THE PERQUIMANS WEEKLY
Volumo H, No. II USPS 42t-0t0 Hertford, Ptrquimans County, H.C., Thundoy, APR. 1, 1*2 20 CENTS
Kids ready for Special Olympics
9 By TOM 06TK06KT
Handicapped children in
Perquimans County vill have an
opportunity to chow their stuff next
Thursday as the county presents this
year's Special Olympics at
Perquimans Central Grammar
School beginning at 1:30 a.m.
About SS of these special children
. will participate in three of five events.
9 About fifty of them will represent
Perquimans County on April 24 in the
regional Special Olympics at Nor
theastern High School in Elizabeth
City.
Kathy Ansink, county chairman for
the event, has been training her kids
at Perquimans High School for the
Olympics since almost the beginning
of the school year. "They look for
| ward to it all year loog." she said.
"They ask me every day when it's
going to be."
The purpose of the Special Olym
pics, held in this area for the last few
years, is to give the children a chance
to feel they belong and to.give them a
sense of pride in their achievements,
following the prospectus of the Joseph
P. Kennedy Jr. Foundation, which
| started the program about 17 years,
ago.
The Special Olympics Oath, in
dicative of the program's purpose, is
"Let me win, but if I cannot win. let
me be brave in the attempt."
The reciting of that oath, along with
a parade of athletes, lighting of the
Olympic torch, and sending off
balloons, will be part of the opening
ceremonies of the event.
Following that opening, the children
will compete in three of the program's
five events: 50-meter dash. 220-meter
dash, softball throw, frisbee throw,
and standing broad jump. Each
participant will receive a ribbon.
Those who advance to the regional
event will compete in two events
against other children from 10
Albemarle counties, with a chance of
advancing to the state Special
Olympics to be held in Charlotte May
2S-29.
Money, always a problem for such
charitable programs, has been less a
problem than it might have been. The
Perquimans County Jaycees spon
sored T-shirts for all county par
ticipants. Perquimans Central
Grammar students collected 1220 for
the Special Olympics from an
aluminum can collection. The Coca
Cola Co. will donate drinks for 200
people on the day of the eveat. Other
local businesses also contributed
time, money and materials toward
the cause.
In retrospect. Kathy Tant. fun
draising chairwoman. Mid that the
community and the school system
have pulled together to support the
Special Olympics Committee in
planning the event. "A personal
thanks to each of you that have helped
in any way." she said. Because of
their help, the county's' Olympians
wiD have enough money to attend the
state Olympics.
Volunteers are another valuable
commodity to such a project, and
Tant mentioned county Parks and
Recreation Department Director Mac
Sligh, Field and Events Chairman
Billy Stallings. Jeanie Umphlett. and
the Perquimans High School Qand ?
which will perform during the
program ? as particularly helpful in
working on the Special Olympics.
All the kids need now is a crowd of
enthusiastic spectators next Thur
sday, Ansink said, "Things are ready,
students are excited, and we just hope
lots of people will support these
children and share in their en
thMiasm." . ' ?
I Three Perquimans Comity Jones, Gaylene Walker and other during a training session
w Special Olympics par- William StaQings, race each at Perquimans High School,
ticipants, from left, Judy
KISKITANO
SUN
Student publication on sale
Kttttino Sim, a new book
of county oral history
written by students in the
gifted i?i?m at
Perquimans Union School,
will go on sale today . Cost is
IS, and supplies are limited.
Those interested in par
chasing the book can
contact a student in the GT
class, or Sid Eley at
Perquimans Union SchooL
Tri-County Career Center is seeking money for project
By SUSAN HAWS
| The Tri -County Career Center, the
Iream of school administrations from
Perquimans, Gates, and Chowan
rounties for the past three years, may
soon become a reality.
"We are encouraged by the
response that we're getting," said
Kenneth L. Stalls, Director of the
program, who is presently seeking
- Funding for the center.
^ * The center has received the en
dorsement and support of Governor
I James B. Hunt. Jr. and Craig Phillips.
State Superintendent of Public In
struction
Both dignitaries praised the three
counties^ school boards, ad
ministrations, and superintendents
for realizing the need to unite in order
to provide their students with better
educational opportunities.
The center, which will probably be
located near the intersection of the
three counties, will house facilities
aimed at reaching those students who
want to go beyond introductory
vocational courses and who need
advanced academic subjects.
"We've either got to do it together
or keep plodding along not being able
to do it," Stalls said of offering ex
panded curriculum to students.
Not an alternative school, students
would attend the center for one half of
the day and their respective high
school the other half. Transportation
would be provided to and from the
center.
The unique characteristic of the Tri
County Career Center is that it is a
three county effort. "That hasn't been
done in North Carolina," said Stalls of
this the first center planned to serve a
multi-county area.
Stalls quipped that if the center does
become a reality, students could work
together on projects during the day
and compete in the athletic arena that
night.
The center concept is an outgrowth
of Stalls' job of Director of Vocational
Progams for the counties of
Perquimans, Gates and Chowan.
In an effort to offer more vocational
courses to those students who were
interested, the boards of education in
each individual county used all
available funds to add teachers and
courses. Soon there were no more
funds available.
Stalls introduced the concept of the
three-county endeavor, and for three
years has worked to reach that goal.
At present, a prospectus has been
printed and is being sent to all state
and federal funding agencies, as well
as to private foundations for their
review and action.
Also being presented to funding
agencies is a 15-minute slide/tape
program which summarizes the
operation of the Tri-County Career
tenter.
The prospectus estimates the cost of
a 40-acre land acquisition and con
structing and furnishing a 107,676
square foot building at $5,790,104.
Faculty for the center would come
from the high schools with little or no
additional teachers required. This
would save the state money in the long
run as well as expand curriculum
offerings.
A mock schedule survey will be
done this spring in the high schools to
determine what courses students
would be interested in taking if the
career center were to open next fall.
Stalls said he hoped to make an
announcement in the near future on
the opening of the center.
Hypnosis becomes an investigative tool for county deputy
By TOM 06TR06KY
* A man to driving along a country
road in North Carolina one day, and
. happens to pasa by a van parked in the
1mm at one of the farms.
He glances at the van as he's going
This week
by. not thinking anything of it. LaterTl
he finds out that th? cattle oo that
particular (arm were stolen.
He presents himself to the police as
a witness, and proceeds to tell them
the license number of the van be only
glanced at in the drive, and his in
formaUoa leads to the arrest of the
cattle rustlers.
Sounds incredible? It's a true story.
How could someone remember a
license plate after only glancing at the
vehicle while driving by? Actually, he
eotddn't. or at least not at first The
't remember <? thing
until aa investigator
Only then did he
hypnosis is an la
me that is only
> on outside large
,221
Los
decision in 1971 allowed evidence
gathered from witnesses under
hypnosis to be used in court. Not ail
states allow sueh evidence; Virginia,
for example, is one that doesn't.
North Carolina is ahead of the rest
of the country in one aspect of this
investigative technique. This is the
only state in the country that offers
publically-funded courses in forensic
hypnosis for qualified law en
forcement officers.
After two ot these courses in the last
couple of years, there are now S2
trained forensic hypnotists in the
state. One of them happens to he Joe
Ionian, a deputy with the
Perquimans County Sheriff's
Mded that course in
lor two weeks early in
at Satettburg. He alao at
the seminar given in IM?. both
on by the N.C. Justice Academy
(r*
Salemburg. Lothian was taught by
some of the best forensic hypnotists in
the country. One was Charles Digget,
who used the technique on witnesses
in the Soo of Sam murders in New
York, along with the terrorist bom
bing at LaGuardia Airport in New
York couple of years ago.
Though Lothian doesn't expect to
use it for anything so dramatic as
what Digget has experienced, it is
nevertheless a tool that could be used
in more common crimes, particularly
traumatic crimes in which the victims
or witnesses are too shook up to
remember anything, crimes such as
robbery, rape, or assault.
"You don't think you could
remember anything," Lothian said,
"but when you're under hypnosis,
you'd be surprised." Mice dent
expect detailed descriptions of the
criminal, but often a witness can
rwcsll clues ? as say, identifying
marks, facial scan, the first three
letters of a lil?i plate ? that ean
According to Lothian, the police
course i> "more intensive than what a
doctor would learn at Chapel Hill."
The clau first teaches the techniques,
and then the students use them on
themselves, to see what it's like.
Then back to the classroom to learn
more techniques, the laws regarding
it, and se forth. Then they try on
others in possible investigation
situations, the sessions video taped
for reference and criticism.
Hypnotism has. to say the least, a
bad rap. People think of hynotist as, to
use Lothian's term, "Svengalls."
Weirdos, in other words. Lothian in
fact saw a movie of Svengali oa the
late show one night not long before
going to the coarse. He thought the
thing was silly, but then he knew
oriier
The bad rap runs pretty deep.
Lothian said the wife of owe of his
Mi n ? ilitwH 1? klllKtnH
nissmll^s wouiuii | nod npr nusoiuu
in the eye after he took the course.
"She thought he was the work of the
devD,M he recalls.
...
Part of his job is to try to educate
people about hypnotism, which is one
reason why this article was written.
"I wish people could see what goes
on." he said. "We can't make
anybody do anything they wouldn't
normally do," he noted. "You
remember everything that's going on
while you're under." And the police
want everything to be remembered,
he added, and will tape the whole
session. Otherwise, what evidence
they obtain might not be admissible in
court. i
Witnesses must All out medical
forms before Lothian will do
anything, and if there la any question
?bout the person's health, the deputy
won't try to hypnotise him. Not
because it might hurt, but because U
the wttaesa does have a heart attack,
lor example, while under, hypnotism
would be sure to be blamed for it.
And the technique doesn't need any
more bad press than K has already
had. "We're trying to get this off the
ground fkwf." he said ^