THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, August 2, 1996 TAG: 9608020043
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E14 EDITION: FINAL
LENGTH: 74 lines
University of Virginia officials recently bumped bookstore backpack check-ins.
Students said the backpack policy is inconsistent with the 154-year-old honor code - no lying, cheating or stealing. In just four days 3,000 students signed a petition to stop mandatory use of storage lockers before entering the store.
It's all about student pride.
``Students are proud of the honor system and think it's a special part of the university,'' said Honor Committee chairman James Tybor. He also said that mandatory storage does not give students the ``opportunity to act honorably.''
But store managers are concerned. Before the policy took effect two years ago the bookstore lost $250,000 annually due to thefts, said bookstore director Jonathan Kates. He did not want to discuss theft figures after the policy.
But for now, the honor committee plans to hang plaques stressing trust in front of the bookstores and install some sort of security system. Scotland-bound
They made it! Well, at least 23 out of the 26 students of First Colonial High School's drama troupe are leaving for Scotland August 6.
Since last year, the drama students did everything from hosting yard sales to entertaining at a local McDonald's to raise the $90,000 needed to go to the Edinburgh Fine Arts Festival in Scotland.
After all the hard work, they were only 10 percent short of their goal. The three students who will not go could not meet the required personal contribution.
``It had to be a financial consideration because there was really no humane way to do it,'' said First Colonial drama director Nancy Curtis. ``It was the hardest thing I ever had to do since I've been teaching.''
The drama group will sightsee for two days in London then spend the rest of the 13-day trip in Edinburg where they will perform ``Mother Hicks'' - a children's play about an abandoned 12-year-old girl in Illinois who discovers herself.
The students' last ``American'' performance of ``Mother Hicks'' is Sunday at the Virginia Beach Center for The Arts. Tickets are $5 and sold at the door. Showtime is 7 p.m. Idaho punishment
Fornication is illegal in Idaho, and 17-year-old Amanda Smisek found that out when she got a 30-day suspended jail sentence, three-years' probation and a directive to finish parenting class because she was unmarried and pregnant.
``When I first served with the papers, I didn't even know what fornication was. I had to look it up,'' said Amanda. ``It's any unmarried person who has sex, and they got me on that.''
``Children who are born to teenage mothers are immediately at a greater risk to be involved in delinquent behavior, substance abuse and truancy, than children who have the benefit of both parents to support and to raise them,'' said Gem County prosecutor Douglas Varie. Since Amanda was charged last May, six other young mothers have felt the wrath of the 1921 Idaho law.
``I'd like to get the law off the books so they can't use it anymore,'' said Amanda's mother, Jody Smisek. ``Some lawyers want to help me do that.''
Amanda plans to complete her final year of high school. She and her 2-month-old son, Tyler, live with her mother. Chris Lay, 16, who received a similar sentence after pleading guilty to fornication, plans to marry Amanda after high school. Girls honored
ACT-SO gold medalists Shante' Cuffee, 17, and Andrea Moore, 15, both from Chesapeake, said, although they didn't place nationally,they enjoyed themselves at the National ACT-SO competitions in Charlotte, N.C., this summer. Shante', who graduated from Western Branch High School in June, won first place locally in dramatics. Andrea, a rising junior at Indian River High School, won for vocal classical music. MEMO: Source: Associated Press and staff reports compiled by Michelle
Mizal. by CNB