PREPS » OREGON STATE WRESTLING RECAP
LOCAL TEAMS
• HERMISTON
• IRRIGON
• ECHO/
STANFIELD
• HEPPNER
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2018
HermistonHerald.com
ALICE TODRYK
CAPTURES TITLE
SPORTS • PAGE A10
$1.00
INSIDE
HOPEFUL
IMMUNIZATION EXCLUSION
TIGHT-KNIT
DAY IS HERE
A Hermiston ministry
provides hope and material
support to the homeless.
PAGE A4
Hermiston Yarn Club binds
members together as they
make blankets and other
items for those in need.
PAGE A6, A15
UNPREPARED
Statewide kindergarten
assessments show
Hermiston students entering
school less prepared.
PAGE A7
BY THE WAY
Rocky Heights
class sets
reading record
Rocky Heights Ele-
mentary School students
have a reason to celebrate.
All of the students in Mrs.
Melissa Doherty’s third
grade class achieved 100
percent of their acceler-
ated reading goal this year.
The Accelerated Reader
program motivates student
reading by setting point-
based goals for students,
then allowing them to
choose books to read and
answer questions about
the books to earn points.
Doherty’s class earned
the distinction of being
the first class in Hermis-
ton School District history
to meet 100 percent of its
goals.
• • •
Interested in building
your knowledge of water
law? The Oregon Water
Coalition is hosting a
“Water Rights 101” work-
shop next Tuesday from
7-8:15 p.m. at the Herm-
iston Community Cen-
ter, 415 S. Highway 395.
The workshop will be led
by Greg Silbernagel, the
local District 5 Watermas-
ter. The workshop will
provide an overview of
common terms and con-
cepts in water law such as
priority date and beneficial
use.
The workshop is free
and open to the public, but
an RSVP is requested. To
STAFF PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS
Registered nurse Eryn Griffin gives a dose of a meningitis vaccination to Skyanne Gunn, 12, of Umatilla, on Thursday at the Umatilla
County Health Department office in Hermiston.
Student immunizations must be up-to-date or they will be sent home
By KATHY ANEY
STAFF WRITER
S
tudents who aren’t up to date on
their immunizations are being
sent home today as part of the
state’s annual Exclusion Day.
Last year, Hermiston School
District sent home 84 students. Spokes-
woman Maria Duron said school sec-
retaries have been reaching out to par-
ents since January to make them aware
that their child needed more vaccine-
sand/or needed their records updated to
reflect their most recent immunizations
in order to be able to continue attending
public school.
“It is very important for our students
to be up-to-date with their immuniza-
tions to help protect their peers and pre-
vent others from contracting illnesses,
some of which could be fatal,” Duron
wrote in an email.
Last year, measles broke out in a
Somali-American community in Min-
neapolis. When the dust settled, Min-
nesota had notched 79 cases of mea-
sles — the state’s largest outbreak in 30
years.
Twenty-one people, mostly chil-
dren, were hospitalized. According to
local media reports, fears that the mea-
sles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine
caused autism drove the slump in vac-
cinations from 92 to 42 percent in the
community over 10 years as parents got
exemptions for their kids.
See EXCLUSION, A16
530
147
84
Students were sent letters of warnings of potential
exclusion by Umatilla County Public Health.
Students were sent home last year
on Exclusion Day by the county.
Students were sent home last year in the
Hermiston School District.
See BTW, A16
Lifeways hires consultant to restore confidence
Paul Spriggs-Flanders comes from Wallowa Valley Center for Wellness
By KATHY ANEY
and JAYATI RAMAKRISHNAN
STAFF WRITERS
Lifeways provides community mental
health services in Umatilla County. A
new consultant could help improve
those services.
Lifeways recently got an ulti-
matum: change its ways or lose its
contract.
The mental health provider
responded by engaging consultant
Paul Spriggs-Flanders to help the
agency improve crisis services for
Umatilla County.
In past months, Pendleton and
Hermiston police chiefs and others
have criticized Lifeways for leav-
ing it up to law enforcement offi-
cers to de-escalate mental crises
encountered on the streets. Often,
they said, people in crisis end up in
jail or back on the streets without
receiving adequate treatment. They
also complained that Lifeways
won’t deal with people in mental
crisis who are also intoxicated.
Kevin Campbell, CEO of con-
tracting agency Greater Oregon
Behavioral Health, Inc. issued a
public statement in early January
saying that if Lifeways didn’t make
“key changes” by Feb. 20, its con-
tract for crisis services in Umatilla
County would be terminated.
Spriggs-Flanders could be just
the one to put Lifeways on a bet-
ter course, said Campbell. He said
Spriggs-Flanders, the founder of
the Wallowa Valley Center for Well-
ness, has worked in the trenches
and recently retired from the Enter-
prise mental health center.
“He’s managed crisis services.
He’s worked as a crisis worker. He’s
worked with numerous community
partners such as law enforcement,
courts and hospitals,” Campbell
said.
Spriggs-Flanders could not be
reached for comment. A Wallowa
Valley Center for Wellness repre-
sentative said he worked as a clini-
cian for the group for many years,
and was one of the main crisis
See LIFEWAYS, A16