2
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2004
Board delays its vote
on public forum policy
BY SARA LEWKOWICZ
STAFF WRITER
After heated debate, Orange
County School Board members
decided Monday to postpone vot
ing on a motion that would allow
a limited public forum in county
schools.
Initially, the board voted in
favor of allowing a limited public
forum in Orange County Schools,
which would allow certain non
profit organizations to distribute
materials to students.
But then a motion to recon
sider was made by board member
Delores Simpson.
Motions to reconsider must
be made by a board member
who voted on the prevailing side.
Simpson had the tie-breaking vote
the first time around.
Board Chairwoman Libbie
Hough, who voted against the dis
tribution of materials in school,
said that although she was in favor
of promoting organizations that
benefit schools, she does not believe
distributing pamphlets to students
is the best course of action.
“Our mission is to educate chil
dren. (Orange County Schools) are
not a PRfirm or a PR arm for local
businesses,” Hough said.
Board member Randy
Copeland, who had voted in favor
of allowing the public forum, was
quick to point out that many of the
organizations trying to distribute
pamphlets were organizations
designed to benefit students, such
as the Hillsborough Youth Athletic
Association.
“There are dubs that are provid
ing good things for our students,”
Copeland said. “I have a real prob
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lem with limiting die information
that can be sent home.”
Shirley Carraway, the superin
tendent of Orange County Schools,
said many teachers had voiced
concerns about important school
related material getting lost in the
mass of papers that would come
home with children.
“(A teacher’s) fear is that those
important materials that they need
to get to the parents will never get
to (the parents),” Carraway said. She
added that teachers had expressed
concern about the time they would
spend distributing pamphlets, as
well as the volume of papers they
would need to deal with.
Board Vice Chairwoman Brenda
Stephens expressed similar senti
ments, saying that she, too, had
heard from teachers and principals
with concerns.
“Our principals are concerned
with our students being used as
vehicles for sending out materials,”
Stephens said. “We always have to
strive to respect our teachers, and
that is why I cannot support this.”
Steve Piscitelli, a member of
the board of directors for the
Hillsborough Youth Athletic
Association, appealed in favor of
the forum, saying that his associa
tion provides a service that directly
benefits the students.
Board member A1 Hartkopf said
that although he sees the relevance
of these organizations, he fears
that “important things will become
totally lost in the shuffle.”
The board postponed the vote
until its next meeting.
Contact the City Editor
at citydesk@unc.edu.
Former prisoner recalls Mandela
Men shared cell
block for 15 years
BY JACKI SPIES
STAFF WRITER
A South African anti-apartheid
leader who spent 15 years impris
oned with Nelson Mandela spoke at
UNC on Monday to a diverse crowd
about South Africa’s discriminatory
history and bright future.
Eddie Daniels shared a cell block
with Mandela during the political
crusader’s term of imprisonment.
Daniels himself was imprisoned
for his association with groups
that strived to eliminate apart
heid, including the Liberal Party
of South Africa and the African
Resistance Movement.
On Monday, he spoke freely about
his memories and experiences.
“I asked how much time I had,
because I tend to get carried away
when I speak,” he said as he began
his talk in a light-hearted manner.
“Which, I suppose, is why I was
carried away in the first place.”
During his speech, Daniels com
pared apartheid in South Africa to
the Holocaust in Nazi Germany.
Students rail against block scheduling
BY TED STRONG
STAFF WRITER
Faculty and students at Chapel
Hill High School missed their
lunch break Monday afternoon to
voice their concerns about a pro
posal to change class schedules.
Several students wearing white
T-shirts with vivid black lettering
shuffled into the school audito
rium to attend a student-initiated
forum to discuss possible schedule
changes.
The shirts simply read “Think
Outside the Block” and neatly sum
marized a prevailing sentiment at
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“In South Africa, we too had a
holocaust that lasted over centuries,”
he said. “Blacks have been humili
ated and oppressed for centuries. ...
It is a part of our social fabric.”
Daniels served time for his politi
cal activities on Robben Island,
a famous prison known best for
Mandela, its most celebrated inmate.
He said that there, black activists
were detained by the government
Both men served their time
alongside murderers and robbers
as part of the country’s lowest rung
of prisoners.
Daniels said he lived through
dismal conditions during this time.
At first, he said, the soup prison
officials served him smelled so
nauseating that he wasn’t able to
eat it, but after a few days he asked
for more so he could survive.
Daniels developed a fighting,
survivalist mentality, he said,
thanks to Mandela.
“This man,” he said, “is possibly
the greatest man in human history.”
He remembered a time when
Mandela started a sculpture by
placing a stone on the ground.
Slowly, other activists added to the
structure by adding rocks of differ
ent sizes, shapes and colors.
Chapel Hill High School.
A proposal to introduce a block
based class schedule in the Chapel
Hill-Carrboro City School district
has met stiff and highly vocal
opposition from students.
The proposal includes changing
the class schedule from six 55-min
ute classes that last all year to ablock
plan featuring four 90-minute class
es that coukfhin the duration of one
quarter, one semester or the entire
school year. Some classes also could
be split into 45-minute segments.
Superintendent Neil Pedersen
will present the proposal Thursday
The speaker said the sculpture
was representative of a struggle that
included “rich people, poor people,
people of different colors, different
religions, different educations.”
Daniels also spoke admirably
about the speech Mandela made
after his release from prison before
a crowd of hundreds of thousands
of supporters.
“His whole life was destroyed,
as was his wife’s and children’s,
and here he stood, saying, ‘Let
us embrace each other and work
toward a common goal.’”
Daniels stressed the difference
between discrimination and apart
heid: Discrimination has always
been present, but apartheid is
based on the color of skin.
“We may have seen the end
of apartheid and imprisonment,
which is something I never thought
I’d see or survive through,” Daniels
said. “But the honor is not ours. It
is a victory of our ancestors.”
Dee Gamble, a clinical professor
in the School of Social Work, trav
eled to South Africa this summer as
part of a tour group led by Daniels.
She said the activist represented
the hopeful spirit of the South
African people she encountered.
to the board of education.
Pedersen and Lisa Stuckey,
board vice chairwoman, attended
Monday’s forum to relay reaction
to other board members.
Students and teachers were
allowed up to two minutes each to
comment or pose questions during
the forum —and comment was
wholly negative.
No student or teacher spoke in
support of the plan.
At one point, student speaker
Sebastian Green asked the audi
ence to indicate, by a show of
hands, their position on the issue.
Calls for those in favor of or unde
cided about the proposal only drew
a few hands.
But when Green asked who
opposed the idea, hundreds of peo
ple raised their hands.
Student speakers addressed a
variety of concerns about block
scheduling. They noted a lack of
studies definitively showing the
academic benefits of block sched
uling and said that the schedule
change could mean a decrease
in total minutes taught and an
increase in class size.
Students also worried about
their inability to pay attention for
the longer periods.
The speeches were often met with
wild cheering from the audience.
“Block scheduling doesn’t do any
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Eddie Daniels, who spent 15 years
imprisoned with Nelson Mandela,
speaks at the Tate-Turner-Kuralt
Building on Monday afternoon.
“The most amazing thing about
South Africans like him is their
compassion for their enemies, their
willingness to embrace people who
persecuted them,” she said. “And
that is so wonderful.”
Contact the University Editor
at udesk@unc.edu.
thing to help you. It holds you back,”
said student Elise Juraschek.
But Pedersen said that he believed
there is a definite need for change
and that a hybrid block schedule
is the best option. “I think we need
to go forward with the process and
reach a decision,” he said.
Stuckey agreed, saying “It’s a
problem that needs a remedy.”
The school district has consid
ered three other scheduling scenar
ios. The first involved seven shorter
periods in the same amount of time’
as the current schedule.
The second option included the
addition of a full-length period and
a lengthening of the school day.
The third proposal was a seven
period schedule in which students
would take three alternating 90-
minute courses and one 65-minute
course each day.
Contact the City Editor
at citydesk@unc.edu.
(Eljr Sattg (Ear Brrl
P.O. Bo* 3257, Chapel Hill, NC 27515
Michelle Jaiboe, Editor, 962-4086
Advertising & Business, 962-1163
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