Think Out Loud

Earlier this month, the Urban League of Portland released top-line findings from a new report that examined how Black communities across Oregon are faring. The latest State of Black Oregon — which follows up on a report of the same name from 2015 — found persistent challenges in education, while documenting substantial gains in several measures of civic participation, including voter registration and Black representation in the State Legislature. We talk with the study’s lead author, Jazzmine Waugh, about the new report and possible solutions to the issues it identified. We’re also joined by Aislyn Brown, a Multnomah County teen and Black cultural  librarian, to discuss the role of mentorship in building resilience among young Black Oregonians.

The Bureau of Land Management intended to capture an entire herd of wild horses in southeastern Oregon this month after a wildfire burned much of the vegetation in the area. But a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order limiting the roundup, stating that the agency failed to adequately study how it would affect the herd’s genetic diversity. The BLM began its reduced roundup last week.   April Ehrlich covers lands and environmental policy for OPB. She joins us with more details on the court order and the longstanding conflicts around wild horses on federal lands in Oregon.  

Last Wednesday, thousands of students in Bend-La Pine Schools returned to class following a school shooting at Silver Rail Elementary in Bend on Oct. 15. A 16-year-old former student at Silver Rail killed three children and a teacher, and seriously injured another educator and young student that day. A Silver Rail parent, Kaylub Giamanco, who was passing by the school at the time of the attack, pursued the shooter and fatally shot him.   Instruction has resumed at all schools except Silver Rail, which remains closed. The district is asking Silver Rail parents to complete a return-to-school survey and is gathering feedback from the school’s staff to inform its reopening plan. The district has also set up an information hub with updates and community resources for students and their families.  Meanwhile, an online petition created by a Silver Rail parent calls for improved security measures in the district, including regular security assessments and hiring more security officers.    Bend-La Pine Schools Superintendent Dr. Steven Cook joins us to share updates and what he has been hearing from teachers, staff, students and parents following this tragedy.  

Kaylub Giamanco is a 36-year-old carpenter and father of two children who attend Silver Rail Elementary school in Bend. In an exclusive interview with OPB News Regional Managing Editor Emily Cureton Cook, Giamanco described the “split second decisions” he made when his life forever changed on Oct. 15.    That afternoon, Giamanco pursued and fatally shot an armed 16-year-old who had forcibly entered the school and killed three children and a teacher, and seriously injured two others. “Think Out Loud” features an extended version of Giamanco’s interview with OPB, which was recorded in Bend one week after the Silver Rail school shooting.   Editor’s note: This interview contains descriptions of gun violence. The 16-year-old shooter’s firearm was a shotgun and not a rifle, as Gianmanco refers to it in the interview.  

While juggling her graduate studies in computer science at the University of Washington, Yael Eiger has been volunteering at two prisons in the Seattle metro area to teach math and other subjects. Her weekly visits exposed her to technologies such as electronic kiosks and tablets incarcerated people are required to use for communicating with loved ones or for buying and playing digital content.    Eiger, who is a PhD candidate at UW’s Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering, convened focus groups with formerly incarcerated people and their loved ones to find out how the use of these devices affected them. The focus groups revealed widespread surveillance and censorship of messages, video calls and even educational content downloaded onto the tablets. Participants also reported recurring glitches and delays with video calls and messages they sent, along with steep charges and hidden fees they had to pay – even if the calls dropped or the messages failed to arrive.   Another paper Eiger recently published highlights how the lack of digital literacy skills makes formerly incarcerated people especially vulnerable to phishing attacks and online scams.     Eiger joins us to share her research findings and the latest technologies being sold and marketed to law enforcement and corrections officials.