NCAA TOURNAMENT
ICEBREAKER TRACK MEET
Oregon tops BYU; faces Wisconsin today, B1
Athletes get start at Marshfield, B1
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Will Coos Bay be named the tall ship port of Oregon? BY THOMAS MORIARTY The World
By Alysha Beck, The World
Frannie Ybarra with Southwestern helps Mary Jane Winsor, North Bend High School student, use a plasma cutter to cut out a steel star for a jewelry holder during a welding workshop for girls Friday at Southwestern.
Weld like a girl 30 South Coast girls get hands-on welding experience BY CHELSEA DAVIS The World
COOS BAY — A welding workshop has sparked career ideas for a group of South Coast girls. Thirty high school girls from North Bend, Marshfield, Bandon, Pacific and Gold Beach learned how to use plasma cutters, grinders, mig welds and more in Southwestern Oregon Community College’s welding shop Friday morning. Ponytails hidden under red See the video online at k e r c h i e f s theworldlink.com with white polka dots bobbed around the shop as sparks flew by the girls’ sootsmudged faces. “We want you guys to have fun,” SWOCC graduate and welding teaching assistant Chelsea Clemens told the girls. Nerves didn’t stop them. They slid on their cutting glasses and got to work, making sunny garden sculptures, heart-shaped wall art and star-shaped jewelry holders out of A36 mild steel. Bandon High youth transition specialist Penny Wellbaum said young women need to know these jobs are available to them. “They get this hands-on experience and they know they can accomplish these things,”
COOS BAY — If Tom Leahy has his way, tall ships will be docking in Coos Bay more than one month a year. The new city councilor, appointed to fill the spot formerly held by Gene Melton, is attempting to get the port of Coos Bay declared the “tall ship port of Oregon.” Leahy, who’s long been involved in efforts to bring the Lady Washington and Hawaiian Chieftain to Coos Bay each spring, said the proclamation is appropriate given the number of such vessels built here in the late 1800s. “We built over 70 tall ships between the 1850s and 1910,” he said, defining tall ships as windpowered boats more than 100 feet long and weighing more than 100 tons. The majority were built at the North Bend shipyard started by Bay Area founding father Asa Meade Simpson, who needed the ships to support his San
Francisco-based timber empire. One of those ships, the clipper Western Shore, still holds the record for the fastest journey between the Columbia River and Liverpool, England. Historical recognition aside, Leahy says the designation also could boost tourism. Coos Bay is already under consideration — along with several much larger ports — as a stop for West Coast tall ship races being planned for 2017 to coincide with the America’s Cup regatta. “Bay Cities, Mich., has a population similar to ours, and their population doubles during the visit of the tall ships,” he said, referring to that town’s annual Tall Ship Celebration on Lake Huron. Leahy said he plans to present the proclamation to the Oregon International Port of Coos Bay in April, and to the council for adoption in May. Reporter Thomas Moriarty can be reached at 541-269-1222, ext. 240, or by email at thomas.moriarty@theworldlink.com. Follow him on Twitter: @ThomasDMoriarty.
DNA leads to arrest in 2007 rape case BY TIM NOVOTNY The World
Gold Beach High School student Sarah Bennett uses a plasma cutter to cut out a steel star at the New Faces: The Artistic Side of Welding workshop for girls Friday at Southwestern. she said. “I think after some of them leave here, they’ll see this more seriously as an option.” That might just be the case for Bandon High student Sierra Bowyer, who popped up just as Wellbaum finished speaking. “I was kind of scared at first, but now I think I might do this as a career,” Bowyer said with a huge grin before scuttling off to the next station. SWOCC received a Perkins nontraditional grant to make this program a reality the last few years. “This is showing girls they can weld, too,” said Shellie Brandt, administrative assistant to the deans. “It’s not just a man’s
industry.” SWOCC welding instructor Tony LaPlante has three women in his welding program right now alongside 41 men. More and more women have joined the program since he started. Brandt said a woman studying welding was unheard of when she started working at SWOCC 16 years ago. “These two ladies are my top welders,” LaPlante said, pointing toward Clemens and welding student Frannie Ybarra. That’s a surprise for Clemens, who entered the program on a whim. SEE WELDING | A8
COQUILLE — Peter Shianna, 43, will remain in the Coos County jail after a judge denied his release during a hearing on Thursday. He is charged with rape and two counts of sexual abuse relating to an incident that is alleged to have occurred on Christmas Eve in 2007. Chief Deputy District Attorney Mark Monson said a woman reported being raped that night, behind the Fred Meyer store in Coos Bay. Unfortunately, she could not identify her assailant, whom she said she had met on a bus ride to Coos Bay. Monson says that she was waiting to be picked up by family at the time and, after telling them what happened, she was taken to the hospital. The victim was treated and had a Safe Sexual Assault exam performed, with the suspect’s
DNA collected and analyzed. The case, unfortunately, did not go any further that that for more than five years. Then the forensic lab in Oregon contacted Coos Bay Police Detective Eric Schwenninger last year to let police know that they had gotten a hit on that DNA from an inmate in the California prison system. Shianna was serving time for a similar offense, Monson said, when the testing pinged back to Oregon. A warrant was issued for his arrest, which also served as a detainer to keep the suspect from being released out of the system. He then waived extradition and was brought back to Coos Bay. Monson says Shianna admitted to investigators that he had sex with the woman, but is arguing that it was consensual. The alleged victim is planning to testify at trial, and did testify SEE ARREST | A8
Depression and suicide
Teens struggle to find answers
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The third major cause of death for people ages 10 through 24, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is suicide. Nurse Heidi Banks said though it may not be a leading problem exclusive to Marshfield, teenagers finding themselves with depression and/or experiencing suicidal thoughts is a nationwide problem. “I think that’s a common problem at all the schools across the coun-
try,” Banks said. According to a survey conducted by The Marshfield Times, 38 percent of students are currently suffering from depression, 63 percent have known somebody who has considered suicide and 40 percent have been affected by someone who has committed suicide. Junior Jake Drops, who has suffered from depression off and on for several years, said suicide is a growing issue. “I think there’s always gonna be a certain number of people who commit suicide, but I think it’s becoming
more common,” Drops said. Robin Reudic, Marshfield’s school psychologist, said she has had multiple students come in to discuss depression or sad feelings in general. “I’m new to here so I haven’t had a lot of students come to talk to me here, but other places I’ve worked, yes,” Reudic said. Drops, who has never sought help for his depression, said the mental disorder is complex. “It’s complicated. Depression is
Wylene Louvring, Coos Bay Wilma Sturgill, Myrtle Point Paul Murphy, Reedsport Betty Vigue, Coquille Rose Cook, Reedsport Justin Steinfelt, North Bend
An MHS survey found that 38 percent of students suffered from depression.
Michael Paonessa, Allegany Robert Finell, North Bend Marita Mendenhall-Good, North Bend
Obituaries | A8
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