This is kg W news at sunrise.
A local father is reacting with
outrage to a racist attack
against his eighth grader.
Put their knee in his back and
said that they were going to turn
off their body cameras and they
were gonna wait 20 seconds to
to simulate the death of George
Floyd. And that's only part of what
happened coming up this morning.
Why? He says the school isn't
doing enough in response.
And Multnomah,
Multnomah County's biggest library,
getting a major upgrade.
It's forcing the downtown Portland branch
to close for much of the year when
that closure starts and what changes,
you'll see when it reopens. And
take a look at this from
State Farm Stadium alive.
Look, the site of Super Bowl 57,
very quiet there this
morning. Very quiet. Different
story though. On Sunday, of course, it's the
Eagles taking on the Chiefs,
and our show is so big this morning.
So big, so super.
We have a we have a live report from
that stadium coming up from Jay Gray,
one of our friends at NBC,
joining us on the show at 5:15.
Alright, the clash is on between
these two, between the two teams.
But before we get to that,
you gotta fill us in on the weekend.
We're very, very proud. OK.
Wow. Ohh, that's sweet.
And that's gonna like,
give me go, man. Let me go.
Drew, the Eagles fan.
I'm the Chiefs fan.
We have rain showers on the radar.
This looks to be a day where the number
of showers gets fewer and fewer and fewer.
We start to open up some sun breaks.
And I really think if you
have plans this evening,
odds are very good it will be completely dry.
We're at 44 right now.
It's very comfortable outside.
The winds are light from the West.
A fewer showers.
Some sun breaks at noon,
50 degrees later today.
We'll top out in the low fifties,
by the way, 57 yesterday.
Hope you enjoyed it.
Your weekend forecast coming up,
Rob. Thank you.
Our top story this morning details a
racist attack on an eighth grader in
the Portland Public School District.
This happened last month at
West Sylvan Middle School.
We spoke with the students father,
who says he thinks the school and district
aren't taking it seriously enough.
Alma McCarty walks us through what happened.
I was flabbergasted. I was outraged.
I was angry. I couldn't even
believe what I was hearing.
That's Rahim Alexander's reaction
after his eighth grade son told him.
What happened in the hallway of West
Sylvan Middle School last month?
He just left his classroom to get some water.
When Alexander says he was
accosted by two students.
He threw him up against the wall,
bound his hands behind his back
and said they were, you know,
treating him like George.
Floyd. Proceeded to throw him
on the ground, face first,
with his hands bound behind his back,
tied with the lanyard,
put their knee in his back.
And said that they were going to
turn off their body cameras and they
were going to wait 20 seconds to to
simulate the death of George Floyd.
Horrified by what he heard,
Alexander wanted to make sure the
school was up front about the attack.
He met with school officials the
next week about issuing a statement
to all parents in the district.
We want to make sure that you put
the details of what happened to
our son inside of this letter that
get drafted and make sure that it
goes out to PPS, because it's not.
It's about our son. It's about others.
We want to make sure that this
doesn't happen to someone else,
but that message wasn't
sent out district wide.
The middle school principal sent
a letter to West Sylvan families
only on January 25th, writing.
She was deeply saddened to share that
the school experienced a horrific
hate based incident the week prior,
noting that they were limited in what
they could say since it was an ongoing
investigation involving students.
Alexander believes this statement
didn't properly address the seriousness
of what happened to his son.
We can't throw it under the rug,
which is what they did.
They failed to put it out.
They failed to get in front of it.
Now, Alexander says he's hoping to shed
light on the attack as his 13 year old
continues to process what happened.
My son has to see these images in
in videos of things that happen
in our country to young black men.
And for it to be reenacted to him inside
of our school during school hours.
Is is deeply troubling.
Alma McCarty, KGW News
at District Source told The Oregonian,
which first reported the story,
that the two students responsible
for the attack were expelled.
Meanwhile, PS sent KGW a statement
yesterday afternoon saying in part
that the district quote stands firmly
against any hateful acts in our schools,
and that once officials were
aware of what happened,
PPS followed district discipline
protocols and provided support to those.
Impacted.
Unfortunately, each winter we see these
viruses come back. We do see impacts,
and it can be hard to have a sick
child at home, but better to have
them at home and care for them than
to have them at school where they
could spread the virus to others.
That is doctor Dean Seelinger with
the Oregon Health Authority talking
about a stomach virus outbreak that's
forced Metzger Elementary school
in Tygart to close again today.
It's the second day in a row the school
is closed after the tiger to Walton
School District says both students
and staff got sick from that virus.
Cleaning crews are disinfecting the building.
The school is expected to reopen on Monday.
Metzger elementary parents,
meanwhile, with questions,
can reach out directly to the school.
You work in health Authority
says it's seeing a significant
drop in hospitalizations because
of respiratory viruses.
Right now, doctors say we're
nearing the end of RSV season.
And even though we did see a slight
increase in flu cases recently,
flu case numbers are also
expected to start dropping.
COVID hospitalizations have also
been dropping since December.
So the health authority says if these numbers
continue going down across the board,
they may consider lifting mask requirements
for health care settings in Oregon.
Multnomah County is beginning the next phase
of renovations at the Central Library.
It will completely transform the space,
but it also means the library
will close for much of the year.
The closure will start
coming up on March 11th.
When it finally reopens,
there will be more USB plug-ins,
a designated space for teenagers,
a gaming room, and a quiet meeting space.
The project will give people
new ways to use Central Library
that looks very different.
And the way people were using
libraries 30 or 40 years ago.
The library bond voters passed back
in 2020 is paying for these upgrades,
and while the Central Library is closed,
a new pop-up technology space will
open on SW 5th and Washington.
It's for people who need access
to computers and printers.
Master shake up for the Portland
Trail Blazers the last couple of days.
A lot happening before yesterday's
trade deadline, so here's a recap.
Wednesday night they traded Josh
Hart to the Knicks for Cam Reddish,
a first round pick and
two other role players.
Then, just before yesterday's trade deadline,
the team also said goodbye to Gary Payton.
The second he is headed to Golden
State in exchange for five second
round picks and forward Kevin Knox,
who comes here from the Hawks.
He following all this rod
so far, I'm not that interested,
but continue. It's not franchise
changing. You're right.
I do like this player though from
the Sixers and a multi team trade.
The Blazers gave up two second
round picks acquiring Sixers
guard Matisse Thybulle,
who is a defensive specialist.
Well, we could use that.
There you go. Alright Christine,
I know you got one more story before Ron.
Yeah, because we're going live
out to our Eric Patterson who's
in downtown Portland taking a
look at those beautiful lights.
It is the final weekend for the
Portland Winter Light Festival.
Tonight and tomorrow.
From 6:00 to 10:00 PM you can go out,
have some fun, see some like DJ's.
There's silent discos happening,
flash mobs, all sorts of fun stuff.
Main sites are going to be
Pioneer Courthouse Square.
What, you
have something against flashlight?
No, I love. OK OK main sites
include pioneer Courthouse Square,
the World Trade Center Plaza,
and electric blocks on 2nd and clay.
You can get more
info@pdxwlf.com sounds like fun. Yeah
it does, but I can't think
about. Enter. I have spring fever.
Ohh. Yesterday. Ohe. Yeah.
I just noticed this myself.
Little bit ago Eugene hit 64 yesterday.
Unbelievable wasn't it was for you guys.
It was good day to be a duck. Yeah.
And yesterday was the warmest day in
Portland so far in the calendar year.
From the calendar year?
Yeah, we did 57 out of the airport.
Scappoose did 59.
Hillsborough 58756.
Ohh. Thank you, Brendan.
You're doing
great things, Scappoose.
You're doing great things,
right. The plasmas for me.
Why? Let's get you going.
But yes. See folks?
Never achieved yourselves yesterday.
Alright, let's start with the Monday night.
Tuesday morning Snow update.
Rain picks up Monday.
Snow levels start to get below 1500
feet quickly Monday evening and then
they fall down to a good 500 feet by
Tuesday morning for sticking snow.
Downtown Portland I still feel
like stays in the mid 30s.
There could be snow in the air
and maybe some on the grass,
but roadways would stay wet
if we stay in the mid 30s.
Coming in to the low elevations
of downtown Metro Hills,
I've lowered this little bit.
I was going maybe one to two.
500 feet in three to four.
The top of the West Hills now I'm just
kind of downplaying that one to three.
This is the big update Tuesday afternoon.
Mainly dry models are now really
shutting off the moisture quickly
Tuesday morning and that's going to
limit the number of hours where the air
is at its coldest and the snow is falling,
which limits the amount of snow that
could stick in some of the Metro
Hills including 500 feet and we
talked yesterday you know 200 feet,
lot of lot of the area is at 200 feet,
Salem, Hillsboro, parts of Clark County.
You could have some light coverage.
OK, let's get you going with today.
We have this system coming in.
The little curl is a low that's
going South Down in San Francisco.
So the system kind of splits up and
we think that we'll have probably the
most numerous showers this morning,
fewer and fewer showers this afternoon.
Not bad out there this morning.
Temperatures are comfortable.
We have mostly gentle showers passing.
We're at 44, I mean, yes,
and Salem at 47, really comfortable stuff.
Similar to the coast,
it is freezing from Hood River out to
the Dallas where you guys have been
dry and your skies have been partly cloudy.
Overnight futurecast few showers
this morning 103130 this afternoon.
Not much going on. Mainly dry this evening.
And here is your 7 day forecast.
53 today. Not bad. Weekend looks dry.
Look for some fog tomorrow morning
cold freezing starts for many of you.
50 tomorrow,
53 on Sunday and then I I'm going.
What what am I forgot my own forecast.
I got to read in the monitor.
34 to 42 is what I'm going to
downtown Portland on Tuesday for.
Thank you. I'm done.
Thanks rod.
Hey before kickoff on
Super Bowl Sunday. Fans can
check out the NFL experience.
There are games, obstacle courses, exhibits,
lots of stuff coming up this morning.
We'll take you there live for a look around.