Reproductive Health, Lebanon, the FBI, etc.

From the DH story on the loss of the building that housed the Lebanon Pregnancy Alternatives Center:

The FBI says it is investigating the fire jointly with the Lebanon Police Department and has authority to do so under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act.

Now, at first glance, the name of that act sounds to me like it was written to guarantee access to - let's be honest - abortion clinics (pro-choicers are not exactly notorious for shaming anyone who enters churches, now are they?). Given that 'pregnancy alternatives center' is synonymous with 'anti-choice center that will do everything but provide actual reproductive health,' I was a little surprised that such an act would cover something like the LPAC in the way the FBI is claiming according to the story. So I looked up the act. Check this out:

§ 248. Freedom of access to clinic entrances

(a) Prohibited activities.--Whoever--

....

(3) intentionally damages or destroys the property of a facility, or attempts to do so, because such facility provides reproductive health services, or intentionally damages or destroys the property of a place of religious worship,

So.... I think it's reasonable to conclude that whoever wrote this act wrote it to include so-called pregnancy alternatives centers, specifically Christian ones (are there any other kind?). After all, why the hell else would a reference to 'a place of religious worship' be in there?

And after all, it's not like such places actually provide meaningful reproductive health services beyond 'here is how to care for your baby once it's born'.

It's an interesting false equivalance, as well: Something like Planned Parenthood provides the full gamut of reproductive health services, including, I believe, information for those who want to remain abstinent and who want to carry to term. Something like the Lebanon Pregnancy Alternatives Center doesn't seem to provide birth control or even mention abortion, much less abortion referrals, as an option on their website (which I will not link to). Clearly, the two are not equal, yet they are treated as equivalent under this law, apparently.

Sketchy.

Post-Liveblogging Post/Board Meeting Extra-Short Summary

Well... that was interesting. I got a kick out of liveblogging, it got a few positive reactions, and I think a few people even followed along (I think I set a record for the ratio of pageviews to unique visits at about 5:1 for today). I might try that again.

As for the meeting, here's the super-short summary:

Jay Jackson resigned as Director of Operations for PIE during audience comments.

Russ McUne was appointed to the empty seat on the board.

Rick Alexander was very, very quiet.

I'm more suprised by what did not happen:

No one talked about firing, suspending, buying out, or otherwise getting rid of Robinson.

Rick Alexander did not add anything to the agenda or otherwise cause much of a ruckus. (Speculation: He's not happy about Jackson resigning.)

Um.... yeah. All in all, a relatively quiet, well-run meeting. Congrats are due to Josh - he was ten times better than last month. I still think he shouldn't be voting on everything except in case of a tie, but hey. It could be worse.

The caveat: The board went into Executive Session after the meeting ended, so who knows what shenanigans are still going on.

I suppose I'll post more reactions as I have them, but for now, what did y'all think of the board meeting? What about the liveblogging?

Reaction to the Randleman Story

There are, as of this moment, 46 comments on the Express website regarding the Randleman story.

I am pretty sure that's some kind of record. By a factor of ten, probably.

If you plan on reading them, put your waders on. It's pretty rough - and those are the ones that have been approved.

I wanted to note part of one comment here (sorry, can't link directly):

And just because you live across the street from someone does not mean you know anything! How many of us truley [sic] could say that we know our neighbors in such a detail to where you could pin point if they were having an inappropriate relationship with someone?!

I would like to know under what circumstances it's acceptable for a School Resource Officer to have high school students over to their house on multiple occasions and/or late at night. Frankly, I'm not sure there are any - especially when no one else is being told about it.

Observations on the Randleman Story

Observation #1: Without debating the journalistic merits of the level of detail in the recent story on Randleman, I think it was a bad move rhetorically to run that level of detail in the newspaper.

Why? I think it created more backlash than there would have been otherwise, and the story has become at least partially about the Express, and not about Randleman and how the whole thing was handled by the LPD and LCSD staff. Speaking of...

Observation #2: Why are more people not talking about the fact that a) at least two other officers had an idea of what was going on, yet b) neither is being formally disciplined? Oh, sure - Fiala got talked to by Schulte (and probably Healy), but under what circumstances should he have ever given Randleman the benefit of the doubt upon seeing the cars of female high students in Randleman's driveway on multiple occasions?

At the very least, I would think that would demand a very serious conversation with Randleman about what was going on, almost certainly followed by a VERY uncomfortable conversation with Schulte or Healy. The former seems to have happened. The fact that the latter did not happen - as far as I know - does not reflect well on Officer Fiala. Arguably the same could be said of OSP trooper Schott, though I used Fiala as the example because he's part of the LPD and lives near Randleman.

Observation #3: Police officers have a long history of closing ranks and protecting their own regardless of the nature of the incident (see, for example, almost any incident in which an officer shoots and kills an unarmed civilian and/or Tasers someone to death). Clearly, in this case, Randleman got thrown to the wolves - not only were the other LPD officers probably very, very upset with him, but, to be perfectly honest, they probably realized that there was no way to defend his behavior. And, of course, what Randleman did was wrong, and the LPD was right to investigate immediately, etc. etc. That should go without saying.

Back to the larger point: I'll bet ranks have closed around Fiala. The LPD is not going to punish him for this - they're going to deflect the blame onto Randleman. That strikes me as a shitty thing to do. It also strikes me as one of the reasons police officers get a bad reputation.

... adding, that it's certainly an understandable reaction from police officers, given their training, the fact that they are willing to put themselves in danger, their sometimes-rocky relationship with the public, etc. That doesn't make it right, but it is understandable.

Update: It strikes me that my last point might be better explained by noting that the LPD, like many police departments, is probably choosing to punish Fiala internally and informally (and I use the term 'punish' loosely). This is also understandable, but will also probably contribute to any negative reaction, as it provides the appearance of covering for someone's mistakes. Internal policing is tricky.

Fan, Meet Shit. Shit, Here's Fan.

From the Lebanon Express website:

Lebanon police officer Ronnie “Kyle” Randleman, 36, resigned July 14 after investigations by the Linn County Sheriff's Office (LCSO) and the Lebanon Police Department determined that he had lied to detectives probing allegations that he had an improper relationship with a female Lebanon High School student

And away we go.... for the record, I never heard anything about this while I was subbing.

(Sad) Congrats to Express reporter Larry Coonrod for breaking the story, and to the Express for beating the DH (what with the DH being daily and all).

Click the link for the full story.

Immediate Update: While I am normally loathe to make claims about whole populations, I feel compelled to make one here: Just about everyone who works in a high school has thought about this topic - staff/student relationships - at some point or another. It happens in different ways, for different reasons, and in different contexts, but I will just about guarantee it's crossed everyone's mind.

Make of that what you will.

Oh Hell

From the DH:

Two teens charged in Albany gunfire

What started as a drive-by shooting early Sunday morning turned into a car case with more gunshots fired as the vehicles traveled from Albany to Oakville.

The suspects are in custody and no one was injured.

Linn County detectives were still trying this morning to find out what prompted the shooting and whether the suspects and victims knew each other.

Sheriff Tim Mueller provided this account:

Around 2 a.m. Sunday, residents at a house at 1909 Queen Ave. S.W. reported their house had been shot at. Detectives later determined that five rounds hit the house.

Six people in the home got in two vehicles to chase the suspect vehicle, a 1997 Nissan pickup, south on Oakville Road to Highway 34. The pickup made a couple more turns before stopping for deputies on Church Drive southwest of Tangent.

During the chase a man in the back of the pickup fired approximately 10 rounds at the two vehicles chasing them. Both vehicles were struck several times.

The three men in the pickup, all from Lebanon, were arrested without incident.

The driver, Bradley John Zurfluh, 18, was charged with six counts of attempted murder, carrying a concealed weapon, unlawful possession of a silencer, driving under the influence of intoxicants and possession of less than an ounce of marijuana.

Dylan Thomas Debutts, 18, was charged with six counts of attempted murder and possession of less than an ounce of marijuana.

They were both lodged in the Linn County Jail.

A 19-year-old man who was a passenger in the Nissan was cited for being a minor in possession of alcohol and possession of less than an ounce of marijuana.

Two firearms were seized from the suspects, a Ruger 10-22 semi automatic .22-caliber rifle with a homemade silencer attached to the muzzle, and a Raven Arms .25-caliber semi automatic pistol. Zurfluh owns both firearms.

Around 1 a.m. today, residents at the house on Queen Avenue told Albany police that there had been another drive-by shooting outside their home. The shooters fired into the air, they said.

I had them in plenty of classes in which I subbed.

Recall initiated against Lebanon school board member

Wow. Talk about your Friday afternoon info dump:

The Lebanon Citizens Alliance for a Responsible Education System (CARES) announced Friday that it will initiate a recall of Lebanon School Board member Debi Shimmin.

“The members of CARES and this community feel betrayed by Ms. Shimmin. She has broken almost every promise she made during her campaign," said CARES president John Kennedy. "Her votes have been consistently irresponsible and potentially unlawful and will ultimately lead to more litigation against the Lebanon School District. We feel we have no choice - Ms. Shimmin must go before more damage is done.”

More later.

[Flashbacks] A familiar name in a surprising place

From the story on a reopened restaurant in Lebanon:

However, Dorothy Geil, who went by her nickname Dottie, died of cancer in January at age 59 and the restaurant closed soon afterward. Dispute over ownership of the restaurant followed.

...

Other partners in the new venture are Richard Geil and Harold Rodney-Geil.

RICHARD GEIL?!

I know where I'm eating next time I visit the folks.

... adding, this reminds me of sleeping on the 8th (I think it was 8th) floor balcony of an apartment building open to the ocean on the Mediterranean coast of Spain. That was awesome, and feel free to ask outside the confines of the blog if you are curious enough to have the reference explained.

Not a proud day to be from the Willamette Valley...

Website here.

Lebanon Express story on the, um, phenomenon, here.

[Lebanon Truth] A Response to A Particularly Frustrating Comment

This post is written as a response to a comment on this post over at LT's.

Anonymous @ 5:30 PM.... I don't even know where to begin, except to say that my experience does not match your impression of LHS. At all.

I'm going to go through all the claims you make one by one... let's see:

Kids wander the hall regularly and in groups without hall passes.

Sometimes. And often, they get busted for it. How is this a giant problem again?

Kids smoke in the church parking lot, bathrooms, stadium, behind the school and anywhere no one is looking.

And? That's been happening for decades. It's also more of a police function, don't you think? I return to the fact that a rotating cast of dozens smoke in the church parking lot behind the school every day and the police don't do anything about it. Why blame the school?

Open PDA is prevalent.

Hm. I saw very little that was unacceptable, unless "open PDA" includes things like holding hands and hugging. If you have a problem with those, I suggest you stop paying attention to a public school and start paying attention to something a little less grounded in reality, because the only way to prevent such harmless gestures is to turn LHS into a police state.

The dress code is a joke.

Why is there even a dress code in the first place?

Disrespect to staff members is rampant.

And has been for years; the present is only different in that staff are not allowed to hit students (and rightly so). This is a school, not the Army. A little (or even a lot) of healthy disrespect for authority is fine.

Total disregard for district property is the norm.

Again, this is not new, and "enforcing the rules" isn't going to do a damn thing to change this. If anything, this is a symptom of something else.

Vulgar language is the way to communicate.

For the third time, this is not new. If you're suggesting this is a "problem" solvable by anything short of police-state tactics, then I would politely suggest you're in error. It's certainly also a symptom.

And besides, students have a lot to be angry about. They perceive that many adults in the community don't care about them and are more interested in playing games with their futures. I'd be mad too if I thought I was in that situation.

Confront them and face the tidal flow of curse words, laughter and total apathy towrds authority.

Really? I never had that happen, and I worked with just about every student in the school at one point or another. I don't think "respect for authority" should even be a goal in and of itself - blind obedience and subservience is the antithesis of a good education, after all.

These kids are out of control.
And no one is there to control them.

That's just insulting to the entire staff.

There are alot of really good kids there who want to learn.

There are also a lot of really "bad" kids who want to learn, but are facing a variety of barriers. Let's talk about removing those barriers rather than trying to control behavior. Please?

But, too many students there would rather be at the mall.

Why is this the school's problem? How would the school even begin to solve it? Thousands - hundreds of thousands - of teachers, administrators, staff and other education professionals have tried to fight this. It's largely out of the hands of educators.

There should be zero tolerance for disregard of established policies
(which are outlined and approved by the school board).

What happens with zero tolerance? LHS starts kicking kids out for chewing gum or wearing the wrong T-shirts? Who wins then? Certainly not the students.

Let's start by enforcing the rules.

Another parting shot at the staff, huh?

Honestly, Anonymous, it sounds like you have some expectations for student behavior that are way out of line with what's possible - or even desirable. For the sake of the sanity of the students, I hope you don't work anywhere near a school.

[Lebanon] A Questionable Practice

A letter that ran in the Democrat-Herald recently:

The start of a good day

If you haven’t had the pleasure of hearing “God Bless America” sung by the Cascades Elementary School children, you are missing out.

At 8 a.m. every school day, go outside to watch and see them gather around and sing. It is beautiful to hear and watch.

Thank you all for the start of a good day.

Beverly Troutman, Lebanon

Ummmm... am I the only one who thinks this could be one of those things that violates the heck out of the separation of church and state?

Questions to ask: Is this actually happening? How often? Is it mandatory? Is there one class doing it, or does the whole school? Does the school principal know? Does the District Office know? Are there children in the class who, I don't know, aren't of a faith that supports this kind of activity?

And finally, even given the most favorable answers to the above questions, is this legal?

[Lebanon] A Quote that Needs Context

From the Daily Barometer story about the Chinese New Year:

...and Corvallis residents found ways to celebrate the occasion even if they weren't Chinese.

"I usually go out to China Buffet," said Kelley Perry, a resident of Lebanon.

Like I said, it needs context.

[Overdue Posts] Lebanon to Become a.... College Town?

From the Lebanon Express, an editorial that blew my socks off:

During its history, Lebanon has undergone several changes in identity. The small pioneer community of a century and a half ago became a market town for the surrounding farms as the 20th century approached. Timber fueled the economy from the 1930s through the 1970s. When timber was dethroned by environmental concerns and technology, the town faltered economically and became a bedroom community for cities from Eugene to Salem and beyond. The city's focus on economic development in the past decade is bringing new jobs to Lebanon. Lowe's is by far the largest, but others also contribute to the community.

Now it appears Lebanon's identity will change again. It will become a college town.

The idea of Lebanon as a college town freaks me out. I stared at that last line for a good five minutes when I first read it, just trying to picture it. It didn't work.

...in all fairness, I hear the medical school will be accepting about 50 people each year initially, so it's not like we're talking about a WSU/Pullman style situation here. Two hundred students, a fair percentage of which who will live in Albany or Corvallis? That'll barely make a dent in the short term. What will be more noticeable will be the staff and faculty, at least initially.

In any case, I think this is, on balance, a good thing for Lebanon - at the least, it'll hopefully diversify the local economy a bit.

On the other hand, the college will be destroying farmland, which I consider a bad thing.

I know plenty of Lebanon folks read this - y'all have anything to say about this?

Another Thought on Lebanon in Response to Comments

I think we've just about revealed the conundrum here in the comment thread to this post...

Assumption #1: No one on the pro-Robinson/pro-law side can tell Rick, Josh, Kim, or perhaps Debi what to do. Given this, it is incumbent on the former group and public citizens to work towards resolution and reconciliation. This is not fair, but I believe it's realistic.

Assumption #2: Robinson and Sprenger are on the side of the law. This is pretty clear.

Assumption #3: Kim, Rick, Josh, and Debi will not go away as long as (a) they feel there is injustice being done, or (b) until Robinson leaves. I am afraid that the correct answer is either (b) or (c) both, in which case the district is in for one helluva ride.

Given those three assumptions, I think this is one way to express the problem faced by the folks in the district:

If RJKD feel slighted when Sprenger, legal counsel and Robinson hew to a strict understanding of board policy and law, and if no one can really change the behavior of RJKD, and having RS give some ground will not result in behavioral improvements, then what should happen? I see no resolution here that ends with everyone happy and no law-breaking.

Instead, I think I have been making another assumption: That while Rick and possibly Josh are power hungry enough to blatantly ignore the law again and again (as opposed to having learned from their first little adventure), Kim and Debi are not. I'm beginning to think that may have been a bad assumption and that Debi will go along with another stupid enterprise - and that Kim will not stand in their way.

So? I am taking as a given that going after Rick and Josh is not an option, as I've not seen any evidence of that so far, but what if that course of action turns out to offer the best chance at a resolution? Why not start a recall campaign against them?

To put it another way: I am a supporter of the idea of restorative justice; most folks in Lebanon, especially RJKD seem interested in punitive justice. I've been pushing for the former and the commenters here have obviously been of the latter variety. I'm beginning to think that a third way - exclusion of the RJKD block from power into equilibrium can be restored and/or they learn to play nice - is maybe viable.

Just following a train of thought wherever it goes...not really sure about this one.

An Attempted Clarification Regarding LT

This is a response to the comments on this post, in which I clumsily offered a short critique of Lebanon Truth.

I support the existence of LT. In general, I support the ideas the blogger is promoting and I am supportive of the content of most of the posts (I generally note my disagreements with LT through comments at their place). I support freedom of speech, though I should note that this should not be taken as an endorsement that all speech is good speech. Freedom to speak and the wisdom of one's words are very, very different things.

The catch is that I believe that the same content can be delivered in many ways. Language - especially written language - is a powerful thing. The style and tone one uses is crucial in how readers understand one's writing.

In the case of LT, I sometimes think the tone of their writing is often more confrontational and abrasive than need be, and that as a result, I think readers will more likely become mistrustful of the content based on the tone in which it is delivered.

Repeating the truth loudly and often does not guarantee positive outcomes. The phrase "don't shoot the messenger" did not evolve in a vacuum. If it were so, politics in this country would look a lot differently.

This is to say nothing about the malleability of truth for all you Foucault fans out there. That's another post.

So, specific responses:

One anonymous commenter suggested that I think truth-telling and reconciliation are incompatible. That's incorrect; in fact, I think telling the truth is necessary for reconciliation, but not sufficient. Case in point: I've been calling Bush an idiot for years (a statement there is mountains of evidence for), yet he's still in office.

Another commenter suggested that I've bought into a tactic to hush LT up. That's a little unfair, since nowhere in the original post did I suggest that LT should stop blogging. In fact, as noted above, I support LT's efforts. However, my support is certainly not blind. That would be stupid. If anonymous commenter #2 on the original post thinks that supporting LT means never saying anything that could be construed as critical, said commenter is wrong.

This has been my attempt at clarifying my attempt at constructive criticism.

Lebanon's Mascot Finally Gets Some Well-Deserved Attention

I am so, so glad to see that Lebanon's racist mascot is finally becoming an issue. I've been waiting at least five years for this to happen.

For why I am of this opinion, see this PDF file from the American Psychological Association:

“The use of American Indian mascots as symbols in school and university athletic programs in particularly troubling,” says APA President, Ronald F. Levant, EdD. “Schools and universities are places of learning. These mascots are teaching stereotypical, misleading and, too often, insulting images of American Indians. And these negative lessons are not just affecting American Indian students; they are sending the wrong message to all students.”

h/t Stoller.

More LfTaR

Two new posts, both very good:

It Just Gets More Insane

Sports Are Not Bad; Corruption of Sports is Bad

Question

What ever happened to the LCSD employee that boarded a bus and yelled at a child for making a face at her through the back window of the bus?

The only information I can find is this Lebanon Express story from April.

Anybody know what happened?