The
ews
journal
The 7th issue of our 83rd year
RAEFORD, NORTH CAROLINA
25 CENTS
Wednesday, May 29,1991
Action filed to close Cousins club; operation moves
Assistant District Attorney Rick Jackson filed
a civil |)etition Friday to close Cousins, a con
troversial Antioch club frequented by Indians,
as a public nuisance.
Club owner Elisha Dial was also served with
a restraining order from Superior Court Judge
Donald W. Stephens to keep him from doing
business at, or even entering, the club until a June
3 court hearing.
Deputies led by Sheriff Alex Norton chained up
entrances and boarded up windows Friday morn
ing at the club, located on Highway 211 East near
the Robeson County border.
The petition alleges Dial allowed Cousins “to be
I I I 11
:Biti
Elisha Dial stands in front of Cousins, a club he owns, but no longer is allowed to operate.
Hoke teachers experiment
to ready students for jobs
H oke County’s assistant superintendent
says teachers’ attitudes are beginning
to change, and that may be just what
the kids need.
It’s not an attitude towards the kids that’s
changing, but towards the teaching. Assistant
Superintendent Lavetta Horton said.
Hoke County is one of four school systems in
the state taking part in a federal pilot program to
integrate the teaching of academic skills—
reading, writing and math—in vocational
courses—shop, home ec and farming.
As a result, barriers between departments are
beginning to crumble and teachers are thinking
of new ways to teach old subjects.
“At least peo[ile across departments are
talking to each other,’’ Horton said.
In the future, Horton said, “you may have a
math teacher teaching shop class, you may have a
science teacher teaching horticulture.’’
New techniques—teachers working in teams,
switching with each other and looking for similar
needs in different classes—are springing up at
Hoke High.
Math and home economics teachers might
switch off, for instance. The math teacher could
show home economics students how to perform
math with fractions; the iiome economics teacher
could show math students how to apply their
knowledge of fractions to real life.
“They would still be learning recipes, they
would still be learning fractions,” Horton said.
June Atkinson, chief consultant for the Depart
ment of Public Instruction, compares the integra
tion of academic and vocational curricula to dating
(Sec TEACHERS, page 4)
Grandmother’s dream realized
when she meets granddaughter
Viola Green said it was an tinswer to many
prayers.
She met her granddaughter Tuesday for the
first time.
The granddaughter, Pamela Sue Murphy of
Mayville, Michigan, flew in to meet her grand
mother for the first time.
Green’s daughter, Patricia Bryant of Battle
Creek, Michigan, died January 4, 1961 while
giving birth to her second child, Pamela.
Her widowed husband was unable to take
care of a second child, so he put the newborn up
for adoption and moved with his 14-month old
son to Oregon.
Green lost track of her granddaughter from
that point on.
“I’ve been going to adoption agencies for
thirty years trying to find her.”
Then, recently, she received a call.
“She called me and asked me if January 4,
1961 meant anything to me and I said, that’s my
grand.”
Pamela had gone back to the adoption agency
Viola Green and her granddaughter, Pamela Sue Murphy
to look up her biological family. The agency, with
help from Green’s friends in the Momion church,
was able to trace Green to Raeford.
Green said she had gotten her daughter’s death
(See UNITED, page 5)
used for unwholsome and demoralizing con
duct,” including:
•illegal possession, sale and use of drugs,
•loud, boisterous and violent conduct inside
and out
•illegal possession and consumption of
alcohol.
The petition further claims Cousins is the
sight of frequent fist fights, knife fights, gun
fights and assaults with guns, and that Dial
“regularly participates in them.”
Cousins was a center for controversy last
September as residents complained to county
commissioners and the district attorney of
fighting, vandalism and noise surrounding the
club.
The club made the news again in early Novem
ber when two men sprayed the club with bullets
from the sunroof of a black Ford Thunderbird.
“Citizens have continued to complain to me,”
District Attorney Jean Powell said.
Powell said her office has not been able to
pursue this action until now because of higher
priority cases.
“It requires a lot of extra work on the part of our
attorney to prepare the case...and criminal is our
priority,” she said.
“We have had a few other things going on,” she
said, referring to recent murders and the petition to
remove the sheriff
The club is also notorious as a gathering place
(See COUSINS, page 4)
Board hires
superintendent
Picked from slate of 22
H oke County’s schools have a new top
man.
The School Board voted unanimously
last night to appoint Dr. William Charles
Harrison its new superintendent.
Harrison will replace seven-year superin
tendent Dr. Robert A. Nelson, who retires at
the end of next month.
“We are delighted to have you join us.
Bill,” Chairman Shirley Gibson said.
Harrison set his main goal from the start.
“We’re going to provide the best possible
^educational opportunities for the children of
Hoke County,” Harrison said.
He described himself as a goal-directed
man.
“I work hard, will bring a lot of enthusiasm
to a job,” he said. “I am a person of high
integrity; I work well with people.”
Harrison was hired at a salary of $57,()()().
Of that between $6,000 and $7,320 will be
paid with a local supplement, Gibson said.
Harrison, a native of Pennsylvania, is now
an assistant superintendent with the
Brunswick County Schools. He has been a
teacher, an assistant principal, an elementarv'
principal and principal of Terry Sanford High
School in Fayetteville.
He also has taught at East Carolina Univer
sity, Methodist College, UNC-Wilmington,
Fayetteville State University and Fayetteville
Technical Institute.
Harrison graduated from
Methodist College, earned
his masters at East Caro
lina University and his
doctorate at Vanderbilt
University.
He already faces big
problems early in his
tenure; a monetary squeeze
William Harrison on the state and local level
and the search for two new m'lddle school
principals.
“Funds are scarce right now, that’s a fact of
life,’’ he said. He said he would work to build a
good relationship with county commissioners,
who control the amount of local money the
schools get.
“I think we need to sit down with each other
right from the start and get to know each other,”
he said.
“I think we need to demonstrate to them that
we’re using the funds they give us efficiently,”
he said.
He will also seek money through grants,
industry and partnerships.
As for the need for new principals, Harrison
indicated he already had a handle on things.
“I have some ideas of what kind of people I
would want,” he said. He will be “looking for
some strong people, especially in light of the
possibility of having to open the year and then
(See SUPERINTENDENT, page 12)
3 injured
in shooting
A man riding in the back of a pickup
truck shot three men Monday in the
Scurlock area.
Reginald Belton, James Edward
Watson and Jack Thomas were injured
in the incident as they stood outside at
1920 Scurlock School Road, according
to Chief Deputy Wayne Gardner of the
Hoke County Sheriff’s Department.
No one has been arrested yet in the
shooting, though Gardner said detectives
have a suspect.
Belton was injured in the foot, Watson
in die arm and Thomas in the leg. All
three were taken by ambulance to Cape
Fear Medical Center in Fayetteville.
The truck was described as a black
pickup.
Phone booth stolen
in Davis Bridge
A Dav is Bridge store employee came
to work Thurstlay to find a phone txx)di
missing.
Phillip Williams, an employee of the
Short Stop at Davis Bridge, reported the
missing phone Ixioth to the SherilTs
Department.
The booth, which belongs to Caro
lina Telephone, is valued at $2,000, while
the phone in it is valued at $1,042, ac
cording to a sheriff’s mport.
Around Town
By Sam C. Morris
1 did flip the switch from heat to cool
last week and 1 believe that for the past
few days and nights that it has 'veen
running most of the time. The heat wave
dial came in over die weekend makes it
feel like the middle of the summer. It is
stilloverthrccweeksuntilsummercomes
in. Anytime that you have 90-degrec
readings in the daytime and 70-degree
readings at night you can say that it is
hot. We also have had high humidity.
The forecast doesn’t show any signs
of relief. The daytime temperatures will
be in the 90s and at night the tempera
tures w ill be in the 70s for the remainder
of the week. You can expect to have
thundershowers pop up w ith these kind
of conditions.
What should we expect when sum
mer arrives?
* ♦ *
The ci ly and county observed Memo
rial Day weekend with the closing of
banks, city and county offices and with
the schools liavmg a workday for teach
ers. With the recent conflict in die Per
sian Gulf more people seemed to think
about the holiday this year. Of course
Memorial Day is aciualK'm Thuivda ,
May 30.
* * 4c
Last Tuesday 1 received a letter and a
postcard in the mail. The postcard was
adda’ssed to me at my home address,
110 N. Jackson St. and the letter was
addressed to me at The News-Journal.
Now the reason for the above statement
is that 1 have a post office box 541.
The postcard was mailed on Thurs
day the week before and took five days
to reach me and it was mailed in Raeford.
The letter was mailed on Monday and it
arrived on Tuesday and was mailed in
Charlotte. Now what I can’t understand
is why it took five days fora postcard to
get to me that was mailed at tlie same
post office and the letter from Charlotte
arrived overnight. Neither of the articles
had my post office box number on them.
The postcard had information about
an event that took place two days before
1 received die card. 1 guess the computer
age makes some mail faster and some
other mail slower. They both had the
right stamps on them.
Have any of you readers had the same
or similar experience?
* * *
When you read the daily newspaper
and I isten to the news on television about
the workings of our lawmakers in Ra
leigh, 1 wonder if they will get home for
Christmas.
Tlie arguments over the school in
Rolu'son County and the redistricting of
the legislative seats in our area could
keep the men and women in Raleigh for
a long dme. According to some com
ments 1 have heard about the school
board in Robeson and the cutting of state
(Sec AROUND, page 4)