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Show The Paper That Dares To Jake A Stand i C ? May 29, 1975 The Utah CHAOS TO UTAH SCHOOLS aware of their ABOLISH THE EPA Continued from page 5 rights and attendant to responsibilities voting, elections, filing to run for a public office, military service and the draft, and other personal and civic rights and responsibilities which come to those reaching 18 yea rs of age, or the age of majority. (Writers Comment: These things should be a matter of education, not performed as a service upon request by a student.) Student Government Students should be free to establish a reasonable constitution with the purpose of encouraging students to participate in student government. It should provide all students a voice in school affairs through a representative system approved by the administration and local school board. All students have the right to seek and run for offices within the a decision involving appeal punishment by a member of the faculty, administration or student government. (Writers Comment: To the courts punishment by a faculty or administration is not a legal punishment. Comparison invites dangerous confusion between legal rights" and privileges extended by school personnel. They are not comparable.) Students should have an orderly appeal process available to them. Arrest And Students Interrogation Of compulsory.) Students are entitled to the same protection under the law with respect to arrest as all citizens. Since certain disturbances on school property may become a nuisance or danger to city residents or their property, local police may intervene in such matters. Students have the right to be informed of the reasons for the interrogation and of their legal rights. The student has the right to have either a parent or a school official of his own choosing present at all interrogations conducted at the school. Legal counsel may be obtained by the student if the case warrants it. Equal Opportunity In Sports Search And Seizure .andor academic other requirements for office holders established by a joint faculty and student committee! All students should have equal opportunity to run for and hold office. (Writers Comment: Student governments are a privilege, not a They are customary in right. public schools, but not Students have the right to be All students should have the right to participate in school present during locker searches. sponsored and organized They also have the right to be informed concerning the programs a( appropriate levels. conditions surrounding possible This means: where searches of leased properties. intramuralsl 50-e- d. extramurals I appropriate is While the lockers themselves are of the school, students sports clubs . recommended properties to place personal varsity athletics separate have the right male and female programs are properties of a legal nature in the lockers: They are entitled to the recommended. of these personal Girls should have equitable protection opportunities for sports properties. participation. (Writers Privileges Comment: Suspension. not Rights!) Expulsion And Exclusion The student should be accorded minimum standards of Students should be extended due process in disciplinary the opportunity to participate in a procedure that may result in longwide variety of school sponsored term suspension or expulsion. The student should be told extracurricular activities of their the charges against him and the interest and choice. Student leaders should be nature of the evidence to support involved in preparing the budget the charges. The student should be for the schools extracurricular entitled to a hearing. activities program. Extracurricular Activities SECTION IV Discipline And Grievance Students are both subject to and protected by civil law. School officials and law enforcement personnel are required to adhere to due process in the area of student search, arrest, and interrogations. Besides the legal implications implied in due process, such as the right to be informed concerning allegations and the right to representation, due process must also mean reasonableness and fairness in view of all the facts and circumstances. Grievance Procedure The First Amendment to the United States Constitution grants the people the right to petition the government for redress of their grievances. This right also applies to students who have' the right to Corporal Punishment Students have the right to be secure and free from the fear of bodily harm. This must include bodily harm which is disguised as punishment or discipline. ATTN: UTAH VOTERS Full text of proposed Recall Bill -4 copies for $1.00. Send to UTAH 57 East INDEPENDENT Oakland Avenue, Salt Lake City, Utah 84115. Liberal": Why do you Conservatives go around seeing a Communist behind every bushT Because you Conservative: liberals go around planting a bush in Communist. front of every would demand instant environmental purity. In actual operations, the Environmental Protection Agency does not appear to have been that bad. The E.P.A. and the militant environmental groups have often appeared to be on opposite sides of the environmental controversies. But appearances can be deceiving. The Great DDT Ban The E.P.A. had hardly come into existence before it was the target of a lawsuit filed by the Environmental Defense Fund and the Sierra Club, regarding the use. of DDT. Under political and litigation pressures from these environmental groups, the government had been restricting the use of DDT, and Mr. Nixon had been promising to phase out its use entirely. But the environmentalists sued to make the new environmental agency prohibit immediately all remaining DDT usage. In January, 1971, a federal district court in Washington. D.- C., held for the plaintiffs, ordering the Environmental Protection Agency to cancel all uses of DDT until a fresh determination about DDT was made. The Environmental Protection Agency appealed, and started Hearings which lasted several months. To its credit, E.P.A. took testimony from many qualified people whose evaluation of DDT agreed with that of Dr. J.L. Steinfeld, Surgeon General of the U.S. Public Health Service. Pleading for continued, widespread use of DDT, Dr. Steinfeld characterized the pesticide as boons to human health, saying: the greatest of man-mad- e Its use in the eradication and control of disease has meant the difference between hunger, despair, and poverty, and good health, DDT hope and the promise of a better life to billions of people has been responsible for returning to man the use of agriculturally rich lands, thereby making possible improvements in nutrition, providing in turn the energy and strength for social and economic .... development On April 25, 1972, Edmund M. Sweeney, the E.P.A. official who had conducted the DDT Hearings, declared that the proceedings had not proved that DDT causes severe environmental damage. He said DDTs essential uses should be continued. Yet, on June 14, 1972, E.- P.A. cancelled federal registration of DDT, thus banning it from interstate commerce. On June 10, 1973, E.P.A. required federal registration of all DDT products produced and used without ever crossing state lines, saying it would determine later whether to ban such intrastate commerce in DDT. By the fall of 19.73, the House Agricultural Subcommittee had received sworn testimony that more than a million acres of trees in Pennsylvania and about 650,000 acres of trees in the Northwest had been killed, and hundreds of thousands of acres of trees in New England had been damaged, by moths; that the com ear worm had reduced the lettuce crop in New Jersey by more than two thirds; and so on all because DDT was not available. Surely, E.P.A. went beyond the intent of the January, 1971, court decision concerning DDT. At any rate, the agency could reasonably have been expected to seek, in the national interest, a modificatiur of the court order. It did not. - The Clean Air Fraud The Clean Air Act of 1970 has also been the basis of several environmentalist law suits against E.P.A. The law set May 31, 1975, as the date for the nation to acquire specified primary quality standards, but gave E.P.A. discretionary authority to extend that deadline to 1977. The law allowed states to prescribe procedures for standards, provided their procedures achieving the specified clean-ai- r met with E.P.A. approval. Any state failing to present plans acceptable to E.P.A. would lose federal funds for control activities; and E.P.A. would directly take command of all such activities in that state. On May 31, 1972, E.P.A. notified all states that it was giving them until 1977 to clean up the air, but specified that their plans for doing so must be submitted by February of 1973. The tax-fre- e Natural Resource Defense Council (N.R.D.C.) sued E.P.A., contending it had no authority to give such blanket extension, but must give extensions (if any) on a case by case basis after review. Federal courts held for on N.R.D.C. The fact is that more than 80 percent of the nation has cleaner air than the 1970 Clean Air Act requires. At the outset, E.P.A. indicated primary concern with those areas where air pollution exceeded federal allowables. But the Clean Air Act says the government must protect and enhance air quality everywhere. The Sierra Club and other environmentalist groups sued E.P.A., .contending that the agency must aggressively protect and enhance air quality in areas already above federal standards. Lower federal courts upheld this contention. On June 1 1, 1973, the Supreme Court had a tie vote on the case (4 to 4), thus letting lower court decisions stand. Traditionally and legally, no oiganization or person has standing in federal court to sue unless he alleges specific damage to himself by some action of the defendant. The Clean Air Act of 1970, however, gave revolutionary lawyers and litigation groups like N.R.D.C. special standing to bring suit in federal courts, without alleging direct damage do themselves, as if they were official overseers to review enforcement of the Act. This (one of the most damaging provisions of the Clean Air Act and of other major environmental laws) has enabled irresponsible revolutionary lawyers to use the federal courts for harassing business and government agencies. Many government agencies seem to welcome the lawsuits, because they bring court decisions ordering actions which agency officials wanted, but avoided for fear of unfavorable public opinion. This certainly appears to be the case with regard to E.P.A. In fact, there are strong indications that the National Resource Defense Council for E.P.A. either because does much of the major decision-makin- g E.P.A. officials agree with the N.R.D.C. viewpoint, or are afraid of Continued on page 10 being sued. . - Independent ' Page 7 SENATORS: NO UNILATERAL UJS. CONCESSIONS TO CUBA IN LIFTING OF TRADE EMBARGO. United WASHINGTON.. .Four States Senators today engaged in a colloquy on the Senate, floor concerning proposed legislation to lift the current U.S. embargo on trade with Cuba. Engaged in the discussion were Senators Harry F. Byrd, Jr. (Ind.-I)em- ., Va.); Richard Stone James Buckley (Con.-Rep- ., N.Y.); and Jesse Helms (D-Fla- .); (R-N.C- I .). doubt the wisdom of lifting the economic embargo against Cuba as a prelude to negotiations stated Senator Harry F. Byrd, Jr., in reference to statements by Cuban Premier Fidel Castro that he (Castro) is willing to talk to Secretary of State Kissinger if the economic embargo against Cuba is unconditionally lifted. Since Cuba is seriously interested in trade with the United States, particularly access to oui money markets, we should not give away the only leverage we really have without getting something in return", said Byrd. In my view, an end to the embargo should only come if Cuba is willing to meet certain conditions. Byrd said, as he offered several amendments to the pending legislation S935, introduced by Senator Edward M. proposing to Kennedy lift the U.S. embargo. The Byrd amendments would require that the trade embargo could not be lifted unless and until the President certifies to the Congress in writing that Cuba has (1) satisfactorily provided for settlement and discharge of all claims by the U.S. government and (D-Mas- s.) citizens I ualization property by from arising or taking the of Cuban government; (2) is not engaged in any intervention in the domestic affairs of a other country in the hemisphere. (3) renounced alliance with the Soviet Union and has ordered withdrawal of all Soviet troops and weapons; and (4) that no funds be authorized or appropriated to close down the U.S. base at Guantanamo Bay. There should be no unilateral U.S. concessions to Cuba in lifting the trade embargo. Said Senator While I look Jesse Helms. forward tp the day when Cuba will the nations of the Western Hemisphere on an equal standing, I do not look forward to that prospect until such basic human rights as the right to free speech, to private property, and to individual freedom are respected in that nation. We cannot accept Cuba as a member of the American community until Cuba herself acknowledges the standards which are common to all the nations of the Americas, Helms said. I f we ye going to open Cuba we should be interested to trade, not only in the economic benefits of such trade, but also in improving the standards of human rights which exist in that country. Cuba, at a minimum, should be open to re-jo- in full-fledg- ed inspection by international who are free and journalists unfettered in their travels about the country, Helms said in offering an amendment to S935 which would require the President to certify in writing that the government of Cuba provides full access to all parts of Cuba to all media representatives of all nations. - |