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\S brings performing arts, touch of class to campus
■ the past 26
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'AS begins this
ear with a two-
ies of “Smokey Joe’s Cafe,” it is
oly apparent that OPAS is the
le in the Brazos Valley for expo-
ne performing arts, and it is one
ost successful student-run com-
m campus.
began as a vision by the leg-
. Wayne Stark. Stark recognized
. i to expose Aggies to some form
:ulture other than the Dixie
and Carney’s Pub.
oncept began and has been sus-
s a joint effort between A&M and
n-College Station community as
. has legendary roots and has
pported by many of A&M’s most
le leaders, including MSC Direc-
Reynolds and John Lindsey —
lember of the Board of Regents,
e beginning, the OPAS concept
t with sharp criticism. Since the
cannot guarantee a particular
there are financial risks involved.
It is difficult to make an expensive
contractual agreement with a touring
company knowing the MSC and OPAS
might have difficulty breaking even —
much less making a profit.
The fact that poorly-attended shows
bring financial ramifications speaks vol
umes about the resolve of the OPAS
committee to continue providing the
students of A&M and Brazos Valley resi
dents with high-quality performing arts
and entertainment.
Over the past few years, OPAS has
tried to reach out even more to the stu
dent body.
Season passes to all OPAS events may
be purchased as a fee option at registra
tion time, or performance tickets may be
purchased right up to show time at the
MSC box office.
OPAS opens this season with the clas
sic musical “Smokey Joe’s Cafe,” and it
promises — as always — to be a wonder
ful performance.
OPAS strives to provide its audience
with a diverse selection of entertainment.
For instance, “Smokey Joe’s Cafe” is a
blues and rock-and-roll-filled dance spec
tacular of American culture.
The next performance hosted by
OPAS, however, will be the St. Petersburg
State Symphony from Russia immediately
followed by the one-man play “Bully”
which takes a unique look into the life of
Theodore Roosevelt.
The Association of Former Students
has been sending out satisfaction surveys
to recently-graduated Aggies in hopes of
pinpointing areas of particular weakness
in the A&M experience.
An overwhelming majority of those
former students surveyed have indicated
that A&M leaves something to be desired
in the areas of performing arts, visual
arts and literary arts. Without a college of
fine arts to promote these fields, OPAS is
the only option Aggies have to experi
ence true culture.
Although the opportunities to experi
ence these great shows is available, un
fortunately many students do not take
advantage of them.
The OPAS committee puts in plenty
of hard work in their effort to bring
these shows to the Brazos Valley. It is
disappointing to see their work often
go unnoticed.
The OPAS committee should be
lauded for the zeal and resolve its
members demonstrate. OPAS
deserves the support and at
tendance of A&M students.
Who knows, besides an
evening of quality entertain
ment and outstanding perfor
mances, Aggies might actually
learn something at the same time.
Len Callaway is a senior
journalism major.
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al and social care leave
my juveniles to their own
s, frighteningly young sus-
ire being accused of un-
ble crimes. Children are
teenlalright — in the
)om. And now the ques-
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lUJJ J' 1 s ^0 heard?
_ jcent criminal case in
! ffflfll |° has proven how difficult
11 question is to answer.
July 28, the body of Ryan
^i^^was found in an over-
O lot in the poor Englewood
forhood. The 11-year-old
« sustained fatal blows to
lad and had evidently been
V molested.
-cago police quickly built a
i round two young boys, ages
m eight, who had been
% | I P a ying with the victim earli-
le day. Interrogators very
K6-2 secured partial confes-
* u rom the boys and theorized
I WI H !(! e y billed Ryan to steal
■ ■■ ll/ll:ycle.
vever, two weeks ago,
ic tests found seminal evi-
on the girl’s clothes that
ar Sysle| not have been produced
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charges against the children, two
of the youngest murder suspects
in United States history, were
promptly dropped.
The shocking re-opening of the
case has prompted many legal an
alysts to ask some pertinent ques
tions about police conduct to
wards the boys.
How can detectives fairly ques
tion suspects whose clearest no
tions of crime-fighting come from
watching Batman and Robin? Can
children accused of crime appreci
ate the real gravity of their situa
tion? And should their confes
sions be given the same weight
that is afforded adult admissions
of guilt?
It is hard to say.
One thing is clear, though.
The current methods used to
question juvenile suspects need
to be re-evaluated.
The first problem in the
whole affair is that there is no
physical record of the police in
terrogation that prompted the
boys’ confessions. The conversa
tions were not recorded, and no
transcript was kept. All we have
is a police paraphrase of the dia
logue. It is scattered with qualifi
cations like “essentially said”
and “in essence said.”
Secondly, the boys were not
advised by lawyers or youth
counselors during the question
ing. The parents were not allowed
to be in the room, either.
The police insist that the boys
were read their Miranda rights.
But a seven-year-old boy does not
know Miranda from John Mar
shall. He cannot possibly be
aware of what a “right to remain
silent” means. He knows that he
must be quiet in the school cafe
teria; it might be some news to
him that it is his “right” to do so.
Moreover, even if the boys
were given an adequate explana
tion of their rights, it is easy to see
why they would not have given
them much consideration. The
entire tenor of the interrogation
was meant to lighten the gravity
of the situation to get the young
sters to talk.
Police reports say that detec
tives chatted with the boys about
basketball and their favorite TV
shows before they even got to
the business at hand. At one
point, the detectives brought the
seven-year-old a Happy Meal
from McDonald’s. The kid was in
hog heaven, munching on
nuggets and talking Michael Jor
dan — it was not the most
solemn of occasions.
So is it clear that he under
stood how much his statements
would affect his future?
Some might say it does not
matter how the police obtained
their confessions.
But remember that their confes
sions have since been disproven by
hard, physical evidence.
This is not to say that the boys
had nothing to do with the crime,
but it does cast doubt on their
ability to truthfully articulate any
participation in the matter. Chil
dren are often eager to please
their elders and feel approved.
Happy Meals do not discourage
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such an inclination, and it is plau
sible to think that the boys exag
gerated what they knew.
Seven-year-old boys, after all,
do not have the best reputation
for having a firm grasp on reality.
They live almost perpetually in a
pretended world of imagination
and fantasy, populated by ninja
turtles and cops and robbers. Did
they understand that the badge
across the interrogation table
from them was the real thing?
Again, these are not easy ques
tions to answer. And the mistake
of rushing to judgment against
the boys should not be com
pounded by rushing to acquittal.
Nevertheless, the conduct of
the Chicago Police Department
betrays a fundamental ignorance
of child psychology by the juve
nile justice system. Much more
care must be put into question
ing suspects so young, especially
if their prosecution depends en
tirely on the credibility of the
youngsters’ confessions.
Juvenile detectives need mean
ingful rules that preserve the jus
tice system’s respect for both due
process and the pursuit of truth.
Confessions should be taped
and analyzed by child psycholo
gists. The seriousness of the situa
tion should be stressed instead of
diluted. Parents should be given
more access to the accused.
And in the future, accused chil
dren should be seen and heard
with a generous grain of salt.
Caleb McDaniel is a sophomore
history major.
MAIL CALL
Bad Ags trample
code of honor
I got a little story for ya, Ags.
Well it seems that some t-sips
must have been on campus on
Monday, Sept. 21, at the dirt
parking lot between Reed Arena
and the Horticulture Building, be
cause no good Ag would hit an
other Ag’s blue extended cab
Chevy pickup and just walk away
without leaving a note.
We know good Ags never lie,
cheat or steal.
The only other solution is that
there is a bad Ag on campus, so
watch out Aggies, they will be the
ones with the blue streak of
paint on their car.
Well, bad Ag, I hope you are
happy because now all good Ag
gies will know what a bad Ag
looks like. Besides, I am sure
there were plenty of good Aggies
that witnessed your actions on
Monday morning.
Not to worry though, you still
have time to do the right thing
and become a good Ag again. I
hope you take this option be
cause I would hate to think there
was a bad Ag running loose in
Aggieland.
April Herring
Class of '98
DAVID
JOHNSTON
A fter throw
ing money
and con
doms at the prob
lem for years,
teenage sexual ac
tivity is finally on
the decline.
A recent
study, the “Youth
Risk Behavior
Survey,” shows a drop in sexual
activity among high school stu
dents for the first time since the
Carter administration.
Sex education advocates claim
their efforts are responsible for
turning the tide of teenage
promiscuity, but that position can
only be supported by a distortion
of the facts. This recent decrease
is a credit to the growing number
of new school programs that fo
cus less on sex education and
more on encouraging abstinence.
Schools have been adding sex
education to the curriculum since
before 1985. Once students were
armed with detailed knowledge
of their bodies, however, sexual
activity among young people be
gan increasing more than ever.
Using cyclical logic, school ad
ministrators decided they must
bring more sex information to
tender eyes and ears.
Nothing was able to curb
teenage promiscuity — until now.
Something has happened,
something wonderful. Teens are
having less sex and safer sex (if
you believe in such an animal).
The “Youth Risk Behavior
Survey” reveals the number of
high school students who have
engaged in sexual activity is
down 11 percent. For the first
time in almost 10 years, more
than half of American high
school students are still virgins.
Something has changed.
Increased fear of sexually-
transmitted disease is an unlikely
culprit. AIDS has been in the
public eye for close to 20 years —
the same period where teenage
sex was increasing.
Today, the public has the im
pression — mistaken as it may be
— that AIDS is either cured or at
least manageable. The news is
filled with a constant stream of
reports of new drugs treatments
or possible cures or vaccines for
the deadly STD.
Sex education supporters
claim their programs are finally
starting to take hold. Now that
students know every gory detail
about sex, their curiosity is
quelled, their knowledge allows
them to act more responsibly and
they are less interested in sex.
Driver’s education does not
discourage people from getting
behind the wheel of a car. It only
hopes to cut down on accidents.
Sex education does not discour
age sexual behavior, and — well,
let us say insurance rates are high
for young drivers.
If sex education was truly ef
fective, it would have provided
results sooner. Unfortunately, the
programs have intrinsic flaws.
Even proponents of sex educa
tion admit students need a set of
morals to accompany their new
knowledge of their bodies. In
structors, however, are prevented
from giving those morals because
they might warp young minds.
If it is unacceptable for young
people to get their sex knowl
edge on the streets, it is equally
offensive to condemn them to
seek their moral knowledge on
the streets.
Sex education in its traditional
form is incapable of reducing high
school promiscuity. By giving stu
dents only part of the picture, the
damage is greater than before.
But something has definitely
brought about a change in high
school behavior. Something un-
traditional is changing the habits
of young people. People are final
ly tossing old-fashioned sex edu
cation out on its ear.
Abstinence-based sex educa
tion programs are having a dra
matic impact on young people af
ter operating only a few years.
Many school districts are
teaching students the value of
monogamous relationships and
abstinence. Without preaching a
set of morals, the new programs
factually discuss the benefits of a
responsible lifestyle, and as this
study shows, they are finally mak
ing a difference.
Outside of the confines of the
school, many organizations are
stepping up to help train Ameri
ca’s youth. The True Love Waits
campaign, for example, is an in
ternational movement among
young people. The campaign en
courages teenagers to sign a
pledge card committing to ab
stain from sex outside of mar
riage. The program began in
1993 and has already collected
over half a million pledge cards.
The study also indicates
teenagers are treating sex more
seriously. Among those students
in the study who said they had
engaged in sexual activity, an in
creased number were in monoga
mous relationships, and teenage
pregnancies and births are both
on the decline.
As similar abstinence pro
grams become more common,
America’s youth can anticipate
better things. Teenagers who act
more maturely about sex will be
healthier, more emotionally sta
ble and serve as examples to the
next generation.
Teenagers and Aggies need to
understand the significance of
sex. Everyone should keep in
mind no one is hurt by waiting,
but acting irresponsibly can
wreck lives.
Dave Johnston is a senior
mathematics major.