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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 22, 1978)
■■HBUBIUIUHI mmmmsimmm TO Battalion ol. 72 No. 59 2 Pages Wednesday, November 22, 1978 College Station, Texas News Dept. 845-2611 t Business Dept. 845-2611 Plethora of poultry Turkeys aren’t the national bird, despite Ben Franklin’s wishes. But they have survived better than the symbol that was picked, and those who wish to gobble a wild turkey on Thanksgiving will find the pick ings plentiful this year, state game commissions say. See page 7. llSten to H !' lous| y Mi l|lm Phillips ljust gettk ( out the clod !l ent def eii a de, b ? "ugnifo tr,,ll ed tlicjj touchdown >1 63, ’’ marched I drives ofSi s, great offeie II and they lc h other," Kinersaid said Shi V said about the loss, fti "'w Engiani ia mpionship astern _ ■•e 9-3 and 1 four t. remained I AFC Ce, di but rent ion to vie I berth. Hoi C teams wit r fivewii Will since Ri ig several ( J won hvop Richland i remains h number vas —Ten least one Aggie hunter was successful during Texas’ deer season dent plays ening weekend. This fresh set of whitetail deer antlers was hanging he is not« t s jd e a second story window of Aston Hall. Texas has the largest herd led well whitetail deer, an estimated 3.3 million. The season opened Saturday, inous time rent junto Consol school head fired; board still pays $54,400 Battalion photo by Lee Roy Leschper Jr. It s fall, all right By DOUG GRAHAM Battalion Staff Fred Hopson, superintendent of the A&M Consolidated Independent School District, will be looking for a new job June 30, 1979. But he will be $54,400 richer when he does. The A&M Consolidated school board terminated his old contract and wrote a new one Monday night in closed executive session. It agreed to pay Hopson $34,400 for sal ary and $20,000 damages for terminating his contract two years early. The school district will also provide $2,500 in reloca tion expenses should Hopson move. Last year the board voted to extend Hopson’s contract one additional year, to June 30, 1981. Hopson’s firing was announced by School Board President Bruce Robeck at a specially called press conference Tuesday morning. Robeck said that due to dis agreements “concerning educational pol icy and policy implementation,’’ the dis trict decided to terminate Hopson’s con tract. Hopson, who was present at the press conference, gave no moor his firing, saying only that he would work to make the ad ministrative change a smooth one. No one would say why Hopson’s con tract was terminated. Elliot Bray, board vice president, said that in the best interest of the school dis trict the board would not discuss the mat ter. Robeck said the board wanted to avoid possible slander from discussing personnel matters in public. Other officials of the school district were also reluctant to talk, although some won dered why Hopson had been fired. Many expressed surprise at the an nouncement. “We cannot, individually or as a board, criticize the administration,’’ Robeck said. He said the board’s legal counsel, Jack Woods, advised the board to remain silent on why the contract was ended. “The board does not have the privilege, or im munity, to discuss personnel matters like the state legislature or Congress does,” Robeck said. Robeck said the board decided that a good working relationship was of such immediate importance that the costly ter mination of Hopson’s contract was jus tified. “It is critical that a board and the superintendent be able to work together in complete harmony,” he said. “And it is better for both to find alternatives where there is not complete harmony.” Robeck said he wished the board could further explain the termination of Hop- son’s contract to the public since the tax payers will be paying that action’s $54,400 cost. “It is a Catch 22 situation and we re caught right in the middle of it,” he said. “We have to make our decisions and let them stand on the basis of their own merits and demerits, and that puts us in a squeeze, obviously. “Ultimately, we may have to take what criticisms may come from not dragging the laundry out,” he said. Robeck said the board will not offer an explanation for Hopson’s firing at a later date, although many school officials Tues day anticipated such a meeting. “My preference would be free discus sion as a matter of public policy to debate these questions,” Robeck said. “I think it is a serious public policy problem that public officials are so burdened by these (legal) restraints.” Robeck said that five years is about av erage tenure for school superintendents, adding that Ron’s dismissal after four and one-half years is not unusual. Hopson has been with the school dis trict since 1960, and has served as superin tendent since 1974. Feds OK Brazos County reapportionment plan great dept! ’ Santinia ■★★★★♦♦I DOING DRY? do it tor yoi rannies Iromat tate illegal lay involve food stamp use Brazos County 09 Placi EastMtH By JAIME AITKEN Battalion City Editor vestigators with the Texas Depart- of Human Resources have com- the first phase of a state-wide down on illegal food stamp traffick- and one case is expected to be filed in County. {HR officials said Tuesday that 16 com ets are being filed with prosecutors in central Texas counties, ecase involving a Brazos County res- t has yet to he filed with Brazos nty District Attorney Travis Bryan III, |ispokesman with the local DHR office Tuesday the complaint should be filed by the end of the week. Twelve of the complaints are classified as felonies, which could bring as much as 10 years in prison upon conviction. The name of the Brazos County suspect has not been released, and it is not known whether the case is one of the 12 felonies. Seven persons were arrested in Waco Tuesday in connection with the food stamp abuse. Five complaints are expected to be filed in Travis County, two in Bell County, and one in Williamson County, in addition to the Brazos County case. Bryan Chenault, DHR supervisor of in- vstigations,. said those being sought have illegally purchased food stamps from qual ified recipients for less than face value and cashed the stamps at full value at local banks and grocery stores. Qualified food stamp recipients use the stamps for grocery purchases. Grocers re ceive government reimbursement for the stamps. Chenault said the illegal purchases were made by a barber, a liquor store owner, a college instructor, and various merchants, including grocers. It is against the law to buy or sell food stamps. A DHR spokesman in Waco said Tues day that the college instructor is from Waco. By SCOTT PENDLETON Battalion Staff The U.S. Department of Justice has withdrawn its letter objecting to last spring’s reapportionment of Brazos County. That objection was the cause of action for a suit that challenged the reapportion ment plan and prevented three of the Nov. 7 county elections from being cer tified. The current Brazos County commis sioners and certain other county officials are the defendants in the suit. The com missioners redrew the county precinct lines to balance the population among the four precincts. Steve Garza, Steve Gongora and Jesse Flores filed the suit in August, when they learned that the Justice Department had objected to the reapportionment plan as possibly diluting the minority vote in violation of the Voting Rights Act. The three plaintiffs are Mexican-American res idents of Brazos County. Their lawyer, Joaquin Avila, Tuesday said that the plaintiffs would have to dis miss the objection as their cause of action. Avila, who works for the Mexican- American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), said that the plaintiffs may drop the suit if there is an alternative. “Our ultimate objective is a new reap portionment (of Brazos County),” he said. Avila said he will contact the defen dants’ lawyer next week to investigate the possibility of a settlement out of court. If the plaintiffs want to continue the suit, Avila said, they can do so by amend ing their current letter of complaint. That way they wouldn’t have to refile the suit. Now that the Justice Department has withdrawn its objection, the suit would no longer be an administrative proceeding based on the Voting Rights Act, Avila said; Instead, it would be a “constitutional at tack” on the reapportionment plan in fed eral court. The federal court in Houston, where the suit was filed, had served only to enforce the Justice Department’s letter of objec tion, Avila said. But if the plaintiffs con tinue without that objection, he said, the judge will decide the suit’s outcome. The suit would still argue that the minority vote was diluted, Avila said. Avila told his clients Monday that he re ceived a form letter from the Justice De partment. The letter said that the objec tion was withdrawn “based on new infor mation,” Avila said. The letter did not give more specific reasons. Although Avila was not expecting the objection to be withdrawn, he said that is not unusual for the Justice Department. And, he said, the department does not usually state its reasons in detail. No sellout for TCU; tickets still available The Aggie football team, accustomed to playing in front of a sold-out Kyle Field, may see many empty seats Saturday. Eulata Miller, athletic ticket manager, said only 13,000 tickets for the game with Texas Christian University had been drawn by Tuesday. She said 11,000 to 12,000 tickets are usually drawn on senior day alone. Because of the Thanksgiving holiday, seniors were to pick up their tickets last Thursday, juniors on Friday, sophomores on Monday, and freshmen on Tuesday. Miller said many students did not know about the date change on the ticket draw. She said the freshmen that picked up their tickets today were definitely getting better seats than they usually would. Seventeen hundred tickets were picked up Tuesday, Miller said. Miller said she could not estimate how large the crowd would be at the game. “It is a totally new experience. We have never played TCU on a Thanksgiving weekend before, so we have no way to estimate the number. ” Today is the last day to pick up tickets for Saturday’s 1:30 p.m. game. 5 ion says members bclricked into suicide ost m ^ominga 8 ; ^fdniega United Press International 'GEORGETOWN, Guyana — Steven es, 19, said Tuesday he believed his ir the Rev. Jim Jones had tricked the ical members of his Peoples Temple into mass suicide by telling them it only a “drill’ when he offered them a lire of grape-flavored Kool-Aid laced cyanide. yanese police and army troops said had found the bodies of 409 men, en and children sprawled through the town jungle commune where they died alongside each other in a scene jht out of hell. Even their pet cats and dogs were dead, lice said they had found 36 survivors he surrounding jungle and in getown as well as Jonestown and that were still searching for some 600 hers who disappeared into the bush. not known whether they were dead Kve. [ease see related story, page 6. eve said his father, a onetime city Jing official in San Francisco, had not 'well lately and had been taking drugs had turned him into a paranoic. He [he did not know what kind of drugs ather was taking. [hated him,” Steven told newsmen in fgetown. “He became a Fascist. He oyed everything that we lived and fed for. He has discredited socialism. ” leve Jones said his father’s followers Imost likely been tricked into suicide png it was a “drill. ” He confirmed re- of “white night” suicide drills in i simulated poison was drunk by the [members as proof of loyalty and brav- U.S. team aided by Guyanese au nties and some survivors were trying [day to identify the victims. They said [f the victims were Americans from Jornia with the exception of seven lanese adopted children. Most of them ] poison in the suicide rite. A few were dead by fanatics at the Jonestown commune, 150 miles northwest of Georgetown. The cult leader was found shot in the right temple but it was not clear whether his death was murder or suicide. Police reported a woman in Georgetown in radio contact with the commune 150 miles away slit her three children’s throats and then her own to fulfill her part of the mass suicide pact. The mass suicide took place Saturday night, after Temple members massacred Rep. Leo J. Ryan, D-Calif., and four other American visitors on a fact-finding tour to the commune in Jonestown. The body of the 46-year-old Jones — namesake of the town and leader of the Temple — was found face up among his lifeless followers. His mistress was found dead in bed with another woman, inves tigators said. Officials said the bodies of the cultists were scattered around an altar along with hundreds of dogs, which were poisoned first. “We keep finding bodies in isolated places,” assistant Police Commissioner C.A. Roberts said. Police searching the commune found 800 U.S. passports, 30 to 40 automatic weapons, hundreds of thousands of rounds of ammunition, $500,000 in gold bullion, another $500,000 in mixed currencies and envelopes stuffed with uncashed U.S. So cial Security checks, Roberts said. In Washington, the Pentagon said Tuesday three C-141 jet transports and two UH-1 Huey helicopters would fly to Guyana to transport bodies back to the United States. The bodies of Ryan, a legislative aide and three newsmen who accompanied him were flown to the United States Tuesday. Steve, a son of the cult leader, arrived in Georgetown from the United States Monday. “We were taught to be loving and non violent,” he said. “But for some time I have suspected an element of insanity in the leadership.” Children discover therapy of horses By LIZ BAILEY Battalion Reporter Horses are strong medicine. That’s what some handicapped children and members of the Texas A&M Horseman’s Association have discovered. The first three Saturdays of this month, Horsemen’s Association members taught 23 mentally and physically handicapped students basic horsemanship skills as part of the TAMU Horsemen’s Association Special Students Riding Clinic. The students, from ages 7 to 16, were from the Bryan-College Sta tion area. Doug Householder, staff adviser to the Horsemen’s Association and also horse specialist with the Texas Agricultural Extension Service, said he got the idea for a riding school here after taking part in a similar school sponsored by the Equestrian 4-H Club in Brazos County. Karl Little, student coordinator of the program and a member of the Horsemen’s Association, said the school’s purpose was also to help the students improve their balance, coordination and develop confi dence and muscle strength. “I guess horsemanship was just our way to do it,” he said. The students came to a one and one-half hour session at the Texas A&M University Horse Center each Saturday morning during the first three weeks of November. They were divided by age into two groups. Those from 7 to 12 years old rode from 8:30 a.m. until 10 a.m.; 13 to 16-year-olds rode from 10:30 a.m. until noon. Each riding student was assigned a group of three instructors, all from the Horsemen’s Association. Basic grooming techniques, how to stop, back and turn horses, trot ting and relay races were all part of the sessions. During the races, designed to make the students think while rid ing, the students had to walk their horses over poles on the ground and walk or trot around several upright poles. Throughout the races, students and instructors alike cheered for their teams. At the end of each riding session, students unsaddled and groomed the horses. By the end of the third session, most of the students were almost able to saddle and bridle their own horses. T-shirts were presented the third day to signify their completion of the riding school. Householder said instruction was individualized. The goal of the clinic. Little said, was to teach riding and trotting on a horse. But some were successfully loping their horses on the third day. Many of the instructors. House holder said, called their students frequently during the week and some brought them to the sessions. One instructor said one of her stu dents asked if his horse was a boy or girl horse. When she stooped down to look, he burst out laughing. A participant asked her instructor if horses ears were cleaned with Q-tips. Householder said most of the stu dents’ parents were very enthusias tic. Donald Farris, Professor of Ag ricultural Economics, said his son took part in the clinic and “he thoroughly enjoyed it.” “It was a nice way to spend three Saturday mornings,” Farris said. He said he was impressed with the Horsemen’s Association mem bers because they had their horses and were ready to go at 8 o’clock. “I have some kids that can’t make it to class by 11 o’clock,” he said. Householder said the future of the riding school is not yet certain, but there may be another one next spring. Andrew Clark, 16, participated in the TAMU Horsemen’s Association Special Students Riding Clinic for three weekends this month. Larry Nausle, left, and Kathy Wilson of the Horsemen’s Association were two of Andrew’s three instructors. Battalion photo by Liz Bailey