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http://www.thepost.mindspring.com Cljarlotte ^0£(t THURSDAY, MAY 29, 1997 N 10A LIFESTYLES Chess gives girls chance to learn math By Gestin Suttle THE NEV/S TRIBUNE Dropout turns life around, earns associate degree TACOMA - Don’t tell these girls that chess is a boy’s game. “People don’t think girls can play chess,” said Jaime Briski, a Stewart Middle School sixth- grader. “We prove them wrong.” Briski and four of her school mates were among 22 girls from Washington who participated in the first-ever, all-girls interstate chess competition at the University of California at Berkeley recently. They compet ed in the Tbumament of Queens against girls from Northern California - and won the overall state title. Chess coach Nelson Hanton, who also is a math and science teacher at Stewart, thought up !the idea of an all-girls chess championship because he found regular tournaments to be virtu ally all male - gap, too, he said. Worse than that, he said, “I noticed that the interest level began to wane when they saw they were the only girls. I mean really, there were no middle school girls, only elementary school girls.” That mirrors what often hap pens to pre-teen girls, Hanton ^aid. Many start off interested in Jnath and science, but some- yvhere along the way to adult hood, they lose interest in the subjects. : Only 1 percent of the 80,000 jnembers of the U.S. Chess IFederation are female, he said. ! Hanton also found that girls ■“were disrespected at tourna ments. One boy would say (to ■another boy), ‘Oh, you’re lucky. •You get to play a girl this round. ■VVhat an ea-sy match.’ ” “My girls, they’d take it to heart,” Hanton said. Many girls didn’t win the respect of their male peers even when they beat them, the girls said. “It’s amazing the excuses they’d make up - like, ‘I stayed up late last night,’ ” said Cora Nelson, a quick-talking 11-year- old who bounces with every word .she utters. Boys just don’t like playing girls because “they’re too afraid of being teased” if they lose, said Jennifer McKeown, a quiet 11- year-old. But in Cahfomia, there were no excuses. Just hard-fought competition. ’That in itself is valuable, the girls said. “The first time you lose, you have to keep going and get bet ter,” said Christal Jones, 12. All of the girls said they just started playing chess this school year. At first, most did not think of chess as a girl’s game - especial ly not for “cool” girls. “I thought chess was only for geeks and stuff,” said Jaime, a visual miniature of Sharon Stone - and definitely “not” a geek. “There’s no girls playing chess in the movies,” she explained. But now, “it’s like an addic tion,” Cora said. 1110 girls may not know it, but they are learning mathematics and scientific skills, Hanton said. “We’re using it as a tool to get girls involved in activities that are math-science related - espe cially at the middle school level,” Hanton said. The chess bug stayed with Mariana DeArmas, a Lincoln High School freshman who won fourth place overall at the com petition - the highest of any of the girls from Tacoma. She got into chess when she was in sixth grade, also at the prompting of Hanton. The California competition was fun, she said, because “you get to play with people who are like you and (with whom) you have things in common.” Hanton said he and other coaches are working toward a national, all-girls meet. By Monica Mendoza THE ARIZONA DAILY STAR TUCSON, Ariz. — Darren Hensley sat in the bleachers of the Catalina High School football stadium and watched the class of 1988 turn their tassels and toss their graduation caps into the air. He should have been with them. But lashing out at teachers, brawls with gang members and constantly skipping school kept him from finishing high school with his class. Fast forward to 1997: Hensley, now 26, led the Pima Community College class of 1,849 students in their commencement ceremony last week. The young man who said he was called “a waste of taxpayers’ money” by his high school assis tant principal, was chosen to be the commencement student speaker. He is an honor student listed on the 1996 National Dean’s List and in Who’s Who Among Students in Americem Junior Colleges. He made the first team for the All-Arizona Academic Tfeam. And he has a 4.0 grade point average. Hensley will receive a associate’s degree in general education. “In high school, I was very much afraid that he would never graduate,” said his mother, Phyllis Fielder. High school wasn’t easy for Hensley, who is described as a late bloomer by J.G. Carlton, retired Catalina High School journalism teacher. “There was no doubt in my mind that Darren would ulti mately realize his potential and make the most of it,” Carlton said. At the request of school officials, Hensley was transferred from Catalina to Sahuaro High School in his senior year. He went two days to the new school and dropped out. A year of burger-flipping ulti-' mately had more influence on ' Hensley than his mother’s pleach ings about staying in school. '' Hensley moved to Georgia with a family he met in church and went back to high school. “I had to let him go,” Fielder said. “No one understood why T did. I knew if he stayed he wocJd _ end up in trouble.” Hensley went to school aU day. See VET Page 11B Girl, 10, holds out for a transplant PHOTOS/DIANNE V. CURTAIN Above, Jessica Sanders, 10, cuddles her favorite bear. Below, with aunt and uncle, Michael and Dinessa Jackson. A patient at Carolinas Medical Center’s Children’s Hospital, Jessica is one of 1,800 children nationwide awaiting kidney transplants. By Jeri Young THE CHARLOTTE POST J essica Sanders’ bed room looks like any other 10-year-old’s, Twin princess beds covered with lavender quilts, stuffed animals and hundreds of dolls. Jessica shares the room with her cousin and best friend LaRonica. “I like this one,” Jessica says, grabbing a large stuffed bear. “I don’t know where I got him, but I like him.” Then she points to the large machine in the comer. 'That she doesn’t like. “It hooks up like this,” she says, pointing to her stomach. A plastic tube is inserted there. “But it doesn’t hurt. I don’t like it. It’s too cold.” Jessica suffers from end- stage renal disease, a debili tating illness that has destroyed her kidneys. 'The disease stmck without warn ing three years ago. Now she sports a Tenckhoff catherer and spends each night hooked to the dialysis machine that drains toxic fluids from her body. Jessica is one of several local children who will be fea tured Sunday during the Children’s Miracle Network Champions Broadcast (12:40 p.m. WBTV Channel 3.) She desperately needs a kid ney transplant. But she doesn’t think about it. For her life is normal. She thinks about her boyfriend, a 9-year-old named Philip from church, school, a trip to Disney World. And LaRonica. “She’s my best friend,” Jessica says proudly. “She’s my best friend, too,” LaRonica says quietly. “I want her to get better.” - Since taking Jessica and her three brothers in almost three years ago, life has been a challenge for Jessica’s aunt, Dinessa Jackson. She and husband Michael have three children of their own. “There are seven children here,” Dinessa Jackson says with a laugh. “You just can’t tell it now.” Dinessa Jackson didn’t think too much about it when Jessica, always a sickly child, first became ill almost three years ago. “She’s been sick all her life,” Jackson said. “She doesn’t ever get thirsty. We always had to force her to drink stuff.” Jessica suffers from hyper natrena, a high sodium level that caused her to experience periodic seizures. So when she came home from school complaining of a backache, Jackson didn’t think too much of it. “I thought it was just the same thing,” she said. As the evening wore on, Jessica’s S3nnptoms got worse. “The teacher told me she was just laying around at school,” Jackson said. “That wasn’t like her. She told me she wouldn’t eat or anything.” That night Jessica didn’t feel any better. Her backache became worse. Jackson took her to the hospital. Fearing the worse, doctors did several blood tests. “The doctor told me it came up real bad,” Jackson said. “What it was showing was she was supposed to be dead. She was in the last stages of kid ney failure. Neither one of her kidneys was working.” Jackson’s initial reaction was shock. “I was sad because she’s so young,” Jackson said. “I didn’t want her to go through a lot of surgery and stuff.” Immediately, life changed for the family. Jackson, who worked third shift as a nurse’s assistant, was forced to quit her job. Jessica had to begin dialysis immediately. She spends at least 10 hours a day on the machine. Jackson had to be at home to put her on the machine and take her off. “It was just hard,” Jackson says. Jackson puts Jessica on the machine at 7 p.m. each night and takes her off at 6 a.m. “I put her on later on the weekends and in the sum mer,” Jackson says. “That way she gets to play a little longer and sleep in.” Jessica’s disease has taken a toll on the family. Money is tight. Only Michael works and while Medicare takes care of most of the bills, the loss of Jackson’s income has hurt. Things the couple did for themselves and for the children are more difficult to do. “We used to be able to take the children to movie or out to eat,” Dinessa Jackson says. “Now we just can’t afford it.” The other six children some times are jealous because Jessica gets so much atten tion. “It doesn’t last long,” Jackson says. “They know she’s sick and she can’t help it.” In the last six months, two kidneys have become avail able, but neither was a match for Jessica. “It’s so frustrating,” Jackson says. “I be so happy that one came up. Then you wait all that long time and go through all the blood work and then they call you and say it does n’t match.” For the last seven months, Jessica has been stable. She and her cousin spend most of the afternoon playing or writing notes. Today’s note is a get-well • letter to her teacher. Miss Caldwell, who recently had a baby. “Dear Mrs. Caldwell,” it reads. “...You’re the best teacher I ever had.” Jessica is also looking for ward to going away to a spe cial camp for children with kidney diseases. She was supposed to go last year, but she changed her mind. “She didn’t want to go,” Jackson said. “She chickened out at the last minute. She didn’t want to leave home.” This year Jessica wants to go swimming. The catherer requires a special covering to keep water out. She is getting one soon. Laronica hopes it’s over soon. She wants to go to Disney World as soon as Jessica has her surgery. Jessica just smiles and nods. “I’m just anxious for her to get a kidney,” Jackson says. “I take good care of her and that’s all. She’s a joy to take care of.” Thousands caught between Medicaid and private insurance THE ASSOCIATED PRESS CLINTON, Maine - Sheri Everitt was caught in the horns of a very painfiil dilemma: she was earning too much to qualify for Medicaid, but not enou^ to buy their own health insurance. She’s not alone, state experts say. But that’s little comfort to Everitt, who’s still paying off a $170 bill for a hospital visit and X- ray for her 6-year-old dau^ter. “I felt awful about it, but I had to ask them not to prescribe one of those new, expensive antibiotics because I couldn’t afford that,” the Clinton resident said. State policy makers call it a mqjor problem, but have been unable to agree on a solution. Last year, the now defunct Maine Healthcare Reform Commission estimated more than 158,000 Maine residents were in the same predicament as Everitt, who lost her insurance three years ago when she left her hus band. Democrats have proposed dou bling the current 37-cent tobacco excise tax to fund expanded cover age for children vmder 19 whose family income is below 200 per cent of the poverty level. Analysts say such a move would provide coverage for about 30,0(X) more children. But Gov. Angus King has threat ened to veto such a plan. He wants to use any extra tobacco tax money for tax relief “It will be tragic if we end this session and we haven’t passed this bill,” said Senate Majority Leader CheUie Pingree, D-North Haven. Medicaid is a federally-funded state program that provides health insurance for poor and dis abled residents. It currently cov ers about 156,000 people a month in Maine, including 75,000 chil dren. Francis Finnegan, Bureau of Medical Services director, said expanding Medicaid coverage throu^ a dedicated tax may not be the best answer. Funding a program that will likely grow more expensive with a tax rev-lj enue that could decline could pre- - J sent problems, he said. j; Everitt, 34, says she has had a }j dull pain in her ovaries for more Ij than a year. But when her doctor ;* scheduled a sonogram last winter, |{ she had to cancel because she I) couldn’t afford it. ll Meanwhile, she works between !| 40 and 45 hours a week at twoli part-time jobs. Everitt said sheli applied for Medicaid and welfare jj but found out she made $30 aji month too much to qualify. |j
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