crowded for a moment or two, before stu-
dents return to classrooms.
“Those pinch points are a short dura-
tion, but we’re still trying to clear them up
regardless,” Dean said.
McDonald said he’s seen the photo of
the crowded Bend High School hallway, as
well as other crowded school hallway pho-
tos. But he said these photos actually show
students following COVID-19 protocol as
well as they can in that tricky situation.
“I know those students all have masks
on, and they’re all on the move, and that’s
encouraging to me,” McDonald said. “I’m
really impressed with how much the stu-
dents are following the guidelines around
keeping moving and getting to class.”
See Schools / A4
NOAA: Northwest’s ‘normal’ temps rising
BY DON JENKINS
Capital Press
The climate for the Northwest and
most of the contiguous U.S. has become
slightly warmer in the past decade, the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Ad-
ministration reported Tuesday.
The warming was widespread, according to
NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental In-
formation, though Montana and the Dakotas
bucked the trend and slightly cooled.
“There are some areas that actually have cooler
temperature normals, especially in the spring in
the north-central U.S.,” said Michael Palecki, man-
TODAY’S
WEATHER
Partly cloudy
High 66, Low 31
Page A12
ager of NOAA’s climate normals.
NOAA updates every 10 years what’s
considered “normal” weather. Statisticians
analyzed temperature and precipitation
readings from thousands of weather sta-
tions between 1991 and 2020.
NOAA will release the new normals May
4. Palecki and other NOAA officials held a confer-
ence call with reporters to hit some highlights.
Because two decades overlap, the new climatic
normals aren’t that much different. Still, the new
norms likely mean fewer seasons, months and days
with temperatures “above normal.”
“We’re really seeing the
fingerprints of climate
change in the new normals.”
— Michael Palecki, with NOAA
Trooper hurt
in DUII crash
sues driver, bar
BY GARRETT ANDREWS
The Bulletin
The Oregon State Police trooper in-
jured in a 2019 drunken-driving collision
has sued the other driver and the Red-
mond bar that served him.
Terrebonne resident Tony Halladay
filed a $946,318 personal injury lawsuit
against Arizona man Christopher Denis
Luna and Timbers Bar & Grill.
The suit, filed April 7 in Deschutes
County Circuit Court, alleges Luna went
to the bar April 10, 2019, and was “over-
served” by staff. Luna left the bar around
11:30 p.m. and drove his 2015 Kia Soul
north on U.S. Highway 97.
See Trooper / A4
House panel
ponders linking
firearms storage,
narrower ban
BY PETER WONG
Oregon Capital Bureau
Legislation that combines proposed
requirements for firearms locks and safe
storage with a narrower ban on firearms
in public buildings is gaining political
momentum in the Oregon House.
The House Rules Committee heard
a proposal to combine elements of two
bills, one awaiting a vote of the full House
and a second that has already passed the
Senate. If it happens, the House would
have to take only one vote, instead of
two, on a firearms regulation bill — and
the Senate would have to vote only on
whether to accept the final version.
See Northwest / A4
INDEX
Business
Classifieds
Comics
A11-12
A14
A9-10
Dear Abby
Editorial
Events
A7
A8
GO!
Horoscope
Local/State
Lottery
See Firearms / A14
A7
A2-4
A6
Obituaries
Puzzles
Sports
A4
A10
A5-7
The Bulletin
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Vol. 117, No. 329, 38 pages, 2 sections
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