BEACHC
VASHON-MAURY ISLAND
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 22, 2015
Vol. 60, No. 16
See Pages 11–14
MBER
www.vashonbeachcomber.com
75¢
Harbor School purchases Carpe Diem Schools will merge but keep separate buildings for now By SARAH LOW Staff Writer
Harbor School has purchased Carpe Diem Primary School, resulting in the island’s only private K-8 school. Those involved in the merger, which was formally approved by Harbor School’s board on Monday, say that while the purchase happened quickly, the idea has been in the works for years. “This was the logical next step,” said Janice Campbell, former owner and head of Carpe Diem. “For the school, myself, for all involved to continue to grow.” Campbell has owned and run Carpe Diem, a for-profit school for children in kindergarten through the third grade, for the last eight years, and she was a teacher there for four years prior to that. Her son attended the school before she started teaching there, and she believes her time at the school has simply run its course. “I have been able to enjoy being a full SEE HARBOR SCHOOL, 19
Photo by Charles Conatzer, courtesy of the Backbone Campaign
Protestors rallied last Friday in front of the Polar Pioneer after it arrived in Port Angeles. They have several more demonstrations planned.
Activists plot to stand in the way of Shell Backbone Campaign, others will try to stop oil rig from leaving Seattle By NATALIE MARTIN Staff Writer
As a massive oil rig came into view last Friday morning in Port Angeles, protesters were already on the shore. As dawn broke,
they slipped kayaks into the water, preparing to greet the incoming rig with a small rally. The group of activists, which included some islanders, made headlines for their part in the on-the-water protest against Shell’s oil drilling the Arctic. However, those involved say last Friday’s demonstration was just a warm-up for what’s to come. They’re hoping hundreds more will join them on the water for the main events — a floating demonstration in Elliot Bay in May and finally an
attempt to block the rig, the Polar Pioneer, and prevent it from leaving Seattle and heading to the Arctic sometime this summer. “This is a historic moment,” said Bill Moyer, director of the Backbone Campaign, a political action group based on Vashon. “It feels like 11 years of work we’ve done have in a sense been in preparation for this very moment.” SEE ACTIVISTS, 17
A career in cannabis
Local neurologist leads in unearthing the medical benefits of marijuana By NATALIE MARTIN Staff Writer
Natalie Martin/Staff Photo
Dr. Ethan Russo works out of his home office on Vashon.
Last week the grange hall was packed for a lecture by Dr. Ethan Russo. The standing-room-only crowd was silent as Russo, a neurologist, flipped through a PowerPoint presentation packed with charts, graphs and molecular diagrams, and easily rattled off scientific terms. Only the occasional mention of cannabis or picture of a leafy green plant revealed to the untrained listener that Russo’s lecture was all about marijuana. The talk, which drew people from Seattle and around the region, was a coming out of sorts for Russo. For several years, the 63-year-old has
worked quietly out of his Vashon home, directing and publishing studies as one of the country’s leading medical marijuana researchers. He’s rarely spoken publicly about his work, and then only at medical conferences in far-flung locales. That is until recently, when Russo left the large pharmaceutical company he worked for, removing what he called his velvet handcuffs, and the legalization of recreational marijuana in Washington created a friendlier climate to stand up and talk about pot. Russo’s lecture at a meeting of the Vashon Island Marijuana Entrepreneurs Alliance SEE NEUROLOGIST, 20