Newspaper Page Text
VOLUME 16 No.Bol
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Augusta police
lack accreditation
B Although the-Augusta police
department has come under
increased pressure from the
community to clean up its act, it
has placed professional-standards
accreditation on the back burner.
By Miranda Gastiaburo
AUGUSTA FOCUS Staff Writer
AUGUSTA
Because of numerous reports of police misconduct,
excessive use of force and citizen complaints in the
opening months of 1997, the Richmond County
Sheriff’s Department has become the target of local
NAACP and possible federal (U.S. Justice Depart
ment) investigations. The sheriff’s department,
however, has chosen not to seek accreditation from
the nation’s largest law enforcement accrediting
agency. :
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Augusta’s law enforce
ment agency has de
cided to pass on ac
creditation.
Photo by Charles Jones
tant one. s
According to Steve Mitchell, a program manager
with CALEA, any agency that gets in trouble with
litigation needs to be accredited. “We get calls from
litigators every day asking what the national stan
dards are on issues like prisoner handling and ve
hicle pursuits. They (litigators) use our standards as
a benchmark to make decisions in court on a daily
See AUGUSTA POLICE, page 3A
Schools lose money from
staggered auto tag renewals
: MACON, Ga.
(AP) Georgia schools face a $135
million loss during the next fiscal
year because the state has changed
the way people pay their car regis
tration, the Georgia School Super
intendents Association said.
. “It’saone-timeloss for fiscal 1998
only,” said Bill Barr, executive di
rector of the association. “This is
Awfully difficult to explain to folks,
but it's going to happen, based on
the data we’ve developed.”
Currently, school districts receive
money from their motor-vehicle tax
funding by June 30th because
people must pay their car registra
tion by May 1.
Beginning next January, people
will pay their registration during
their birth month. That means the
funding will be spread over a 12.
month period, Barr said.
“This is money that will never be
recouped,” said Billy J. Pack, su
perintendent of Peach County
schools. :
‘The financial loss -— about equal
to one mill in taxes — will come at
a time when schools receive less in
onstate-mandated increases,
Other cities its size
including Macon, Sa
vannah and Columbus
and smaller cities such
as Roswell, Rome and
Columbia County have
internationally ac
credited police forces,
The Commission on
Accreditation for Law
Enforcement Agencies
(CALEA) offers a vol
untary accreditation
process to all law en
forcement agenciesin
ternationally. The ac
creditation process, ac
cording to Columbia
County Sheriff Clay
Whittle, is a very diffi
cult but very impor-
he said.
As a result, Pack said about 10
teachers will be laid off in the fall.
Ron Collier, Bibb County’s
schools’ deputy superintendent for
business operations, said his
system’sfiscal 1998 shortfall of $2.4
million will amount to about 1 mill
of school taxes.
“Unless somehow we can get more
money locally, it’s forever gone. And
Panel hears sorority
hazing complaint
j ATHENS, Ga.
(AP) A University of Georgia
student’s hazing allegations
against a sorority will get nation
wide attention next week, when
the woman appears on a televi
sion tabloid news show.
den judieiuypnml S::m
t on
that she does not mention the
sorority’s name on the ‘Geraldo’
show, but she is identified as a
student at the university. The
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Mexican army soldiers set fire to piles of cocaine and marijuana in a burning ceremony
Tuesday April 29, 1997 ot Meftamoros, Mexite, The Mexican army burnt nine tons of
cocaine and three tons of marijuana in front of reporters to demonstate the Mexican
government’s efforts to combat drugs. (AP Photo/Claudio Cruz)
Columbia County police — | _
Accreditation worth the effort
By Miranda Gastiaburo
AUGUSTA FOCUS Staff Writer
AUGUSTA
Columbia County Sheriff Clay
Whittle said Columbia County
was tho first Sheriff’s Department
in Georgia to become internation
ally accredited. “We started the
accreditation process in April of
’95, when I was elected,” he said.
“We were looking for new stan
dards and I had made up my mind
that I wanted to change some of
the existing policies and we found
we really don’t have the reserves to
deplete,” Collier said.
Systems will have to increase
taxes, cut expenses or dip into re
serves, if the Georgia General As
sembly does not come up with addi
tional money to supplement the
loss, Barr said.
All but 15 of the state’s 159 coun
ties will switch to the new system of
staggered sales.
show will air May 7.
Ms. Gaines and two other stu
dents who failed to gain admission
to Delta Sigma Theta sorority also
testified before the panel that they
;v;rse harassed by sorority mem
- She told the panel that sorority
members threatened her physi
cally and mentally during a “pre
pledging” process that sorority
See HAZING, page 9A
MAY 1-7. 1997
*——-—-——.
Mexican anti-drug campaign
“The self-assessment
step opens up the
agency and stops all
that cloak and dagger
routine of keeping
things from the public.”
— Columbia County
Sheriff Clay Whittle
that the accreditation process was
a hgoto:'i vehicle through which todo
that.
“It became one of the driving
forces for our agency. It was a
simple process to apply to CALEA
but accreditation was earned
through extremely hard work
throughout the process,” said
Whittle. “The self-assessment step
opens up the agency and stops all
that cloak and dagger routine of
keeping things from the public,”
hesaid. “The department is a pub
lic service agency, and our infor
mation must be available to the
public. CALEA helps open up the
See COLUMBIA, page 3A
INSIDE
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MR. 808 HENNEBERGER
I, GEORGIA NEWSPAPER :
MINORITY ENROLLMENT
Black students
& ® .
skipping MCG;
CONCEern grows
B Minority students often choose
not to attend medical school at
MCG even when accepted. More
must be done reverse the trend.
By Tawana Lee
AUGUSTA FOCUS Staff Writer
AUGUSTA
If a national trend holds
true, the number of Afri
can-American and minor
ity students entering the
medical school Medical
College of Georgia in Sep
tember will be extremely
low, shattering whatever
level of acceptable diver
sity achieved over the
years. Local legislators and
community leaders are
concerned that the finest
medical education in the
south may once again be
denied to African Ameri
cans and other under-rep
resented minorities. More
must be done to attract
and retain minority stu
dents, they say. Among the
under-represented minori
ties are Mexican Ameri
cans, Native Americans,
mainland Puerto Ricans
and African Americans.
(Minorities not falling in
that category include
Asians — Chinese, Japa
nese, Koreans, etc. — and
East Indians).
Since the state-funded
institution began admit
ting blacks —the first
black students were en
rolled in 1976 —the num
ber of under-represented
minority studentsenrolled
reached a peak of 14 in
1995. But in 1996 only
eight minority students
entered the medical school
—nearlya 30 percent drop.
While it is too soon to tell
how many will enterin the
fall, many in the commu-
Investigation
of Westside
principal set
for release
By Tawana Lee
AUGUSTA FOCUS Staff Writer
AUGUSTA
The investigation into
the incident which led to
the suspension of Westside
principal Gayle McGee has
been concluded, but the
results won’t be available
to the public until school
administrators return to
town.
“The investigation was
completed on Friday (April
25),” according to Gene
Sullivan, deputy superin
tendent of schools. “The
incident will be resolved
next week on Monday
when Dr. Larke gets back
in town. At that point, re
ports will be made avail
able,” he said.
Thethree-week-longin
nity feel that it may be
the smallest class in a de
cade. Those fears are
driven by the fact that a
significant percentage of
studentsacceptedintothe
MCG programs often
choose not to come to
Augusta.
Students exercising
their options is a fact of
life that all professionals
engaged in recruiting
must contend with.
“Thestudentsaccepted
at MCG are excellent,
high performing African-
Americanstudents,” says
Dr. Rosa Allen-Noble, as
sociate dean of Special
Academic Programs.
“Most of them hold mul
tiple acceptances to some
of the best schools in the
nation.”
The fact that they of
tenchoosetogoelsewhere
may be a plus for them,
Dr. Allen-Noble feels.
They are simply exercis
ing their options.
Some feel that MCG
needs to do more to en-:
sure cultural diversity.-
“It’s urgent that MCG.
find a way to encourage:
more African-American
students to enroll with
the right aggressiveness
— with or without affir
mative action,” said
former Augustamayor Ed
Mclntyre. Mr. Mcllntyre
was on the committee
that established the mi
nority affairs department
at MCG in 1978. Mr.
Mclntyre recalls a time
See MCG, page 2A
vestigation began after
Ms. McGee was placed on
atwo-day administrative
leave on April 3 following
a complaint made about
remarks the principal
made to a Richmond
County School security
officer. Ms. McGee argued
with Major Mike Farrell
about media reportsofan
incident involving a
Westside student who
brought a weapon to
school. According to the
complaint, Ms. McGee
made inappropriate re
marks that were racial in
nature. Both Ms. McGee
and Mr. Farrell are white.
Following the incident
Richmond County School
superintendent Dr.
Charles Larke suspended
the administrator. :