NEWS COVERAGE
NEWS COVERAGE
Beth Nakamura | April 22, 2025
Earth Day inspires youth rally at Portland City Hall: ‘We are the ones’ to lead, organizer says
Rally organizer Jorge Sanchez Bautista, 18, said he first got involved in climate activism when he noticed freight trains that sometimes carried fuel come through his neighborhood. The McDaniel High School senior, who is running for the Portland school board to represent Zone 5, lives in Cully.
“As youth, over time we are the ones who are going to have to deal with all the issues that go with the planet, our animals and the environment,” he said.
“We’re inheriting a planet that will be based on how we care for it,” he said.
Letters to the editor | April 18, 2025
Readers respond: Support youth leadership on school board
“This year, voters can elect Jorge Sanchez Bautista for the Portland Public School Board and usher in a new type of responsive leadership.
Now more than ever, our students, families and greater community feel disconnected from a public education system that is wrapped in bureaucracy. Electing Jorge Sanchez Bautista would be a small but significant step away from that path. Many leaders, including the Portland Association of Teachers and elected officials from every level of government, are investing in Jorge Sanchez Bautista.
From education to gun violence, he has been on the scene advocating these issues - not just because he understands how students feel, but because he is living that experience with boots on the ground.
Dylan Scott | February 25, 2025
McDaniel HS senior hopes to break barriers by winning school board seat
“There’s a lot of issues in the 21st century, the lack of funding in Oregon, mental health, cell phones, social media, bullying, a variety of issues members on the school board don’t have experience with,” said Bautista.
“He’s been really great at getting the student voices, focus groups, and bringing me the big picture as a vice principal to serve the students based on what they need,” said Keyla Rodriguez Santiago, McDaniel’s Vice Principal.
“(Jorge) He is so passionate about helping others and doing things regarding the law, so this is kind of the perfect fit,” said Karen Tiet, a McDaniel AVID program and chemistry teacher.
Joanna Hou | February 17, 2025
McDaniel High School Student Announces Bid for PPS Board
“Bautista says his campaign will center on his experiences in PPS. In a release, he wrote that students in the district face barriers such as limited mental health resources, poor building conditions, and a “lack of engagement” in schools.
“This education system has made me who I am today and, if elected, would make me the most recent voting member on the board with classroom experience,” Bautista wrote in a release. “I believe we need a School Board who knows our students, will fight for them and our educators, and will be where our community is to listen to their concerns.”
“I have fought against gentrification and rent spikes in 2017, led community cleanups, have passed pieces of legislation, have leadership roles in many organizations, and am now known as one of the most prominent youth leaders in the city,” he wrote.
Jason Vondersmith | May 18, 2024
Jorge Sanchez Bautista is making difference in school, society
“His classmates at McDaniel High School call him “Mr. Mayor” and “The Future President” because Jorge Sanchez Bautista works for the people and causes.
For the past couple of years, Bautista has joined or led many activities for society’s betterment in Portland, whether it be social justice (housing, transportation, racial), climate change, protests, meeting with elected officials and being interested in politics and government, or whatever. It’s a long list.”
Natalie Pate | Oct 9, 2024
Students call for Portland Public Schools to take action to prevent gun violence
Two Portland students shared a petition signed by hundreds across the state. They want district leaders to push state lawmakers for a higher minimum age to purchase semi-automatic guns, among other actions.
Jorge Sanchez-Bautista, a senior at McDaniel High School, and Naomi Basaca, an eighth-grader at Laurelhurst School, testified to the Portland school board Tuesday night, later submitting a petition addressed to district and state leaders that was signed by roughly 250 students from across the state.
“Most people like myself understand that this isn’t just a local problem but a national matter,” Sanchez-Bautista said. “[School shootings and violence] has become so common that when we see it on the news, we’re not even shocked or surprised, but we’re just like, ‘Okay, this is sad,’ you know? Like, ‘We need to do something about it.’”
They’re calling for five specific actions.
Alma McCarty | Oct 9, 2024
Portland Public Schools students discuss gun violence, safety demands with district leaders
Students in Oregon's largest school district have joined their counterparts in Gresham this school year, calling for changes when it comes to safety.
Two students with Portland Public Schools voiced their concerns to district leaders over gun violence in and around schools. Eighth grader Naomi Basaca from Laurelhurst Middle School and senior Jorge Sanchez-Bautista from McDaniel High addressed the Portland Public Schools Board of Education Tuesday night, representing hundreds of students who signed a petition demanding action.
Sanchez-Bautista told KGW that school board members are responsible for doing more to address the issue.
"They have power. They're a school board," Sanchez-Bautista said. "They have a lot of things that they can do, you know, it's more like, who is there to motivate them and who is there to push them and that's the community?"
Maxine Bernstein | Aug 29, 2024
A required police ride-along for members of Portland’s new police accountability board prompts judge to promise: I’ll come, too
A federal judge Thursday offered to accompany anyone who is reluctant to go on a Portland police ride-along, a requirement for members to serve on a future community board for police accountability.
“If we’re trying to garner empathy, there are better ways,” he said, like having coffee with an officer or attending a roundtable with officers to talk about a controversial police encounter.
Jorge Sanchez Bautista, another member of the engagement committee, said he thought the judge’s presence would be distracting to police during the ride-along.
Press Release | June 5, 2024
Students Demand Action Announces 2024-2026 National Organizing Board
National Organizing Board Leads More Than 800 Groups Across the Country; Announcement Follows Year of Progress on Gun Safety at Local, State, and Federal Levels
Students Demand Action, a grassroots network of Everytown for Gun Safety, announced its 2024-2026 National Organizing Board. The board is comprised of 14 dedicated student leaders and gun violence survivors from across the country. Members of the National Organizing Board will serve as leading voices for the movement, created by and for students, to support shaping the strategy and goals of Students Demand Action at the federal, state, and local levels. Board members also train and mentor leaders of local Students Demand Action groups nationwide, drawing on their diverse leadership experiences within the gun violence prevention movement.
Natalie Pate | Nov 28, 2023
Portland teachers ratify contract with nearly 95% approval, school board passes unanimously
Bautista helped create and circulate a survey asking students how they felt the lost instructional time should be made up. He told the board as of the meeting, they’d received more than 5,345 responses. That may only be a fraction of the district’s 40,000-plus student body, but Bautista said it was a way for them to share their thoughts — something that didn’t happen during the strike.
“Students never voted for the strike to happen, never were brought into bargaining to talk for themselves, or in the conversation about how to make up for lost time,” he said. “You made a decision for the thousands of students in PPS.”
Chandler Watkins | Nov 28, 2023
PPS board unanimously votes to approve contract agreement with PAT
“We as students are glad to be back in school,” said Jorge Sanchez Bautista, a student leader and junior at McDaniel High School. “We would like to thank the school district and the teachers union for coming to an agreement. I am here today representing and speaking on behalf of thousands of students who have a message for the school board.”
[ … ]
“Almost one thousand left comments which I have read to better understand my fellow peers,” said Sanchez Bautista. “The top option that the students want to see is adding time to the day by 15 to 30 minutes, having an extra week in June, and using 1-2 days of winter break instead of 5. Having school on MLK Day was also voted on, with over 1,000 students saying yes and having it be a day where we learn about and honor Dr. King.”
KATU Staff | Nov 28, 2023
Portland teachers vote in favor of new contract with school district, board approves
"Students were glad to picket with their fellow teachers to advocate for some of the things they themselves have dealt with, but in the end we were disappointed. Class caps didn't happen, and we had to get more days to make up for the time we had lost due to the fault of both sides. Students never voted for the strike to happen. Never were brought into bargaining to talk for themselves, or in the conversation about how to make up for the lost time," said student leader Jorge Sanchez Bautista.
Aimee Plante, Jami Seymore | Nov 28, 2023
Portland Public Schools teachers, board vote to ratify strike-ending contract
“We have to get more days to make up for the time we have lost due to the fault of both sides,” student Jorge Sanchez Bautista said. “Students never voted for the strike to happen, never were brought into bargaining to talk for themselves, or in the conversation on how to make up for the lost time.”
Art Talk Bus Stop | Nov 22, 2023
Art Talk Bus Stop: PPS On Strike! Special
“This month the Portland Public Schools are closed while teachers strike for better working and learning conditions, so we'll hear from two Portland Association of Teachers organizers and a student labor leader.”
Tiffany Camhi | Nov 21, 2023
College-bound Portland students worry about catching up after lost class time
Some Portland students who have been looking to get ahead with college credit classes are now feeling like they’re falling behind.
The potential to earn college credit is why Jorge Bautista enrolled in two Advanced Placement classes at McDaniel High School this fall.
“My sister took AP classes and it helped her with college tuition and costs,” said Bautista, who is taking AP US History and AP English Language and Composition. “She told me it looks good on a resume transcript. So that’s what I decided to do.”
But these classes are more demanding than the usual high school course and passing them does not mean you automatically get college credit. Students must get a passing score on AP exams to earn the credit. Portland Public Schools suggests AP students study every night, an hour or more, to stay caught up.
Beyond this, Bautista is worried about catching up in all of his classes, not just AP. He doesn’t want bad grades to be on his official high school transcript. Bautista is feeling the pressure.
“Junior year — there’s a lot of testing,” said Bautista. “Your teachers are harder on you, you have to start looking at colleges, scholarships and how to pay for everything. It’s a lot.”