2A
NEWS/IEtie C!)«rlotte
Thursday, February 26, 2004
ILC. campuses roact to HIV rise among blacks
Continued from page 1A
among youth ages 15 to 24
annually. The infections will
cost more than $6 billion in
direct medical costs, as
reported in the latest issue of
the journal Perspectives on
Sexual and Reproductive
Health published by The
Alan Guttmacher Institute.
“These numbers on the
human and financial costs of
STDs in youth should be a
wake-up call for the nation,”
said Joan Catos, principal
investigator of a project at
the UNC-Chapel Hill School
of Journalism and Mass
Communication assessing
the impact of STDs on young
people. ‘We’re not using the
tools already available to
fight these infections, and
we’re letting down our youth
because of it.”
But North Carolina col
leges are taking a more
aggressive approach to stop
ping HIV. School health offi
cials are beefing up educa
tion and testing programs.
And students are more
involved in sharing informa
tion with each other through
peer counseling and .semi
nars.
Historically-black colleges
are at the forefi”ont of the
education effort. An estimat
ed 400 students from all 11
N.C. HBCUs and historical
ly Native American UNC-
Pembroke will meet March
19-21 at N.C. Central
University in Durham for a
conference on HIV/AIDS.
HBCUs have also received
$15,000 grants from the
N.C. Dept, of Health for on-
campus prevention pro
grams.
Historically-black
Livingstone College is using
its grant to train up to 24
peer counselors by semes
ter’s end, said Pam Henley
R.N., director of the school’s
health services department.
The educational process
includes modifying behavior
that can lead to acquiring
the virus. Experimenting
with drugs and alcohol is
often a major contributor to
lowering defenses, Oates
said. As a result, students
are counseled to party in
moderation and know whom
they hang out with.
“Drinking and drugs is
probably the No. 1 thing that
people get HIV and AIDS,”
she said. “There’s nothing
wrong with having a good
time, but you need to know
your limit.”
Livingstone sponsors “safe
sex parties,” alcohol- and
drug-free gatherings where
the emphasis is on having
fun in a safe environment.
‘You’re more likely to get
HIV if you engage in risky
behavior,” Henley said.
“In a college population, it’s
more of a concern because of
close living quarters and
some behaviors that are tra
ditional on college campus
es,” such as excessive drink
ing and sexual experimenta
tion, Ferguson said.
Oates was surprised by the
response of men at the semi
nars. Instead of taking a dis
missive attitude, they were
curious, inquiring about the
risks associated with HIV.
“When we first did the pro
gram with freshmen, there
were a lot of questions,” she
said. “I was shocked to see
more men asking questions
than females. The guys
weren’t like they were too
good to ask questions.”
Henley, who has been at
Livingstone for 13 years,
said she has seen an
increase in students’ willing
ness to ask questions about
sexually-transmitted dis
eases. She attributes that
openness to administrative
support and aggressive pro
grams that start fiom the
time new students first walk
on campus to their senior
year.
“We hit them aU semester,”
Henley said. ‘We hit them in
the (residence) halls and all
over campus.”
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Prosecutor to seek N.C. pardon for freed inmate
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WINSTON-SALEM - The
district attorney who initial
ly opposed a new trial for
Darryl Himt now says he
will seek a pardon for the
man exonerated in the death
of a newspaper copy editor.
Forsyth County District
Attorney Tbm Keith said he
will ask Gov. Mike Easley to
pardon Hunt, who was exon
erated earlier this month
after serving 19 years in
prison for the 1984 murder.
For nearly 20 years,
Deborah Sykes’ rape and
killing and Hunt’s imprison
ment raised tensions among
blacks and whites. Sykes
was white, and Hunt is
black.
He planned to seek the
pardon during a clemency
hearing Thursday for a man
convicted of killing a
Winston-Salem police officer.
While Keith said he is cer
tain Hunt is innocent, some
people - including Sykes’
family - still believe that
Hunt had something to do
with the brutal stabbing
death of Sykes in downtown
Winston-Salem.
Keith wasn’t elected until
after Hunt had already been
twice convicted of murder.
His office got into the case in
1994 to oppose a bid for a
third trial based upon DNA
evidence that showed that
Hunt was not Sykes’ rapist.
Hunt was convicted of killing
Sykes but not of raping her.
It wasn’t until last
December, when DNA test
ing identified Willard Brown
and Brown confessed, that
Keith said he began to real
ize that he and so many oth
ers may have been wrong.
Hunt’s supporters say
Keith should have been able
to see the evidence for what
it was far earlier.
“If he had a passion for jus
tice, he would have done it
10 years ago rather than let
ting his office and the state
Attorney General’s Office
continue to argue against
fairness for Darryl,” said the
Rev. Carlton
Eversley, a
member of
Hunt’s
defense com
mittee.
Keith, in
his fourth
term as dis
trict attor
ney, said the
Hunt case is
about 20 years of accumulat
ed errors by police, prosecu
tors and even defense attor
neys.
In his first extended inter
view since Hunt’s exonera
tion, Keith said the bum
bling led to a catastrophe.
“I wish I’d taken a different
view, but I didn’t know then
what I know now,” said
Keith, who got a call Dec. 19
Easley
fiom the state crime lab that
Brown’s DNA matched evi
dence in the Sykes’ case.
At first, Keith said the evi
dence supported the prose
cution theory that two or
more people were involved in
the attack. Keith said that
he meant the remark as one
of several possibilities, with
Hunt’s innocence being
another.
The DA’s comments set off
a round of criticism by
Hunt’s attorney and mem
bers of the Darryl Hunt
Defense Committee, who
called for Hunt’s immediate
release and an outside inves
tigation. Within days, the
police department gave the
case to the State Bureau of
Investigation.
Hunt was released Dec. 24
after investigators could find
no evidence against him.
A pardon from Easley
would entitle Hunt to com
pensation of about $360,000
for his wrongful conviction.
Easley’s office is not saying
how quickly a ruling might
come after Keith delivers the
court order that exonerated
Hunt and his motion sup
porting a pardon.
Keith said he believes that
Hunt deserves the money.
“It is important that the
system make amends for the
system,” he said.
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