Zero tolerance policy toward bullying in the Bend-La Pine Public schools

"Why won't we let them be kids?" "Boys will be boys" "Girls will be girls".

These comments often meet school officials when parents are notified that their child has a warning or other school sanction for harassment. According to Geno Dusan, Principal, La Pine Second Chance School in La Pine, Oregon and Assistant Principal at La Pine Middle School, bullying and harassment are the #1 behavior challenge nationally with Middle Schools.

Geno was a guest speaker on Saturday, Feb. 20, at the monthly meeting at the American Association of University Women, (AAUW) Bend Chapter. Geno's presentation was in two parts, breaking down the components of bullying and what the Bend-La Pine school district is doing about it.

According to Geno, bullying is most common in grades 6 to 10 but can happen at nearly any age and among both sexes. He said the usual forms are PHYSICAL HARASSMENT usual among boys, VERBAL HARASSMENT, common among girls, and SEXUAL HARASSMENT involving both boys and girls from jokes and innuendo to rape. The most recent addition is CYBER-BULLYING through social networking sites.

Geno said the school policy is built around a system called Positive Behavior Support (PBS). The district statistics show, he said, that 85% of the students are on task and on track and are not involved in behavioral problems. He indicated that 10% of the districts students do become involved in problems and respond to positive changes in behavior. Unfortunately 5% are responsible for repeated offenses and have to be dealt with to the full extent of the legal means available.

Geno also said there was another component of the district program that the students are taught: "Respectful" "Safe" and "Responsible" He said when every student was taught to treat each other and themselves with those three tenants as a root philosophy, then the atmosphere was very positive.

Finally he said in his school and throughout the Bend-La Pine schools active adult supervision was practiced. At the first sign of harassment in any form, the offending student is called on it and the weight is placed on the one doing the harassing, not the student who is the victim.

For further information on the Bend-La Pine PBS program contact Geno at geno.dusan@bend.k12.or.us

Respectfully,
Kenneth Fenter

Atlatl at Anasazi Heritage Center

In the book The Ruin there are several themes. One of them is survival of the body through obtaining food and keeping warm. At the 7000+ elevation in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in Colorado the growing season is short. Cliff's family is short on cash but rich in resource on the farm. They eat plenty of fresh produce and meat. As Cliff goes into self imposed exile he can gather fresh produce in the wild, but his diet is accustomed to meat. Through such resources as Mesa Verde and displays of the ancient weaponry dating, some think as far back as 500,000 years in human history, he has seen the "atlatl".

Can he learn to use this weapon to hunt the game available in the canyon where he hides and tries to learn whether there is a place for him on this earth.

Photos: Upper two photos, arrow and spear on display at the Anasazi Heritage Center at Dolores Colorado. The second photo shows the dart that is inserted into the end of the fletched portion of the spear.

Third photo down, diorama at Mesa Verde National Park Museum showing hunters making and testing weapons including the atlatl.

Fourth and fifth photos, display of the atlatl and spear at the Mesa Verde National Park Museum.

Sixth (last) photo, the atlatl. The leather at the top are for the two fingers to fit into and the barb at the lower end fits into a notch at the fletched end of the spear.

Respectfully submitted,

Kenneth Fenter

American West Interpretations with Stephan Zacharias

I wanted to draw attention to a new link to this blog. My friend Stephan Zacharias who is now an actor/performer at Colonial Williamsburg at Williamsburg, Virginia has posted a number of video performances on a website "American West Interpretations". Several of these videos I had the privilege of taping for him a couple of summers ago. It is good to see Stephan transform himself again into the historical figures of such western notables as John Day, John Beeson, Thomas Condon, Jim Bridger's Shakespeare and so on. If you or your organization are interested in following up on Stephan the link is on the sidebar of this blog.

Also I have added several more links. The High Desert Museum which features the wildlife and human drama of the high desert that covers a great part of seven of the western states. The museum located at Bend, Oregon serves a similar resource for the youth and citizens of Bend and the northwest as Mesa Verde served Clifton in the book The Ruin. In these modern days of high technology, plastic, Teflon, and instant gratification, it is good for children of all ages to have a place to go to see how people lived simple but self sustaining lives with just the bare essentials whether in a homesteader's cabin, bunkhouse, covered wagon, cave dwelling, or ti-pi.

I also added links to The Kid's Center and Stop Bullying Now. The Kid's Center helps children who are subjected the most heinous bullying of all, sexual abuse. Their programs help prevention through education and treatment and law enforcement. The Stop Bullying Now site can provide links to further information for help in preventing bullying in schools.

Much is being done, attention is being drawn to the problem, but the problem is insidious.

The fifth site I've added is to Outward Bound, particularly the division dedicated to At-Risk Youth Expeditions. This program has been in existence for years and countless youngsters have benefited from their wilderness experience.

Honey bee tree, the end of the "beeline"

A pivotal part of the book The Ruin is a cliff dwelling found in the quest of finding a bee tree. The character Cliff is challenged by following the "beelines" the path the honeybees take from their nectar source in the fields back to their hive or in this case their colony in a hollow tree. His interest in the tree colonies is not so much to destroy the trees to take the honey, but to be on hand to capture swarms of bees when they multiply in the spring. As a boy working in the wide open fields on the farm in Colorado, I would occasionally become aware of an approaching high pitched buzzing sound that grew louder and louder and became a black boil of circling bees 20 or 30 feet in diameter flying 10 or 15 feet above the ground. I could run beneath them at about the same speed until I ran out of breath. My uncle Edwin who had advice on anything I could ask him, suggested I bang on a bucket or throw dirt up into them or smoke. I tried all those things except the smoke. Where do you get hold of smoke that fast? None of those things worked. Years later I thought about the source. It was the same guy who suggested I could catch a bird by sprinkling salt on its tail. Go figure.

But then he also taught me to study bees working a clover bush and then following their flight pattern when they left that bush. They flew up into the air, circled a time or two and then flew in the direction of home. If several bees flew the same direction you went that direction and listened. If you could hear bees above, and on a sultry day when flowers were in full bloom, you could, you followed that direction. I found trees that way. I don't remember how many now, but that's the way I began to build my first small apiary. When the swarm first emerged from the tree they hung from the tree for a few hours before they flew. Once they flew I never found a way to make them stop. I sometimes found them after they did stop, usually high in a tree top, or some other inaccessible place. It was an interesting and challenging way to wile away a Sunday afternoon.

Respectfully submitted.

Kenneth Fenter

"The Ruin is a must read"

Cover of the Ruin released on Monday, Feb. 1 by Kenneth Fenter

The first review of the Novel came in from the very first person to order the book off the website and to place a comment on the blog! With permission I'm posting it here.

I have just finished reading this book “The Ruin". I couldn't put it down! It is an amazing book! I was fascinated by the story. The detailed information of survival techniques and the description of the land are superbly done. I was able to relate somewhat with “Cliff” the boy in the story having grown up in that region of Colorado and experienced some of the bullying that the story is about. I highly recommend this book to all those who love adventure and challenges, or to those that want to learn about human nature and the battle of survival in mind and spirit. This is truly a beautiful story. I cried. I laughed. I felt fear. But most of all I felt joy and wonder in “watching” Cliff meet the challenges and obstacles of his quest.

An additional comment regard the book "The Ruin". This book is appropriate for all ages. It reaches the young people who are trying to survive and grow up in this adverse society as well as parents and guardians who are trying to raise young people in this adverse society. A must read is my opinion.

Well done, Kenneth, Well done!

Bakersfield, Ca
Feb 8, 2010

I've combined two comments here. To read the two comments exactly as posted go to the comments section at the bottom of the January 23 posting announcing the release date of the book.

I appreciate any comments on the book or the blog. To leave a comment click on the little envelope icon. It takes you to a window with the body of the blog posting and a window for your comment. If you have a google account you sign in to it to post your comment. If you have no account all you do is create one by making up a user name or use your e-mail user name and a password to create an account. It is a two step process to guard against spammers. I will be notified by e-mail that there is a comment waiting to be posted. I can check it to see that it is not spam and then either reject or post. I will post it if it is not spam. I am not above criticism if something can be improved by all means let me know.

Respectfully submitted,
Kenneth Fenter

Basketry at the High Desert Museum in Bend

Klikitat Huckleberry Basket.

Height: 10 in. Diameter: 9 in.

Doris Swayze Bounds Collection

High Desert Museum

As the name implies this basket was used by the women to collect huckleberries according Pat Courtney Gold. There are several in the collection and although the design varies the unique size and construction is consistent among them.

This basket was made from cedar roots with bear grass decorations.

Wasco/Wishxam Twined bag

Height: 5 in. Diameter: 4 in.

Doris Swayze Bounds Collection, High Desert Museum.

Little bags like this were also called Sally Bags According to Pat Courtney Gold who helped provide much of the background information for the Exhibit.

Klikitat Basket

heighth: 8 in. Diameter at top: 12 in.

Doris Swayze Bounds Collection

The broken edge reveals the thick wall of the imbrication style basketry.

The High Desert Museum a few miles south of Bend Oregon on Highway 97 had a wonderful collection of baskets made by the Native Americans of the Pacific Northwest. Many can be seen on display in the "By Hands Through Memory Exhibit Hall of Plateau Indians" at the Museum. Another 90 percent of the collection is in the humidity and temperature controlled collections' vault. I had the good fortune of photographing a few of the baskets there this past year for a calendar project that I share with you in conjunction with the post above.

The information was furnished by Shey Hyatt, Collections Registrar at the High Desert Museum.

Pine needle baskets

Pine needle basket in progress. Photo by Ken Fenter

One of the things I love about our home in Bend is the three old Ponderosa Pine trees that grow in our yard. Forget about the needles and cones they drop in the gutters and drive way year around. The squirrels and birds and the sound of the breezes and the smell of the turpentine makes it all worthwhile. From the start I've wanted to learn how to make a pine needle basket. Each year as we visit the vendors at the outdoor craft shows here in Bend and in Sisters 20 miles away there will be at least one artist patiently weaving beautiful works of art out of the six to nine inch long needles of our local pines.

Almost every term Jean Stark of Sisters teaches a lucky dozen students how to do it. I started trying to get into one of her classes almost as soon as I learned about them, only to find that one had to get on the phone almost immediately when the catalog came out. Finally I was lucky enough to get into her class a year ago and struggled through the day. Ironically at that time I was editing the manuscript of the Ruin and about in the spot where my main character was weaving baskets to store food for the winter. In Jean's class she fills those quiet periods when all the participants are working and the conversation lulls with information about how the Native Americans used their baskets and how making a pine needle basket is similar to making baskets out of grasses or bark or other plant fibers.

Trying to make a basket that Saturday gave a whole new perspective into what my character faced learning to make containers with nothing but a crude sketch to guide him.

Jean is a wonderful teacher and highly accomplished artist and the second attempt was even more fun than the first attempt. I got a little further this time. Maybe even far enough to attempt making one on my own. Maybe I'll have another photo one day.

Respectfully,

Kenneth Fenter

What a Week!

What a week it has been. The book was released to the public on Monday and there was an order in the mail off the website the same day. Now the debate. Do I cash the check or frame it? Is it the same if I photo copy it and frame the photo copy? So the days, weeks, into months and then into years haven't been a wash after all.

I've struggled a good part of the week trying to make the website work. I actually taught a class in web design the year I retired. The kids in the class all were whizzes who didn't need or want any help. Several of them were actually making a living at the time designing and running web sites for commercial clients downtown. A couple of them were sophomores in high school. The sites they were designing were simple one or two pages and a domain. They had no idea how to make several pages in a row or make them follow themes, link them together and so on. My job was to show them how to draw a design on paper that they could sit down to their computer and translate to computer code. There weren't as many programs out with templates as now.

My other main job was to hustle up some funds by writing writing grants, begging and borrowing cast off computers for our classroom. Our handicap was the kids and I were working in a PC world in a district that supported only Mac's.

This week I would have given anything for a visit from one of those sophomores who would now be a 28 year old programmer, who probably has his or own web consulting business, drop by for a cup of coffee.

But tonight I think it is running. Tomorrow I can concentrate on seeing if I can get it recognized by the Googles and Bings and Oh My's.

Respectfully submitted

Kenneth Fenter