OPINION READER’S FORUM
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WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 26, 2020
A4
EDITOR’S DESK
Protecting children starts at home
he evils of human traffi ck-
ing and child abuse have seen
increased attention in recent
weeks, including a march in Hermis-
ton last weekend to raise
awareness of the issue.
Increased aware-
ness of such problems is
good, because myths and
misconceptions abound.
I frequently see posts Jade
online cautioning women McDowell
NEWS EDITOR
that sex traffi ckers are
using tactics, such as
placing a fl ier on their windshield
while they are in the grocery store, so
that kidnappers can nab them when
they remove the paper. While it is
always good to take safety precau-
tions against kidnapping, the truth is
that few victims of human traffi cking
are forced into a van in a busy park-
ing lot. Instead, traffi ckers often lure
people in through tactics, such as a
false romantic relationship, an offer
of a modeling contract or job.
In the documentary “Chosen,” one
sex traffi cking survivor tells of how
as a teenager she felt fl attered by
the attentions of a man in his twen-
ties. Eventually, she lied to her par-
ents about a sleepover to in order to
spend the weekend with her “boy-
friend” and he convinced her to do
him a huge favor by dancing a night
at a strip club to make the money he
supposedly needed to pay his rent the
T
HH fi le photo
A Hermiston High School student uses a computer at school in this 2018 fi le photo. According
to law enforcement, it is important for parents to have conversations about online safety with
their children.
next day. He used photos from the
night to blackmail her.
Polaris, the nonprofi t that runs
the the U.S. Human Traffi cking
National Hotline, states on its web-
site that the most pervasive myth
about human traffi cking is that traf-
fi ckers use physical force to kidnap
their victims.
“In reality, most traffi ckers use
psychological means such as trick-
ing, defrauding, manipulating or
threatening victims into provid-
ing commercial sex or exploitative
labor,” it states.
Such predators used to have to
hang out at malls or parks to build a
relationship with their victims, but
these days the internet provides easy
access into almost every home in
America. And unfortunately, many
parents are unaware of large portions
of their child’s online life.
Police have the ability to retrieve
photos and messages from phones
after they have already been deleted,
and last year, when I interviewed
Umatilla County Sheriff’s Offi ce
Detective Kasey Ward about online
safety, he told me that parents are
often shocked to learn what fi les or
browsing history he retrieved from
their child’s phone in the course of an
investigation.
COLUMN
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Reading advice to start the school year
H
ave you seen the preschooler
or kindergartner who reads
without a problem?
Over the years I have seen many
of these great little readers head off
to school appearing as readers. Quite
often they are very smart
and are very aware of
their surroundings. But
are they really readers?
How’s their spelling?
More often than not they
are fooling the adults.
What has happened is Scott
that they are smart, there Smith
is no question. And what they have
been able to do at their age is memo-
rize enough words that, within their
level of books, they had no diffi culty
reading. Parents get frustrated when
their teachers are teaching the letter
sounds and blending because they feel
their child is already a reader. Without
the understanding of how the words
are made, once they hit more diffi cult
reading materials with increasingly
higher vocabulary levels, they may
begin to struggle.
With most children, they are able to
memorize roughly 70 to 80 words and
be able to understand how they are
used. By the middle of second grade,
we often see students begin to strug-
gle. This is because they are unable to
decode unknown words or multisyl-
labic words. Now, they have to step
back and learn the skills their kinder-
garten and fi rst-grade teachers were
presenting, which may cause them to
slow down.
By no means am I saying to stop
encouraging your preschooler from
reading, but make sure they also know
the letter names and sounds. By build-
ing those passageways in your child’s
brain they will be able to transfer them
later in their decoding of words with
strong foundational skills they will be
applying as their reading increases.
Increasing reading comprehension
Reading comprehension is a trans-
fer skill that happens after the devel-
opment of language comprehension. It
is the ability to remember things and
explain things through retelling. This
process begins building pathways in
the brain early in life.
Understanding what we read is so
important in our culture, but compre-
hending starts long before we learn
to read. Growing up in the 1960s in a
very traditional home, it was common
to have dinner together. I can remem-
ber my parents asking about our day
along with them sharing about theirs.
Without really realizing it, they were
teaching my sister and me how to use
our memories to recall and retell infor-
mation we had gained during the day.
Such an easy thing to do — having
your child tell you about something
they did during the day — can have an
immense impact on your child’s abil-
ity to build an understanding of what
they read later. If a child cannot tell
about events in their lives there is a
strong probability they will struggle
with reading comprehension later.
Take the time to have your children
tell about activities and events during
their day. If they are like many kids
they will begin by saying, “Oh, noth-
ing,” or “I don’t know.” That is a cue
they may be struggling with the skill
and you will need to give them some
guided assistance. Stay calm, and
use questions: “Well, didn’t you have
lunch?” Help them trigger memories
so they can talk about the day. They
will build the brain pathways and soon
they will be able to tell you all about
their day.
Today’s kids have access to so
many devices, so use them. Give them
your phone and send them out to make
a video about an object, fl ower, ani-
mal, or the beach. Have them watch it
and try not to give feedback other than
things like, “What a great job.” They
will see faults and take the initiative to
make changes. Even if they do some-
thing different they will build their
skills. You can have them give you
feedback about their video. Ask “What
did you like?” or “What bothered you
about your video?”
Along that same line, have them
retell a story in selfi e-style. Preschool-
ers love to retell stories you read to
them; just have them record/video it.
You will be building stronger path-
ways in their brain, so they will be
able to apply them later when they
start reading.
Asking students simple questions
about their day or having them tell you
about a family event will quickly give
you an idea of their language compre-
hension. Until their language compre-
hension is strong, they will struggle
with reading comprehension.
———
Dr. Scott Smith taught at Umatilla
at McNary Heights Elementary School
and for Eastern Oregon University in
their teacher education program at
BMCC. He serves on the Decoding
Dyslexia — OR board.
CORRECTIONS
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VOLUME 114 • NUMBER 32
Andrew Cutler | Publisher • acutler@eomediagroup.com • 541-278-2673
Jade McDowell | News Editor • jmcdowell@eastoregonian.com • 541-564-4536
Jeanne Jewett | Multi-Media consultant • jjewett@hermistonherald.com • 541-564-4531
Audra Workman | Multi-Media consultant • aworkman@eastoregonian.com • 541-564-4538
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Some parents don’t check their
child’s phone, but others thought they
were doing a good job of checking
up on their child. Their teen was two
steps ahead of them though — using
apps like Snapchat that delete photo
messages after a few seconds, using
incognito mode on their web browser
or using messaging apps meant to
fool parents by appearing to be some-
thing innocuous like a calculator.
Having conversations with your
child about online safety is vital. A
friend recently had to have that con-
versation with a child in her fam-
ily, letting him know the “12-year-
old girl” she discovered was asking
him for explicit photos through the
video game Fortnite may not be 12 or
a girl.
Just as crucially, it is important to
remember that unfortunately the vast
majority of all sexual abuse cases
come not from strangers met online,
but from people that the child (and
their parents) know and trust. Con-
versations about appropriate touch-
ing, consent, and talking to you about
anything that doesn’t feel right are
as important as conversations about
the fact that once you hit “send” on
a photo or video you have no control
over where it might show up next.
These aren’t easy conversations to
have, but solving the world’s prob-
lems usually starts at home.
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The president ignored the warning signs
At the beginning of this pandemic I wrote the White
House to President Donald J. Trump at the beginning of
his plan to reopen the states.
I wrote him a long suggestion letter to not open up all
states, and open up two states at a time each month. This
way all medical personnel can be deployed to these,
opening up states from across the United States. This
would have avoided many unwanted deaths across our
nation.
I wrote the White House twice recommending this
method, and opening up two states every month or
two, so that hospitals do not get overrun by this virus. I
warned the administration twice about what would hap-
pen, and I was ignored.
I had the gut feeling we needed to open up at least
two states maybe every month or two. Now can you
see if we would have taken this route? But most
likely, because I am another incarcerated person, I was
ignored.
Jose Castro
Umatilla
CONTACT YOUR REPRESENTATIVES
U.S. PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
Comments: 202-456-1111
Switchboard: 202-456-1414
whitehouse.gov/contact/
———
OREGON GOV. KATE BROWN
160 State Capitol
900 Court Street
Salem, OR 97301-4047
503-378-4582
Email: www.oregon.gov/gov/Pages/
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