City Mourns 'Tragic Day'
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WEEKEND LIFE: RUN AWAY WITH THE CIRCUS PortlandTHURSDAY, JUNE 12, 2014 • TWICE CHOSEN THE NATION’S BEST NONDAILY PAPERTribune • PORTLANDTRIBUNE.COM • PUBLISHED TUESDAY AND THURSDAY P C B s near O M S I may be c apped for safety PGE: Covering toxins preferable to dredging at downtown sites By STEV E LAW The Tribune State environmental regulators are scruti- nizing a cleanup plan by Portland General Electric that proposes to cover — rather than dredge and remove — two PCB-laden sites in the Willamette River bottom next to the PAMPLIN MEDIA GROUP: JIM CLARK Hawthorne Bridge and Tilikum Crossing. The northern site lies under a popular dock used by dragon boaters, “When you want kayakers and collegiate to remove the crew teams, and adja- C i ty mou rns ‘trag i c day’ cent to a riverfront sediment you stretch the nonprofit have to dredge ■ Human Access Project Students, friends let candles shine to honor slain Reynolds classmate hopes to convert to a it and in the public beach. (See relat- dredging, you By CARI HACHMAN and ed story on page 1 of spread it. LISA K. ANDERSON “I hope that no other mayor around the state Sustainable Life.) The Pamplin Media Group goes through the emotional nightmare we southern site is offshore It’ll go and settle from the Oregon Muse- somewhere else By the time dusk fell on have gone through in this city today. I would um of Science and In- Troutdale Tuesday eve- dustry and the Portland and you’re back ning, emotions overfl owed not wish that on any other mayor. We will get Opera building, near the at square one.” at candlelight vigils across through this, support each other through this new light-rail bridge. — Arya Behbehani, the East Multnomah Coun- PGE, whose past in- PGE general manager ty city as hundreds of peo- and come out OK.” dustrial operations are ple mourned the loss of a — Doug Daoust, Troutdale mayor suspected of causing 14-year-old Reynolds High some of the contamination, proposes to use School student killed in a “isolation caps” at both sites, essentially layers morning shooting. after 8 a.m. At Walt Morey Middle of sand and rock that seal off the toxic materials PAMPLIN MEDIA GROUP: CARI HACHMANN Students, friends and par- Tears flowed at both School’s basketball field, from fi sh and invertebrates. PGE reasons that Rachel Gherman, 15, and Anna Bogdanets, 13 , were ents gathered at the Portland events. Pastors and teachers hundreds sang “Amazing isolation caps, which will cost an estimated $3.1 friends with Emilio Hoffman, the 14-year-old Baptist Church on Southeast offered prayers, calling for Grace,” “Lean on Me” and million, are safer than removing contaminated Reynolds High School freshman killed in Tuesday 179th Avenue and in a fi eld at healing, hope and help in the “You Are My Sunshine.” At sediment and shipping it to a hazardous waste morning’s shooting. They joined hundreds of other Walt Morey Middle School, aftermath of the shooting. the center of the gathering dump, pegged to cost $5 million. people (top) Tuesday evening at a candlelight vigil candles lighting the gray sky, “Everybody weeps in the was a table with a framed “When you want to remove the sediment you honoring Hoffman at Walt Morey Middle School. to honor Emilio Hoffman, same language,” said Port- picture of Hoffman, soccer have to dredge it and in the dredging, you who was shot in the high land Baptist Senior Pastor spread it,” says Arya Behbehani, PGE general school locker room shortly Rick Adams. See TRAGIC / Page 2 manager for environmental and licensing ser- vices. “It’ll go and settle somewhere else and you’re back at square one.” Isolation caps can be designed to last 200 years, Behbehani says. A comparable cap in- stalled by PGE in 1992, where the OMSI USS Blueback submarine is located, withstood the massive 1996 fl ood of the Willamette, she says. Tom Gainer, Portland Harbor project manag- er for the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality, says dredging can be done safely so it doesn’t spread contaminants. However, the agency agrees capping could be the most effec- tive solution at those two sites, Gainer says, and he expects DEQ will recommend modifi cations to PGE’s plan rather than wholesale changes. “I think ultimately we will wind up with a cap that’s acceptable to DEQ,” Gainer says. PAMPLIN MEDIA GROUP PHOTOS: JIM CLARK DEQ confi rmed both sites were contaminated Family members of Reynolds High School students wait for their children to arrive by bus at the Wood V illage Town in a 2008 study of more than 100 soil samples in Center. Police told them to wait until they see their children, then raise their hands and come forward to be reunited. A Reynolds High School student (left) is reunited with a family member at the Wood V illage Town Center. See PCBs / Page 11 P ar ents’ pr ayer s, tear s g r eet c hi l dr en school shooting at Reynolds High “I felt like God was watching over Reynolds students text School, she raced to her car with me on that drive,” Broadous said. tears streaming down her face. The Broadous-Crawford was about to anxious families from mother of a Reynolds High junior start his second-to-last day of locked classrooms prayed during the entire 30-minute school when he heard an urgent drive from her job in Tigard to message on the school intercom: By CARI HACHMANN and Troutdale that her son Parrish “This is not a drill — this is a real LISA K. ANDERSON Broadous-Crawford and other stu- lockdown!” Pamplin Media Group dents were safe. The next few minutes became a In the parking lot of the Wood blur as his language arts teacher Dionne Broadous lost track of Village Fred Meyer, the mother and had students huddle in a corner TRIBUNE PHOTO: JONATHAN HOUSE time Tuesday morning. son reunited, locking each other in Demal Mojica and Stanzie Langtree enjoy the evening After receiving a text about a a tight hug. See PARENTS / Page 2 view from a boat dock off the Southeast Waterfront. PPS ends school year with lots of homework ■ Reports By JENNIFER ANDERSON overpopulation of crowded “Neighborhoods with relative- overhaul of the system. The Tribune schools and underpopulation of ly high concentrations of color The process will stir up con- put school empty schools. end up with an even higher pro- troversy for several reasons: It’s choice, Portland Public Schools’ So says a report handed to the portion in their neighborhood tinged with race; most parents boundaries, decade-old enrollment and Portland School Board on June 2 school,” according to the report. love school choice and don’t transfer system has allowed from the Superintendent’s Advi- “The transfer system, in es- want to see it taken away; and upgrades on white schools to get whiter sory Committee on Enrollment sence, enables a white fl ight, and PPS doesn’t have a good track to-do list and black schools to get & Transfer, which spent 15 schools end up being more seg- record when it comes to public blacker, rich schools to get months studying the district’s regated along racial lines.” processes. richer and poor schools to get enrollment and transfer policies The 50-page report makes six “We’ve seen PPS really strug- SMITH poorer. and their impact on student recommendations to the board, It’s also contributed to the achievement. basically calling for a complete See PPS / Page 5 “Pamplin Media Group’s pledge is to Portland Tribune LINCOLN SALUTES deliver balanced news that refl ects the stories of our communities. Thank you SOFTBALL STAR for reading our newspapers.” Inside — SEE SPORTS, PAGE B8 — DR. ROBERT B. PAMPLIN JR. OWNER & NEIGHBOR A2 NEWS The Portland Tribune Thursday, June 12, 2014 Tragic: Teacher wounded in morning attack ■ As soon as he and other his name, age or connection to From page 1 classmates were shuttled out- the high school by press time. side, Susnjara said he called his jerseys, balloons, fl owers and a mother to let her know he was ‘ It just struck home’ journal for tributes. safe. For several hours after the Stipo Susnjara, 18, who will shooting, students fi led out of be a senior next year at Reyn- Fast reaction by police classrooms and onto waiting olds High School, said he met That scene was repeated dur- buses, where they were sent to Hoffman a year ago. It was the ing the tense hours after the reunite with their anxious par- fi rst day of conditioning camp shooting, as police and emer- ents at local store parking lots. for the high school’s soccer gency responders went room to They walked in a single fi le line team, and Hoffman was an in- room through the state’s sec- with their hands over their coming freshman. ond-largest high school, mak- heads across the school “He came up to me and intro- ing certain students were safe grounds to the church nearby. duced himself,” said Susnjara, and searching for anyone in- Susnjara said police checked who plays on volved in the shooting. students for weapons and then the varisty soc- Troutdale Police Chief Scott put them on buses. He didn’t cer team for Anderson told reporters that hear any details about the Reynolds. the gunman entered the high shooter during the evacuation. Susnjara school’s gym at about 8 a.m., Ismail Kljucanin, 16, also said he was found Hoffman in the locker plays on the Reynolds varsity surprised by room and shot him.