« The Battalion 2STATE & LOCAL 3 Tuesday, March 7,1989 Ayatollah eing oring ;ewhat his way as ers really lostage- idividual. ;ht to deny ire issues. imnon der. istrosities" i, but exist o all in ray it many profane, i of the jllivan ilumns) homeini? :tter than you to k at those ne. X Senator proposes concealed handgun permit AUSTIN (AP) — Legislation was intro duced by a state senator Monday that would allow Texans to obtain licenses to carry con cealed handguns. This allows people their constitutional right to provide for their own defense,” Sen. Ken Armbrister, D-Victoria, said. “We feel that the bill is needed to provide (for) Texans to protect themselves.” Under Armbrister’s bill, a license would cost $125 and be issued to qualified appli cants. To be eligible, a person would have to be a Texas resident, at least 21, not have been con victed of a felony, not be under felony indict ment, not be a fugitive, not be a habitual drug user or drunk, and not have been convicted of a misdemeanor in the three preceding years. “We are making an honest attempt to iso late for licensure those individuals who have displayed through their past that they are a safe bet, that they are not a risk to the general citizenry, that they would be an aid in case of problems and trouble to themselves and peo ple that are around them,” Armbrister said. The bill also would require that applicants complete a handgun proficiency course, with both written and shooting tests. It would allow law enforcement agencies to utilize “local knowledge” to submit evidence that an otherwise qualified applicant not be given a license due to prior activities, Arm brister said. The bill would make it a violation to carry a handgun at schools, polling places on election days, courts, taverns, secured areas of air- ports* sporting events and meetings of gov erning bodies, including the Legislature. The senator said his bill would have no ef fect on the sale or purchase of handguns. Under current law, concealed weapons are restricted to police or others, such as licensed investigators. Concealed weapons also can be possessed by travelers or those on hunting or fishing trips. Armbrister said the current law is vague in many respects. He said people in rural areas, especially, have voiced the desire for such a law. “These are not the individuals that are shooting up schools,” he said. “That person could not qualify for this licensure. This is not (for) the people that are in the penitentiary. They could not qualify for this license.” Budget writers question Clements revenue-raiser AUSTIN (AP) — House bud get writers Monday questioned a move to raise $1.2 billion through “bookkeeping measures” and wanted to know if Gov. Hill Clem ents supports the plan. “We re going to make tough votes and do things our constitu ents are probably not going to un derstand," Rep. Ric Williamson, D-Weatherford, said. Rep. Debra Danburg, D-Hous ton, said in her conversations with the governor’s staff about trying to raise additional reve nues, “The only thing they’ll say is not taxes." The bill, by Rep. James Hury, D-Galveston, would allow the state comptroller to transfer re serves from more than 200 spe cial funds on the last day of the next biennium and return the funds within days. This “paper transfer” would raise the estimate of available rev enue— which lawmakers use as a budget ceiling — by $733 million. “I think his (Clements’) staff will verify he would be in favor of actively pursuing this as a way of dealing with the situation,” Jack Roberts, chief deputy comptrol ler, said. Another major piece of the plan would be to delay state pay ments to the retired teachers’ pension fund. This would pro vide lawmakers with another $200 million. Hury, chairman of the House 1 tax writing committee, told mem bers of the Appropriations Com mittee the proposals were needed to maintain the current level of state services for the two-year budget period beginning Sept. 1. “If all or part of this money does not get provided to that rev enue, we are faced with the daily issues that you deal with, that is where is it going to be cut, or the daily issues that I deal with: taxes,” Hury said. Hury and Roberts said de laying payments to the Teacher Retirement System trust fund would not affect pensions, but would cost the system about $1.3 million in interest. They said this amount would be replaced through a direct appropriation. Rep. Betty Denton, D-Waco, said many retired teachers believe the state is “messing around” with their trust fund. “There is a definite fear,” she said. Later, Hury said delaying pay ments could be dropped from the bill since Clements last week signed a franchise tax bill that will provide the state with approxi mately $270 million. High court lets stand Texas law allowing corporal punishment WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court left unresolved Monday whether public school students enjoy any constitutional protection against paddling or other corporal punishment by teachers and administra tors. Without comment, the justices let stand a Texas law that allows the use of all necessary corporal punish ment, short of deadly force, in the state’s public schools. The case the justices considered originated in Jack sonville, where a 5-year-old girl and a 6-year-old girl were paddled twice — once by their school principal and once by their teacher. ! The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the Texas law in dismissing a lawsuit filed in behalf of the two kindergarten girls paddled severely for “snicker- ing.” Other federal appeals courts have made it easier to win such suits. For example, the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled in a New Mexico case that, “at some degree of excessiveness or cruelty,” such punish ment violates constitutional rights. In 1977 the justices ruled that public school discipli nary measures involving physical force never can amount to the “cruel and unusual punishment” banned by the Constitution’s Eighth Amendment. The decision barred students from suing teachers and school administrators in federal court over alleged Eighth Amendment violations, but left them free to sue in state courts under state laws. However, in the 1977 decision the court said it was leaving undecided whether corporal punishment ever may violate “substantive rights under the (14th Amend ment’s) due process clause.” The case acted on Monday came from Jacksonville, where on May 6, 1987, Crystal Cunningham, 5, and Ashley Johnson, 6, were paddled. Mary Sue Bruno, the principal at Westside Kinder garten School, saw the two girls snickering in the hall, and gave each child two swats on the buttocks with a wooden paddle. When the girls returned to the classroom, teacher Rosa Cook saw them still snickering. She took the girls into the hallway and gave each three more swats across the buttocks with a wooden paddle. Each girl missed six days of school. The lawsuit filed in their behalf said the reason for their absence was “se vere pain” and fear over returning to school. Both girls, according to court documents, were taken to a child welfare office where social workers who ex amined the paddling bruises said the two hiJd been sub jected to child abuse. The federal lawsuit, seeking monetary damages, al leged that Bruno, Cook and other school officials vio lated the girls’ constitutional rights with conduct “exces sive, brutal, disproportionate to the circumstances (and) shocking to the conscience.” The suit said the paddlings violated the girls' due- process and equal-protection rights. A federal trial judge threw out the suit, relying on past 5th Circuit court rulings that corporal punishment generally does not violate any constitutional rights. The 5th Circuit upheld the dismissal last Oct. 26. In seeking Supreme Court review, lawyers for the girls cited Department of Education studies indicating that 30,000 American schoolchildren are physically in jured each year “because of the infliction of corporal punishment to a degree that requires medical treat ment.” The appeal said those studies estimate at “at least 100,000 children develop emotional and learning disa bilities from excessive and inappropriate school punish ment each year.” Continental won’t support Eastern strike ! HOUSTON (AP) — Continen tal Airlines employees, some of whom say they earn less than their counterparts at troubled sis ter carrier Eastern Airlines, showed little sympathy Monday for striking Eastern workers. And pilots for the Houston- based airline, itself the target of wage cuts and job actions during a tumultuous 1983 reorganiza tion under Texas Air Corp. Chairman Frank Lorenzo, pre dict their equals at Eastern will suffer for honoring picket lines. See related story/Page 8 “My personal opinion is that the pilots — or for that matter anyone else — should not have gone out on strike. I think they’re going to lose their jobs and they’re probably going to lose the airline,” one pilot, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said. “I think Frank Lorenzo’s going to shut that thing (Eastern) down and either sell parts of it or bank rupt it,” he said, adding that East ern pilots he talked to in advance of the strike had hoped to keep , flying. “I don’t see how they can continue.” Of more than a dozen Conti nental employees interviewed, none expressed misgivings about aiding Eastern management by accepting additional passengers bumped from the sister carrier’s flights. However, some Continental la borers suggested their comments were restricted by management. “It’s going to be tough to try to find anyone to talk to,” one worker said. “They’re really cracking down on us.” With only four daily Eastern flights through Houston airports, Continental employees say they have seen only a slight increase in See strike/Page 8 a lack of mgerof e list of r garages t body, trch ii Uenges. or cause I ng and n not r ones to >ractice school. f retty -laveone ty eloping that tT a dorless sople advice edit letters zdgnei -hei Ttio Society for EateeproaewsMp and New Ventures J QaB<8aao^x»oaaai>^-va.-»a^^>aji;»aj>x»aaaiBeB«waai»aaBaeoa