We begin with a breaking traffic
alert here at 5:00 o'clock and a
deadly crash on Southwest Barber Blvd.
It's closed in both directions
right now between Southwest
Capitol Highway and 30th.
This is a live look from the ar.
Authorities
say 2 vehicles were involved int
crash earlier this afternoon jut
east of the Barber Transit Cent.
One woman is confirmed dead.
Another person was taken to the hospital.
No word yet on their condition.
It is also unclear at this point
what led up to the fatal crash.
This is the Rose City's 35th
traffic related death of the ye.
We will update you,
of course, as we learn more.
Tonight, Portland Public School
employees are speaking out,
claiming sexual harassment is fr
too common in the school distri.
Just this week, a custodian quit her job
while speaking during a school d
meeting about harassment she fa.
Thank you for joining us.
I'm Laurel Porter.
And I'm David Mulko.
Other district employees have
filed complaints to both
the state and their union.
Thomas Schultz has been diggingo
it all over the past few days. Thomas,
you talked to that custodian who quit,
as well as district officials h.
What are they telling you,
David? We spoke to Malik Elker,
who says she was sexually harasd
at a middle school and asked
to be transferred this spring.
The school district obliged,
sending her to Lincoln High Sch.
Once again, Elker says she faced
harassment, leading her to quit.
They sent me to different
school and I'm having
problem in another school. Earlr
this week at a Portland
public school meeting,
custodian Malach Elker quit
after only a month working for
Oregon's largest school distric.
Here's my card, my keys.
She claims she faced sexual
harassment at two different sch.
First at Jackson Middle School,
where Elker says a fellow custodian continued
to ask her to come to his car during breaks.
She told her supervisor of the harassment,
who brought the issues to her manager.
Elker says her manager told her
not to go to HR and that they wd
handle the situation inhouse.
So every day go to different break rooms,
teachers break room, hiding away from him.
But the problem didn't improve, Elker says.
After a week of harassment, she emailed HR.
A school district spokeswoman says the
district received Elker's e-mail on June
22nd and began an investigation immediately.
A district official responded rt
away and interviewed Elker the next day.
At her request, the district
moved her to a different school,
Lincoln High School.
But there, Elker says,
her new supervisor harassed her,
continually asking her out to movies. And
he kept asking
and asking and asking and asking
and asking like not once a day,
a lot of times. Portland
Public School says Elkers claim
is under investigation and that
the district moved quickly once
they heard the allegations.
In a statement, Portland Public School
says it will continue to activey
and thoroughly investigate any n
all reports of sexual harassmen.
Custodian Gabe Pink is a union steward
and says he has heard of several women
who have been sexually harassed.
Especially
in the last couple of months.
People have been coming forward
talking about the sexual
harassment they've been facing,
repeated comments from from othr
custodians, from supervisors.
Asking them out repeatedly,
district officials say they have asked Pink
to meet four times but have not heard back.
Fellow custodian Annika Peterson
couldn't meet me today for an interview,
but told me via text message she's also
experienced harassment on the j.
She said a fellow custodian yeld
at her and acted like she was db
because she was a young woman.
While working at Odyssey Middle School,
Peterson says she notified her manager and
begged to be transferred to another school.
Eventually, her manager switcher
hours from 4:00 to 10:00 PM to 5:50 PM
and transferred her to another school.
She told him she couldn't work that shift
because she had class in the mornings.
The next day she was fired.
Teachers in the district have ao
complained of sexual harassment.
There are multiple members right
now that we are advocating for
with sexual harassment cases.
One special education teacher fd
A complaint with the Oregon Buru
of Labor and Industries saying r
coworker would touch her should,
arms and head without consent.
She alleges this went on from January
2022 until November of that yea.
And another case,
a teacher at Kellogg Middle Sch,
alleged the district repeatedly
failed to deal with harassment
and disciplined the victim for
reporting sexual harassment. Its
sending a message
that a culture
of silence is just the norm.
Now, at the school board meetin,
another union member read a statement
from a custodian who they called Jane,
who alleged A coworker made inappropriate
comments about female students.
Jane states that custodian would also
take pictures of her without her consent.
The union member says HR found
those harassment claims founded.
Jane was told she would receivea
formal response from the distri,
but she never did.
David Laurel, Thank you, Thomas.
I mean your home, man. You're
supposed to feel safe at your h.
Supposed to be the one place you go home.
Ah, sheer pain and grief
for a father from Damascus.
His 12 year old son killed in wt
the Clackamas County Sheriff's
Office is calling a murder suic.
And along with the grief is
frustration that it happened at.
Tim Gordon spoke with him today.
Tim, I I can't imagine the pain he's feeling.
He thinks the man responsible
could have been stopped.
Well, that's right, Laurel. Patrick Landers.
Is convinced that his 12 year old boy
would be alive today if authorities took a
suicide threat from the killer seriously.
And this is 12 year old Patrick Landers
junior in a picture with his fa.
The boy was killed late Wednesday afternoon
at his dad's home in their home in Damascus.
His killer, who authorities identified as
34 year old Ricochet Kerr of Hillsborough,
then killed himself.
Kerr is the estranged husband
of Lander's adult daughter.
The couple were divorcing and Kerr had a
restraining order demanding he stay away.
Well, the elder Lander says at a hearing
on that restraining order on Tuesday,
Kerr claimed he would kill hims,
but nobody did anything about i.
Judge granted the restraining or
because the guy was just being .
Stands up in court,
says I'm going to kill myself.
Right there should have been over and done.
We shouldn't even have this conversation.
He should have been held.
Yeah, they should have took him in and say,
hey, now his son is gone and Las
is beside himself with grief.
He says.
He and Patrick Junior did everything together
and his son was always happy and playing,
especially with his video games.
A huge loss,
obviously in a devastated father and family.
Now As for the concern
about the court appearance,
I did reach out to the court administrators
in Washington County where that
hearing was to ask about protoc.
If someone threatens self harm
in a courtroom,
I've not hurt bad yet back
yet this afternoon.
I'm so sorry for that dad's tragic loss.
Thank you, Tim.
If you or someone you know is in crisis,
know that there is help.
All you have to do is call 988 on any phone.
It will connect you to a crisis
center and a trained counselor.
We are keeping a close eye on a wildfire
in Sherman County that forced evacuations
at Deschutes River State Recreation Area.
Authorities say it sparked Thursday night
when somebody tipped over a camp stove.
The fire is burning a mile from the mouth
of the river on the Sherman County side.
That's about 16 miles east of the Dows.
The fire, which has burned about 1000 acres,
is now contained to a Canyon
but still not completely out.
Let's get to Ashley.
Graham's now in for Matt this evening,
Ashley.
The heat and dry conditions
obviously a huge concern.
Right. I think this is just another reminder
that you need to be extremely careful,
especially when you're recreati,
when you're outside, when you're enjoying it.
This weekend we all want to be out there.
We all want to enjoy it, but especially
when we have these really hot temperatures.
This is right now in the Dolls 98 degrees.
And you also notice there is kid
of a constant wind right there.
And when we have that constant wind makes it
really difficult to fight fires like this.
And also want to point out this
very low humidity, you know,
once you get under 20%.
Starts to get extremely dry out there.
So we do have this combination f
this hot temperatures, dry air,
wind and that makes these types
of fires extremely hard to figh.
But as we take kind of a look ad
right now we are just passing that 90
degree mark here in the metro area as
well in Hillsborough and was wel
back and take a look at the sta,
even warm out there on the coast in the 70s,
we are going to see this push io
the next few days.
Tomorrow should be that hottest.
I'll have more on that on the heat advisory.
Across the state and your 7 day
forecast after
these news stories?
Thank you Ashley. On Monday,
some flight attendants for Alaska Airlines
say they're planning to pick itn
front of Portland International Airport.
Their union is negotiating a new
contract with the airline and ag
for better pay and workplace ru.
They also say they have a day of action
plan for August 15th at major Alaska hubs.
The flight attendants say these
won't disrupt services but are
educational demonstrations.