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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 10, 1993)
◄ SPORTS Jamming The Jays Nebraska survives Friday scare, rallies to beat Creighton 67-53 oU/^4 Thursday night. Today partly sunny. Dana fi Saturday partly r age © sunny with highs In the 50s. Lincoln teens learn family values Student parents finish high school with day care help By Brad Gillings For the Daily Nebraskan Pain. Eyes shut tight. Sweat dripping. One thought runs through Kristi Laing’s mind, “Just get it out.” Escape. Breath in through the nose — onetwothreefourfivesixsevencightnineten, sterile hospital air—out through the mouth. “Push. Come on Kristi, you can do it,” her mother shouts. The voice seems distant. After 21 hours in labor, her body finally has turned numb. She squeezes her boy friend’s hand. Isaiah Hopkins, 16, feels frightened as he prepares to enter fatherhood officially with the snip of an umbilical cord. Fatigue takes over. The sight of all that blood starts to make him nauseous. He begins to wonder if he is going to make it. Neither feels quite as invincible as the afternoon the two skipped school and ended up at Laing’s house. It was not the first time they had had sex. Hopkins had been sexually active since age 12; Laing since she was 16. Both had been taught about birtn control in seventh grade. That afternoon they forgot. “It was the heat of the moment,” Hopkins said. “I just didn’t think.” The condoms had been within reach. They’d always used them before. “I never really believed I would get preg nant,” Laing said. “The reality is that our students arc hav ing children,” said Kaythryn Pillar, princi pal of Lincoln High School. Last year at Lincoln High School, which has just more than 2,000 students, 82 women were pregnant or parenting. In Nebraska, more than nine teen-agers become pregnant every day, adding to the almost 1 million teens in the United States who will enter parenthood each year. Marj Newcomer, case manager at Lin coln High for students who arc at a high risk of dropping out of school, said there were as many reasons why students got pregnant as there were young mothers. “Each case is truly individual,” she said. “It’s not because they are not educated about birth control. I think it (mostly) involves self-esteem and a feeling of invincibility.” Glenda Nelson, co-director of the Lin coln High School student-parent program, said all students were at risk. “It’s a myth that this is limited to certain classes or cultures,” she said. Newcomer said two factors were com mon among teen mothers — many come from dysfunctional families or have mothers who had children at an early age. Laing fits those categories. Bom when her own mother was 21, Laing grew up in a dysfunctional family. Her parents got di vorced when she was two years old, and Laing did not talk to her father again until Julia Mikolajcik/DN While other teenagers are socializing with their friends, Isaiah Hopkins, Kristi Laing spend time with their daughter Teionna at Lincoln High School. See photo essay on pages 6-7. she was 10. Her mother, Renate Nealy, remarried twice. Now Laing has a family of her own. The sudden leap from adolescence to parenthood has changed her life. “What a Friday night, huh?” Laing says, her tired blue eyes glancing up momentarily from 4-month-old Tcionna, whose needs now dictate every minute of her life. “Usuallyby now I’d be thinking, oh God, what am I going to wear tonight? ... Now I don’t even think about it. 1 know I’m not going out.” As Laing dresses the baby, Tcionna lets out a contagious laugh. Laing giggles, han dling her daughter with the confidence of a seasoned mother. The responsibility of motherhood makes Laing feel too mature for many of her old friends, she said. “They just drive around and look for people and start trouble and stuff. I used to think it was fun. But now I think, ‘What is the point of driving around, when I could be at home taking care of Teionna.”’ Since the baby’s birth, the two have shared the bedroom Laing grew up in. “My room is always messy because it’s so crowded,” Laing says. “It seems like there’s nothing but baby stuff. But I guess that’s what you get.” In the corner, academ ic honor awards and certificates of merit in various sports arc displayed. At the head of Laing’s bed an array of stuffed animals rest in a line. “They’re mine,” Laing says, “but I guess I’ll just save them for her.” The pregnancy forced Laing to miss her final year of high school. But with the support of her mother, her seven brothers and sisters, Hopkins and a new day-carc center at the school .Laing returned this year See CHILDREN on 6 Judicial Board completes Fiji hazing hearings From Stall Reports The universityjudicial board began com piling a written ruling on possible sanc tionsofaUNL fraternity Thursday night, James Griesen, vice chancellor for student af fairs said. The ruling on the status of the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity could be released by the nine member judicial board as early as Friday after noon, Griesen said. “Their ruling is in writing,” he said. “And overnight they are preparing a final document for all members of the panel to review and see if that document captured the judgement they wanted to make.” The board began their hearing Wednesday. They reconvened Thursday morning and heard three hours of testimony. The closing state ments were completed by 12:20 p.m. Thursday, Griesen said. The board will make recommendations on the status of the Fiji house. The fraternity came under scrutiny when Jeffrey Knoll, a Fiji pledge, fell from a third-floor bathroom window of the house. University officials have said Knoll was coerced todrink before he fell, and have labeled the incident as hazing. Griesen said he hoped the ruling would be made public, but it is not a requirement under university policy. “I have urged that all the parties agree to make public the final decision and sanctions, no matter what they are,” he said. “It’s not a requirement.” The recommendation by the board will be forwarded to UNL Chancellor Graham Spanier. Spanier has heard a recommendation from the Interfraternity Council that suggested the Fiji chapter be suspended for five semesters. Griesen said he hoped Spanier’s decision would come before the end of the fall semester. “It’s important the Phi Gamma Delta mem bers have some understanding of the status of their organization before vacation,” Griesen said. Defense requests more suppression in Bjorklund sentence By Matthew Waite Staff Reporter Deputy Chief Public Defender Scott Helvie filed six motions Wednesday concerning evidence to be used in Rog er Bjorklund’s sentencing hearing. Bjorklund was found guilty of first-degree murder in the slaying of University of Nebras ka-Lincoln student Candice Harms. Bjorklund is scheduled to be sentenced in Lancaster County District Court on Jan. 24, 1994. The prosecution has said it intends to seek the death penalty. District Court Judge Donald Endacott is set to hear the motions Dec. 13. Helvie could not be reached for comment on the motions. See MOTIONS on 2 Jolly stresses Native American sovereignty By Ann Stack Staff Reporter In December 1948, the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Since then, Dec. 10 has been rec ognized as International Human Rights Day, a day to celebrate and support equality for all people. Lincoln celebrated International Human Rights Day Thursday night with a convention at the Ramada Inn, 141 N. Ninth St., sponsored by the United Nations Association Lincoln Chapter. Eric Jolly, Affirmative Action di rector at the University of Nebraska Lincoln, was the feature speaker at , the convention, which was based on the theme, “International Year of the Indigenous People.” Jolly focused on sovereignty in his speech. Jolly spoke of overcoming the in justices Native Americans face, in cluding obstacles such as deficits in health care, poor education quality and high unemployment. More than 60 percent of Native Americans received fewer than nine years of education, Jolly said, and 70 percent didn’t make it through the eighth grade. He said more than 40 percent of Native Americans were unemployed. - 44 Sovereignty, human rights, human action, it’s not about feeling good, but about doing good. — Jolly Affirmative Action director Gaining control over the education system was the key to unlocking these problems, he said. Native Americans should have control over their own education systems, he said. The current system, run by state and federal programs, is too main stream, he said. Native Americans are not learning about their own culture and traditions, he said, and those things arc being lost. Jolly echoed this idea of indige nous control of civil and personal rights on a broader scale as well. “Sovereignty is giving back con trol over the mind, soul and body of a man or woman,” Jolly said. “These are the rights native peoples need today. These are the challenges fac ing us. “Sovereignty, human rights, hu man action, it’s not about feeling good, but about doing good. 1 believe great goals can be achieved through cumulative action.” He urged the audience to become involved in community efforts such as Habitat for Humanity, food drives, and other various organizations and activities to bring about change. Small contributions by individuals can make a big difference, he said. Jolly said when he taught in a college in Arizona, he once brought a teleconference with international psy chologists. While speaking with a survivor of the Holocaust, one of his students asked if psychology could have cured See JOLLY on 2
