I —LEGISLATURE —
Bill examines school violence
■ Senator hopes bill f { My personal goal is to start a
sparks needed debate dialogue as to what to do about the
about important topic. . , , . , . f „
(school violence) phenomenon.
By Veronica Daehn
staff writer / David Landis
state senator from Lincoln
sen. uavia Lanais or Lincoln saia
he didn’t know phis bill LB 1272 had
all the answers.
He didn’t even know if he agreed
with all the minor details the legisla
tion offered.
But Landis said the bill does
accomplish one important thing.
The bill that would establish the
Student Discipline Act opens the lines
of communication on a pertinent topic.
“My personal goal is to start a dia
logue as to what to do about the (school
violence) phenomenon,” Landis said.
“This is meant to be an approach with
some ideas.”
Landis’ bill could help ease vio
lence in schools by keeping trouble
makers out of the classroom longer, or
at least until the teacher and school
principal discussed what should hap
pen.
The bill was heard in the Education
Committee Monday, but no action was
taken.
Duane Obermier, president of the
Nebraska State Education Association,
said this bill would preserve the rights
of the non-disruptive students.
“This is a step,” Obermier said.
“The removal of the disruptive student
from class would be temporary, but the
student would not return until the
teacher and principal had spoken. I
welcome this requirement.”
Obermier said the bill had the sup
port of Lincoln Public Schools, Omaha
Public Schools and the Nebraska
Association of School Boards.
The bill would also allow schools
to discipline for certain offenses made
off school grounds and to require
school-approved behavioral counsel
ing to some students who violate the
Student Discipline Act.
The bill would also give teacher’s
access to student disciplinary files.
Some senators voiced concern over
certain aspects of the bill.
Committee Chairwoman Sen.
Ardyce Bohlke of Hastings said she
was unsure the school should have to
require or even approve a counseling
program for a student.
Sen. Ron Raikes of Lincoln
agreed.
“This is tough,” Raikes said. “On
one hand, you’ve got a student’s indi
vidual rights and due process, and on
the other you’ve got education.”
Sen. Kermit Brashear of Omaha
said he wasn’t sure the bill would
change how a disruptive student
behaves in a classroom setting.
“We keep passing more laws,”
Brashear said. “I’m just not sure we’re
making the world better by doing it.”
But Obermier insisted the bill was
necessary.
The dialogue between the teacher
and principal is essential, he said.
Before becoming president of
NSEA, Obermier taught high school in
Grand Island.
The teacher-principal cooperation
was in place there, he said, and there
weren’t any problems.
“We need to have that teamwork,”
Obermier said. “There’s not perfection
on either side, but this (would be) the
state saying, ‘you must do this.’”
Landis said the state has been
caught up in student individual rights
for too long, and his bill should help
the classroom as a whole. »
But he’s still not sure the bill solves
everything.
“What I’m sure of is I got a hold of
a real problem,” Landis said.
“I’d like help. I’d like new ideas and
dialogue on this issue. The solutions
are tough, and I don’t have all the
answers.”
Reception to aid students
■ Tonight’s program
will prepare students to
mingle with employers.
By Derek Lippincott
Staff writer
When attending a recruiting
reception, the last thing potential
job searchers want to do is sit in the
corner with a plate of hors d’oeu
vres.
-3 Tonight from 5:30 to 7 at the
1 Culture Center, the first networking
'■ workshop, “Making the Most of a5
Recruiter Reception,” will help stu
’ dents acquire skills needed when
' meeting with recruiters at recruit
j ing receptions.
----—
Recruiters from different busi
nesses will be attending the work
shop to give students a lifelike
recruiting reception situation.
Some of the businesses are Con
Agra, Nebraska Department of
Corrections, the Federal Reserve
Bank of Kansas City-Omaha
Branch and the BryanLGH
Medical Center.
“Students will have the oppor
tunity to actually mingle with the
recruiters,” Said Souk Vannavong,
academic counselor of Student
Opportunities and Services.
“The workshop will help stu
dents learn how to start a conversa
tion with a total stranger and give
them a chance to practice those
skills at the workshop,” Vannavong
said.
Jake Kirkland, assistant director
of Career Services, said the work
shop will prepare students for the
Students of Color Recruiter
Reception on Feb. 9.
It will help them learn how to
approach and network with
recruiters, meet with recruiters and
learn the art of mixing and min
gling with strangers.
“That is what networking is all
about,” Kirkland said. “It’s a lot of
hobnob. It’s one thing to tell stu
dents how to network. It’s another
thing to lerthem go through it all
and experience it for themselves.”
The workshop is sponsored by
Career Services, Students of Color
Career Advisory Committee,
Student Opportunities and Services
and Voices of the People.
Illinois governor suspends executions
■ More death sentences
have been overturned in
the state than carried out
since 1977.
CHICAGO (AP) - Gov. George
Ryan announced a moratorium on
executions Monday, saying he wants
to know why more Illinois death sen
tences have been overturned than car
ried out.
“There is no margin for error
when it comes to putting a person to
death,” Ryan said at a news confer
ence in which he called for a special'
panel to study the state’s capital pun
ishment system. “Until I can be sure
that everyone sentenced to death in
Illinois is truly guilty... no one will
meet that fate.”
Ryan said the panel will study
Illinois’ entire capital punishment
system and focus on why the cases of
*13 death row inmates were over
turned.
The governor reiterated that he
U Until I can be sure that everyone
sentenced to death in Illinois is truly
guilty ... no one will meet that fate”
George Ryan
governor of Illinois
still believes in the death penalty but
said a moratorium was needed until
questions about the system are
answered. He did not set any dead
lines for the investigation.
. Nebraska is the only one of 38
states with the death penalty that con
sidered a similar step, but a moratori
um passed by the Legislature last year
was vetoed by the governor.
The Illinois House last year
approved a resolution calling for a
moratorium, but it had no force of law
and never made it to the Senate.
Death penalty opponents praised
the governor’s decision.
“No one else in a prominent polit
ical position has stepped forward and
caJtled for a moratorium and a com
prehensive review,” said Bill Ryan,
chairman of the Death Penalty
Moratorium Project.
Since Illinois’ death penalty was
reinstated in 1977, 13 death row
inmates have been cleared - one more
than the number of inmates the state
has executed.
In one high-profile case, Anthony
Porter spent 15 years on death row
before a college journalism class
proved his innocence. Porter was
released from prison last year.
Within the past month, Cook
County prosecutors dropped charges
against a former Chicago police offi
cer who was convicted and sentenced
to die based on the word of a jail
house informant. >
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