The fear fighters by Seth Truscott

VALLEY RECORD SNOQUALMIE

WEDNESDAY, OCT. 3, 2012 • DAILY UPDATES AT WWW.VALLEYRECORD.COM • 75 CENTS •

The fear fighters

Medical marijuana storefront departs Preston

Serious skills mingle with fun in new women’s defense series BY CAROL LADWIG

SPORTS

Staff Reporter

Mount Si Tennis players build their skills in challenging season Page 8

There’s no reason the activities planned for this evening’s self-defense class should be fun, but they are. People are talking quietly or laughing out loud, sprawled on the floor of the Snoqualmie Fire Station, or doing some gentle stretches. They’re relaxed and joking, but transition quickly to all seriousness for a final review of their training, and of the evening’s program with Officer John Lievero. Well, mostly serious. When Lievero repeats the final rule for the night, “no weapons, OK?” he gets a quick retort from one student, flexing her biceps as she says, “None except for these babies!” Just like that, the 17 women go back to joking, and the first few students gets geared up for practice.

BUSINESS

SEE DEFENSE, 3

Preparing for retirement? Valley group starts monthly discussions Page 6

INDEX OPINION 4 9 ON THE SCANNER 10 CALENDAR 11 PUZZLES 15 MOVIE TIMES 12-14 CLASSIFIEDS

Vol. 99, No. 19

The Kind Alternative, one of 23 shops closed by DEA letter, re-opens in Black Diamond By Valley Record Staff

Carol Ladwig/Staff Photo

Standing up to her ‘attacker,’ police officer Dave Bond, a RAD student tries the selfdefense techniques she’s learned in a class with Snoqualmie Police Department.

Lost alleys, found After decades of overgrowth, Snoqualmie survey is reclaiming paths BY SETH TRUSCOTT Editor

Bordered by fences on both sides, the strip fronting River Street is a patchwork of tall grass, concrete blocks, stacked firewood and leaf litter. Roots of big maples furrow the ground. A child’s fort overlooks the scene. On the city’s official maps, this place is supposed to be an alley. But the connector between River and Newton Streets went back to nature years ago. Not for much longer. The city of Snoqualmie is in the midst of a complete survey of downtown alleys, with the aim of transforming how people move around this historic neighborhood. SEE ALLEY, 5

Seth Truscott/Staff Photo

Once an alley, this strip of land off Snoqualmie’s Silva Avenue may become a connector again. Dan Marcinko, the city’s Public Works and Parks Director, says a new alley survey by Perteet, Inc., will make for a complete picture of downtown, and a more accessible city.

The Kind Alternative Medical Marijuana Collective in Preston has been temporarily shuttered since early August, after receiving a warning letter from the federal Drug Enforcement Agency. The letters, sent to the operators and landlords of 23 medical marijuana facilities in western Washington, stated the operations had to cease immediately because of their proximity to school zones or drug-free zones. A sign on the Kind Alternative’s windows stated that the facility was closing as a courtesy to neighboring businesses. Although the collective has closed its storefront, the operator said they have continued to make deliveries to patients. The adjoining Go’in Glass Lounge, which does not provide any marijuana, but sells pipes and other devices, and provides a patient-only area for consumption of marijuana, will remain open. Collective operators hope to return to their Preston facility in the near future, as Seattle and unincorporated King County zoning laws are updated. SEE MOVE, 5

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Snoqualmie Valley Record • October 3, 2012 • 3

DEFENSE FROM 3 They all go silent again, when they hear the approaching creak of protective gear. That’s the sound of their would-be attacker, Officer Dave Bond, covered head-totoe in red padding. He’s coming to help them practice their defense techniques in realistic but safe scenarios, or more concisely, to take a beating from each one of them. The sound of his approach is when the fear—and the fun—really begin. “I just want you guys to know, I am really nervous,” the first woman to face Bond announced as she stood alone in the practice area. “It may not look like it but…” Lievero wasn’t surprised. He and Bond, both Normandy Park Police officers, are certified instructors of Rape Aggression Defense Systems, or RAD (www.rad-systems. com) and they’ve been offering these women-only classes for years. “This is a really difficult thing for a lot of women,” Lievero said. “It’s very uncomfortable to have someone put their hands on you.” For these final exercises of the class, each woman was put into several uncomfortable situations, and experi-

Carol Ladwig/Staff Photo

A woman flees from ‘assailant’ Dave Bond, as John Lievero signals the end of the exercise. enced the terror and the thrill of kicking and screaming her way out of them. Added to that were a supportive audience of fellow students shouting out encouragements and techniques to try, and hoots and applause for every clean escape. No wonder each and every one of them revealed a wide grin when their helmets came off. Then again, Bond also seemed pretty happy, despite the punishment he was taking. Before he was half done with the group, Bond had been thrown on his back, stripped of his helmet once, kicked and punched countless times and his ears were probably still ringing with the verbal abuse his students had let fly, all part of the training.

On a water break, he wouldn’t even consider giving someone else the suit for a few rounds. “Honestly, we fight for who gets to do this,” he panted. The “we” he’s talking about is the small group of RADcertified instructors who host classes throughout the Puget Sound Area. Member police departments of the Coalition of Small Police Agencies, like Snoqualmie, have access to specialized training like theirs, said Snoqualmie Officer Nigel Draveling, who coordinated this first Snoqualmie class. “That’s where the Coalition is really cool,” said Draveling, adding that the Snoqualmie department had been receiving requests for self-defense classes for some

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time. “They can come in and assist us, since we don’t have our own instructors.” They love to do it, too. Bond’s only disappointment for the evening was that, although his program now owns two suits, they couldn’t use both of them that night because the third RAD instructor they work with in the Valley was unavailable. In another month, though, they should be able to use both suits, because Draveling will be taking the RAD certification course in October, and the Snoqualmie Police Department just authorized another RAD class for later this fall. Draveling is excited, both about the training he’ll be getting, and the community’s response to this training session. “We’ve been wanting to do citizen classes for three years, as a police department,” he said. When the timing and opportunity were right to offer one, Draveling knew it would be a self-defense class, but he didn’t know

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which one until he’d done the research. He chose RAD, he said, because “this is the one that fits best with what we wanted to do.” The response was overwhelming. “We had 18 spots, and it booked up in three days,” Draveling, “I’m not kidding, I’m still getting e-mails from people!” He doesn’t attribute the interest in self-defense to any trends in the community, but to general awareness. “I think people just want to be prepared,” he said. The four-day class covers more than just the physical maneuvers. In fact most of the first two sessions discuss ways to improve safety at home, at work, and online. “After that first night, I went home and cancelled my Facebook, my LinkedIn account, everything,” one student said. “I talked to my kids, too.” Each of the three men was gratified to see how well this first RAD class in Snoqualmie had learned from them. That the women had learned from each other was apparent, too. When that first student confessed that she was nervous about the practice, some women laughed, some said “me, too!” and a few more echoed the sentiments of one student, who said “Don’t worry, we’ve got your back!” For information about the next RAD class and other self-defense offerings such as pepper-spray or firearms training, send an e-mail to Officer Nigel Draveling, ndraveling@ci.snoqualmie. wa.us.

BY CAROL LADWIG Staff Reporter

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A new policy for improving Snoqualmie Valley School District was adopted in a 4 to 1 vote by the school board Thursday, Sept. 27. The “Curriculum Pathways and Benchmarks” policy, number 2423, calls for the school district to implement “curriculum pathways” for grades 6 to 12, and to create a scorecard to determine how the district is progressing. The goal is “to allow all students access to courses necessary to build the transcripts recommended for competitive application to post-high school education, including top four-year universities.” All of the details regarding the implementation of pathways and the creation of the scorecard will be determined by the district administration and staff. Originally presented at a Sept. 13 board meeting, the policy proposal by board members Geoff Doy and Carolyn Simpson, drew both high praise and strong criticism. It did again at last week’s meeting, attended by roughly 60 parents and teachers. Board member Scott Hodgins supported the original policy, and noted that Doy and Simpson had simply done as they were asked by the board, when they were assigned to think about strategic planning. He also supported the rewrite. President Dan Popp overcame his initial opposition that the first draft was too prescriptive, and supported the new version, too. Marci Busby maintained her opposition to the policy, on the grounds that Doy and Simpson had talked to teachers and administrators from other school districts, but not their own. “I think our experts should have been able to weigh in on this,” she said. Busby cast the only opposing vote to the new policy. The split opinion on the policy was shared by audience members, many of whom took the opportunity to comment on the policy before the vote. Some felt the policy was too elitist, focusing too heavily on four-year colleges, while others felt improvement was always a worthwhile goal. Others had general statements they wanted to make. Teachers described the work they’ve already been doing in increasing curriculum offerings, and didn’t want that work to be discarded. Trese Rand of Fall City, asked the board to “give some time and some weight SEE PATHWAY, 6