Yorktown High School - Episode Yearbook (Yorktown, IN)

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and the school board learned to take teachers more seriously, she added. Something very good hap- pened out of a potentially ha- zardous situation, stated Nel- son, through working together for a cause, the teachers got closer and unified for the first time since I began teaching here 10 years ago. The end of the school board, - teacher dispute this summer did not, however, satisfy all teachers. Negotiations team member Chuck Newman felt that it (the time) was a lot of time and concen- trated effort that usually ended in frustration. Newman furthered his com- ment, admitting, We are still frustrated. - Lisa Huffman Was the school board justi- fied in the firing or were Jerry Russell ' s first amend- ment rights violated... ON THE SUBJECT OF INCEST C tober 30, 1984. It started out as any other Mt. Pleasant Community School Board meet- ing, with a call to order and the reading of last month ' s minutes, but when the meeting was ad- journed, English teacher Mr. Jerry Russell, was without a job. The issue began when first year Yorktown High School English teacher, Russell, 33, wanted to show his Literature students that poems could be current; that they could deal with pertinent issues, instead of dealing with just flowery subjects. The students said they were bored with poetry and complained that poets never talked about current events; that they always wrote about the past, stated Russell. Russell handed out a poem entitled, The Stepfather, by V. L. Reichow, to his second period Literature class, with the warn- ing that here was a poem that dealt with a controversial sub- ject, and the students could decline to study the poem if they objected. No one objected and the poem was read aloud. The poem did indeed deal with a serious subject- that of incest-and contained one bad word. This poem dealt with a cur- rent issue-one that is in the news, stated Russell, The lan- guage is shocking. It is offensive. But that was the poet ' s inten- tion. The dittoed copy of the poem went home in some students ' folders, and two parents com- plained to Superintendant David Hales about the poem being taught to their children. The following day, Russell met with Hales and Principal Jerry Secttor at which he was notified that his actions would be reported to the school board, while being suspended with pay for two weeks until the board could meet again. Two weeks later, Board mem- bers Hilbert Staton, Dick Hoch- stetler and Joe Winslow voted to cancel Russell ' s contract. One lone board member, J. Robert Taylor, voted against the cancel- lation proposal, making the final vote 3:1. Board member Betty Coulon was not present. The issue: Should Jerry Rus- sell, a first year English teacher, have been fired for reading a controversial poem to his stu- dents? Many students, teachers and community members did not think so, including the Indiana Civil Liberties Union (ICLU) who have agreed to press the issue, by financing Jerry Russell ' s fight for his first amendment rights. We think it was an awful sanction against Jerry Russell for his indiscretion, said Mi- chael Cradisson, the director of ICLU, what we have is the quietest, calmest guy you could ever have who just wants to teach at Yorktown High School. Russell ' s firing created quite a stir with local news publications, television and radio stations, all covering the hot issue in depth during the months of October and November. High school history teacher Pat Helms felt the firing threa- tened the rights of Yorktown teachers in general. If they can do it to him (firing of Russell) , they can do it to anybody. The students see worse stuff than that on H.B.O. (Home Box Office), and at home on TV all the time- Something About Amelia for instance. All the kids watched that, and were tell- ing me about it. That was no worse than this poem, continued Helms. Another teacher from a dif- ferent school system, offered his opinion on the subject in a Let- ter to the Editor in the Muncie Star newspaper. ISTA and the YCTA and the ICLU and the whole state of Indiana should applaud the firing, commented the teacher Ralph Locke, I can ' t see this case shoved under the rug because TV has programs with similar smut. That excuses TV-which needs considerable cleaning-not approval and to be condoned. However Russell ' s own Liter- ature students, such as Fresh- man Monte Masters, felt differ- ently, I don ' t think the poem was worth him losing his job, because he did prove his point. Junior Beth Johnson con- curred, Incest is something that is being talked about more and more-on the news, in magazines, on television shows and in the papers. ..it isn ' t something that should be hidden or covered up... I don ' t think the reasons why I was fired are justifiable, commented Russell, who is now currently employed as an assist- ant manager at Wendy ' s. I hope to be reinstated and to have my name sponged from the record to show that the action shouldn ' t have been taken. Russell added that he was anx- ious to return to the teaching career he once had. If we have to take it to the courts, we will. -Cindy Howe ' § W tA -A Purple Rain by Prince and the Revolution holds number one album for 24 weeks. ( t President Reagan enters his second term with a landslide win over Walter Mondale. uier Bernhard Goetz was dubbed a ' ' Subway Hero after he gunned down four youths in a New subway. Geraldine Ferraro broke through the barriers as she became the first woman to run for Vice-President. mjour ISSUES 7

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t ta L } t vb i Peter Ueberroth, Times ' Man of the Year, pulled off an Olympic achieve- ment in Los Angeles. Julian Lennon debuts in the music world with his Valotte album, and stood comparison to his father, John Lennon. Eddie Murphy remained on top as Beverly Hills Cop grossed $64.5 mil- lion in 23 days. MVP Joe Montana lead the San Francisco 49ers over the Miami Dolphins in the high scoring XIX Super Bowl. e t ( nV As the temperature rose to the 90 degree mark, not only was the weather hot, but so were many teachers as the start of school became... THE YEAR THAT ALMOST WASN ' T fof t weather, hot tempers and hot disputes all combined to make this past summer almost too hot to handle, for teachers, members of the school board and the community at large. As the summer drew to a close, the teachers and school board of Mt. Pleasant Township realized they were no closer to a contract agreement than they were in late June when a 15 min- ute meeting, consisting of the school board making a proposal and the teachers rejecting it, ensued. Reasons for the initial rejec- tion were obvious, with the proposal including no salary increase except the built-in two percent increment, elimination of existing dental and prescrip- tion drug coverage in the tea- chers ' health plan, a require- ment that teachers make up snow days on a one-for-one basis, and the expectation that teachers pay an anticipated 45 percent in- crease in Blue Cross premiums. In early August tempers flared Headaches accompanied deci- sion-making as expressed by Sup- erintendent David Hales, following a long day of negotiation talks. as C.A.R.E. (Committee for the Advancement of Respected Educators) spokesman Terry Nelson gave a fiery speech that won her a standing ovation from hundreds of teachers and sup- porters at a regular school board meeting. In her speech, Nelson claimed that the teachers were tired of lip service... if we are your number one priority as you say, then we want you to prove it. The newly-formed C.A.R.E. group, together with the York- town Classroom Teachers Asso- ciation, worked hard to earn community support throughout the negotiation talks. The tea- On the air with Channel 13 is Chief Negotiator Chris Goodwin on the night teachers decided to accept the schol board ' s final proposal. chers set up information booths around town, picketed the su- perintendent ' s office and opened up a Crisis Information Cen- ter on Smith Street. A petition was also passed around by par- ents at the first home football game that resulted in a compila- tion of over 200 names in sup- port of the teacher cause. Initially, the teachers wanted a 15 percent pay hike, but as days of negotiations continued, this percentage kept lowering until the final settlement reached a 5.16 percent salary increase, including increment. Other ma- jor points of interest were those concerning job security and Tired and frustrated, negotiating team member Chuck Newman, fram- ed by Kay Schnuck and Marilyn Pickell, take a break outside the Lion ' s Club following a marathon negotiating session. major benefits in insurance in- creases. The final proposal was accepted just hours before tea- chers were expected to report to school on Monday, Aug. 26. Had the teachers voted against the contract, a strike would have been the most obvious result. Chief negotiator Chris Good- win revealed the final vote to accept the board ' s last offer was not a strong majority vote, but it wasn ' t extremely close, either. There was a lot of coopera- tive spirit, stated YCTA member Carolyn Jones. The community ISSUES

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( ( ) fjt ItA The Indiana State Lottery- raises temperatures as an issue on the floor of the Indiana General Assembly. The White House ' s secur- ity is breached by a tourist during Inauguration Day festivities. Baby Fae receives 1st baboon heart and lives for 21 days. Mikfu rjfiAjtft Itfitf Mikhail Gorbachev, 54, takes over as Soviet Presi- dent after Konstatin Cher- nenko dies on March 10, 1 985, at the age of 73fol- owing a grave illness. t 0 Fairy tales do come true, as Mr. Charlie Owen, psycho - logy teacher, finds his biolog- ical family after a 45 year absence and ... A PART OF ME I NEVER KNEW EXISTED ' mmr ' - ' November, Psychology teacher Charlie Owen had a rev- elation. Mr. Owen found his biological family after a 45 year absence and, a part of me I never knew existed. The first time I saw my mo- ther was a very emotional time.- ..when we first saw each other we just bawled our eyes out for about a half an hour. According to the psychology teacher, I was never really con- cerned about who my ' real ' par- ents were. I always considered my foster parents my ' real ' parents. But my younger sister, Carolyn, became obsessed with finding our family for the past 5 to 6 years. Carolyn contacted the orphan- age in Louisville, Kentucky where she and Charlie had been left when he was three years old, and found out about their real family now living in Knoxville, Ten- nessee. That was about 1 Vi years ago that my sister went to see our mother. Some time after that Mr. Owen received a letter of forgiveness that stated she (his mother) would understand if he never wanted to see her. You see it was during the Depression that she gave us up, said Mr. Owen. So my sister and I got to see her this fall. I found that I had three other sisters and three other brothers.. .1 was the oldest of eight, Mr Owen continued. Mr. Owen found that he had been born in Louisville, Ken- tucky and that his real name was Charles Burton Blythe. It was really something to know you have a family. When we embraced (Mr. Owen and his newly-discovered mother), I felt a sense of close- ness to her without really know- ing her, Mr. Owen related. It probably would have hurt my foster mother if she had known about the meeting. ..but she died in 1974, Mr. Owen said. I found that I had a brother who looked just like me when we compared our family pictures. He told us that, ' We ' ve always known about you and your sister and always considered you part of the family ' . In fact the rest of the family had purchased a mother ring and had 8 stones placed in it. They (brother and sister) have always known about me, but we never knew about them. That night I woke up cry- ing, Owen said my wife asked me what was the matter. I grew up never wanting to be hurt again, he commented. After we met I felt something leaving me that I wasn ' t really sure I wanted to let go. I felt like ' it ' was protecting me and was a part of me I always held in reserve. ...I felt a lot of that hurt leaving. It all worked out good-it was good for me (to find mother)- ...it ' s really changed my life in a lot of ways. ..and it ' s changed my feelings about myself, said Owen. The whole ordeal changed my life, continued Owen. I used to be shy and guarded be- cause of not knowing my real parents. Now that I know who she is, I have a more clear outlook on life that has helped me to be more open in my own marriage. I ' ve taken on a whole new identity, added Mr. Owen. It ' s really something know- ing now that you have a family that you never even knew ex- isted. -Brian Marsh Party goers find local park building easy access for Yorktown ' s... PARTY ANIMALS c 0 eryone loves a party. When we ' re little kids we look forward to birthday parties. ..when we ' re a little older it ' s having girl- friends come over for pajama parties. ..now that we ' re a lot older, Yorktowners are definitely known for their party ability around the county. If you go to the ' frat ' parties at Ball State on the weekends, you ' ll find the majority of high school students there are from Yorktown, stated one senior athlete. The accepted attitude con- cerning students ' drinking seems to be that everyone does it, or kids will be kids. Even though the underage drinking is found everywhere, and not just at Yorktown, it is a serious prob- lem here and our community appears to be blind to it. So blind, in fact, that on five seperate occasions, high school kids were allowed to rent out the Yorktown Lion ' s Club Building without adult consent or chap- erone. These parties were open to anyone with two or three bucks to pitch in for the kegs of beer provided. For the hosts, it was the per- fect plan. One could spin the hits, while collecting the money from those who drank. We made over one hundred dollars by charging for the beer, one party host bragged. How could a group of kids get away with this? One student who was present at all the parties stated, A Yorktown policeman drove around the parking lot, but he didn ' t bust us. He told us that as long as we kept it inside, he wouldn ' t bother us. ' Muncie Deputy Chief Leroy Hahn stated, If there is a case where they (policemen) are at a 8 ISSUES