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Wednesday, July 17, 2019
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Racism and bullying in local schools: Working through a complex problem JULIE THOMPSON chronicle1@countrymedia.net
Adam Corey Fleming.
The spring semester of 2019 was a rough year for area schools concerning the question of racism and bullying among their students. At the beginning of the year, the community came alive on social media, discussing their concerns on community Facebook pages in the wake of allegations from Parkrose High School that racial slurs had been hurled by St. Helens students at a local basketball game. Comment sections were littered with personal stories from schools in every area. Frustrated parents shared accounts of their children’s experiences, and former students long-since graduated shared memories of their own struggles in school. The subject is not strictly a local problem. According to stopbullying. gov, 28 percent of American students in grades 6-12 experience bullying and 30 percent of our American youth admit to bullying others. 70 percent of young people say they have witnessed bullying in their school, and 70 percent of school staff admit the same. The most common types of bullying are verbal and social, and thankfully, statistics show physical bullying happens less frequently. But only 20 to 30 percent of students who are bullied will actually say something about it. However, The Chronicle spoke to two families struggling with these issues in Rainier’s Hudson Park Elementary who wanted to say something. We listened to their stories and touched base with the elementary school to see where they stand in the ongoing battle against such incidents.
JULIE THOMPSON chronicle1@countrymedia.net
After an almost two-week long manhunt, the man suspected of shooting two people in St. Helens was taken into custody on Monday, July 15, in Sacramento, California with the help of the U.S. Marshals Service. Adam Corey Fleming, 31, originally fled the scene of the shooting reported at approximately 10:15 p.m. on July 2 at residence on Cowlitz Street. Following the report, officers with the St. Helens Police Department (SHPD) located two gunshot victims on scene, along with a 7-year-old girl that was found unharmed. Both victims survived, one was shot in the upper arm and the other having sustained multiple gunshot wounds to his lower extremities, and were transported to a Portland area hospital. It is unconfirmed how, exactly, Fleming was brought into custody, but the SHPD credits the U.S. Marshals for their assistance. “The U.S. Marshals Service is a federal law enforcement agency that has access to many resources that we do not have at the local level,” public information officer Crystal Farnsworth said. “Through their partnership and resources, we were able to locate Fleming.” Farnsworth added the SHPD plans to extradite Fleming back to Oregon, but do not yet have an extradition date. Prior to Fleming’s California arrest, he was last seen in Clackamas, Oregon around 2 a.m. on July 3 near a Denny’s restaurant. According to court documents, Fleming is also charged with 15 counts of Encouraging Child Sexual Abuse in the First Degree in Clackamas County, alleged to have occurred on or between Feb. 21,2017 and March 24, 2017. Clackamas County’s Chief Deputy District Attorney, Chris Owen, said the charges relate to the downloading of child pornography. In court documents, a video involving explicit acts with an 8-year-old child is cited specifically. In a May 20 affidavit in support of a motion to continue, Fleming’s court-appointed attorney, Leonard J. Kovac, stated, “we lost contact with the defendant after he was released from custody on
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Vol. 137, No. 29
Julie Thompson/The Chronicle
This little boy’s mother said, with tears in her eyes, that she attended to protest the treatment of children in American detention centers at the border.
Community gathers at Columbia View Park for Lights of Liberty JULIE THOMPSON chronicle1@countrymedia.net
On Friday evening, July 12, dozens gathered down at Columbia View Park in St. Helens for the “Lights for Liberty” vigil to raise awareness about the conditions in America’s immigrant detention facilities. “Lights for Liberty: A Nationwide Vigil to End Human Detention Camps” scheduled simultaneous events on five continents and in nearly 600 locations worldwide, according to the group’s website. “Lights for Liberty began with a series of tweets I drafted, in which I shared the horrors that one of our co-founders, attorney Toby Gialluca, had seen inside the camps,” Lights for Liberty co-founder, Elizabeth Cronise McLaughlin said. “Since then, we’ve watched thousands of ordinary people come together to organize events and
Julie Thompson/The Chronicle
Vietnam war veteran Larry Gallagher spoke at the event while organizer Lori Baker looked on.
fight back worldwide.” One of those ordinary people was Columbia County local Lori Baker, who took it upon herself to organize the vigil for St. Helens.
She said she’d seen there was a vigil planned for Portland and had planned to attend but decided there needed to be one held closer to home. “I just called the city and got a permit for the park and was like, ‘I guess this is happening now,’” Baker said. “I didn’t really think about it. I just hoped that I wasn’t the only one here that wanted to object to what’s happening.” Baker said local April Helton, who helped her lead the event at Columbia View Park, was also instrumental in bringing the vigil together. “We’re talking about what’s happening at the southern border,” Baker said to those gathered at the beginning of the vigil. “We’re all here for the same reason. You learn the facts, and this week I’ve been trying to do that, and I realize I’m
Students speak out
4:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. There will also be the “Piano Juggler,” who will be strolling along the fairgrounds starting at 12:00 p.m. on all of the days except for Wednesday. Rich Aimes, another strolling entertainer, will be at the
Siblings Jasius Gray, a 4th grade student, and Naomi Burton, a 3rd grade student, spent the previous school year in Hudson Park after their mother raised to the rank of Chief in the United States Navy and was assigned to a new crew and ship in California. “When you get picked for Chief, you have a minimum six-week boot camp and your life is literally only two to four hours a day on your own,” the children’s grandmother, Leigh Kenoyer said. “So, it made more sense to have the kids come here for school rather than me go out there for six to eight months. I didn’t want to be down there that long.” Jasius and Naomi are of mixed race and say they have struggled with race-related bullying at the elementary school. Both claimed they had been called “the N-word” numerous times. “There’s other people who’ve been called that, but there’s not that many black people in our school like in our last school,” Jasius said, adding when others bully him about his looks, “It makes me feel sad and it makes me feel different from the others.” Naomi’s hardest day came on school picture day, to which she’d worn lip gloss for the occasion. “Someone said that I was so black that even if I put a whole ton of lip gloss on, they could still see my lips,” Naomi said. “I told the teacher and then the teacher told his mom.” The children detailed several incidents. Jasius in particular has had problems with another boy getting physical with him. There were situations on the bus that Kenoyer said were handled right away after reviewing recorded tape. However, Kenoyer and her grandchildren have grown frustrated with the ongoing problems at school that they feel haven’t seen much change. “It seems to be a continuous thing. I’ve been told that it’s been handled and, of course, I’m not at liberty to know what consequences there were
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The fair is coming to town! CHRISTINE MENGES chronicle2@countrymedia.net
The Columbia County Fair and Rodeo begins today, July 17, and will run through July 21 at the Columbia County Fairgrounds. “I think the fair as a whole is something that everyone looks forward to,” Amanda McFeron, Vice President of the Columbia County Fair Board said. This year’s theme, according to McFeron, is “Barn in the USA.” The fair will include all the traditional events that people look forward to each year. Some of these standard events include wild cow milking, music entertainment, animal barns, a pie eating contest, quilting, canning, photography, the My Fair Lady Pageant, the Junior Rodeo, the Northwest Pro Rodeo Association (NPRA) Rodeo, the Market Auction and of course, the carnival, with many different rides and attractions. There will also be Vendor Village, selling both food and crafts. There are new events on the schedule this year as well, McFeron said. One of the biggest new attractions is the demolition derby, which will take
Courtesy photo
Members of the Columbia County Fair and Rodeo Court at the 2018 Columbia County Fair and Rodeo.
place on Sunday from 12:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. There are also many new performers, like Jackson Michelson, who will be performing on Friday and Saturday from 9:30 to 11:30 p.m. Sara McMahon, originally from Vernonia, will be performing on Saturday from 4:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Jessie Leigh will be performing on Friday from
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Wednesday BEER Night BBQ & WINE 3 pm - 7 pm
Sampling
centerplacemarket.com/sthelens.html • 1111 Columbia Blvd, St Helens, OR 97051 • 7 a.m. to 10 p.m.
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FRIDAY, JULY 19 3:30-6:30 PM