Confusion Erupts Over Fitness Paper
A lot of “buzz” has been circulating on social media the past several days in the Mapleton area. Some online are claiming teachers in Mapleton schools have been asking kids, as young as third graders, about their sexual preferences. Sue Wilson, the Superintendent of the Mapleton School District says that is not the case. Wilson likened the situation to the old game of “telephone” where a story is relayed from one person to the next and the end result has very little resemblance to the original story. It appears, she says, to have started with physical fitness standards.
“There’s fitness standards on one piece of paper that are for boys, and there’s fitness standards on the other piece of paper that are for girls. The teacher, like many other teachers who have used inclusive language, said if you identify as a boy grab this paper and if you identify as a girl then grab this paper. And then they moved on to fitness testing.”
Wilson said the intention was only to make sure students were tested using the proper physical standards. The superintendent says the school board has talked about having a “listening session” to hear parent’s concerns. Before this week’s controversy arose, they had already put it on the agenda for this evening’s regular monthly meeting of the board. Wilson says the hope is to have that session soon. The Mapleton School Board meets this evening, six pm, at Mapleton High School. A link to the You Tube “live feed” accompanies this story on Coast Radio’s website.
https://youtube.com/live/TWfAYdt5MXA
Search and Rescue Training
Lane County Search and Rescue was deployed at the Heceta Lighthouse for some ongoing training that the group conducts. While there they helped out the Oregon State Parks in the process. According to Sgt. Tim Wallace with LCSR the team is always training and they saw the opportunity to use their high and steep angle rescue systems to “rescue” a picnic table on the cliff below the lighthouse that had been an eyesore for 20 years. While the inanimate table was not a safety risk it provided a real world training exercise in problem solving and adaptability for the crew. The table was successfully recovered.
Spring Break
Marie Dodds with AAA Oregon says they are predicting a 28% increase in Spring Break travel this season. Spring Break for Oregon Schools begins next week and families will be on the road and in the air. There has been a 60% increase in cruises departing from South Florida according to Dodds with flights up 20% and Hotel bookings up 37% from the previous year. Dodds says that Oregonians that are choosing to stay closer to home are choosing the Oregon Coast, Bend and Las Vegas with some opting for a more tropical climate and heading to Hawaii. With increased Travel comes increased demand for fuel and has rocketed the price of gas in Oregon 15 cents over last week’s prices taking the average to $4.10 a gallon. Here in Florence the price of a gallon of regular is costing on average $3.89.
