Page 6/The Battalion/Wednesday, February 6,1985
i ■ ■ i ■
Bryan police program uses dog
to teach children about crime
Texas’ oldest wargaming convemiom Wareoo will be held Friday
through Sunday. S|x>nsored by MSC Nova, over a dozen tourna-
mems will be held including Dungeons and Dragt>n^..Abo there wilt
fee a dealer's room, movies, seminars, demonstrations and ojpengano
mg. Featured this year is Project Warrior, a clbse# Ogre/Gev tourna
ment For several Air Force sponsored teams and four corps teams.
Registration will be held oh tire fnd Floor of Rudder Tower S p.m.-9
p,m. Friday, For details and more information, call $45-1515V.'
After Hours offers driving course
The TAMU After Hours Program will s|Kwis<»f a Driver Sahey
Course on Friday and Saturday. This course ntay be used to have
certain traffic violations dismissed and to receive a it>% discount on
automobile insurance, Registration is held $ a.m.-5 p.m. Monday ]
through Friday in 216 MSC. For more Information, call 845-1515.
* \ ^ s ^ V || '• s \ - s ^ p? I ^ v
Casino night applications due Friday
Ike in 215 Pavilion. You'must live oft cam
and information, call ig Valdes at 26d-21
i2v : 'yy- -. ..
s to apply. For details
“asino Night is April
inglish Department offers mini-courses
The Department of English is sponsoring a Writing Outreach
■f&rgmgfaout the spring semester. The program consists of
several one hour sessions designed to offer assistance to those wish-
skills. Each sessions focuses on a panic-
charge.
| students, staff and faculty at no ^
The courses ate not a tutoring service nor are credit hours offered.
dbgMgMfMiabottt each session will be printed in the What’s Up col-
By LEIGH FORREST
Reporter
“Take a bite out of crime.”
When McGruff the Crime Dog
barks, kids listen.
Or at least that’s what the Bryan
Police Department is hoping.
McGruff the Crime Dog is fea
tured in a new crime awareness pro
gram starting in the Bryan elemen
tary schools, Police Sgt. Choya
Walling said.
The program, aimed at children
in kindergarten through sixth
grade, calls for a McGruff puppet
and audio tapes of McGruffs mes
sage in every classroom to teach ba
sic crime prevention during a 15-
minute presentation. The presenta
tions are given once a week.
Walling said the convenience of
having McGruff in every class is im
portant to the success of the pro
gram.
“If it’s convenient, the teachers
will use it,” he said. “If it’s not, it’s so
easy just not to do it that week. And
if the teachers don’t use it, then
we’ve wasted our lime.”
One week after the start of the
program, Walling said about 147
puppets are still needed for the esti
mated 315 classrooms in Bryan
schools.
The puppets are paid for by local
businesses, organizations and indi
viduals who sponsor a McGruff
package, Walling said.
The $68 package includes a pup
pet, puppet stand, audio tapes and a
teachers training guide. Sponsors
can request a specific school and/or
classroom for their puppet, Walling
said.
He said the program provides
constant contact between the chil
dren and crime prevention, teaching
them what the police would teach if
they could be in the classrooms that
often.
“Each one of these rascals (the
puppets) represents me or my part
ner in one of those classrooms 15
minutes a week for the whole school
year,” Wallings said. “We still do
programs for the schools, but now
when we go in, we’ve got a founda
tion to build on.”
Walling said it’s harder to change
adult views, but he hopes the pro-
g ram will affect the children as they
ecome adults.
“You start working with the kids
now so that when they grow up, you
will have affected their thinking
processes and hopefully molded
their attitudes and habits so that they
conform better to a crime preven
tion-type atmosphere,” Walling said.
McGruff was chosen because of
the national attention he received as
spokesperson for the National
Crime Prevention Coalition, Walling
saids, and that the television appear
ances and puppets reinforce each
other.
“The kids recognize McGruff,” he
said. “He’s a lovable character and
they listen to him.”
Legislators backstiffer criminal laws
Associated Press
AUSTIN — Saying Texans want
to get tough with criminals, a group
of legislators Tuesday vowed to push
bills to expand the death penalty,
block early release of many prison
inmates and improve the treatment
of crime victims.
“The Legislature’s chief obliga
tion is to provide for the safety of the
citizens of the state,” said Sen. J.E.
“Buster” Brown, R-Lake Jackson.
“That’s what the people ... were say
ing over and over and over again.”
Brown and other lawmakers
joined the Associated Texans
Against Crime in backing bills to
stiffen criminal laws. He said the rec
ommendations followed 14 public
hearings ATAC held around the
state.
A key bill, endorsed by House
Speaker Gib Lewis, D-Fort Worth,
would expand the death penalty to
include killers who slay more than
one person—either in sequence or at
one time. Current law allows the
death sentence for killing a law offi
cer or killing while committing some
other felonies.
“In Texas, the dedth penalty may
be imposed under certain narrow
circurrtstances,” said Rep. Patricia
Hill, R-Dallas. “Unfortunately, per
haps the most shocking circum
stance—not killing one person but
killing more than one person—is not
one of those conditions.
“We’ve all seen many cases re
cently in which people embark on
killing sprees,” she said. “They can
not receive the maximum sentence,
the death penalty. They can receive
only life imprisonment.”
A second bill would allow judges
to tell jurors—before they consider
C unishment—the effects of parole
iws that allow convicts early release
from prison.
“All too often, we’ve had juries
who are surprised at the net result of
when somebody comes out of
prison,” said Rep. Ray Keller, R-
Duncanville.
Keller, chairman of the House
Law Enforcement Committee, said
the law should be changed “so we
can ensure that the bunders are
taken off juries and that the punish
ment is guaranteed to be equal to the
crime committed.”
Brown said another bill would
clamp down on the early release of
prison inmates, but he said details of
that plan aren’t yet ready.
However, he insisted that ways
can be found to curb early releases
without overburdening an already
crowded prison system and without
raising taxes to build more jails.
The senator said other propoals
would improve the treatment of vic
tims.
The measures would “allow the
victim prior to sentencing to make a
statement to the judge or jury about
the effect of that crime on their
lives” and permit victims to remain
in court throughout a trial to help
prosecutors.
Photo by PETER RO
Sgt. Choya Walling holds McGruff.
Coors beer to lecture
on marketing tactics
jive three separa
hursday at 8 ail
By Doug Hall
Reporter
Representatives from the Adolph Coors Go. will
lectures about marketing strategies and “Beer Wars”
11 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. in 165 Blocker.
Larry Lightfoot, division manager for the Gulf States division, i
Don Marable, West Texas drea manager, will address three Marketine
classes to discuss Coors’ approach to various marketing strategies. Botii
former students.
Mark Jameson, campus representative for Coors and anofficerini
Management Society, said the lectures are sponsored in conjunction*
Business Week and are provided by Coors as a “friend to the commuiii
idea.”
Promotion techniques and marketing ideas are among the schedu!
topics for Lightfoot and Marable to discuss, Jameson said.
Get cadi anytime.
Use any card.
Banking is automatic at 7-Eleven.
All PULSE® cards are accepted, including Anytime, Boss, Quick Silver, First Net (Teller 2), Dough Boy, Ready Bank and Money Card at participating 7-Eleven stores.
If you don’t see your activated banking card listed, try it! If the transaction is not completed, the ATM will simply return your card to you.
1NYADS,
BUT REAL
HEAVYWEIGHIS
WHEN RESULTS
REALLY COUNT.
ALL:
The
Battalion
845-2611