Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, August 23, 1995 TAG: 9508230075
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: CHARLESTON, S.C. LENGTH: Medium
The woman's name will be added today or Thursday to the lawsuit challenging the state-run military school's men-only policy, lawyers said.
``There is a woman who will step in and take off in the same shoes that Shannon stepped out of,'' attorney Suzanne Coe said Tuesday.
Coe refused to name the woman until court papers are filed but said she is a South Carolina college student with Reserve Officer Training Corps experience.
U.S. District Judge C. Weston Houck also will be asked to make the case a class action, which would keep open the possibility other women could become cadets next fall, said another lawyer on the case, Val Vojdik.
Faulkner, 20, battled for 21/2 years to become the first woman cadet in the school's 152-year history. But she dropped out after less than a week Friday, saying the emotional stress and isolation were damaging her health.
Faulkner said in an interview with ABC's ``PrimeTime Live'' that her fight was ``21/2 years of hell,'' including physical threats that made her fear for herself and her loved ones.
``There's a lot that I'm not telling you about. ... And I don't know if I'm ever going to be able to tell anybody but a therapist about that,'' she said in the interview, scheduled for broadcast today.
The court rulings allowing Faulkner to become a cadet should also apply to the new woman, Coe said, but Citadel spokesman Terry Leedom disagreed.
``The Faulkner case applies only to Ms. Faulkner, and it's not a class-action suit,'' Leedom said.
The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had ordered Faulkner into The Citadel's corps of cadets unless the state established a separate leadership program for women.
The appeals court said that was ``special, conditional relief'' for Faulkner, however, and ``does not alter our determination that South Carolina may still elect to offer single-gender education to men and women.''
A $10 million women's program at Converse College in Spartanburg has been proposed as an alternative. A court hearing on the merits of that program is set for November.
Two more women have applied to the corps of cadets, but the applications have not been processed, Leedom said. The school has received inquiries from about 200 others.
by CNB