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Show H uniu200tuwoo so. 07 LAS salt u.v.z cui c:tvjt:.:i . T : ( AXi 24 April 1985 Wednesday LIGHTER SIDE A XK1- -' prr- - WX Elementary April sun brings may flowers Ignites Sparks During Council humu'ous look at serious topics It came Whats more important, an education or smoking TOM HARALDSEN CYCLOPS staff school issue surfaced. reporter was at Woods Cross High School WOODS CROSS to meet a revolutionary. ..a radical. ..a man threatening the system. was there to meet the principal, a stocky and some Force officer named Dick Allen--anbalcing in the community consider him a reactionary! 1 1 d The controversy revolves around students who smoke cigarettes. There are a few parents and one school board member who are pressuring Allen to kick student smokers out of school (or transfer them to an alternative high school). It doesn't look good, they say, for students to light up at lunch outside on the schools eastern porch. Since they find smoking offensive, they wish to erase the problem by erasing the student's name off the enrollment sheet. Why not send them to Siberia? I asked. The Russians havent changed many minds by that tactic, but it sure has lessened any offensive behavior in public. Or how about using the Arab model? Khaddafi has enjoyed great success by cutting off hands and fingers. 1 Allen thought these measures were too extreme. But he also thinks the board members expulsion concept is too extreme. Allen has this radical idea. He says schools exist to educate students. If I kick a student out of school for smoking, he says, then I'm telling him that an education is not as important as my personal moral views. Many students will try cigarettes when theyre in high school, but they soon grow out of it when they understand the health dangers. The answer is to educate students of the dangers of smoking, not throw them out of the system for something many of their parents even do. Wipe out offenses That made too much sense. I couldn't stand such blasphemy. Dick you've got to listen to that school board member. I said. Weve got to wipe out things that we find offensive. And smoking is just one of them. What else would you do? he asked. answered. There are "I find sweating offensive. few things worse than having to sit next to a person who perspires. They smell, they look oily and make me feel uncomfortable. Let's transfer those students, too. After all, we've told them in health classes to bathe regularly. If they don't do it, lets get rid of them. Send them to the Davis Area Vocational Center. "And how about students who are fat. find that offensive. Students have learned in their health classes about If they the dangers of excessive weight and fatty build-udon't listen, lets oust them along with the smokers. Send them to Mountain High. What about students who have good grades at our school? he asked. 1 1 p. Athlete with good grades smokes Who cares! I said. Some of your smokers do well in school, too. One of the regulars on your east porch is an athlete who last term received an A in mathematics and an A in history. The kid has a 3.2 grade point average, but he smokes. Throw him out! I'm glad Allen didnt take me seriously. But the danger is that some might. Smoking is, of course, a nasty habit; however, being uneducated is also a nasty condition, one that affects all of us more than breathing in a few wisps from Marlboro Country. There is no correlation between idiocy and smoking. Franklin D. Roosevelt may have been he was hardly an idiot. Albert Einstein a Democrat--bu- t smoked and our society is better off because of him. Lee the last person who called him a Iacocca smokes--an- d who fired him. Ford was Henry dummy neither is Im not encouraging students to smoke--anDick Allen. Allen is simply being a realist: Instead of ousting a student, allowing him a freedom to really get in trouble, it is better to present the dangers of smoking in a classroom--anhave that student attend class. The school board member doesn't agree. He would rather put up a smokescreccn that Woods Cross is burning away the problem by throwing students out of school. All-Regi- d d That solution burns away the problems. people! It also burns - It came as little surWOODS CROSS prise to anyone following the issue, but the new Woods Cross Elementary school proposal surfaced again during an emotional city council meeting last week. THOUGH discussion was not planned as part of the meeting's agenda, opponents of the school, who filled the small council room audience, were quick to express their feelings on the subject following a statement by Councilman R. Lynn Thomas. A number of verbal salvos were fired between Mr. Thomas and several of the citizens, in what he later called an attempt to clear the air and start the healing process. By now, the school issue is well documented. The Davis School District has proposed construction of a school on district property at 100 South 700 West. The site has served for more than 20 years as a park, soccer field, and more recently, an animal science farm for Woods Cross High. RESIDENTS in the neighborhood, most of whom have lived there for more than 15 years, oppose the plan, saying the streets leading to the school are too narrow, parking inadequate and safety a question the district has failed to fully answer. Most of those are also quick to admit that they no longer have elementary school age children in their homes. Proponents of the new school, which replaces the current structure that district officials have deemed unsafe and undesirable for continued use, have argued that after extensive study by the district, the site is the safest available in Woods Cross. They say a large majority of citizens favor the proposal, much larger than the 158 citizens signing a petition last winter opposing the project. THOUGH THE issue has been hashed out many times in the last few months, councilman Thomas felt the need to make comments regarding the situation at the council meeting. He stated his belief that any public official whose position as a businessman or resident would lend itself to a conflict of interest on any matter of city business should obstain from voting on that matter," adding that the current makeup of both the city council and Woods Cross planning commission is not geographically balanced. He then added that recent public comments made at a council meeting to Dr. Dean Penrod, district buildings and grounds direcand not tor, were uncomplimentary appropriate for guests at our meetings. BUT IT was the last thing he stated, referring to the w hole matter of possible conflicts of interest as having the potential of the problems of Layton," that aroused the ire of some present. Annabelle Kagie, a former couneilwoman and current member of the planning commission. said she was offended by the implications" of the statement. "What happened in Layton involved criminal action and intent, and to equate the concerns of the commission with those actions is inappropriate and in bad taste. . ir no surprise that the heated Guest Writer ex-A- as Elizabeth DeVoogd cant get enough of the good outdoors. Up with the sun at 5:00 a.m she mowes the lawn both directions, rakes It for the manicured look, then lullabys the flowers Into beautiful blossoms. BUSINESS TRENDS Shes The Boss BRIAN GREY special reporter old stands LAYTON - The pretty smiling amid a stack of lumber and a rack of circular saws. She surveys this normally masculine province with a deceptively experienced eye. After all, she works here. In fact, shes the boss! As manager of the Layton Ernst Home Center, Debbie Watterson is more a pioneer than a womans libber. I never think of myself as a woman store Im manager, she says emphatically I simply the store manager--anjust happen to be a woman. Its not a big thing." But it is a big thing" if one looks at the statistics. Women still comprise less than one percent of positions of is the Debbie retail and large operations, only female manager of the 10 Utah Ernst stores and only one of three in the chain, a core division of the Seattle-basePay n Save Corporation. But these statistics will change, says Debbie. In another 10 years a woman manager of a hardware-typ- e operation wont be such an oddity," she predicts. Ernst is people-oriente- d and is actively seeking women management. As women prepare themselves to make the neccssaiy sacrifices, more and more women will climb the management ladder. 1 just started young. she was Well, she wasnt that young--bu- t ambitious. A graduate of Cyprus High School and one of seven children, she attended Brigham Young University and the University of Utah with a plan of becoming -- 30-ye- ar d er Debbie Watterson and Bobby Fowler, newcomers to the county, manage the Centerville and Layton Ernst stores. see SPARKS pg. 4 Site selection not simple an elementary teacher. She was within 15 credits of graduating when she took a sumwithin a few weeks mer job with F,rnst--anwith the encouragement of her mana(and to decided pursue a career in retail manger) agement. I thought the work was exciting and could see the economic benefits as well," The fact that was a she remembers. woman in a industry didn't it didn't seem to make any occur to me-a- nd difference to Iirnst either. She progressed through a variety of departmental positions before landing her first executive store position two years ago at the d 1 1 male-dominat- see NEW MANAGERS A2 SPRING AHEAD DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME Its that time agairv daylight sav- ing time, when local residents spring ahead one hour. Before going to bed next Sunday night, more the clock ahead one hour. The purpose of daylight saving time Is to provide more daylight hours during the summer. But does It really serve Its pur-- , pose? A2 t |