An Official Recommends a "Total Restructuring" of the Bureau's Indian Schools, Including the One in Salem Where a Girl Died Sunday

The head of the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs is calling for an overhaul of Chemawa Indian School in Salem and other bureau schools by lengthening the school year, tying teachers' pay to performance, and mandating random drug testing of students and staff.

The purpose of the proposals from David W. Anderson, the Interior Department's undersecretary for Indian affairs, is to make the schools safer and more effective in educating nearly 60,000 Native American students. The plans are also in response to the death of a 16-year-old girl in a cell on the Chemawa campus nearly one year ago.

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