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TUetri ew* - journal
ipi r/l/oit/i 0&io?cHa\
R R E S S
NATIONAL NEWSPAPER association
ASSOCIATION
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LOt IS H. KOCLEMAN. JR Publisher
PAUL DICKSON Editor
HENRY L. BLUE Production Supervisor
BILL LINDAU Associate Editor
MRS. PAUL DICKSON Society Editor
SAM C. MORRIS . .Contributing Editor
Second Class Postage at Kaeford. N.C.
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THURSDAY. FEBRUARY 18. 1982
School injuries
The Hoke County Board of Education recently denied payment of
the balance of a dental bill for treatment of a student's injury
suffered in a play accident at school last year.
The school insurance policy provided to cover injuries paid only
5200 of the $790 bill, and the father's personal policy paid $100.
leaving $490 left for the parents to pay from the family pocket.
Furthermore, the mother informed the board, the parents have
$1 .000 more in dental work to look forward to when the boy reaches
15. since a dental adjustment will have to be made for the boy's
growth between now and then.
In another case last year, the school board also denied a request
for payment of the balance due on a medical bill. The bill was for
treatment of an injury suffered by a ? child while playing in a
supervised game. In this case also, the school insurance paid just
part of the bill.
As everyone with medical and hospital insurance knows, few if any
kinds of policies pay all expenses; consequently, there is practically
always a balance to pay.
The school system provides a policy to take care of expenses of
injuries which children suffer occasionally on school grounds.
Consequently, parents expect to pay some part of a bill. The policy
takes care of much of the expense caused by injuries to children but
apparently is not planned to cover anything as extensive as the $~W
cost of the child's dental treatment.
On the other hand, the question arises: is the school and the
teacher liable for all such expenses while the child is in the care of
the teacher? In one state, a teacher was held liable for injuries one of
her students suffered in a fight -- in a soda shop on a Sunday
afternoon off the school grounds (she walked out of the shop as the
fight was starting). This is unreasonable, but should the school and
teacher or designated substitute be held responsible for the student's
safety at least from the time the student arrives at school for classes
till the time the student leaves the grounds to return home? This
question is based on the traditional idea that school authorities serve
"in loco parentis" (in the place of parents) as long as the child is on
the school property. If the child is taken to and from school on a
regular school bus. then the school also is responsible for the child's
safety on the round trips.
It's a tough question to answer. It's not reasonable to expect a
teacher to prevent every accident that might conceivably happen to
any one of 20 to 30 active children in the course of a six-to seven-hour
school day. The only sure way of doing that is to keep the children
motionless all day.
Parents, however, should be able to feel sure every reasonable
caution is being taken at school to prevent injury to their children.
In each of the cases of injury the board has considered in the past
year, no evidence of negligence on the part of school supervisors was
shown. Negligence, of course, would be reason for all the expense
being paid by the school.
But otherwise, the only protection against high personal expense
lies in a policy providing more coverage than the present. Parents
wanting this greater protection and willing to pay the higher
premium for it could be offered such a policy as an alternative for the
one now provided.
??BL
Tut a health hazard?
Another hazard to our health has been added to tobacco,
saccharin, asbestos, alcohol, cholesterol, and the million other
things which have joined the list over the years.
The newest hazard is the job of guarding King Tut's belongings.
A West Coast policeman suffered a stroke. He says it was caused
by the curse of King Tut.
He picked up the curse he says, because he had the job ot
guarding King Tut's stuff.
But maybe it's a hazard only if you guard the Tut properly on the
West Coast.
- BL
Reagan and FDR era
From The Christian Science Monitor
The degree of public attention paid to Franklin D. Roosevelt's
centenary has turned out to be more significant than the event itself.
The extra surge of interest has risen from a circumstance that no one
anticipated as little as two years ago. It is the presence in the White
House of a Republican who openly admires the leadership
exemplified by the Democratic FDR - but would exercise it to take
the country in a different direction. By calling for his "new
federalism" in the very week of the Roosevelt anniversary. President
Reagan added a nudge to the valuable educational process of
considering his proposals in the light of history.
To be sure, many Americans remember the Roosevelt years. But
4 there are younger generations who can learn from the centennial
evocations of challenge, hope, and controversy in hard times that
were so much worse than later experience for most Americans. An
Ivy League historian recalls waves of interest in the FDR era by
students who "wanted to know what made their fathers so mad."
Yet. for all the disagreement over the New Deal measures, recent
polls of historians have placed Roosevelt just behind Lincoln and
Washington among the nation's three greatest presidents. Whatever
the mistakes which FDR was so ready to risk, he provided a model of
leadership responding to individual as well as national needs and
Hope this compass also gets me out!'
Wi
TrvOwMH" *rCH ? MonrtC
acting vigorously to meet them.
This much of the Roosevelt mantle would be claimed by Mr.
Reagan. He parts company with certain New Deal federal programs
- not with a centerpiece like social security - as being carried on too
long for the good of their recipients. One of his fruitful themes in the
current Roosevelt- Reagan discussion is that there must be a
transition from temporarily needed government aid to the private
ability to take care of oneself. FDR. indeed, is said not to have
expected emergency measures to continue indefinitely. The present
exercise in historical perspective should help the public join
Congress, the White House, and the other levels of government in
choosing which measures are still worth retaining - and whether they
can be most effectively funded and carried out by federal, state or
local jurisdictions.
There can hardly be argument over the FDR prescription which
Mr. Reagan cited so fervently in accepting his party's presidential
nomination: "that government of all kinds, big and little, be made
solvent and that the example be set by the President of the United
States and his Cabinet." Nor should there be disagremeent over the
kind of Roosevelt goal that won Mr. Reagan's vote in the past
though he has his own ideas on how to achieve it now: "The test of
progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who
hase much. It is whether we provide enough for those who have too
little."
A legacy of such aspirations, as the past week's utterances
suggest, overshadows the decades of squabbling over what kind of
elaborate memorial to construct for Franklin Roosevelt. It was in
keeping for him to ask for no more than the plan, unornamented
block of stone the size of his desk which stands before the National
Archives. His monument exists in the life and history of his nation -
the more so at the moment as a new President's program invites
debate and evaluation of it all over again.
It's a
By Bill Lindau
Kate Lorber in Pinchurst says
she had a neighbor in the F.asl
Bronx (N.Y.) named Harold Lip
schit/.
Harold Lipsehit/ played the
clarinet.
That was before he went into
television and became Hal Linden,
playing "Barney Miller."
Harold's brother plays the \iola.
"He still leaches at Bowling Green
tin New York)." says Mrs. Lorber.
1 got all this and more from Mary
Kvelyn de Nissoff's Pineburst
column in the weekly The Pilot of
Southern Pines.
Mrs. Lorber went to the City
College of New York. "the Harvard
of the poor." Mrs. Lorber says " we
called it."
I remember CCNY for its night
college classes, in which, if you
could stand the grind, you could
get a degree in just about anything.
They were tor people who had to
work during the day when regular
college classes are held.
I also remember CCNY for Nat
Hotmail's great basketball teams,
which used to force the country's
best to hustle all the way to the final
bu//er. That was in the 1930s.
Mrs. Lorber is a former school
teacher and is an artist and a poet.
She also plays the piano. She
attended the High School of Music
and Art. in New York. The new
weekly television series "Fame" is
based on fictionalized versions of
the school's life, its students and its
teachers.
The East Bronx is a large place,
but "00 to 800 miles awav front it.
anybody who is from there is a
neighbor, as far as I'm concerned,
even if it is something like saying
I'm a neighbor of somebody who
lives in McCain.
Naomi Johnson, who teaches at
Hoke County High School, also is a
former "neighbor" of mine. Used
to live on Fordham Road, about a
mile and a half north of my place
(1565 Grand Concourse), except I
lived there about 1925 till a year
into the 1930s, which was about 13
to 15 years before she was born.
Mrs. Dolan of The Wagon
Wheel Restaurant staff also used to
live near there during some of the
41 years her late husband was a
New York policeman.
* * *
1 just noticed an announcement
that the 503rd Parachute Infantry
will hold its 40th anniversary
reunion Julv 15-18 in Canaan
Valley. W. Va.
1 remember the 503rd as the
outfit that made a couple of the
most horrendous combat jumps of
World War II. from the standpoint
of the jump conditions alone, not to
mention the battles that followed.
The men jumped on Noemfoor
Island in the Dutch F.ast Indies,
then occupied by Japanese forces.
They were 1 ""5 feet above the
ground when they got the jump
signals in their troop carriers. An
altitude of l75 feet leaves no room
to correct "malfunctions" or use
the reserve 'chute. About all the
"reserve" was good for. on a jump
that low. was to keep your knees
from hitting your chin when you hit
the ground.
Then at the tail end of the
Philippines campaign, the 503rd
was chosen to make the jump on
Corregidor. the island fortress in
Manila Bay that Gen. Jonathan
Wainw right had to surrender in the
early months of the war after the
Pearl Harbor attack.
The altitude for the jump was
higher than the one for the
Noemfoor jump -- about bOO feet. 1
believe. But the only thing resembl
ing a decent drop /one was the old
golf course. So some of the
'troopers landed on the golf course.
The others landed on cliffs, bould
ers and roofs of the old barracks,
which gave way under many.
I remember somewhere that six
of every 10 men were injured on the
jump itself. That was in a regimen
tal combal team of about 2.500 to
3.000.
And wasn't it the original 503rd
that met with disaster on the flight
to a base in North Africa? The
transports were attacked by Vicky
(pro-Na/i) French fighters. Retired
Lt. Gen. William P. Yarborough.
now living in Southern Pines, has
written the straight story in a
military history.
Later, a reorganized 503rd made
the first combat jump in the
Pacific, landing in the Markham
Valley of New Guinea, before going
north to Noemfoor.
Letters To The Editor
Editor. Thv NcwyJimriiul
Roccut public commentary may
be leaving a false impression about
the nature and scope of idleness
among those in North Carolina s
prisons.
Any discussion of jobs and pro
gram activities for prisioners must
begin with the main purpose of any
penal system, that is. the protec
tion of the public. All that is done
with and for prison inmates must
be measured against that respon
sibility and by the limitations of
the resources available to carry out
that mission.
Basically, there are two ap
proaches to combating inmate
idleness. We can attempt to pro
vide suitable jobs within a prison
setting, or we can attempt to pro
vide opportunities for inmates to
participate in programs such as
academic and vocational educa
tion, study release, work release
and the like.
Efforts to improve and expand
work and program opportunities
have been constant. For example,
on July I. 1980. there were 1.021
inmates working on the states
highways. Two-thirds of these men
were minimum custody inmates
working under supervision of the
Department of Transportation.
The remaining one-third were
medium custody inmates directly
supervised by armed correctional
officers. This program has grown
to the extent that in November,
1981, 1,720 inmates were assigned
to highway work. By February 15,
1982, an additional 280 inmates
will be assigned to take tasks, rais
ing the total to 2,000. This is the
goal set last year by the Governor.
The increase doubles the number
of inmates working on our
highways in less than two years
time.
Not all prison inmates are
available for jobs or program
assignments. Many are prevented
by health and age considerations.
Others cannot be safely allowed to
mingle with fellow inmates, much
less participate in community pro
grams. For a more detailed picture
of prisoners at work or engaged in
full time programs consider the
statistics for January 25. 1982.
On thai date there were It). 123
persons in prison in North
Carolina. As previously explained,
some were unavailable for work or
program assignments. Specifically,
I,912 were either new admissions
not yet assigned, or were in ad
ministrative or disciplinary
segregation, or in intensive
management, or were in protective
custody, or excused from work
because of their health. That
reduces the total, workable
population to 14,211. Of this
number 2,470 were not assigned to
any work or program activity, thus
giving the Department of Correc
tion a 17.4?7o "unemployment rate
which, considering we're dealing
with convicted offenders, is not
bad. Looked at another way.
II,741 inmates or 82.6^o of the
available population were assigned
to work or program activities.
The 2,470 available but
unassigned inmates come from all
custody levels. Inmates who have
not attained minimum custody are
not permitted outside the confines
of the prison except for limited
purposes, and then only under
armed supervision. The approach
to providing jobs for these inmates
lies with intramural assignments,
either with our Enterprises (farm
work, metal fabrication, license
plate plant, etc.) or in such
household and maintenance jobs
as cooks, bakers, groundskeepers,
and the like. Each expansion of an
existing job category, or creation
of a new one, carries with it in
creased costs for additional staff
and equipment. The resources of
the state are finite, of course, and
Correctional administrators must
weigh the benefits of expanded job
opportunities against the addi
tional expense - a matter of in
creasing importance as govern
ment attempts to operate within its
means in a troubled economy.
On January 25, 1982, 5,906
prison inmates were enrolled in
program activities with vocational
education, the leading program,
having 1,546 participants. One
thousand ninety-four (1,094)
minimum custody inmates were on
work release, earning wages in the
free community and from their
wages helping to offset the expense
of their imprisonment. They were
also paying for such things as
family support and for restitution
to the victims of their crimes.
There were 1.300 inmates in full
time, academic programs, 80 of
them on study release. The remain
ing 1,886 were engaged in other
program activities too numerous to
enumerate.
These statistics apply to the en
tire prison system. To see them in
the environment of one institution,
consider Odom Prison, a close
custody institution.
On January 25, 1982, there were
460 inmates at Odom. Of these, 21
were unavailable for assignment
because of their health or because
they were in administrative or
disciplinary segregation. Of the re
maining 439, only 54 (12.3Vo) were
unassigned. There were 385
(87. 7*7?) assigned to jobs or pro
grams. Three hundred twenty (320)
of these inmates were working on
that date, 208 assigned to Correc
tional Enterprises, 46 to kitchen
duties, 55 to housekeeping chores J
and 1 1 to institutional mainten
ance. Sixty-five (65) inmates were
engaged in program activities. 27 in
academic programs and 38 in
vocational training.
The Department of Correction
has recently re-organized the Cor
rectional Enterprise operation, and
will continue its efforts to expand
Enterprise service thus providing
further employment for inmates, ||
and simultaneously, expand goods
and services to tax-supported,
public agencies.
Of our 16,123 available inmates,
82.6Vo are assigned to work or pro
gram activities. Most of the 2.470
or 17.4% unassiened are in more
closely restricted custody levels
making this assignment more dif
ficult and expensive.
We in the Department of Cor
rection will continue the search for m
ways to further decrease idleness in I
our prison system while keeping a
close eye on what our system and
the State of North Carolina can af
ford.
Sincerely,
James C. Woodard
Secretary
North Carolina
Department of Correction
Editor, The News-Journal 6
Every generation has a respon
sibility to uphold the highest ideals
of the past and bequeath higher
ones to the generations that
follow. We will best serve our pro
geny by doing everything possible
to provide them with a sound
education and remove obstacles
that might inhibit this worthy goal.
The largest obstacle has been
government ineptitude. Federal, j
state, and local governments are
equally to blame for the decline of
our educational system. The
federal government has all but
abandoned, the jury is still out on
the state, and to be frank our local
government has been less than a
friend to education.
I would like to address this issue
on the local level, since this is
where the citizens can have the ?
greatest impact. We as citizens
have an excellent opportunity,
through the local elections taking
place this year, to demand that all
candidates take a position on
educational funding. Thus far we
have nothing more than a
popularity contest!
Our current county commis
sioners have proposed a county
wide water system, which, if
materialized, will produce a finan
cial burden so immense that the
more fundamental issue of school
improvements must be deferred
for twenty years or more.
I am sure that good arguments
can be put forward in support of
water, recreation and other pro
jects. The problem is one of
priorities. While the aforemen
tioned projects serve a relative few,
our schools will produce a genera
tion that will impact upon the en
tire globe!
1 encourage this newspaper and
all citizens of Hoke county to ques
tion all candidates as to their
views as well as order of priority of
the issues facing our county.
This newspaper can act as a
sounding board by polling the can
didates, thereby giving their
readers more than an aesthetic
reason for selecting our leaders.
1 also challenge all of the can- '
didates to educate themselves to'
the problems affecting our school
system; to talk with school of
ficials, and tour all seven of our
county schools.
By filing for office you have in
timated your desire to serve. If you
truly wish to serve Hoke county
you must first know what Hoke
county needs most.
Remember this: If elected; your) ]
legacy will not be how well the
average citizen fares, but how well
the least of our citizens fares as a
result of your tenure!
Brad 1 urley
Rt. 2 Box 143-D
Raeford, N.C. 28376
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