STATE 7 A
THh BA I IA LI ON Thursday, December 4, 2003
Pastor, twin brother are
on trial for beating a child
By Jim Vertuno
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
AUSTIN — A 12-year-old
toy testified Wednesday that he
vas severely beaten with a tree
iranch by a church pastor and
listwin brother to “get the devil
nit of me” because they
idieved he had acted up during
lible class.
Trial began Wednesday for
oshua and Caleb Thompson, 23,
rho are accused of beating the
toy after he misbehaved in Bible
amp at Capitol City Baptist
lurch, a fundamentalist con-
legation where he attended
hutch services and school.
Police say the beating was so
evere that the boy’s kidneys
ailed and that he needed a
ilood transfusion to survive.
The Thompsons face felony
barges of serious injury to a
hild and aggravated assault, with
icnalties ranging from probation
)life in prison if convicted.
Louie Guerrero, 11 years old
(the time, was the first witness
nd said pastor Joshua
Tiompson took him to Caleb
Tompson’s home where he was
eaten with a branch from a tree
t the yard. He said that during
te beating, Joshua Thompson
ailed his brother, who came to
elp hold Guerrero down.
At one point, the boy said, he
m told to pick up the pieces of
te branch that broke during the
eating. He said the beating
esumed after one of brothers
ota new one.
: “It hurt. 1 was trying to move
away,” Guerrero said. “He said
‘Stay still.’”
During opening statements,
Travis County prosecutor Dayna
Blazey said the beating lasted
more than an hour and came the
day after a confrontation at church
between Joshua Thompson’s wife
and the boy’s mother.
After the beating, the boy
was dropped off at his home and
the Thompsons told Guerrero’s
stepfather “that child has the
devil in him,” the prosecutor
said. After discovering his
injuries, the family called 911.
Strongly held views
about child rearing
and child discipline is
not a crime in
America.
— Gerry Goldstein
defendant's lawyer
Joshua Thompson’s attorney,
Gerry Goldstein, acknowledged
that his client hit Guerrero with
a switch from a tree and that he
suffered injuries. But Goldstein
said the boy’s parents practiced
similar forms of punishment and
had asked the Thompsons to dis
cipline their child.
He also suggested the defense
will try to characterize the case
as one of religious belief in stem
physical punishment. The broth
ers had never gone to school or
held a job outside their church,
Goldstein said.
“He did it because the par
ents had asked, pleaded with
him,” to discipline the boy,
Goldstein said. “These two men
have strong fundamentalist
Christian ideas about child rear
ing, about child discipline.
Strongly held views about child
rearing and child discipline is
not a crime in America.”
He said expert testimony
would show the injuries to the
boy’s kidneys could not have
come from a tree branch or
stick. He also noted the family
has filed a civil lawsuit against
the church seeking $25 million.
During testimony, the boy
said his teachers accused him of
“goofing off’ during Bible stud
ies on July 3, 2002. He said he
was turned over to Joshua
Thompson, who took him away.
Guerrero said he was ordered
to lie on a bed while he was
beaten on his back. He said
Joshua Thompson played loud
rock music on the radio. The
boy said he curled into a fetal
position but stopped when he
was struck on his legs.
Guerrero said he was allowed
to go to the bathroom to clean
up after his nose started to bleed
and the Thompsons wiped up
the blood from the bed and floor.
He was then told “It’s not over,”’
and the beating resumed. He
said his back eventually numbed
to the pain.
Eventually, the beating
stopped and the boy was taken
home.
HISD officials blast Times article
By Juan A. Lozano
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
3 ■"■■■- ■ j
: HOUSTON — Houston schools officials on
Wednesday disputed a New York Times article that
questioned the district’s academic gains in recent
years in passing rates and strides in eliminating the
gap between white and minority children.
For a front page story on Wednesday, the news
paper examined the performance of students in
Houston by comparing their scores on the Texas
Assessment of Academic Skills with scores on a
national exam, the Stanford Achievement Test.
The success of students in the district has
often been called the “Houston miracle.”
The newspaper reported that improvements in
middle and elementary schools were only a frac
tion of those shown by the TAAS test and that
most Houston students who took the Stanford
I test in 1999 and 20002 didn’t advance in relation
to their counterparts around the country.
“Independent educational analysts warned the
Times in writing and on the telephone well in
advance that the (newspaper’s) analysis was
faulty, that the Texas accountability system could
not be compared in such a way to the Stanford
Achievement Test results,” Superintendent Kaye
I Stripling said at a news conference Wednesday.
Kathryn Sanchez, assistant superintendent
with the district’s department of research and
accountability, said the newspaper’s comparison
j of the TAAS and Stanford test scores was flawed
because the national test can be used by one dis
trict to see how it ranks nationally. The Texas
exam, meanwhile, is pass/fail and only allows
for comparisons within a state.
“We are unable to replicate the Times’ find
ings. The validity of the Times’ results is sus
pect,” Sanchez said.
“It’s important to note we took full account
both in our front page bar graph and in the side-
bar inside the paper of the statistical techniques
that allowed us to work with differing sets of
data and differing bases,” said New York Times
spokeswoman Catherine Mathis. “We very much
believe those techniques were sound.”
In its story, the Times quoted education experts
who said the two tests can be compared and that
the newspaper’s examination showed Houston’s
progress on the TAAS test is probably overstated
and the district looks average or below average.
“The district made gains on the standards set
for them,” Michael Casserly, of the
Washington, D.C.-based Council of the Great
City Schools, a coalition of urban school sys
tems, said via telephone at a news conference.
“It was no miracle (in Houston). It was very
good, hard work and it was real.”
Rob Mosbacher, incoming chairman of the
Greater Houston Partnership, a local business
organization, said he believes the newspaper’s
only motivation for the article was to attack
President Bush, who was Texas’ former governor.
“We find no motivation for this other than
politics and that is very, very tragic,” he said.
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