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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (June 18, 1987)
Thursday, June 18, 1987TThe Battalion/Page 3 State and Local &M professors set up program o help area minority students entor plan to pair B-CS sixth-graders with A&M students -nse. 'arrying i‘and shootings | By Jeannette Nicholson lanyofiw Reporter t ofsomeiHcumculum education professors toreadl! sa > their department has developed Wvay to try to combat the fact that the number of minority students is Bieasing in elementary and sec- he righli! ondary schools and decreasing in s Butii!i®her education. WDonna Wiseman, assistant profes- to the pc JBL j n educational curriculum and must pro instruction, said 52 percent of the iOclainH® den t s * n l exas school districts are Mw minorities. And another assis- andotlieMrt professor, Pat Larke, said the economy may be to blame. HThe Mentor program, developed by Larke and Wiseman, will match 'area minority students with Texas A&M students to help the children become more aware of opportunities alailable to them. ■The project is two-fold because both the children and their mentors a/ism ‘ for The will gain through the experience. Larke said she hopes the program will improve the minority student’s overall academic performance and provide, through the A&M students, a positive role model. So far, 26 A&M sophomore edu cation majors have been chosen to participate in the program. Larke said the program will help them “to develop instructional strategies that would enable them to become more effective as classroom teachers.” While the program is targeted pri marily toward education majors, Wiseman and Larke hope students from other A&M colleges also will show interest in the project because many minority students already have definite interests. For example, a child interested in agriculture could be paired with an agriculture student. The students already chosen will be matched with 26 sixth-graders from the Bryan-College Station school districts sometime this sum mer. The students chosen showed a “willingness to work with minority students,” Larke said. A certain de gree of commitment, sensitivity and acceptance of other people were other encouraging personality traits, Wiseman said. And the students had to pass both a written test and a per sonal interview. To be chosen, the minority stu dents had to show a willingness to work with the project coupled with a high degree of parental involve ment, Larke said. Written communication between the A&M students and the children will begin sometime in the next 30 days, Larke said. This will continue until they have their first meeting at a picnic in early October. The mi nority students, their parents and the mentorship network will attend. This will be the first of many planned get-togethers, which will in clude A&M football games and mov ies, Wiseman said. The A&M students will mentor the same child for three years, earn ing a total of six credit hours through a special seminar set up for the project. This will effectively carry the child through the sixth, seventh and eighth grades and the education student through the end of his or her college years — some of the toughest years for both, Wise man said. The program’s long-range goals are to extend the work to include ed ucation majors working with mi nority students in the secondary school system, Larke said. They hope this will continue and reinforce the child’s exposure to higher educa tion, she said. Mission > a place ij High court rules in favor of customers 1 AUSTIN (AP) — The Texas Bupreme Court on Wednesday, for the first time, applied the the ory of implied warranty to serv es such as repairs. The court said the “caveat Imptor” — or buyer beware — rule “as applied to services such as repairs is an anachronism pat ently out of harmony with mod ern service-buying practices.” I “It does a disservice not only to the ordinary prudent purchaser but to the industry itself by en couraging the purveyor of shoddy workmanship,” the ma jority opinion by Justice Franklin [Spears said. I The Supreme Court ruled in a Tarrant County lawsuit filed by Lonnie and Donna Barnes against Melody Home Manufac turing Co. | The Barneses sued after the modular pre-fabricated home they purchased from Melody de veloped puddles and dampness over the years. Over two years af ter moving in, they discovered that a sink was not connected to the drain in one of the interior alls. Ajury awarded $5,000 in dam- iges, and the 2nd Court of Ap- eals at Fort Worth affirmed the ial court. The Supreme Court upheld the appeals court. Parents want in-school tests after teacher contracts AIDS MIDLAND (AP) — Some worried parents want Midland public schools to arrange district-wide AIDS testing following confirmation that an el ementary school teacher contracted the disease. But school officials say they have no plans or money to arrange the tests, spokesman Becky Ferguson said Wednesday. About 200 parents met Tuesday at an elementary school where a tea cher voluntarily accepted disability leave after contracting the AIDS vi rus. School officials have refused to identify the teacher, who received positive confirmation of acquired immune deficiency syndrome Fri day. School board members called a press conference Saturday on the matter and mailed letters to all of the school’s parents and staff members. Hope Slaughter and Norma Ladd, parents of students at the school, said they will press school of ficials at their next meeting to ar range for AIDS testing of all stu dents. They said they also want annual tests for AIDS on teachers and cafeteria workers. “My child has cried several days over this,” said Slaughter, who said her 13-year-old son Tony was in the teacher’s class last year. She asked the school board to arrange and pay for AIDS testing. But board president Fred New man said the district cannot afford to test its 18,000 students, faculty and staff members. “Why would my (tax) money set your child more at ease than your money? he said. “If you’re worried, have it (the testing) done.” Ferguson said Wednesday the AIDS-afflicted teacher will not re turn to teaching next year and will continue on medical disability leave. She said AIDS testing probably “I’m concerned simply be cause I don’t think anyone has enough knowledge to make policies concerning (AIDS). Until they find out, I think they should treat it like leprosy. ” Jerry Norman, parent would not be on the school board’s agenda when it meets next week. Two Midland physicians joined Newman at Tuesday night’s meeting to answer questions about the dis ease. Many parents in attendance were afraid their children could have been exposed to AIDS. “I’m concerned simply because I don’t think anyone has enough knowledge to make policies concern ing it,” said Jerry Norman, whose two children attended the school un til January. “Until they find out, I think they should treat it like lepro- s y-” There is virtually no chance any of the students or staff were exposed to the AIDS virus, said Dr. David Snyder, a Midland oncologist, and Dr. James Humphreys, executive di rector of the Midland City County Health Department. “Hospital workers don’t even get AIDS from patients,” Humphreys said, adding that hepatitis B, a virus with the same high risk groups as AIDS, is “1,000 times more conta gious.” Bill Morrow, a Midland attorney whose wife, Sheila, teaches at the school, urged school board members to adopt a workable policy for deal ing with AIDS before the start of the next school year. Newman said he has asked school district attorneys to study the issue of AIDS in the school system and draw up potential AIDS-related school policies. Newman also invited input on the policies from teachers and parents’ organizations. The school district’s sole health- related hiring policy relates to tuber culosis: under state law, anyone hired by the school system must show a negative result on tests for that disease. \ im some Clements gives OK to eight anti-crime laws AUSTIN (AP) — Gov. Bill Clements signed eight bills into law Wednesday that he says are tv is not’! g ()() d news for citizens and bad news for law- surely it‘Beakers. preside^ The legislation was passed by the regular ses- (omestojsion that ended June 1, and Clements’ office said ereabo'iK e ta ^ e effect in 90 days, ntaboull “I want to emphasize that this is, in fact, a very, ,. Bry important and comprehensive crime pack- 1IS ..nr age that has been passed,” Clements said. 11 “These bills are good news for Texans who de- ,r 1110111 mand safe streets and protection for their fami- ninistel lies and property,” he said. “Conversely, these renters 1 bills are bad news for those who refuse to con- ratioii" ’ form to the established rules of society. “The effect that the criminal element has had st Ifrilff’ 1 i tic ciicei inai uie ciiimi J on our society is staggering.” Among the bills that were signed are measures that will: • Lower the amount of “good time” prison in mates can receive and require that to earn certain reductions in their sentences they participate in educational, industrial, agricultural or vocational programs. • Create regulations on the sale and transfer of chemical components of controlled sub stances. • Allow for an extension of time under the speedy trial act when the prosecution requires scientific analysis of evidence such as drugs. • Allow the state to appeal criminal law rul ings of trial courts on legal issues that terminate the case. Sponsors said the bill will, for the first time, give equal access by both the prosecution and defense to judicial review. • Permit the transfer of certain delinquent youths from the Texas Youth Commission to the Texas Department of Corrections. Rider Scott, the governor’s general counsel, said the legislation signed Wednesday “is going to make a difference for the citizens of the state of Texas, for law enforcement, for prosecution for years to come.” “These are some compelling and sweeping changes,” he said. The bills were an outgrowth of an anti-crime task force’s recommendations, and task force chairman Charles Terrell of Dallas said further recommendations will be forthcoming. “We’ll have a lot more in the future because we’ve just started,” he said. Parents • Condominiums - • Single Family Hot TAMU Cripple Creek Condominiums STANFORD-“The First Name In Real Estate” < 211 University 268-DAVE Tandy C< Is Pleased t< Extending toJ On Any Tandy cessory or Perij puter. 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