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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 22, 1980)
Page 12 THE BATTALION TUESDAY, APRIL 22, 1980 High interest cuts auto sales United Press International High interest rates are driving re cord numbers of the nation s auto dealers out of business. Even Cadil lac and Rolls-Royce dealers are not exempt. “If everybody that was sold could get financed, we wouldn’t have a problem, said Dave Sinclair, a St. Louis County Ford dealer whose sales volume is the highest in Mis souri. “People are ready and willing — they’re just not able. ’’ The National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) estimates 600 new car dealerships folded in 1979, when rising gasoline prices started the long auto industry slump. Rising interest rates have shut down more dealers. The association estimates 200 more dealerships went out of busi ness in the first three months of 1980, compared with a normal attri tion rate of 150 a year. The overall number of dealerships has been de clining steadily since the late 1940s. Many dealers describe the situa tion as worse than the last deep auto industry recession in 1974-75. Many have been forced to lay off em ployees. Some are seeking help from the government, or relief from the factory. “Obviously it’s a very serious problem,” said George S. Irvin, a Chevrolet dealer in Denver and NADA president. “It’s way beyond anything anybody’s ever experi enced before.” Dealers around the nation con tacted by UPI gave identical reports of sales lost because consumers can’t get loans and profits lost because of high interest rates. “It’s hurting us in two ways,” said Jim Hines Sr., president of Oliver Motor Co., a Chrysler-Plymouth dealership in Columbia, S.C. “We have to pay tremendous costs and we have to sell cars with high interest rates the customer can’t afford.” Even luxury car dealerships are experiencing problems. “What it amounts to is this: We re doing pretty well in sales, but not in operating profit because of the high interest rates on inventory and credit crunch for the customer,’’ said Rod ger Meier of Rodger Meier Cadillac in Dallas. Ruling debated Prayer in public schools issue still not settled By GAIL WEAHERLY City Reporter Prayer in public school, which, contrary to what most people be lieve, was not abolished in 1963, is still going on in many school systems today in Texas and other states, but not in Bryan or College Station. There are as many interpretations of what the Supreme Court meant in 1963 as there are schools across the nation. The idea that the court meant that no prayer should be allowed in the schools is constantly being tested by schools and administrators. At Highland Park High School in Dallas, student council members read a prayer everyday at noon over the public address system. The prin cipal, E.A. Sigler, said the prayer is legal because it is an activity of the student council rather than the school administration. He said the Supreme Court had made the “im plication of no prayer, ” but no speci fic ruling had been given on volun tary student prayer. Sigler said there is no mandate by administrators about this prayer; it is totally controlled by the student council. NEED TO GET IT ALL TOGETHER? Complete Tuxedo $25 to $40 formals 846-1021 111 College Main 846-4116 91 $ g 2 *Jf 96 £• “ JTI 'U) •a* 2 9 eg N QC WE BUY BOOKS EVERYDAY! ... AND GIVE 20% MORE IN TRADE ON USED BOOKS! JELOUPOT'Sra Northgate BOOKSTORE Across from the Post Office ZACHAR1AS GREENHOUSE club & game parlor never a cover charge BACKGAMMON TOURNAMENT TONIGHT 8 P.M. 1201 Hwy. 30 in the Briarwood Apts^, College Station 693-9781 But Constance Adams, 15, a stu dent who publicly opposed her school’s practice of broadcasting prayer, told reporters: “Personally, I’m a very religious person. I’m a Catholic. But I’m deeply offended that Highland Park has cbosen to ignore the fundamen tal precepts on which this country was founded — freedom of religion and separation of church and state.” The executive director of the Texas Civil Liberties Union, John Duncan, said Sigler was wrong in his interpretation. “When they allow school facilities and school time to promote religious activity it is illeg al,” Duncan said. Duncan’s interpretation of the 1963 Supreme Court ruling is that there “should be no prayer or reli gious exercise in the classroom. ’ It is a different matter, however, he said, “If religion is presented as literature, history, or social studies where the person doing the teaching isn’t advocating a religious teaching. “A student has the right to pray, but just because a student is moved to pray doesn’t give the teacher the right to tell the entire class, ‘There will now be a time for prayer.’” There is no suit being filed against the Dallas school system, but a group of parents in Lubbock has filed suit against the Lubbock Independent School System in conjunction with the Lubbock Civil Liberties Union. Thomas J. Griffith, attorney for the Lubbock CLU, said he is careful not to give out the names of the pa rents filing suit because of possible harassment to their children. The Lubbock suit, he said, is based on a long-standing custom of religious exercises rather than just a single incident or prayer, and school officials are fighting to keep that custom. 1 “Three children tried to leave an . evangelical sermon and were ordered to stay,” Griffith said. “The administration is determined to defy the Supreme Court and the First Amendment interpretation. “They are resisting the case. They passed a trustees’ resolution saying they will continue prayimg and having evangelical meetings and passing out-Gideon Bibles.” Thomas Johnson, attorney for the Lubbock ISD, did not want to be quoted directly but referred to the Answer of Defendants document which said that measures have been taken “to discontinue distribution of Gideon Bibles.” The same document also said that school officials and those represent ing the school system “admit that readings from the Bible, the saying of prayers and other related invoca tions of the Christian diety voluntari ly by students are done with the in tention of being religious exercise of expressions.” The basis for argument by the Lubbock ISD is that the Supreme Court has not addressed the ques tion of voluntary prayer by students and student groups. Although it seemed that the dis cussion of religion in schools was laid to rest in the ’60s, the ’70s has proven otherwise. In January 1978, the New Jersey State Assembly voted 63-5 in favor of mandating silent meditation in New Jersey’s 2,500 public schools, but the governor did not sign the bill. Opposition to the bill was voiced in the New York Times by a Long Island University philosophy profes sor who said he was an atheist, his children were atheists and the prop osed silent meditation was a violation of the constitution. In November 1979, Massachusetts Gov. Edward J. King signed a bill requiring teachers to seek a student volunteer daily to say a prayer. Stu dents not wanting to participate were to be excused from the exer cise. A story in the New York Times quoted John W. Roberts, spokesman for the Massachusetts Civil Liberties Union, as saying, “I don’t think it can stand a constitutional test.” On March 13, 1980, the Mas- ★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★ BJ THOMAS CONCERT BRYAN CIVIC AUDITORIUM THURSDAY MAY 1 TWO PERFORMANCES Tickets $5.00 $6.50 7 PM and 9 PM $8.50 ON SALE AT MSC Box Office Bank of A&M City National Bank First Bank & Trust University Nat’l Bank * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * J * * * * * * * * f * IF YOU HAVEN’T PICKED UP YOUR 1979 AGGIE- LAND, BE SURE TO DO SO BEFORE YOU LEAVE HERE, REED MON ROOM 216 MCDONALD BLDG. DAY - FRIDAY, 8 A.M.-5 P.M. ★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★ £ Wednesday Special Monterey 079 LlIrlNEK REG. 4.25 Fiesta Dinner J «> [NCHILADA 069 ►INNER £* REG. 3.15 SEE Dennis Story Bea Ayala Carolyn Ramirez Laura Torres For the latest in Contemporary Hair Design Come By 301 Patricia 846-7401 College Station 846-3130 (Across from the Campus Theater.) Tuesday Night Buffet 6*8 pm Noon Buffet 11 am - 2 pm ONLY *2“ All the Pizza, Spaghetti, and Salad You Can Eat! Children 2-7 yrs. $1. 19 Children under 2 yrs. FREE Buffets at both store locations. 1803 Greenfield Plaza 846-1784 413 S. Texas Ave. 846-6164 sachusetts Supreme Judicial Court struck down that law saying that it was an establishment of religion and a violation of the First Amendment. In December 1979, a school super intendent in Concord, N.H., re fused to let a group of Gideons distri bute Bibles to children in grades 5 through 12 saying that it would open the “floodgates” to other religious groups. The interpretation that the Sup reme Court ruling meant prayer or religious exercises were not to be carried on on school property using a “captive audience” of school chil dren is largely accepted by Bryan and College Station school adminis trators, but not without some dis agreement. I Dr. H. R. Burnett, director of in- atruction of the A&M Consolidated ISD, said, “My feeling is that the Supreme Court meant that there should be no prayer in school.” The only incidents of having advo cating of religon in the schools that he could remember were the passing out of Gideon Bibles around 1963 and a scripture box on a teacher’s desk from which a student drew a scrip ture and read it each morning — sometime around 1973. Both prac tices were stopped, Burnett said. D the r area vices Tf this this sem< He added that even though he feels the court ruling means no reli gious practices can be condoned in the classroom now, he feels that “someday it might be ruled in favor of.” Dr. Guy Gorden, director of in struction of the Bryan ISD for the past two years, said there has been no mention of religion in the clas sroom since he has been here. If the situation came up, he said, “I would take the position of separation of church and state as much as pos sible.” William K. Summers, superinten dent of the Bryan ISD, said if a reli gious exercise “infringes on someone else’s rights, I would oppose it. We Focus are trying,” hesaid,“l we are doing within the I# “There is no formalized; that goes on in the schools tried to steer clear of it evei we recognize the conmiuni in is by-and-large munity.” On the other Reagor, president of the M solidated ISD board old said he was in favor ofpra; public schools. “Personally,” he said, think there’s a thingwronf was raised with a prayereai ing in school. I don't different than starting s game with a prayer.’’ Reagor said if prayer »i recited in the classroom, not feel a need to opposeitl to my attention.” j. The case against the Lot! will come to trial Nov. 3, administrators mustconii tide for themselves if prase does not belong in thechs And what do school ol about being in this “Most of them would pi t, ; away, ” Duncan said. “Then 0 tical element that with the First Amendment school to advocate a parte Texa gious doctrine.” Dr. Harold L. Hawfdni the Texas A&M Universits ment of Educational Admit said, “Because schoolsen incn local level, and church, flcrea: school are pillars of society er happens in schoolattradi ment from home and becoi^ Fooc issue. “There’s a discrepancy what the local community i$)rjnflal the local hoard of educatim mand, and what the law what administrators may* is legal.” Adninistrators are ini situation,” Hawkins the “wishes and demamc board of education and oi may be so strong thatlhe; may be in a positiontoeil accept what the community make a major issue out of it Ci $44§ ’ log. oul lan A< versi As 13 p< P Th ate h ordei those correct the problem. ! rious enough to causehiml: r job.” Beligious practices be(« al, Hawkins said, “at the[( are challenged, when sor the community questions^ ity of certain teachings.” rTTHTHTig H( and RING DANCE PHOTO! 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