Monday, Jun. 24, 2002

Pasco girl earns national honor for Kennewick Man research paper

By Kristina Lord Herald staff writer

Caitlin Feeney remembers seeing helicopters swirling for days over the site where two young men unearthed the skull of a 9,000-year-old man six years ago.

Her memory and the ensuing controversy over who owns the bones of the ancient Kennewick Man prompted her to set aside an hour every day after school and more on the weekends to work on a research paper about the saga.

The 12-year-old Pasco girl and student at a small Richland private school interviewed a scientist, author and museum expert, visited museums and scoured many books, newspaper and magazine articles, federal laws and the Internet to write her 10-page paper.

Her industrious efforts paid off. She placed third at the National History Day competition at the University of Maryland at College Park this month. Feeney's paper already had placed first at a regional competition in March and second at the state level in May.

Caitlin received $250, a plaque and a certificate. Nationwide, 700,000 students participated, and this year's national contest involved more than 2,000 students. A panel of judges interviewed Caitlin about her paper and checked her sources. Caitlin's win is a source of pride for Oasis School teacher and founder Cheryl Cannon of Richland.

Cannon founded the small Richland school Caitlin attends in 1999. The veteran educator created the school as a haven from chemicals and mold found in public schools that negatively affected the health of herself and her daughter Mari, 11.

Both are chemically sensitive and have been diagnosed with Lyme disease.

Mari told her mother she didn't mind being homeschooled but she didn't want to go by herself. Cannon decided to start up a school.

Caitlin has been attending the school for two years and plans to return in the fall. She considers the close-knit environment she shares with four other students to be good for her education.

Cannon encouraged students to enter a writing contest outside of the school this year so someone other than herself could judge their work.

Caitlin took the task seriously. The avid writer who wants to grow up to design houses also won a Young Authors of America award for a mystery she wrote that combines fantasy and Chinese history. The story will be published in a collection due out next January.

"The fact that she didn't have homework allowed her to work on it," said her mother, Kerri Feeney.

The school's no-homework policy means students can fit in after-school extracurricular activities to get the social interaction they can't find in the five-student school.

That will change next year with the school's expansion.

Parents convinced Cannon to offer middle school classes in the fall. Cannon plans to expand to accommodate 12 students in grades third to fifth and 12 students in grades sixth to eighth.

The school still is in the process of looking for a place to hold classes. Students had been meeting in Cannon's family-room-turned classroom at her house.

"They need more kids and to try their ideas out on a bigger group of kids," Cannon said. "These kids are siblings, not classmates anymore."

At $5,000 a year, the school isn't cheap.

But the individual attention and quality education students are getting is priceless, parents say.

Daniel Murray, 11, of Kennewick, couldn't cope in a regular school environment because of severe social anxiety that resulted in acute shyness. His mother, Nancy Murray, homeschooled him for two years before enrolling him in Oasis.

"It's been wonderful for him," Nancy Murray said. "He's still in a big classroom. He has the problems he had before. But in the small class setting, he's grown emotionally, academically and socially. He's been very successful. All the kids are extremely bright. And because they have such a gifted teacher, their brightness has really been able to be highlighted."

Daniel Murray said the school has helped him not to be as shy as he once was.

"What I like best about Oasis is that we get to do things that other schools can't like going to the ropes course. ... What I like the least about the school is sometimes I have to write about a topic that I'm not very interested in writing about," he said.

Peggy Hamilton said the school is the best thing that could have happened for her 9-year-old daughter, Rachel Garner.

"She's would have a hard time adapting in a regular classroom just because she needs to move all the time. She hasn't been squashed just because she can't control her need to move. It would be hard to deal with in a classroom with 25 kids. She's a wriggle butt," Hamilton said.

Rachel is the youngest Oasis student, and she looks forward to having more kids her own age at the school next year. But she hasn't minded being the littlest.

"They've always been older. I kind of like that. After you get used to it, it gives you a more of an idea of how to have fun. It's nice to hang out with kids older than you to sort of learn how to deal with them," Rachel said.

Interested parents and students can attend an informational open house about Oasis School from 7:30 to 9 p.m. Tuesday at the Richland library, 955 Northgate Drive. Application packets will be available. For more information, call 547-5306 or 375-4761.

Caitlin's winning paper is posted on the Tri-City Herald's Kennewick Man Virtual Interpretive Center site at www.kennewick-man.com/essays/feeney.html.