Stay blocks woman from Citadel
CHARLESTON, S.C.—The gates
of The Citadel opened to a woman
armed with a court order Wednesday.
But after Shannon Faulkner regis
tered to take day classes, the nation’s
top judge blocked her from attending
them.
At the request of the 151-year-old
military college, Chief Justice Will
iam Rehnquist granted a stay to keep
the 18-year-old student from attend
ing classes Thursday.
The Citadel and Virginia Military
Institute are the nation’s only all
male, state-supported military col
leges. Admissions policies at both are
the target of federal lawsuits.
Ms. Faulkner, who plans to major
in education, walked several hundred
yards through a driving rain and a
horde of reporters Wednesday to reg
ister in Bond Hall, the turretcd admin
istration building that dominates one
end of The Citadel’s parade ground.
“I didn’t expect all of this and I
didn’t really expect to be here,” Ms.
Faulkner said. “I actually expected
the battle to be a lot longer.”
She said she was treated nicely by
college officials and signed up for
biology, math, English, history and
education.
But she said she felt “overwhelmed”
by the attention. “Everybody is
saying,‘You’re making history,”’ she
said.
- u
I don’t think you can get the full Citadel experi
ence without being a cadet.
—Faulkner,
woman trying to attend male school
Ms. Faulkner initially was accept
ed by the college after she had refer
ences to her gender deleted from her
high school transcript. The Citadel
rejected her application when it dis
covered she was a woman, and she
sued, challenging the constitutionali
ty of the all-male admissions policy.
Last August, a federal judge said
Ms. Faulkner could attend classes,
but not join the corps of cadets, while
her lawsuit proceeds. The 4th U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals refused to
overturn the order.
Ms. Faulkner, who is from
Powdersville, said she hoped to be
come a full-fledged member of the
grey-uniformed corps of cadets with
in a year.
“I don’t think you can get the full
Citadel experience without being a
cadet,” she said.
Since Ms. Faulkner sued, five inci
dents of vandalism have been direct
ed against her and her family.
U.S. Attorney J.P. Strom said the
FBI was investigating threats against
Ms. Faulkner’s “personal safety” and
unspecified threats against her family
and attorneys.
-
“I know I feel safe here on campus,
it’s just the off-campus stuff I do have
to worry about,” she said.
She will stay with a Charleston
family that has requested anonymity.
After registering, Ms. Faulkner
toured campus escorted by Lynn
Hook, one of 1,649 women who take
evening classes at The Citadel. Ms.
Hook supports keeping the corps of
cadets all-male.
“If we can obligate people to go to
coeducational schools, which we do,
why can’t we obligate them to go to
single-gender schools?” Ms. Hook
said.
When Ms. Faulkner arrived on
campus, she was greeted by Pat
Johnson, one of three women veter
ans who sued in 1992 trying to gain
admission to day classes.
That case was dismissed after The
Citadel, worried about coeducation,
abolished a program allowing male
veterans to attend classes with cadets.
“It’s kind of like a football game.
I feel like a quarterback handing the
ball off to Shannon Faulkner and she ’ s
running through the gate,” Ms.
Johnson said.
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game ends January 14,1994
In opening speech
prosecutor says
Koresh built army
SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Follow
ers of David Koresh were “arming an
army,” a prosecutor said Wednesday
in opening statements for the trial of
11 cultists charged with murdering
four federal agents in a gun battle.
“You’ll find, ladies and gentle
men, that David Koresh told these
people his name was death,” said
-prosecutor Ray Jahn. “If you want to
die for God, you must be willing to
kill for God.”
Jahn told jurors that prosecutors
will prove Koresh’s group, the Branch
Davidians, were engaging in “a mas
sive arms buildup” that included hand
grenades and other illegal weapons.
“We will show you... the physical
acts of arming an army,” Jahn said.
Prosecutors say the defendants
stockpiled 11 tons of weapons and
planned a murderous battle to fulfill
Koresh’s doomsday prophecies. The
cultists say they acted in
self-defense after agents raided their
compound with excessive force.
In a victory for the defense, U.S.
District Judge Walter Smith said law
yers could try to establish the
defendants’state of mind before the
raid by discussing how Koresh told
his followers about other deadly gov
ernment raids.
Four agents of the Bureau of Alco
hol , Tobacco and Firearms were killed
and 16 wounded in the shootout that
broke out Feb. 28 at the Branch
Davidians’ compound near Waco
when more than 100 officers tried to
search for guns and arrest Koresh on
weapons charges. Six Branch
Davidians are believed to have died as
well.
After a 51-day standoff, federal
agents pumped tear gas into the build
ings, and Koresh and some 80 follow
ers died as the place went up in flames.
Investigators said the cultists set the
fire in a mass suicide.
All 11 defendants, some of whom
survived the fire by jumping out of
windows, could get life in prison with
out parole.
Twelve anonymous jurors and six
alternates were seated on Tuesday.
The judge ordered their identities
withheld to protect them from pres
sure. The trial was moved to San
Antonio because of heavy publ ici ty in
Waco.
The jury includes a former Roman
Catholic nun who said she had “neg
ative feelings” about cults; the moth
er of a 1-month-old baby who said
only police should own guns; and a
woman who said she had never heard
of the case.
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