OUR 114th Year
July 30, 2021
SEASIDESIGNAL.COM
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After federal
complaint, softball
team could get a
level playing field
School district
will improve the
softball field
By R.J. MARX
Seaside Signal
In an agreement a
decade in the making,
the Seaside School Dis-
trict will improve prac-
tice and playing fields for
softball to remedy dispari-
ties with baseball that deny
equal opportunity to female
athletes.
The noticeable differ-
ences between the base-
ball and softball diamonds
at Broadway Field create
potential violations of Title
IX, the federal law meant
to protect against discrimi-
nation in education.
Under a resolution
between the school dis-
trict and the U.S. Depart-
ment of Education’s Office
for Civil Rights, the school
district must develop a plan
to ensure equity between
the baseball and softball
programs by next June and
complete the plan by June
2023.
“The girls softball
team has been discrimi-
nated against forever,” said
Randy Anderson, whose
daughter, Whitney, was
a junior varsity softball
R.J. Marx
Randy
Anderson
has
pursued
an
almost
decadelong push to bring
equal male and female
sports facilities to Seaside.
player for the Gulls. “From
the beginning. They’re not
an equal part of the school
system, the sport system.”
Superintendent Susan
Penrod said the school dis-
trict worked collaboratively
with the Office for Civil
Rights. “We are dedicated
to meeting all of these time-
lines and are working with
SEPRD (Sunset Empire
Park and Recreation Dis-
trict) and the city of Seaside
to determine the best loca-
tion for the softball facil-
ity,” she said. “We have
already set aside funds to
Photos by Katherine Lacaze
Melissa Claybaugh and her daughter, Caroline, look for books from the Seaside School District Bookmobile at
Broadway Park.
Bookmobile brings
reading-to-go to Seaside
By KATHERINE LACAZE
For Seaside Signal
A
See Title IX, Page A3
Seaside focuses on
homeless solutions
Forums end with
a plea for help
By R.J. MARX
Seaside Signal
Using city-owned lots
or buildings for shelters
and overnight parking. A
resource center. Showers
and port-a-potties. A warm-
ing center and improved
access to mental health and
drug treatment services.
These options were
among the proposed solu-
tions at Seaside’s fifth
forum on homelessness
held last Wednesday at City
Hall.
“You lose your self-es-
teem when you are home-
less,” Michaela, who chose
to only use her first name,
told the audience.
Michaela, 55, said she
was four days away from
being homeless and liv-
ing in Mill Ponds, a natural
history park where some
homeless people have cho-
sen to stay.
“These people have
been out there so long,
they get so down,” she
said. “You can’t get off the
streets when you’re there at
ground zero with nothing.
You’re so broken. You’re
sleeping on the sidewalk.
And it’s hard, and it’s cold.
“You wake up in the
morning and you’ve got
to go to the toilet. Where
do you go? The bushes.
There’s nowhere to go.
It’s gross. Nobody wants
to live like that. None of
these people want to be like
that.”
ABOVE: Daffne Mejia, a teacher assistant with the Seaside School
District, helps a family look through selections at the school district’s
bookmobile. BELOW: Mejia and her sons, Isair and Zander Leon-Mejia,
oversee the bookmobile at Broadway Park.
s children and their guard-
ians shuffled through a
diverse selection of mate-
rials at the Seaside School
District Bookmobile earlier this
month, they had some assistance
from 12-year-old Isair Leon-Me-
jia and 10-year-old Zander
Leon-Mejia.
The boys, both students in
Seaside, had tagged along with
their mother, Daffne Mejia, a
teaching assistant, to oversee the
bookmobile during its weekly
stops at Broadway Park and
Cartwright Park.
Throughout the afternoon, the
boys not only spoke with pass-
ersby and showed them which
section of the table had the best
books for their grade level, but
they also made sure each child
was offered a sticker and an
Otter Pop to enjoy with their
new reading material.
“They like to help out,” Mejia
said, adding the boys them-
selves would also enjoy building
a library over the summer with
free books.
Mejia is one of several school
district staff assisting with the
bookmobile, which was intro-
duced this summer as a way to
use grant funding from the Ore-
gon Department of Education.
The funds were distributed to
See Bookmobile, Page A5
See Homeless, Page A3
Seaside wins summer baseball championship
By GARY HENLEY
Seaside Signal
There was high drama
last Saturday night at Tapi-
ola Park.
It was Knappa vs. Sea-
side in the end-of-summer,
local Junior Baseball wood
bat tournament, the clos-
est thing to a state champi-
onship to end the shortened
2021 summer sports season.
There was no big trophy
at the end, but there was a
big celebration for the Gulls,
who scored on a walk-off
base hit with two outs in
the bottom of the seventh
inning.
A sharp single to left field
by Lawson Talamantez eas-
ily scored teammate Jake
White from third with the
game-winning run. White
had tripled to deep left just
moments earlier to set up the
walk-off hit.
Before White’s triple,
the Loggers and Gulls were
all set for extra innings in
the back-and-forth game,
in which Seaside led 3-0
after three innings, before
Knappa rallied to take a 4-3
lead in the fifth.
The Gulls scored two in
the sixth for a 5-4 advantage,
and Knappa answered with a
run in the top of the seventh
to tie it at 5-5.
The game was a pitcher’s
dual through five innings,
between Knappa’s Jaxon
Dietrichs and Seaside’s Tan-
ner Kraushaar.
Dietrichs pitched six
complete innings, allow-
ing six hits with four strike-
outs and two walks, while
Kraushaar pitched five, scat-
tering four hits with five
walks and six strikeouts.
Seaside’s ace left-hander left
trailing 4-3 before giving
way to Cameron Schulte to
start the sixth.
Dietrichs also left behind
on the scoreboard, as Sea-
side’s Jackson Bassett was
ruled safe on a close play
at first base, allowing Luke
Toyooka to score for a 5-4
lead.
Seaside freshman-to-be
leadoff hitter Jordan Wester-
holm was 2-for-4 and scored
twice, while Talamantez and
Toyooka also had two hits
apiece.
Knappa had five hits
from five different players,
with Treven Moreland scor-
ing twice.
In the third-place game,
No. 1 seed Neah-Kah-Nie
defeated Ilwaco 10-4, while
Astoria Ford knocked off
Tillamook 4-2 in the fifth-
place game.
Gary Henley/Seaside Signal
Seaside’s Jake White (14) is mobbed by teammates after
scoring the game-winning run in last Saturday’s final game in
a summer-ending tournament for local 17U baseball teams.
Warrenton
defeated
Clatskanie 14-0 in a con-
solation final, as War-
rior pitcher Dawson Little
threw a one-hitter with nine
strikeouts.