News D gest
Thursday, February 9,1995 Page 2
Chadron teacher shot by student
CHADRON — A seventh
grader walked into a social studies
class Wednesday and shot the
teacher as 19 other students looked
on, authorities said.
The teacher, Andy Pope, was
struck in the upper chest but not
seriously injured. Pope, 35, was in
good condition at Chadron Com
munity Hospital, where he was
being treated for a graze wound,
said hospital administrator Harold
Krueger.
Pope, who coaches basketball at
Chadron High School but teaches
at the middle school, was shot about
9 a.m. MST just after the first bell
rang signalling the end of the first
period social studies class he was
teaching.
A seventh-grade boy who is a
student in one of Pope’s classes
later in the day came in the class
and fired a gun, school officials
said. Pope had not been facing in
the boy’s direction but heard some
kind of noise, turned and the shot
went off, said Wayne Jones, the
high school principal.
No one else was injured.
Meryl Nelson, principal of the
326-student middle school, said
details were sketchy and police were
interviewing the students who were
in the first-floor classroom.
Another teacher and a police
officer who happened to be teach
ing a class against drugs at the
school took the gun away and
helped apprehend the student,
Nelson said.
The boy was being held in a cell
at the Dawes County Courthouse
and would be transferred later to a
juvenile detention center in Gering,
said Dawes County Attorney Rex
Nowlan. He said he would make a
decision by Friday on what, if any,
charges would be filed.
Officials said they don’t know
why the student shot the teacher.
There was no history of problems
between the boy and Pope, Nelson
said.
Neither Nowlan nor school offi
cials would name the boy or release
his age. Nowlan said the boy’s
name would be released only if he
is charged and tried as an adult.
What charges may be filed and
whether they will be filed in juve
nile or adult court will depend on
whether the shooting was inten
tional, Nowlan said.
Classes remained in session but
parents were invited to pick up
their children at the school if they
wished, Jones said. About 70 per
cent of the students went home
with parents or guardians, he said.
Six counselorswentto the school
to talk with remaining students.
Classes will be held Thursday but
school officials will meet with
middle school students in an as
sembly at 7:30 a.m., Nelson said.
The shooting was believed to be
the first in schools in Chadron, a
city of 5,500 located in the north
ern Panhandle, about 100 miles
northeast of Scottsbluff.
School officials said the student
involved in the shooting will be
expelled automatically, but they
did not say for how long.
The shooting happened in a
classroom on the first floor of the
middle school, Jones said. The
middle school’s administrative of
fices are located on the second floor.
The bullet did not penetrate
Pope’s chest wall, and Pope could
be released from the hospital as
early as Thursday, Krueger said.
Buck Edwards, assistant prin
cipal at the high school, said offi
cials believe the shot was fired
from a small-caliber weapon, pos
sibly a .22-caliber gun, Jones said.
In a statement after the shoot
ing, the head of the state teachers’
union called on schools and courts
to get tough on students who bring
guns to school. There are adequate
“No teacher in this
' state should haw to
put (his or her) ...life
on the line to teach the
children of Nebraska.”
■
JIM GRIESS
Executive director of the
Nebraska State Education
Association.
laws but they must be enforced,
said Jim Griess, Executive director
of the Nebraska State Education
Association.
“The shooting incident in
Chadron is extremely regrettable.
We simply cannot tolerate violence
of any kind in our schools,” Griess
said. “No teacher in this state should
have to put (his or her)... life on the
line to teach the children of Ne
braska.”
“We’call upon boards of educa
tion and the juvenile justice system
to vigorously enforce the student
suspension and expulsion laws of
Nebraska,” Griess said.
Quake hits Columbia
BOGOTA, Colombia—An pow
erful earthquake with a preliminary
magnitude of at least 6.2 rocked Co
lombia on Wednesday, toppling build
ings and killing at least 11 people,
according to radio reports.
The worst hit city, according to
initial reports, was Pereira, where at
least six people were killed and 80
injured when buildings and walls
collapsed, RCN radio reported. Five
other deaths and 20 injuries were
reported in other towns in western
Colombia.
To avoid fires from possible gas
leaks or downed power lines, Pereira
officials severed electrical power in
the city of 700,000 and suggested
residents buy flashlights and candles.
Pereira is 100 miles west of Bogota.
The quake was centered 175 miles
west of Bogota and had a preliminary
magnitude of 6.2, the Seismologic
Institute of the West reported from
Cali.
Two people died from heart at
tacks during the quake in the towns of
Neiva and Trujillo, according to ra
dio reports. A third person died when
a wall collapsed on her in the town of
Armenia.
The quake was felt strongly in
Bogota, causing people to flee build
ings and creating interruptions in
telephone service.
Fugitive suspect
inbombingcaught
NEW YORK — The alleged mas
termind of the World Trade Center
bombing was in custody Wednesday in
New York after two years as a fugitive.
Ramzi Yousef was arrested in Pa
kistan on Tuesday and flown to New
York later in the day, U.S. Attorney
General Janet Reno said Wednesday.
Yousef allegedly planned and orga
nized the Feb. 26,1993 bombing of the
landmark skyscraper. Six people were
killed and more than 1,000were injured.
The U.S. government had posted a
$2 million reward for his return. It
was not immediately clear who, if
anyone had collected the reward.
Yousef was charged in an indict
ment with 11 counts relating to the
bombing. He allegedly came to the
United States in September 1992 with
plans to bomb a U.S. target.
Four of his co-defendants were
convicted last March of carrying out
the bombing.
Prosecutors said Yousef had led
the others in the purchase of chemi
cals and other key acts, and managed
to slip out of the country to Iraq the
evening of the bombing.
The most serious charges carry a
maximum penalty of life in prison
without parole.
News...
in a Minute x-x"-'"
Congress questions nomination
WASHINGTON—Both Democrats and Republicans say Dr. Henry
Foster Jr.’s nomination to be surgeon general is in jeopardy because of
uncertainty over his record on abortions.
On Tuesday, anti-abortion groups fighting the nomination stepped
up their attacks, producing information indicating that the Tennessee
obstetrician-gynecologist led a study in the early 1980s to test do-it
yourself abortion drugs.
The National Right to Life Committee and the American Life
League said that while chairman of the Obstetrics and Gynecology
Department at Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Foster headed a
study involving about 60 women and financed by Upjohn Pharmaceu
tical Corp.
The women, who were up to eight weeks pregnant, were given
prostaglandin drugs in vaginal suppositories, the groups said.
White House press secretary Mike McCurry said an article Foster
wrote on the testing was available when Foster was being considered.
Trouble over Foster’s nomination began over the number of abor
tions he has performed. Foster maintains he has done fewer than 12 —
mostly in cases of rape, incest or threat to a mother’s life.
Arafat orders arrests of militants
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Yasser Arafat, under pressure from
Israel to crack down on militants, ordered the arrest of another 90
Palestinians in raids throughout the Gaza Strip on Wednesday.
jtoafat, who meets Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin on Thurs
day in an effort to bolster faltering peace talks, also established a special
court to try Palestinians charged with security crimes, including attacks
on Israelis.
“We mean business,” said Arafat spokesman Marwan Kanafani,
addingthat members of Arafat’s security forces will serve as judges for
the new court.
Last week, Rabin complained to Arafat that even though Palestinian
militants have been detained previously, none were ever charged with
attacking Israelis.
The moves aimed to satisfy Israeli concerns over Arafat’s readiness
to reign in Palestinian militants whose attacks against Israelis have
caused delays extending the Palestinian autonomy to the West Bank
outside Jericha.
Fifty-five Israelis have been killed by radical Palestinians since
October.
The latest attack, an ambush Monday in Gaza that killed one Israeli
security guard and wounded another, was claimed by the Syrian-based
Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
Nebraskan
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Clinton picks
new CIA head
WASHINGTON — President
Clinton announced Wednesday
Michael P.C. Cams, a retired four
star Air Force general, as his choice
to head the CIA, which has been
without a permanent director since R.
James Woolsey abruptly resigned in
December.
“General Cams will face a chal
lenge; its difficulty is matched only
by its importance,” Clinton said in
announcing his selection in the
Roosevelt Room of the White House.
Present were leaders of the House and
Senate intelligence committees.
Cams, 57, spent 35 years in the
Air Force. He retired last September
after serving as vice chief of staff of
the Air Force, its No. 2 official.
“He’s a proven innovator, open to
new ways of doing business and skep
tical of conventional wisdom,”
Clinton said, noting that Cams had
gained a reputation in the Air Force
as a combat veteran and strong man
ager.
Cams said the job offer was unex
pected.
There is something about the op
portunity to serve and the chance to
make a difference that is simply irre
sistible,” Cams said after being intro
duced by Clinton.
Clinton also thanked Woolsey for
his nearly two years as CIA director.
Woolsey, who was present at the an
nouncement, said he left the post for
personal reasons, but he had labored
under a strained relationship with
Congress.
.
Simpson
trial update
Mfa&wtdty, f«5. S, tM5
► Judge Lance Ito ruled that O.J.
Simpson's first wife, Marquerite
Simpson Thomas, must testify.
She allegedly spoke with
Simpson twice the day of his
arrest, once as he led police
on a chase in his Ford Bronco.
► Prosecutors tried to fix the
time of the murders by calling
neighbors of Nicole Brown
Simpson to the stand. They
told of a barking dog with
bloody paws who roamed the
street between 10:45 p.m.
and 11 p.m.
AP
Continued from Page 1
wouldn’t be approved by the voters.
“It’s highly doubtful that (voters)
would vote to take their own authority
and power away,” Payne said.
Payne stressed the danger of let
ting a government with a unicameral
legislature have too much control over
a university.
“The problem here would be that
the governor would have an enor
mous amount of power and could, if
he had enough votes in the Legisla
ture, dictate everything,” he said.
The 1977 Supreme Court decision
Exon vs. the NU Board of Regents
took university budget control away
from then-governor James Exon and
gave it to the regents.
This resolution would return some
of that power to the governor.
Nelson told the Daily Nebraskan
that if the resolution passed, he did
not intend to micro-manage the
university’s budget.
“It (the NU budget) represents 17
percent of the state budget, and there’s
nothing draconian about the chief
executive having control over that
part of the budget,” Nelson said.