Update on Exchange Student Shooting in Oregon

Posted by Mark Junod

Many of you wanted to get updated on what has happened with the Youth Exchange Tragedy in Oregon. See the attached email strings below.

All of the Youth Exchange students in District 5170 were contacted directly by their Counselors, and their Host Families about this incident. They were made aware of resources provided by Rotary should they have any concerns regarding issues around "grief". There are several professional grief counselors available. It appears that all of our exchange students, although concerned, are all ok.

Please contact me if you have further questions or concerns.

In Rotary Service,
Mark Junod
Rotary District 5170
Youth Exchange Inbound Coordinator
mjunod@metlifehomeloans.com

January 30th

Subject: Follow Up Support for Youth Tragedy

Dear All,

I spoke at length with Jeff Yarnall just now from D5100 about the services that are being held today for both of the students, Ashley and Tika. All of the exchange students are getting together tonight for a sleep over and our Morgan Hill club will buy the pizzas for the event. It will be announced tonight that the pizzas are from the Rotary Club of Morgan Hill. Thank you Carl for suggesting a donation. They have received support from all over the world and are absolutely humbled by the response.

There will be trained grief professionals with them at this event.

I will send pictures of the services when they come to me. Thanks to you all for caring so much.

Yours in Service,
Robin

Jan 28th From the District 5100 Youth Exchange Committee:

The immediacy of the situation has finally slowed a bit. Media inquiries have dropped dramatically. We are now moving to the next phase which is memorial services for both students.

A public memorial service for Ashley Wilks, our outbound candidate sponsored by the Rotary Club of Clackamas is being held Friday at noon.
Location: New Hope Church
11731 SE Stevens Road
Happy Valley, Oregon 97086

Later that evening the D5100 YEC is holding a private memorial service and retreat for our inbound students to commemorate Tika, our inbound student from Peru. It will also be the first time all the students will be together. We will have counselors available. It is a sleep over so the students will have time to decompress and just talk.

On Monday, February 2, The Rotary Club of White Salmon - Bingen is holding a public memorial service for Tika. Details are being worked out. The White Salmon - Bingen club is Tika's host club.

Many have asked how you can help. The glitch on our website has been found and fixed. We have named a Community Service Coordinator, Brandie Kajino. Her contact information is listed on our website, www.youthexchange5100.org. You may direct inquires to her.

I reported earlier that Susanna De Sousa, the seriously injured inbound student from Italy, was on AFS. She is not on AFS. Of course we are working with Susy and her parents as needed.

The five injured Rotary Exchange students have been discharged and are recovering with their host families. At this time 7 of the 9 students at the scene have convinced their natural parents not to rush to Portland. All 9 are planning / hoping to finish their exchanges in D5100. A couple students may travel home for a short period and return. This is very good news for our program.

Tuesday, January 27th
To all our friends and partners in Youth Exchange,

Our Chairman, Katsumi Itoh, asked me to update you again this evening.

Many clubs and individual Rotarians both locally and around the world have offered tremendous support over the past 48 hours. All of us in D5100 are humbled by your outpouring. Several milestones have occurred in the past 24 hours.

1) The Portland Police Bureau has released all of the victims names.
2) The family in Peru has received notification.
3) Four of the five students with "minor" injuries have been released from the hospital. The fifth student should be released on Tuesday.
4) An Italian inbound girl on AFS is in stable but critical condition.

Below are three pasted documents.

1) Jan 26 press release to be posted on our website. It contains details about two funds established. We are also creating a volunteer coordinator to help handle all the offers we have received. We apologize for not being able to respond to each offer individually at this time

2) A short synopsis of the Portland Police Bureau press conference held at 11 am today.

3) A list of the students and their home country. The last two names are the deceased. All the names were released to the media by the police thus we felt we could share this information with you.

Again thanks for your support and understanding

Jeff Yarnall, D5100 YEC Secretary, Past Chairman.

ITEM 1

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
26 January 2009
Portland, Oregon

On behalf of all of the Rotarians of Rotary District 5100, we would like to express our sincere appreciation of the outpouring of support we have been receiving both locally and internationally. Many have asked how they can help. Two funds have been established to help the students and families of the victims.

The Rotary Club of Clackamas has established the following to benefit future exchange students sponsored by the Rotary Club of Clackamas;

The Ashley Wilks Scholarship Fund for International Studies
c/o The Rotary Club of Clackamas
Attention: Mr. Thomas Joseph
P.O. Box 601
Clackamas, Oregon 97015

District 5100 has established a fund to assist with medical and travel expenses of the victims and their families;

Portland Rotary Charitable Trust for Youth Exchange
Attention: Jan 24th Fund
619 SW 11th Avenue, Suite 123
Portland, Oregon 97205

In addition to monetary help, many have offered volunteer support. We are establishing a volunteer coordinator to be named shortly as the needs of our students and families evolve.

Rotary District 5100

For media inquiries contact:

Scott Bieber (360) 772-0082
Rotary District 5100 Youth Protection Officer

ITEM 2

Hello all,

Katsumi asked me to pass along this information. Please read below.

Briefing Overview@ 11am this morning

This morning at 11am, there was a Briefing at the Central Portland Police Precinct. Police has found no connection between the suspect and Youth Exchange students. The suspect left a written note for his roommate bidding his roommate farewell, and farewell to his life. The note was not believed to be a suicide note.

Evidence regarding the suspect: Suspect was a loner, played video games, no job, depressed and despondent. The suspect's vehicle was found parked several blocks from the site of the incident. The incident took place on Saturday, Jan. 26th, 2009 at 10:37pm. A police Sergeant, who was one block from the incident responded immediately to the scene of the incident.

The suspect used potent bullets which had a much higher penetration rate. Police have acknowledged Rotary Youth Exchange's involvement in this incident including good networking, providing very timely support for students and communication with students and parents. The suspect is currently in critical condition in an area hospital. The District Attorney's office is proceeding with the assumption of the suspect's survival, and a trial will be held in such a case.

In the event of a trial being held, witnesses of the shooting, including Rotary Youth Exchange students, will be involved. Travel expenses for the witnesses will be provided by the District Attorney's office. As of the 3pm press conference today, all names of involved students (RYE and otherwise) were released by the Police Dept. to the media.

ITEM 3

As of 2300 hours, January 26, 2009, we can report the following;

Name	Home Country
Annelise Holtman Castaneda	Guatemala
David Chataigner	France
Anne-Sophie Rialland	France
Juo-Yuan (Trista) Chang	Taiwan
Ana Zambrano Soledispa	Ecuador
Gonzalo Vasquez Orozco	Guatemala
Marine Mazerat	France
Sofia Vasquez	Argentina
Zbigniew Lucas	Ecuador
Martha (Tika) Paz De Noboa	Peru
Ashley Lauren Wilks	outbound candidate for the 2009/2010 exchange year sponsored by D5100. RC of Clackamas, Oregon Happy Valley, Oregon
Susy De Sousa	Italy

Sunday, January 25th
Dear Pride;

This has been the worst day in the history of D5100. From the information that I have, the article in the Oregonian is fairly accurate. The shooter had no connection to our exchange students who were celebrating the birthday of one of the inbound students. This is a club for underaged individuals, therefore alcohol was not being served. The students had just been dropped off and had not even entered the club. Elizabeth tells me that this is a club that my children have visited in the past. I understand from others as well as from our children that it is considered a "safe" club to visit. This was simply a matter of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. I understand that there was an intended victim, but there is no excuse for this type of violence.

I would like to tell you how much I appreciate the response from the District YEX chair and committee. Last night, Elizabeth and I were preparing to fly to Belize for the Uniendo America Project fair when the incident occured. I ended up being up all night, and I have to say that I woke four people last night in order to inform them of the situation. Our DGE was still in San Diego, so I called our DGN, Youth Protection Officer, Paul Netzel, and through Paul, Ed Futa. Paul connecting me with Ed was one of a number of important thing that happened early this morning as Ed provided us with support from RI's media Relations department.

I am now in Belize. I was expecting to be able to communicate effectively with SKYPE as the hotel is supposed to have high speed internet. It has not worked!!! For a while I could not access my comcast account but could access a second account I have and Elizabeth's account. it makes no sense, but this whole day has not made any sense.

Rotarians from District 5100, and especially me, appreciate all of your thoughts, prayers, and condolences.

Thank-you & YIRS,
Dennis

Sunday, January 25th from Oregonlive.com

NEWS RELEASE

Bruce Ely/The Oregonian Police investigate Saturday night's shooting near Southwest Second Avenue and Pine Street in downtown Portland.

Downtown shooting

2 dead, 7 hurt in downtown Portland shooting

Two students in a foreign exchange program died and seven other people were injured Saturday night when a 24-year-old man with a gun opened fire outside a popular underage nightclub in downtown Portland.

Police identified one of the victims as Ashley Wilks, 16, of Happy Valley. People familiar with the student exchange program said Wilks -- a Clackamas High School sophomore -- was preparing to head to a foreign country for study.

Police identified one of the victims as Ashley Wilks , 16, of Happy Valley. People familiar with the student exchange program said Wilks -- a Clackamas High School sophomore -- was preparing to head to a foreign country for study.

"We're just shocked. We're not doing good," said Wilks' stepfather, Randy Thiesen, from his home in Happy Valley. Thiesen said the girl's family is not ready to talk about what happened. Relatives are on their way from out of town, he said.

The other victim who died was a 17-year-old girl from Arequipa, Peru, who was hosted since September by a family in White Salmon, Wash., said Miguel Velasquez, of the Peruvian Consulate in Seattle.

Police, who have not released any other victims' names, said they are trying to contact families -- many who live overseas.

Homicide detectives said they can find no relationship between the victims and the man who shot the nine people standing in front of The Zone nightclub at Southwest Second Avenue and Pine Street.

Police have not identified the man, who shot himself in the head after the violent assault. He is hospitalized in critical condition.

One victim is in critical condition; another is in serious condition.

The two girls were part of the Rotary District 5100 student exchange program. Chuck Itoh, the program's chairman, said a host parent had arranged for a group of 11 students to celebrate one of the foreign student's birthday in downtown Portland.

A person familiar with the program said the students were celebrating the 15th birthday party of a Guatemalan student. Three of the injured victims were from France, Ecuador and Guatemala.

"Apparently, they all felt the place they were going to go was well-established and a very reputable place," Itoh said this morning, after spending most of the night at Portland hospitals and working to notify relatives of the students. "Unfortunately, this incident took place by a stranger on the street, I understand. A stranger began shooting in the crowd for unknown reasons."

Itoh said his organization has contacted international officials to help notify relatives of the students wounded, and he planned an emergency meeting of the exchange program.

He said the program lasts a year, and that a majority of the students arrived in late August or mid-September. The district stretches through Oregon and Washington. Most of the students involved were staying in the Portland and Salem areas.

Some of the students in downtown Portland Saturday night, Itoh said, were local students; others were visiting from countries including Peru, France and Italy.

One girl died at the scene and another died at a hospital, according to police.

"A lot of these are juvenile victims," Portland police Detective Mary Wheat said. "We have people involved in this from all over."

Police recovered the gun used in the shooting.< BR> Victims were taken to OHSU Hospital and Legacy Emanuel Hospital & Medical Center.

At about 10:30 p.m. last night, a man began shooting people standing on the sidewalk in front of The Zone nightclub at Southwest Second Avenue and Pine Street, said Wheat, a Portland police spokeswoman.

William Kennedy, 17, with Team Promotions , said he was inside The Zone club, talking by the bar near the front entrance when he heard gunshots above the blaring hip-hop music. Kennedy said he ducked under a bar ledge, and when the gunfire subsided, he looked out front.

"I just see two girls down, laying outside. Two pairs of feet by the front doorway," Kennedy said. "They had just been waiting outside on line to get in."

He said he saw the club's DJ outside administering CPR to one of the victims. Kennedy said he heard at least five gunshots.