The Carolinian [February 11, 1997]

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e Carolinian News 1-3 / Opinions 4
Sports 5-6 / Calendar 7
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Tuesday,
February 11,1997
Administration Holds Us In Stone Age:
See the Editorial, Page 4
Spartans Defeat Coastal Carolina:
See the Story, Page 5
Issue 32,
Volume 76
Guilford County School Board supports AP
Paula Nelson
News Editor
In the ongoing "war of words"
debate over what U.S. high school
students should or should not be
reading in class, Guilford County
has had more than its share of
battles.
The two opposing camps re-cently
have consisted of con-cerned
parents on one side, and
school administration on the other.
Students, faced with the burden
of the actual battle scars, are left
somewhere in the gray area, as
many adult community and edu-cation
leaders fight it out over
what's best for them.
The latest developments, which
came to a head on Tuesday night
at the Guilford County Schools'
Administrative Office, have
stemmed from the recommenda-tions
of the Peschell family of
Greensboro, to the Guilford
County Board of Education to
have the books "Native Son" and
"The Color Purple" removed not
only from Northwest High
School's AP English class re-quired
reading list, but from the
school library as well.
In addition, the Peschells were
asking for a rating system similar
to the one's currently in place for
movies, albums and television to
be placed on books—presumably
SO that a parent would be aware
of the content of his or her
student's reading materials, and so
that an aware librarian could
"card" a student before he or she
checked out materials possibly not
suited for his age level.
The Peschells became con-cerned
when their son, Eric, a jun-ior
at Northwest, began reading
the first book on his summer read-ing
list for Sherry Little's junior
AP English class. About a third of
the way into the book, Alice
Walker's "The Color Purple," he
complained to his mother about
the language — particularly the
extensive use of the "F' word —
and some sexually explicit
themes.
Mrs. Peschell immediately con-tacted
Little and expressed her
concerns, and Eric was provided
with alternate reading selections.
Eric, however, chose not to read
the alternates, and he, along with
his family, finished reading "The
Color Purple." Exploring the rest
of the books on the reading list,
the Peschells were also concerned
with Richard Wright's "Native
Son," especially the scenes of
masturbation, rape, and murder.
As the 1996-97 school year
began, the Peschells were ready
with an appeal to the Board of
Education which was discussed at
Tuesday night's meeting.
Speaking to a full house made
up of students, teachers, and con-cerned
citizens, the two sides pre-sented
their cases for and against
the retainment of the two books
on the AP English required read-ing
list.
Crowding together on the side
of Northwest High School were
high school students and teachers
representing all of Guilford
County's schools wearing stickers
to represent their concern for the
continuance of free speech. "Cen-sorship
Causes Illiteracy," "Ban a
Book, Kill a Spirit," and other
"battle cries" could be read across
the room.
On the side of the appellants,
there were less people, and an
even smaller percentage of stu-dents,
holding photocopied pages
of the offensive material contained
in the two books on trial.
In the front of the room, before
the Board of Education, sat the
front lines in the battle. Represent-ing
Northwest were Principal
Anne Murr, Media Specialist Bar-bara
Moody, AP English teacher
Sherry Little, Northwest seniors,
Becky Cassill and Preston Powell,
and teachers Sarah Wright and
Judy Crutchfield.
The appellants were Mr. and
Mrs. Peschell, Eric, and a another
son who is a freshman at North-west.
The meeting began with a dis-cussion
of "Native Son." Mr.
Peschell presented his family's
case as one that concerns many
Americans today. Citing polls
taken by news groups, Peschell
stated, "Something fundamentally
has happened in our culture that
has shaken the foundation of our
society, especially of our youth
we see it in movies, magazines.
CDs, television, and MTV"
He went on to express his opin-ion
that the United States is in a
state of "moral and spiritual de-cline"
that is "not isolated to one
sector of society but is so perva-sive
and insidious that it can be
found anywhere," including, ho
said, the literature assigned in the
AP English class at Northwest
High School.
Concerned with scenes of mas-turbation,
rape, murder and muti-lation,
Peschell reminded Board
members that this was a high
school class, not a college course
(although many students take the
final AP exam for college credit).
and expressed his wish for more
parental involvement in choosing
what high school students are to
read in class.
Northwest's viewpoint was pre-sented
jointly by Moody and
( assill. who had been a student in
Little's class during the 1995-96
school year.
Both are members of
Northwest's Media Advisory
Committee, which convened im-mediately
after learning of the
Peschells' concerns to review the
books
Moody began by acknowledg-ing
thai 'there is something in all
of us which rebels against being
told what we can and cannot read,
hear. see. think.
Such actions take something
intrinsically ours away from each
one of us ... Most importantly,...
it takes away from our students the
knowledge that there is a choice."
Moody also explained that the
inclusion of both "Native Son"
and "The Color Purple" as re-quired
reading in an AP class is
important for several academic
reasons.
Including their occurrence
again and again on the AP Test,
the books also meet the criteria set
up in Administrative Procedures
guidelines of the Guilford County
Schools which states that materi-als
should "illustrate historical and
contemporary forces in society to
enable users to understand social,
economic, personal, and political
problems."
It is just this purpose that Becky
Cassill addressed, acknowledging
that "Native Son' teaches lessons
which no history book is able to
do." and that it challenged she and
other students "to think about our
lives today."
When asked if the book in any
way made her think about emu-lating
the actions of its protago-
See AP, Page 3
Getting A Ring for the Spring
Geoffrey (Jarlner/THE CAROLINIAN
With graduation only three months away, Seniors Beth Payne, middle, and Joan Peacock, right, talk to the Jostens Sales
Associate about class rings as Junior Ann Hodges, left, looks on diligently. Jostens will he on campus Tuesday and
Wednesday, from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. in the Elliott I 'Diversity Center hetween Sharpe and Mclver Lounge.
Affirmative action questioned by UNC association
Natalie Watson
Senior News Writer
The Affirmative Action Debate
that has recently swept the nation
has hit closer to home, as the is-sue
recently was debated at a
meeting of the UNC Student Gov-ernment
Association.
Formally called the Associated
Student Government, the group is
made up of the President and Vice
President of the University of
North Carolina System, and two
elected delegates from each of the
sixteen University System
schools.
The group meets once a month
Weather
Outlook
Tuesday:
Partly sunny
High near 55
Wednesday:
Partly cloudy
High in the mid 50's
Source: National Oceanic and
Almusphcric Administration
and serves as an important link to
the North Carolina General As-sembly.
Durenda Johnson, interim Vice
President of the UNCG Student
Government Association, at-tended
the Jan. 24 meeting and
explains the dispute which arose
over affirmation action.
"The whole purpose of the Jan.
24, meeting was to create a list of
important is- ^^^^^—^^"""^
sues that
each UNC
school
agreed upon,
as issues of
concern for
the North
Carolina
Legisla-tors....
the
controversy
arose over
turn off legislators.
According to Johnson, the ma-jor
conflict with the issue was due
to lack of a uniform understand-ing
of the definition of affirmative
action.
Webster's Unabridged Dictio-nary,
defines affirmative action, as
"the encouragement of increased
representation of women and mi-nority
groups, especially in em-at
Chapel Hill will be on hand to
help draft a complete uniform
definition of affirmative action, so
that everyone will be clear on ihe
issue and whs some stand strongly
behind it.
Keeping iffirmative action pro-grams
in plaee is an important goal
of system President. Spangler.
Currently, the UNC system gives
minority students slight advan-tages
in admission and distributes
$1.6 million in scholarships to
help attract students to campuses
where they will be in the minor-ity.
Spangler is working towards a
goal of 10.6 percent black popu-lation
at historically white insti-tutions
. and a 15 percent white
population at historically black
colleges.
ploymen
Affirmative action: The
encouragement of in-creased
representation of
Accord-ing
to the
women and minority
groups, especially in
employment.
Webster's Unabridged Dictionary
whether or not to have affirmative
action on that list," said Johnson.
While some students felt that
affirmative action should not be on
the list, many students felt it
should be included, but had a
problem with the wording.
These students argued that they
were not opposed to the idea be-hind
affirmative action, just the
words, which they feared would
Greensboro
News and
Record,
University
System
President,
C D
Spangler,
says that the
UNC
System's definition serves to make
sure that students' backgrounds do
not prevent them from attending
one of the 16 campuses.
The students finally agreed to
use the phrase "affirmative action"
in their legislative agenda, but the
issue is far from over.
During the February 14 meet-ing
of the assembly, a lawyer from
the University of North Carolina
No Two Are Ever the Same...
Geoffrey C,»rtner/THE CAROLINIAN
Dailv « calher patterns in North Carolina, that is. Yesterday, as students walked
to das .. MOW came thundering down. As tor today, the forecast is for a sunny
day. Go figure.
James McDougal
changes story,
implicates Clinton
James Risen
Times/Post News Service
WASHINGTON-In a bid to avoid
prison, President Clinton's former
Whitewater business partner has
changed his story and told pros-ecutors
that Clinton attended a
1986 meeting in which an illegal
loan was discussed, according to
the New Yorker magazine.
James B. McDougal, Clinton's
former partner, told the New
Yorker that he had told
Whitewater prosecutors that
Clinton was present at a 1986
meeting in which an illegal
$300,000 loan to McDougal's
wife was discussed with David
Hale, a businessman who special-ized
in brokering loans involving
the Small Business Administra-tion.
In the past, McDougal has re-peatedly
denied that Clinton at-tended
any such meeting.
Hale has testified that Clinton
pressured him to make the loan
during the meeting and warned
him not to speak about it.
In videotaped testimony last
year in the fraud and conspiracy
trial of James McDougal and his
former wife, Susan, Clinton de-nied
that he was at the meeting
with Hale and also denied that he
ever sought to pressure Hale into
making the loan.
McDougal testified at the same
trial that the meeting with Clinton
and Hale never took place.
A White House spokesman said
Sunday that neither the White
House nor Clinton's attorneys
would have any further comment.
Hale's allegation that Clinton
pressured him to make the loan
has long been one of the most ex-plosive
charges in the entire
Whitewater affair.
Whitewater independent coun-sel
Kenneth Starr's office has
never been able to take the alle-gation
very far because Clinton
and the McDougals have denied
it for years.
But James and Susan
McDougal were convicted in last
year's trial, and James McDougal
is now trying to cut a deal with
the Whitewater prosecutors to
avoid prison in exchange for his
testimony against the president.
In the New Yorker article.
McDougal said he failed five lie-detector
tests, administered pri-vately
before his Whitewater con-viction.
During those tests, he denied
that Clinton knew about the loan
and said Clinton never met
McDougal and Hale to discuss it.
McDougal has turned over the re-sults
of those lie-detector tests to
Starr.
"I flunked every time,"
McDougal told the magazine. "I
was trying to get by the test. I
found they're hard to get around."
Susan McDougal, who is now
in jail at the Sybil Brand Institute
forWomen east of Los Angeles for
her refusal to answer questions
before the Whitewater grand jury
in Little Rock, Ark., told the maga-zine
that her former husband was
"wildly excited" about giving the
lie-detector test results to the in-dependent
counsel.
She also said James McDougal
tried to convince her to testify
against Clinton also.
But she still says that she does
not know of any illegal activity by
See McDougal, Page 3
BSBfUfiOSSMMS