, T «Daily i
Nebraskan m j
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. Student sues
I UNL, police
for violating
civil rights
I
By Shelley Biggs
Senior Reporter
A civil rights case filed against
UNL in federal court by Arthur
McElroy will be reviewed by
U.S. District Court Magistrate David
Picstcr by the end of the week, a court
official said.
McElroy, a UNL graduate student
who has been charged with attempted
second-degree murder, making ter
roristic threats, and two counts of
using a firearm to commit a felony,.
claims that students and professors
interfered with his education.
Allan Wallace, a law clerk for
Piestcr, said McElroy Filed the federal
civil rightsaction against parties within
the University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Police Department, state judges and
members of the Lincoln Police De
partment. McElroy has said his civil
rights were violated when these par
lies granted and improperly carried
out searches of his home after his
arrest.
“With the civil rights ease,
McElroy is saying that persons acting
under state law violated his federal
and constitutional rights,” Wallace
said.
The ease was filed in federal court
as opposed to stale court, where the
criminal charges against McElroy
have been filed.
Because McElroy docs not have an
attorney, Wallace said, Picstcr will
review the complaint documents this
week to make sure they arc in order
before the defendants arc notified.
“At this point McElroy is proceed
ing on his own and docs not request
counsel,” he said.
Should McElroy win, Wallace said,
the university and officials involved
could be held responsible for com
pensatory and punitive damages.
Wallace said part of the settlement
McElroy was seeking was to have the
evidence seized from his home sup
pressed at his criminal trial.
Wallace said it would be tough to
give a lime frame for the outcome of
the complaint. L
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Michelle Paulman/DN
Jim Hejduk, an associate professor of music and director of choral activities at UNL, is among the 250 volunteers
statewide involved with the Nebraska AIDS Project. Hejduk has been a member of the AIDS Buddy Program in Lincoln
for four years.
Ties that bind
Common threads of AIDS unite volunteers, victims
By Kathryn Borman
Staff Reporter_
Strength and caring are the
cords that bind together
volunteers whose only
other tic is friendship to a person
dying of AIDS.
“If you just looked at the
group, you would never know it
was an AIDS buddy group," Jim
Hcjduk, an associate professor of
music and director of choral
activities at the University of
Nebraska-Lincoln, said.
Susie Miller Schocn, case
manager for the Nebraska AIDS
Project, which oversees the
buddy program, said UNL
students and professors, mothers,
a retired minister, a legislative
aide and a state engineer were
among the individuals who had
volunteered for the program — a
commitment that was no minor
task.
A buddy is a “one-on-one
emotional volunteer available to
the client for the duration of the
illness,” Schocn said. Because of
the nature of AIDS, she said, that |
I commitment means staying with
the person until he or she dies.
Volunteers must be 19 years
old — the only requirement for
the program. “It helps to have
! some life experience beyond high
school,” Schocn said.
A screening process also is
involved, she said, to assess an
applicant’s motivations, back
ground and support.
UNL graduate student Julie
Schankc, who participates in the
program, said buddies needed
emotional stability and a strong
support system.
A potential buddy should “be
sure you’re able to deal with
someone dying,” Schankc said,
someone who has become a
friend.
“1 know some AIDS patients
— their families don’t want to
talk about death,” she said. “I’m
there to talk about it.”
Hejduk’s experience with his
first client through the program
was good, he said, because the
man he worked with was strong.
“He was as supportive of me
and my stuff as I tried to be of
him,” Hejduk said.
Hejduk said he and his former
client were different people who
still had some things in common,
such as music.
Sometimes the closest and
best partnerships arc formed
between people who seem
different, Schocn said.
“The bond is the illness,” she
said. “It seems to surpass all
kinds of stereotypes one would
imagine.”
People have gotten involved
in the program through different
avenues.
Hejduk was drawn to the
program when he saw an inter
view in the Daily Nebraskan
several years ago with a member
of one of his choirs. She is
involved in the Names Project
Quill, parts of which will visit
Omaha Saturday and Sunday.
Schankc’s unique life experi- I
cnce brought her to the program,
she said.
As a graduate student in
theater and through her father,
who is gay, Schankc said, she j
became involved in the gay
community and with people who
had AIDS several years before
she began training for the buddy
program.
Schankc has used her experi
ences to help others. As a new '
graduate student, Schankc
organized A Day Without Art on
campus last year to commemo
rate World AIDS Day Dec. 1.
She met Schoen at that time and
found out about the Lincoln
program.
Just as the people involved in
the program came through
different avenues, they also have
different experiences.
Ron Schrocdcr, a legislative
aide for state Sen. Elroy Hefner
of Coleridge, said work as an
AIDS buddy could be frustrating.
The biggest hurdles, he said, arc
trying to help a client obtain
treatment through bureaucratic
agencies and dealing with the
stigma and distaste directed
toward people with AIDS or who
arc gay.
See BUDDY on 3
UNL joins world in fifth annual AIDS Day
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Nebraska teenagers
contract HIV virus
at above-average rate
By Kathryn Borman
Staff Reporter
World AIDS Day marks its filth obser
vance today with a localized theme,
“AIDS: A Community Commit
ment.”
Pat Tctrcault, sexuality education coordina
tor at the University Health Center, said about
one in every 500 college students nationwide
had tested positive for HIV, according to a
Centers for Disease Control study. At a college
campus of about 25,(XX) students, she said, an
estimated 50 students arc HIV-positive.
The health center, with the Association of
Students of the University of Nebraska, is
recognizing World AIDS Day with a booth in
the Nebraska Union from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Information on AIDS will be available for
students, and red ribbons will be distributed to
show support for the fight against the disease.
The ribbons “symbolize that we’re commit
ted to the fight against HIV and AIDS and our
commitment to people with AIDS,” Teircault
said. “It’s a symbol of hope.”
Mayor Mike Johanns will sign a proclama
tion today declaring Dec. 1 as World AIDS Day
for Lincoln.
Sections of die national Names Project Quill
from Nebraska and surrounding states will be
displayed Saturday and Sunday in Omaha at the
Civic Auditorium. The quilt, which comprises
squares made by friendsand family members of
people who have died from AIDS, commemo
rates the lives of those who have been touched
by the disease.
World AIDS Day recognizes people with
AIDS, a disease the World Health Organization
now classifies as a global epidemic.
See AIDS on 2
