U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden reflected on his heritage and his highly personal reason for prioritizing mental health legislation as he fielded students’ questions at Phoenix High School on Thursday.

The Democrat also pledged to “keep coming back” to Jackson County after his second Jackson County town hall of the year was impacted Thursday by pro-Palestinian demonstrations.

Phoenix-Talent School District, with minimal notice, opted to close public access to Wyden’s 1,101st town hall ahead of the meeting Thursday morning in the school’s Rose Theater. According to Assistant Superintendent Tiffanie Lambert, the district made the decision overnight citing protest incidents Wednesday and Thursday near the school. They indicated to school officials that the senator’s town hall would have likely been cut short.

“It was a tough decision, and one that wasn’t taken lightly,” Lambert said.

Wyden has pledged to hold a town hall in each of Oregon’s 36 counties every year since his election in 1996, but demonstrators made what was previously an unprecedented interruption at Wyden’s 1,093rd town hall on July 17 at Rogue X, according to an earlier news report. The senator re-emerged 10 minutes after the demonstrators left, but roughly three-quarters of attendees had filed out when the public hearing resumed.

According to Lambert, flyers were posted near the school and taped to a flag pole, and three demonstrators handed students flyers about the Gaza War after school Wednesday afternoon. She said the demonstrators were polite, stood off school grounds on the sidewalk and were peaceful.

The demonstrators prompted school staff to meet with Wyden’s staff about contingencies if the town hall meeting were to be interrupted again. The school decided it did not want the meeting to get cut short.

“That would take away an opportunity for our students,” Lambert said.

On Thursday morning, Lambert said, a demonstrator tossed a stack of flyers on school grounds. She thanked custodial staff and students who helped clean up the mess.

“I think it just affirmed our decision,” Lambert said.

Wyden said after the hearing that his office respected the school’s decision to close off public access, and pledged to return.

“I’ll keep coming back,” Wyden said, adding that he’ll work to “throw open the doors of the government” and remove barriers for his constituents.

When asked about “the ongoing genocide in Palestine,” Wyden spoke frankly about his support for a two-state solution and openly about foreign policy decisions and his Jewish heritage. He told the student audience that his parents fled Germany in the 1930s, and that his father was part of a group of German kids who dropped pamphlets encouraging Nazis to give up.

He indicated that the Hamas attack on Israel Oct. 7, 2023, was more brutal than the reports from international news outlets.

“I’m a member of the Intelligence Committee and I can just tell you — I can’t talk about private, closed-door meetings — what I know is it was even worse than people heard about in the news,” Wyden said.

Wyden touched on the assassination of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, and described it as a chance to bring Hamas, “the other terrorist groups” and “the other party” to join in a ceasefire “so you could really step up the humanitarian aid to Gaza and get the hostages out.”

“And I feel very strongly that the vast majority of the Palestinian people … want nothing to do with Hamas,” Wyden said. “They might dislike them even more than I do because they’re hurting their country.”

Wyden described matters of trade as a way he could facilitate a solution to the ongoing conflict between Israelis and Palestinians through his role as chair of the Senate Finance Committee.

“I feel very strongly we need a two-state solution,” Wyden said.

Another student asked about how the senator has seen the political divide change over the decades. Wyden was elected to the Senate in 1996 and had previously served in the U.S. House since 1981.

“Much more divided,” Wyden said.

Wyden said he has long sought strong bipartisan support when creating legislation.

“My rule is I try to find a Republican first,” Wyden said.

Building broad bipartisan support is growing more challenging, he said, because of growing political polarization.

“It’s a lot harder because extremes of both political parties are sucking up so much oxygen,” Wyden said.

A question about the growing mental health crisis — specifically what the senator and his colleagues are doing to provide mental health resources for teens — struck a chord with Wyden.

“This issue is deeply personal to the Wyden family,” Wyden said. “My brother Jeff was a lot smarter than me and he had schizophrenia.”

He said his brother walked the streets for years on end, and that “I haven’t been doing my job if the day goes by and I’m not working on mental health.”

Wyden said that he worked with Republicans on legislation to expand behavioral health by $10 billion that’s “beginning to get into communities.”

“The big breakthrough is going to be soon when the students are gonna be able to get that money through Medicaid for personal counseling in Oregon schools,” Wyden said.

Phoenix High School last year opened a full-service medical clinic operated by La Clinica, which included a mental health component, according to an earlier news report and information provided by La Clinica communications specialist Anita Burke.

The district and La Clinica received a $2.6 million grant over five years to pay for behavioral health care in its school. There are two full-time therapists, a half-time therapist, and a certified alcohol and drug counselor who provides screenings and short-term counseling.