In which Rep. Sara Gelser is going to make you cry. And then, you'll get angry.

Kari Chisholm

First things first: Watch the video. It's a three-minute floor speech by Rep. Sara Gelser (D-Corvallis) given on Monday morning.

What happened to Adam Goeken on Saturday night was completely unacceptable.

This personally hit home for me - in part because I spent my entire junior year, as the LOHS junior class treasurer, raising money in order to ensure that our prom would be accessible to all students, regardless of income.

At Lake Oswego, it would be very easy to have a very expensive prom affordable to 70-80% of the student body. And probably no one would make a fuss. But we made a commitment, as had classes before ours, to make prom free -- paid for through fundraising by the junior class -- and accessible to all students.

To see that LOHS failed Adam in this most basic task -- to make sure that prom was accessible to him -- is outrageous. Sure, prom is a silly party. But it's also an official school function, and a celebration at the end of the academic year.

Now, I've followed up with Rep. Gelser, and she tells me that LOHS principal Bruce Plato has been very responsive, taking responsibility, and making no excuses. It seems that he apologized - not just to Adam, but to the entire senior class. (And the graduation issue she mentions in the speech has been resolved. Adam will be at his graduation in its entirety.)

As Rep. Gelser told me, "Too many people, in my opinion, still think of ADA as a set of building codes when it is in fact a piece of civil rights legislation."

There's more in the Oregonian, including photos from that night.

By Kari Chisholm May 22, 2013 Posted in Video.