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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (April 5, 1988)
Tuesday, April 5, 1988/The Battalion/Page 11 AIDS sufferers use acupuncture ' as treatment for deadly disease I AUSTIN (AP) —Jim French, di agnosed with AIDS-related complex jn 1987, found within a few months lat his system couldn’t tolerate the [rong chemicals normally used to eat the disease. [ So he returned several months i to the fine silver needles of acu- E "tincture that once alleviated his twer back pain. Now, he seems to have the illness, which progressively Hestroys the immune system, under Ijorne control. ■ "A lot of it you can’t explain,” French said. “But it works. Whoever nimld have thought that putting Redles in my feet would make my nbsestop bleeding? It’s really helped alot." ■ Since January, acupuncture has Ibecome one of the most popular Heatments in Austin among suffer ers of acquired immune deficiency syndrome. Brian McKenna, an Austin acu puncture expert who initiated the AIDS treatments twice a week at St. Luke’s Methodist Church, said they have drawn 28 patients so far, with about half attending regularly. “We’re trying to offer the options of traditional Chinese medicine,” McKenna said. “We’ve been able to address pain and migraine head aches. We’ve been able to normalize sleep patterns and help with the ap petite loss and digestive weakness of ten found with AIDS and ARC (AIDS-related complex). “But it’s important to recognize that no therapy is going to serve ev eryone all the time.” Acupuncture is an ancient Chinese art still used in conjunction with Western medicine in China. It involves the shallow puncturing of the body at specific points with long, fine gold or silver needles to relieve pain and cure disease. “Its optimal province is the early stages of a disease process,” McK enna said. “But it has analgesic ef fects at any stage.” McKenna, 35, has no medical de gree and does not claim to be curing AIDS. But he has studied with acu puncturists in China, and he points to the experience with hundreds of AIDS patients indicating that acu puncture helps maintain their health. “It’s way too early to predict how acupuncture is going to shape up as an AIDS treatment,” McKenna said. “I do, however, believe it would be remiss on our part not to offer hope.” Acupuncturists are not licensed by the State of Texas, but Austin has attracted about a dozen of them since the early 1980s. McKenna is licensed to practice in his native New Mexico and by a na tional association. The needles for AIDS treatments are used only once and then discarded. He and two other acupuncturists who help al ways wear gloves, he said. The virus that causes a fatal case of AIDS is primarily transmitted through sexual contact but alsp can be passed by exchanging blood. Some Austin physicians who treat AIDS approve of their patients try ing acupuncture. “I have absolutely no objection to it,” Dr. Tom Smith said. “I’ve found that people do better when they take a multiphasic approach. If some thing is safe, I don’t object.” Presentation focuses on Mali culture By Tracey Streater Reporter The culture and artifacts of the country of Mali will be the main focus of a presentation by Dr. Kathy Dettwyler, a professor of anthropology, tonight at 7 p.m. in 206 MSC. The presentation, sponsored by the MSC Jordan Institute for International Awareness, will fea ture artifacts collected by Det twyler typifying the art and cul ture of Mali, which is located in the center of West Africa. Dettwyler will bring examples of weavings and textiles, wooden carvings, masks and basketry that she collected during her stay in Mali. Claudia Hoste, director of pub lic relations for the MSC Jordan Institute, said they invited Det twyler to speak because her ex pertise on Mali will provide extra insight on a country unknown to many people. “Mali is a country that few peo ple are aware of because it isn’t in the news very often,” Hoste said. “However, we (the MSC Jordan Institute for International Awareness) don’t think that should limit our exposure to a country and its culture.” Dettwyler, who earned her doctorate in anthropology from Indiana University, lived in Mali two years, concentrating her studies on the agriculture and nu trition of the country and its peo ple. Although the land is more suit able for farming than that of other countries in Africa, Mali is severely affected by droughts and is plagued by widespread malnu trition. ^Because it has no major natural resources, such as diamonds in other parts of Africa, Mali is the fourth poorest country in the world. t tudent Senate sponsors heating Awareness Week By Sharon Maberry Reporter I The Academic Affairs Committee Bthe Student Senate has designated Hiis week as Cheating Awareness . Week at Texas A&M. ■ “The purpose of the week is to iKise students’ awareness of cheating pat A&M,” a co-chairman of the pro- lied. Margie Boswell, said. ^■The primary event planned for na^K e week is a noon forum on IjjijjBednesday in Zachry to give stu- uTRiits a chance to voice their opin ions on cheating at A&M, Boswell The Academic Affairs Commit- jniUe would like to find out what cheat- plg policy students would like used at A&M. “■“We (the Academic Affairs Com- jJHittee) hope to establish some > guidelines of how to deal with stu- dents caught cheating at A&M,” f F t'B 3 swell “We feel A&M is lax, 1 Bladvely speaking (with offenders of the honor code.) We need to have a set policy. At a lot of the Eastern [schools, students caught cheating lire expelled.” irinB 1 ^.■The chairman of the Student Sen- , fate's Academic Affairs Committee, Tom Black,’said that during the first |heating Awareness Week last se mester, the student response was not favorable. “People did discuss it a lot, but they laughed at it,” Black said. “But any reaction is good reaction. We want to make people aware of the problem and to think about it. “We want to see if we can get a dis cussion going,” Black said of the Wednesday forum with the theme, “Cheating: Is there a solution? And what are your scruples?” Black said he hopes the discussion will spread throughout the campus and get people talking about the is sue. “We have no program to deal with this issue,” Black said. “Any type of honor court (to sentence students caught cheating at A&M) would be great. But I don’t know how that court would get power. We would like to make it a court of peers, but students can’t kick other students out of the University. “We’re using the forum to try and find out if such a court is feasible and if there would be any support for it. We are also trying to find out if there is anything we can do to help students who have been hurt by other students who cheat. Every place has cheating. We have it too, unfortunately.” Teacher fired on charges of immorality; students ‘compelled to tell truth’ at trial SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Lou Ann Hogan de scribes herself as a good high school English tea cher who got along well with her students, but school administrators say she may have gotten along too well with one of them. Hogan, 24, is fighting for her job after four male students told school administrators they saw her having sex with Chad Cadenhead, a 17-year- old emotionally troubled teen-ager who com mitted suicide a month after the alleged sex acts took place. The case has drawn a great deal of local cover age and attracted national attention after Hogan was fired from Clark High School on charges of “immorality” and her contract for the next school year was not renewed. Hogan, who has filed a $400,000 lawsuit claim ing defamation of character against the teen-ag ers, said they are trying to find an answer to Ca- denhead’s death. The students claim they don’t want to hurt anyone, but they are compelled to tell the truth. It’s a stalemate so far, but both sides convin cingly claim they are telling the truth and want the civil case tried quickly to settle the issue. “I’m mad, but what do I do?” Hogan said. “It will come out that they are not good boys. I just want to stare them in the in the face. I want to see how they would react.” When that time comes, Taylor Sommer, Scott Autry, Jeff Beckel and Hector Torres, who are named in her suit, said they will tell the truth, that on the nights of Dec. 5 and Dec. 11, they saw Hogan and Cadenhead engaged in sex. Sommer, 16, and Autry and Beckel, both 17, are students at Clark High School and Torres, 19, a former Clark student, now attends the Uni versity of Texas at San Antonio. Rumors about who’s telling the truth and who’s lying are abundant at Clark High School and throughout the North Side Independent School District. “We’re getting made to look like the bad guys for the telling the truth,” Sommer said in an in terview. “I’m not mad. It’s tough, but I’m telling the truth, so I’m not worried.” The twisted tale began in November when Ca denhead told friends he was having a sexual relationship with Hogan, a second-year teacher whose youth allowed her to relate to students. Sommer, Autry and Beckel did not believe Ca denhead, who according to an autopsy report was an emotional teen-ager with suicidal tenden cies who had undergone psychological counsel ing. Cadenhead told friends that he would set it up so they could watch, the teen-agers said. On Saturday, Dec. 5, 1987, Sommer, Beckel and Torres said they went to Cadenhead’s house, peeked through a bedroom window and saw Ca denhead and Hogan engaged in sex. On Dec. 11, Autry and Beckel said they were spending a night at Cadenhead’s home when Hogan called and said she was coming over. Autry and Beckel said they slipped out of the house and stood near Cadenhead’s bedroom window. They said Hogan arrived, went to Ca denhead’s room and she and Cadenhead again had sex. But Hogan said the charges are ludicrous. She and her husband, Mike, said they were together on the nights the alleged acts took place. “Never would I be stupid enough to go to a kid’s house not knowing if his parents were there,” Hogan said. The teen-agers said they never talked to Ca denhead much after the acts allegedly occurred. On Jan. 28, Cadenhead went to his bedroom, put a .410-gauge shotgun in his mouth and ulled the trigger. No suicide note was found, ut the teen-agers believe the sexual relationship may have triggered the act. Sommer said that two weeks after he saw Ho gan and Cadenhead having sex, he told his sister and after Cadenhead’s death she persuaded him to tell adults. The Sommers told the Cadenheads, who later told school officials. On Feb. 2, the students were summoned to school administrators offices and were asked to write what they saw. Hogan was suspended, and on March 10, the school board Fired her. Last week, the board de clined to renew her contract for the coming year. School superintendent Jack Jordan has said the teen-agers’ story was very convincing. “We are telling the truth. We have no reason to lie,” Torres said. “We want to tell our side of the story and we want to tell it all in court. It’s up setting to us to have to hear the opinions of other people who think we are liars.” kd die a — FOR YOUR FAMILY’S GENERAL DENTAL CARE CLEANING, EXAM, & X-RAYS ‘Call for Appointment. Reg. $52 Less Cash Discount $23 • Dental Insurance Accepted • Evening Appointments Available > Complete Family Dental Care Emergency Walk Ins Welcome Nitrous Oxide Available On Shuttle Bus Route (Anderson Bus) CarePlus^t Jim Arents, D.D.S. Karen Arents, D.D.S. Dan Lawson, D.D.S. tassle Overley, D.D.S. DENTAL CENTER 696-9578 1712 Southwest Pkwy Open Monday - Saturday Evening Appointments Available 4rMSC Wiley Lecture Series Wednesday, April 6, 1988 7:00 P.M. 301 Rudder Tower Michael Stafford United States Department of State Special Assistant to Ambassador Paul Nitze Free!!! Open to the Public BRING YOUR PARENTS TO THE 1988 ^MSC VARIETY SHOW ^ GOTTA . ^ m. PARENTS’ WEEKEND Friday, April 8, 1988 7:30 PM RUDDER AUDITORIUM EMCEE: EDDY STRANGE TICKETS AVAILABLE AT THE MSC BOX OFFICE AND AT ALL TICKETKON OUTLETS $4.00 AND $5.00 MALI One of the Poorest Countries in the World Struggling to Save Its People and Culture Speaker: Dr. Kathy Detweiler who has lived several years in the country of Mali will speak on her experiences there. She will also be bringing and discussing several art objects native to the land. Tuesday April 5, 1988 7:00 p.m. 206 MSC Free Admission MSC Jordan Institute for International Awareness