Spring break plans cancelled due to COVID-19
Due to the Caronavirus spreading so rapidly many spring break travels have been cancelled or postponed due to either travel restrictions or self quarantine.
For those planning on traveling internationally, those plans are to be put on hold. All travel to or from China, Iran, Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK or Ireland has been banned. All US citizens who have visited one of these high risk areas for enhanced screening after reentering the US.
Unless your family is prepared to remain outside the US for an extended period of time, your trip might as well be cancelled.
As for travel within the US, the biggest restriction is self quarantine rather than actual travel restrictions. Mandated social distancing has been enforced along with proactive monitoring for signs of ill passengers has been implemented in many states.
On March 16th, Governor Kate Brown announced that seated dining is banned along with gatherings of more than twenty five people.With the amount of restrictions in place, most people have been finding it easier and less stressful to either travel within Oregon, or just stay at home.
This was very frustrating to many students.
““I understand how important it is to keep everyone healthy, especially my grandparents who I was going to stay with in Hawaii,” junior Damon Grim explained. “It’s still so frustrating to get spring break canceled. I had been looking forward to this trip with my grandparents all year.”
However, some disregarded suggestions to self quarantine and went on their vacations anyways.
“My family was planning on going to Palm Springs anyways and we decided it was still worth it to go to the sun,” junior Maria Breault said. “It’s just so quiet here. My family goes to Palm Springs a bit and I have never seen it so void of people.”
With Coronavirus being so new, many people are not sure how to react. Many people are taking it very seriously and staying in door while others and taking advantage of no school and exploring nature. To learn more about COVID-19 go check out articles by senior Shawna Muckle or junior Rosa Madden that discuss the recent outbreak.
Stay safe and have a good spring break!
Gwynne Olson is a junior staff writer for the Jesuit Chronicle. Gwynne is the youngest of two. Brooke, her older sister, is a recent graduate from the...
Friday, March 20
Wikipedia
Most of Oregon's most densely populated counties have recorded at least one positive case of COVID-19.
School updates: Throughout the week, Jesuit’s administration has sent the student body daily videos of various faculty members with a message for the day. Sometimes the video encourages us to get out and exercise, and other times it’s just a fun, entertaining clip.
World updates: On Thursday night, California Governor Gavin Newsom ordered California’s 40 million residents to stay home for an indefinite period of time, enacting the country’s largest lockdown as U.S. cases of COVID-19 now number over 15,000. California residents may still leave their homes to purchase pharmaceuticals, groceries, and healthcare, as well as for essential work commutes. Any further travel is now a misdemeanor under California law. Newsom has publicly predicted that 56% of Californians will contract or test positive for COVID-19 over the next eight weeks without proper resources and extraordinary preventative measures such as the lockdown.
The Oregon Health Authority reported 27 new coronavirus cases Friday, bringing Oregon’s total case count to 115. Washington County remains the top county for positive COVID-19 results, with 31 confirmed cases. OHA also reported 2,003 negative COVID-19 results and 433 tests pending.
Congress continues to chip away at a stimulus package now projected to significantly exceed $1 trillion, with Democrats adding their own must-haves in four bipartisan working groups that convened in the Senate on Friday. Democrats, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, have called for unemployment insurance that guarantees laid off workers receive close to their full salaries, as well as a so-called “Marshall Plan” for hospitals. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has urged senators to reach agreement by the end of the day today so that the Senate can begin drafting the bill Saturday and potentially have a final vote on the legislation Monday.
Thursday, March 19
Oregon Live
An Aloha High School student has tested positive for COVID-19 and attended school while infected.
School updates: Online learning allows students to complete their tasks anytime that day, giving students lots of free time to occupy themselves with. To utilize these digital learning days effectively, Jesuit has decided to send out a google form today surveying student’s thoughts on how their online learning days have played out, as well as urging students to contact their counselors anytime they need help.
Multicultural Week places spotlight on racism and microaggressions
Jeanne Manthey
Both portions of Multicultural Week contained pointed references to social justice issues such as border camps--and most significantly, to microaggressions at Jesuit.
During this year’s Multicultural Week awareness assembly, student speakers shared their experiences as people of color and identified a broad array of racial aggressions and fears, many of which related to subtle experiences of ostracization and judgment.
Senior Arleth Rodriguez and sophomore Melanie Elizarazazz addressed the lingering shame and sense of inadequacy that have at times accompanied their immigrant families and the color of their skin. Senior Daniela Rosas shared the horrific, heartrending story of her mother’s deportation and its unseen ramifications. Junior Noah Lyman delivered a powerful poem on the systemic persecution of native Hawaiian people.
In all of their talks, these students communicated present, raw anger amid their racial experience. Within that enduring sense of anger, a few students’ speeches contained a pointed reference to an experience at Jesuit that had contributed to their sense of cultural alienation. Most of these anecdotes involved routine, offhanded, unintentionally racist remarks that went seemingly unnoticed or unaddressed—except, of course, by the students of color affected by those remarks.
There is a term for these casual and unintentional instances of racism that has increasingly gained traction in conversations on race and identity: microaggressions.
Psychology Today describes microaggressions as the “everyday verbal, nonverbal, and environmental slights… [that] communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative messages to target persons based solely upon their marginalized group membership.” Microaggressions often assume the form of a passing comment or even subconscious behavior, but they cause pervasive and resounding discomfort for the person impacted by the microaggression. Other forms of microaggressions include racist remarks passed off as jokes or satire.
As widespread fear over the COVID-19 pandemic takes root in American culture, unfounded xenophobia and racism against Asian-Americans has become increasingly commonplace. Sophomore Jenny Duan notes that Asian-American students at Jesuit have had to contend with discomforting racist jokes and harassment due to the outbreak, on top of other offensive Asian stereotypes and jokes.
“Especially right now, with the prevalence of the Coronavirus, there are a lot of jokes about Asian people having the Coronavirus,” Duan said. “Another example for me is that in freshman history class, during our unit on ancient China, someone made their Kahoot name in Chinese characters ‘yellow people eat dogs.’ I think that in certain situations there are moments where I do feel uncomfortable. People need to understand that jokes about race, especially when they’re directed at a person, they become a personal attack rather than a joke.”
Various types of microaggressions
Deeply hurtful jokes and attributions of disease against East Asian students amid the COVID-19 outbreak represent one type of microaggression: explicit racism protected under the guise of sarcasm or comedy. Racist jokes are often portrayed as the most intentional, most problematic, and most obvious form of microaggression.
Senior Ana Pacheco, sophomore Sara Tapia, and junior Kassandra Gomez all observe, however, that more implicit incidents, such as insensitive questions, assumptions, and double standards, represent the vast majority of microaggressions they’ve encountered at Jesuit.
“One example [of a microaggression] is people will be talking in class and they’ll try to say something in Spanish, and then they always look at me, asking ‘oh, did I do it right?’” Pacheco said.
Tapia adds that this type of interaction, while presumably innocent and lacking in racist intent, makes Hispanic students feel singled out.
“They try to justify their actions by asking us if it’s okay, and it’s awkward if we say no,” Tapia said.
Gomez also claims that when it comes to speaking Spanish, or speaking in a certain vernacular, Hispanic students are received much differently for embracing their own culture than white students who attempt to appropriate or make light of it.
“The way we speak, they want to speak like us,” Gomez said. “When we say it, it’s ‘oh she’s kinda ghetto,’ but when they say it, it’s funny.”
Pacheco and junior Amen Zelalem emphasize that white students asking questions, even ones that brush against cultural sensitivities, furthers racial discourse and isn’t necessarily a problem. However, they also observe that more often than not, students frame questions in a way that leads with racially biased assumptions.
“If they ask about a tattoo, ‘is that a gang sign?’ then that’s uncomfortable. But if they ask, ‘what does that mean to you?’ there’s a difference to that,” Pacheco said.
Zelalem suggests that a spirit of open-mindedness in how non-minority students ask questions can help reframe how students of color receive them.
“If you’re open minded, that’s the best way to ask,” Zelalem said. “Don’t assume ‘this means this, right?’ People have to be open to being taught and being wrong. You can’t just get all defensive when somebody tells you [microaggressions you perpetuate] are not okay.”
Even more covert than misguided questions or assumptions, subconscious behaviors among students can also make students of color feel ostracized, particularly during conversations about racism or racial atrocities.
“When people start talking about slavery in class, people either are all not looking at you or all looking at you,” Zelalem said.
Teachers can also perpetuate microaggressions
Beyond ignorance perpetuated by students at Jesuit, certain teachers and faculty have also been culpable of perpetuating microaggressions in their instruction or in classroom conversations, say Pacheco and Zelalem. With teachers, it becomes more difficult for students who do pick up on their microaggressions to feel safe calling them out or correcting the narrative.
“Teachers will be telling a story or making a comment, and I’ll be like, ‘was that okay to say? Was that racist?’ Zelalem said. “They’re a teacher, so I’m not going to stop the class and say, ‘hold on, I don’t think that was cool.’ I feel like I don’t have the right to speak up in class because I think, ‘well, no one else is speaking up, so I’m not going to.’ And other times I worry, ‘oh, I’m just overreacting.’”
Pacheco remarks that the overall lack of students of color at Jesuit makes it all the more difficult to stand up against teachers who foster an uncomfortable or unsafe racial environment, as she doesn’t always expect support or solidarity from her classmates.
“A time when I feel a little unsafe is the first day of school when I walk into a classroom and I realize I’m one of only about two people of color,” Pacheco said. “People don’t think it makes that big of a difference, but it does, especially in classes like English if a teacher makes you [read aloud] the n-word. It’s really uncomfortable to be in that situation, to have to stand up for everyone because [my white peers] don’t realize what it’s like.”
Safe Places
While microaggressions represent a daily struggle for students of color at Jesuit and come from a broad swath of people with varying degrees of authority, there remain ongoing and future opportunities to create safe spaces for students of color and to more intentionally combat microaggressions as an institution.
In particular, Pacheco, Gomez, Zelalem, and Elizarazazz all praise the Diversity Office as the place they feel safest and most supported at Jesuit.
“In the Diversity Office, we can say whatever we want, we can talk to Ms. Lowery or Mr. Kato or whatever teacher is in here,” Elizarazazz said. “It’s mainly this room, and it’s the teachers that make it safe.”
Moreover, the Awareness Assembly this year made important progress in how Jesuit approaches race. The fact that many speeches didn’t wrap up with a neat, satisfying conclusion and some students, like Rodriguez, had the latitude to call out peers who weren’t listening resulted in a more accurate representation of racial identity than assemblies past.
“If I were to talk in front of Jesuit, I always felt that I would have to say, ‘I’ve learned to accept myself and love myself even though I’m Asian,’ but that’s not really the reality, and I know that’s not the reality for my friends of color,” senior Kaylee Jeong said. “People need to know that we’re upset and things aren’t changing and not everything is going to resolve in a happy, loving way. The battle with your race is something that happens throughout the course of your life and it’s something that’s so much deeper than ‘okay, I’ve learned to love myself now.’ It’s so much more difficult.”
The willingness among the speakers to candidly convey the bitter parts of their experiences as people of color also helped attach a human face to common racial injustices and individualized racist behaviors. In particular, Pacheco notes that Rosas’ commentary on her mother’s deportation illustrated fears that many members of Jesuit’s Hispanic community grapple with.
“A lot of people with immigrant families, they know from a very young age what to do if mom and dad don’t come home,” Pacheco said. “They know who to call, they know who they’re going to stay with, they know where the cash is if they need it. For [Daniela] to say that, it makes a lot of people see what we go through.”
Finally, future efforts to embed race education into a four-year curriculum at Jesuit represents perhaps the most comprehensive tool to combat microaggressions. Because microaggressions are often implicit, nuanced, difficult to understand, and intermingled with more systemic racial issues, they require significant instruction for students to fully understand them. Indeed, finding a way to communicate the consequences of racial microaggressions may be Jesuit’s biggest challenge as it ponders how to become more culturally responsive.
“My big thing about my experience at Jesuit is that we say, ‘yeah, racism is bad,’ and everyone knows that, but when someone says ‘why did you get a C on that test, shouldn’t you be doing better, won’t your parents get mad because you’re Asian,’ it’s hard to say anything and it’s hard to explain why that’s racist,” Jeong said. “It’s very obvious in a larger context, with bigger, more tangible issues, but the little stuff is what piles up and really gets to you.”
Shawna Muckle, 17, is a senior at Jesuit High School. She has been a member of the Chronicle staff for three years in various capacities, and she is currently...
Wednesday, March 18
Mr. Clarke
Students receive daily copies of the planned Examen prayers in order to continue Jesuit's tradition of reflection and contemplation.
World updates: As of Wednesday morning, there are currently 68 cases of COVID-19 in Oregon, a steep increase from Sunday’s count of 39 total cases. In response to the uptick, Gov. Brown has extended the closure of all public schools until Apr. 28, which Jesuit has followed as well.
In federal news, President Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the suspension of all non-essential travel between the two countries to contain the spread of the virus. While the temporary suspension’s timeline is still being hammered out via joint agreement, essential travel, particularly supply chains that involve the trucking of food, medicine, and fuel across the U.S.-Canada border, will be exempted from any border closure.
The Senate also passed the $100 billion House bill to provide paid sick and childcare leave, expanded unemployment insurance, and free coronavirus testing. That bill now heads to Trump’s desk for his signature. Senate Republicans are now working in coordination with the White House on a much larger, $1 trillion-plus package–known as “Phase 3”–that lawmakers and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin have suggested will provide $2,000 to individual adult Americans in separate $1,000 cash installments, with a cutoff at some point and lesser, fixed amounts for wealthier Americans. Other details of the unprecedented economic stimulus proposal, such as small business loans and affected industry relief, are in the midst of negotiation.
Tuesday, March 17
Time
The Dow Jones rose roughly 1,000 points on Tuesday, a result of bipartisan support in Congress for a massive economic stimulus, after a week of intense volatility.
School updates: Alongside teachers who are trying to ease students around the tension of this new type of learning, counselors and librarians are trying to help students adjust to online learning by offering their own office hours as well. Additionally, Ms. Tormala and student government sent out a Google form allowing students to ask general questions should one arise.
World updates: The Senate is currently drafting bipartisan legislation in coordination with the White House to address the spiraling economic ramifications of COVID-19. President Trump and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin have proposed a roughly $1 trillion stimulus package to provide large-scale consumer and industry relief (Washington Post). The sweeping package would build upon a $100 billion spending bill passed by the House, which mandates employers with 50 to 500 employees provide 10 days paid sick leave to their employees, while also increasing funding for federal unemployment insurance and free COVID-19 testing (The Hill).
The additional $850 billion in stimulus spending will likely be directed towards providing broader relief to Americans impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak, particularly those with children and those with service industry jobs. Mnuchin and Trump have proposed $50 billion in airline industry relief, an attempt to ease tensions in a flagging, volatile stock market. Most significantly, the White House and several Senate Republicans, including Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) and Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AK) have signaled support for immediate $1,000 cash distributions to many Americans. While it’s unclear how many Americans will actually receive the payments, with Sen. Cotton suggesting that imperiled wage workers are the primary intended recipients, the bipartisan support for a temporary form of Universal Basic Income (UBI) represents a surprising development for Capitol Hill, where many members of Congress have been previously wary of the policy.
Monday, March 16
Joy105.com
Oregon joins several other states in instituting bans, effective immediately, on in-person dining out.
School updates: The spread of the Coronavirus sweeping the whole nation calls Jesuit into action. Starting this week, March 16th, Jesuit high school has decided to close down the building in attempt to reduce person-to-person contact. In doing so, students and teachers switch to online learning through canvas.
Teachers are expected to post their assignments for the day by 10 am so students have the rest of the day to complete them. The due date for all assignments is 10 am the following day. In an effort for this week to run smoothly, teachers have set up various office hours, which is a set time block where students can email teachers with questions and expect a quick response.
World updates: In an effort to contain the spread of COVID-19, Governor Brown announced Monday that all restaurants and bars must close except for take-out and deliveries. She also banned gatherings of more than 25 people for at least four weeks, a significantly more restrictive measure than the ban she placed on gatherings of 250 or more last week. President Trump has also advised the country to avoid gatherings of more than 10 people.
Brown’s additional restrictions come two days after her Saturday announcement of Oregon’s first fatality due to the Coronavirus, a veteran in his seventies. As of Sunday afternoon, Oregon had 39 confirmed cases of COVID-19.
Washington County Commission Districts 1 and 3
Washington County, Oregon website
With Commissioner Schouten's retirement in District 1, Commissioner Rogers is the only incumbent running for re-election.
In 2018, the Washington County Commission, a 5-member board considered the chief executive body for Washington County, had significant turnover, with three new members replacing longtime incumbents. Though the board is technically nonpartisan, members often have an implicit party association based on which county political party and interest groups endorse them. The party composition of the board in 2018 shifted from a 3-person Republican majority to a 4-person Democratic majority.
In 2020, two commission seats are up for grabs: District 1, which includes Jesuit and other parts of Beaverton, and District 3, which includes Tigard, Tualatin, and Sherwood. Commissioner Dick Schouten, first elected in 2000, is retiring from District 1, setting off a three-person race for his seat. Meanwhile, Commissioner Roy Rogers, the Commission’s longest serving member and the last remaining Republican-endorsed commissioner, is running for re-election against Ben Marcotte, a software engineer from Garden Home.
Whether the Commission will retain its last remaining experienced member–and whether yet another fresh face on the Commission will change how Washington County approaches policymaking–makes the Commission race a must-watch for residents of Washington County.
Beaverton mayor
Wikimedia Commons
Beaverton Mayor Dennis Doyle has served since 2009. He is currently running for his fourth term in office.
For Jesuit students who live in Beaverton, Beaverton’s mayoral race may have significant consequences. Unlike every other city in the Portland metro area, Beaverton’s mayor functions as the chief executive of city government. Other cities, including Portland, appoint a city manager that collaborates with city council to institute policies. As a result, Beaverton’s mayor often exercises more authority compared to other mayors. Current Beaverton Mayor Denny Doyle has two challengers, Beaverton City Councilors Lacey Beaty and Cate Arnold, who serve Position 3 and Position 4, respectively.
Doyle is 70 and has served three terms, while Beaty is 35 and was Beaverton’s youngest city councilor when elected in 2014. Beaty has made the race about age and generational differences, arguing that Beaverton’s next mayor should be thinking about the next twenty years, not just the next four, which she suggests Doyle’s age prevents him from doing. Beaty generally embraces similar goals as Doyle, such as affordable housing and business development.
Meanwhile, though the race has long centered around Doyle and Beaty as the lone two candidates, a last-minute entry by Councilor Arnold has shaken up the race. Arnold stresses that she is only running for office to promote the adoption of Beaverton’s revised city charter, which voters will also decide on May 19. The charter will limit the powers of Beaverton’s mayor and create an appointed city manager-style government, a change that mirrors the organizational structure of most city governments, while also giving the mayor a seat on the Beaverton City Council.
Portland mayor
Wikipedia
Current Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler (pictured above) assumed office in 2017 and is competing for a second term.
Portland will hold a nonpartisan mayoral primary on May 19, with the top two contenders facing off in November. Incumbent Mayor Ted Wheeler has attracted four Democratic challengers due to widespread controversy over his handling of public protests, particularly in regards to white nationalist groups such as the Proud Boys, as well as perceived mismanagement over his handling of Portland’s homelessness crisis and the proposed expansion of the I-5 corridor in the Rose Quarter.
His most significant challenge comes from Sarah Iannarone, an educator who has framed herself as an outsider and a progressive alternative to Wheeler. Other challengers include Theresa Raiford, an anti-gun violence activist, and Ozzie González, a TriMet board member.
Oregon Secretary of State
Mail Tribune
Oregon's current Secretary of State, Bev Clarno, assumed office in 2018 after the death of her predecessor, Dennis Richardson. She will not seek election.
Oregon’s Secretary of State is currently the only state executive office held by a Republican. Since Dennis Richardson’s death in 2018, the seat has been held by his interim replacement, Bev Clarvo, who has announced she will not seek election in 2020. As the last stronghold in Oregon’s state government for Republicans, there is a fierce primary battle underway for Democrats.
In the Democratic primary, three candidates are competing for the nomination. Jamie McLeod-Skinner, a Terrebonne Democrat who gained political limelight for her challenge against Greg Walden in 2018, announced her candidacy late last year. She has distinguished herself as a centrist, rural candidate who made some inroads in Walden’s ruby-red district last year, though she still lost by 17 points. Rep. Jennifer Williamson, a Democrat from Portland and the former state House majority leader, and Sen. Mark Hass, a former television broadcaster and a state senator representing Beaverton, are also vying for the nomination.
For Republicans, Sen. Kim Thatcher and Dave Stauffer will face off for the Republican nomination in May. Thatcher is from Keizer and has served in the state legislature since 2005. She has positioned herself as a pro-business, pro-transparency and accountability Republican, which echoes Richardson’s reputation as Secretary of State. Stauffer, meanwhile, is a former Democrat who ran for governor in 2016 and proposed alleviating traffic on the I-5 bridge by building water slides.
Oregon Congressional District 2
Wikipedia
Oregon's Congressional District 2 covers a broad swath of rural portions of the state, including all of central and Eastern Oregon.
The only Republican-held congressional district in the state, Congressional District 2, is being vacated by longtime incumbent Greg Walden, who has held the seat since 1999. While District 2, which encompasses much of Eastern Oregon, has traditionally been solid red, a slate of Democratic candidates hopes to capitalize on the tightening gap witnessed between Walden and his Democratic challenger in 2018.
In the Republican primary, there are currently 10 Republican candidates running to replace Greg Walden. Some of the more well-known challengers include Knute Buehler, who ran for governor in 2018, as well as state Sen. Cliff Bentz, a Republican from Ontario who represents parts of central and eastern Oregon. While Buehler has the most centrist, moderate reputation of the Republican primary candidates, he has adapted his messaging to hue more closely to Trump and traditional conservative values in an effort to win the heavily conservative primary.
In the Democratic primary, there are four Democrats vying for the Democratic nomination in C.D. 2, including Medford caregiver John Holm and Klamath Falls community activist Alex Spenser. The lack of established Democrats running for the seat is perhaps indicative of the presumably long-shot chances any Democratic nominee will face in the general election, as Cook Political Report continues to rate the district solidly Republican.
