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Show Friday, March 5, 2010 Page 2 WorldeiNatiOn Utah State University • Logan, Utah • www.aggietownsquare.com Clarify Correct The policy of The Utah Statesman is to correct any error made as soon as possible. If you find something you would like clarified or find unfair, please contact the editor at 797-1762 or TSC 105. Fire the teachers when schools fail? PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — When all school's original staff had to reapply the teachers were fired from Central for their jobs; many simply left. Falls High School last week in a sweepTest scores have improved. During ing effort at school reform, their the last school year, 51 percent of superintendent gave them a taste of Sherman students tested proficient on the accountability President Barack the same academic test, although they Obama says is necessary. still lag students in the rest of the disIt is a strategy that has been used trict. More recently, scores for students elsewhere, such as in Chicago and Los in some grades have slipped in reading Angeles. But while there have been and mathematics. GENEVA (AP) — Shakira has some improvements in test scores, A spokeswoman for Duncan cites received a medal from the U.N. schools where most teachers have been the school as an example of where labor agency for replaced still grapple with problems of replacing the staff — which he calls her work to help poverty and discipline. Even advocates a turnaround — worked. It's one of impoverished of the approach say firing a teaching four strategies that states can use to children. staff is just one of several crucial steps improve low-performing schools while The 33-yearthat must be taken to turn around a competing for millions of dollars in old Colombian school. stimulus funds. pop star has Central Falls teachers have appealed The other three options are closing worked as a the firings and both they and the a school and sending its students to a UNICEF good- SHAKIRA administration are now indicating a better one, converting troubled schools CENTRAL FALLS, R.I. SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENT Frances Gallo talkwill ambaswillingness to go back to the table to into charter academies, and firing the ing on the telephone in her office, March 3. Gallo announced in February that all the sador. Her Barefoot foundation avoid mass firings. Teachers say wholeprincipal and making other changes to teachers at Central Falls High School would be fired at the end of the school year in a provides nutrition to more than sale firings unfairly target instructors improve performance. desperate move to improve student performance. AP photo 6,000 children in Colombia, who work with impoverished children Central Falls Superintendent school's dreadful test scores. Barr laid off all the teachers and asked and she is member of the ALAS who have been neglected for years. Frances Gallo picked the turnaround No one keeps firm numbers on how them to reapply for their jobs. foundation that advocates for "We believe the teachers have model — the mass firing of all 93 teachoften wholesale firings have been used. "You want them to come back, but children across Latin America. been scapegoated here," American ers and staff after the end of the school At a small ceremony Federation of Teachers President Randi But William Guenther, president of the you have to establish what your vision year — after talks with teachers broke Boston-based Mass Insight Education is and give them the choice: do you Wednesday in Geneva, U.N. Weingarten said of the Central Falls down. and Research Institute, estimates that believe in this vision?" he said. labor chief Juan Somavia called firings this week. It's not clear whether any Central mass teacher firings are tried in about U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Shakira a "true ambassador for In Rhode Island, the state educaFalls teachers will lose their jobs. The 20 to 30 schools annually. Many more Duncan chose to fire teachers en masse union has filed a complaint with the children and young people, for tion commissioner earlier ordered schools adjust other elements, such as when he headed Chicago's public quality education and social jus- Central Falls authorities to make radistate Labor Relations Board, and on curriculum and teacher training, to school system. tice." cal improvements in a city where more Wednesday, after the union indicated boost performance without substanHe was confronted with lagging children live in poverty than anywhere it would support teachers working a tially changing the staff. test scores at Sherman Elementary else in the state. Eleventh graders testlonger school day and providing addiThe head of Boston's public schools School in Chicago's South Side, where ed at the school in the fall had a 7 pertional tutoring, the superintendent announced Thursday that five prinstudents are overwhelmingly poor cent passing rate in math. Fewer than said she'd like to resume talks to avoid cipals of underperforming schools and black. Before it was revamped, half of the school's students graduate mass firings. Informant's death creates would be assigned to different jobs. All 29 percent of students were meeting in four years. Guenther, who briefed Duncan's the teachers at six schools must reapply academic expectations, according to doubt in artifacts case Obama referred to the Central Falls staff on turnaround strategies in the for their jobs and could be moved elsestatewide tests. firings as an example of accountability fall, said breaking a "failing culture" SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — The where if not rehired for their current The city allowed the Academy for during an education speech Monday in in troubled schools almost always prosecution of the largest-ever posts. Urban School Leadership to take over Washington. requires replacing a large part of the American Indian artifacts looting In Los Angeles, charter school oper- the school in September 2006. It hired "If a school continues to fail its teaching staff, but cautioned that's not case has been rattled by the apparator Green Dot took over a high school a new leadership team and installed a the only thing that schools need to do. ent suicide of the government infor- students year after year after year, if in the Watts neighborhood and opened large number of AUSL teachers, mostly it doesn't show any sign of improve"The problem with most reform mant who broke open the investigait in 2008 as seven small college-prep people who decided to become teachment, then there's got to be a sense elements is they tend to rely on a single tion during more than two years of academies. Green Dot founder Steve ers after working in other fields. The of accountability," he said, citing the bullet," Guenther said. undercover work. The death marks the third suicide in the case since investigators announced last June that they had charged more than two dozen people with illegally excavating, SOUTHLAKE, Texas (AP) — Toyota has for years of a crash. went back to Toyota to ask specifically about brake collecting and dealing artifacts blocked access to data stored in devices similar to airBy contrast, most other automakers routinely allow information, Toyota responded that its EDRs do, in including pottery, stone pipes and line "black boxes" that could explain crashes blamed much more open access to information from their fact, record "data on the brake's position and the antiancient jewelry. on sudden unintended acceleration, according to an event data recorders, commonly known as EDRs. lock brake system." Two defendants killed themAssociated Press review of lawsuits nationwide and AP also found that Toyota: But that does not square with information selves shortly after their arrests, interviews with auto crash experts. —Has frequently refused to provide key information obtained by attorneys in a deadly crash last year in and now the government has lost The AP investigation found that Toyota has been sought by crash victims and survivors. Southlake, Texas, and in a 2004 accident in Indiana its most important witness to a self- inconsistent — and sometimes even contradictory — in —Uses proprietary software in its EDRs. Until this that killed an elderly woman. inflicted gunshot wound. revealing exactly what the devices record and don't week, there was only a single laptop in the U.S. conIn the Texas crash, where four people died when record, including critical data about whether the taining the software needed to read the data following their 2008 Avalon ripped through a fence, hit a Coast Guard crew brake or accelerator pedals were depressed at the time a crash. tree and flipped into an icy pond, an EDR readout — In some lawsuits, when pressed to provide recorder obtained by police listed as "off" any information on survives Utah crash information Toyota either settled or provided printacceleration or braking. SALT LAKE CITY (AP) outs with the key columns blank. In the 2004 crash in Evansville, Ind., that killed 77— Authorities say snow and wind Toyota's "black box" information is emerging as a year-old Juanita Grossman, attorneys for her family affected visibility in remote critical legal issue amid the recall of 8 million vehicles say a Toyota technician traveled from the company's Utah mountains where a Coast by the world's largest automaker. The National U.S. headquarters in Torrance, Calif., to examine her Guard helicopter went down Highway Traffic Safety Administration said this week 2003 Camry. as it returned home from the that 52 people have died in crashes linked to acceleraBefore she died, the 5-foot-2, 125-pound woman Olympics, but they still don't tor problems, triggering an avalanche of lawsuits. told relatives she was practically standing with both know if that's what caused the When Toyota was asked by the AP to explain what feet on the brake pedal but could not stop the car crash. All five people aboard surexactly its recorders do collect, a company statement from slamming into a building. Records confirm that vived. said Thursday that the devices record data from five emergency personnel found Grossman with both feet Two were in critical condition seconds before until two seconds after an air bag is on the brake pedal. following Wednesday's accident deployed in a crash. A Toyota representative told the family's attorneys and one was in serious condition, The statement said information is captured about there was "no sensor that would have preserved inforaccording to hospital officials. All vehicle speed, the accelerator's angle, gear shift posimation regarding the accelerator and brake positions three had to be airlifted from the ROBERTS & ROBERTS LAW FIRM released this tion, whether the seat belt was used and the angle of at the time of impact," according to a summary of the Jan. 12 family photo of an event data recorder taken remote crash site. from the 2008 Toyota Avalon in a deadly 2009 crash, the driver's seat. case provided by Safety Research & Strategies Inc., commonly known as EDR, is shown at a wrecker serThere was no initial mention of brakes — a key a Rehoboth, Mass.-based company that does vehicle vice in Euless, Texas. AP photo point in the sudden acceleration problem. When AP safety research. Celebs&People Nati/Briefs Toyota secretive on 'black box' data in crash LateNiteHumor David Letterman, March 3, 2010 Top 10 Reasons Barbara Walters Won't be doing anymore Academy Award Specials 10. Everyone I want to interview is in rehab. 9. Tired of fending off George Clooney's clumsy advances. 8. I've forgotten how to make people cry. 7. Don't want to do any more of these lame Top 10 Lists. 6. I knew it was time to stop when I was asked to interview a blue guy from "Avatar." 5. I've done it for 29 years — what more do you people want from me? 4. I just got a gig as Naomi Campbell's assistant. 3. I've learned when a celebrity says they have an interesting story, they don't. 2. I was pushed out by Jay Leno. 1. I'll do another special when Dave hosts the Academy Awards again. Sex offender in teen's killing eluded suspicion SAN DIEGO (AP) — When 17-yearold Chelsea King disappeared in a park last week, authorities checked photographs of sex offenders registered in the San Diego area. John Albert Gardner III was not among them. When a 16-year-old girl was attacked last year in Riverside County, authorities did a similar check of the sex offender registry. Again, Gardner was not among them. In both investigations, Gardner eluded detection because he was registered as a sex offender in different counties. As authorities search for Gardner's possible links to other cases, his trail highlights how sex offenders in California manage to avoid suspicion even under a system designed to keep close tabs on the state's most dangerous predators. "Obviously there's loopholes and he seems to have found them, either by design or by happenstance," said Marc Klaas, who founded Klaaskids Foundation after his 12-year-old daughter Polly was abducted from a slumber party in 1993 and later found slain. Gardner has attracted national attention ever since he was arrested in the rape and killing of King, a 17-yearold straight-A student whose body was believed to have been found in a shallow lakeside grave Tuesday. Gardner, 30, is being held without bail after pleading not guilty Wednesday to Chelsea's murder and to attempted rape of another woman in December, a potential death penalty case. His public defender, Michael Popkins, did not address reporters after the arraignment. Escondido police are also investigating if Gardner is tied to the disappearance of Amber Dubois, a 14-year-old who vanished a year ago while walking to school and carrying a $200 check to buy a pet lamb. No suspects have ever been publicly identified. "This has definitely got our attention," said Lt. Craig Carter. Gardner was registered as a sex offender because of his 2000 conviction for molesting a girl after luring her to his house with the Robin Williams movie "Patch Adams," about a doctor who uses humor to treat patients. He served five years of a six-year sentence, though his plea agreement allowed for nearly 11 years and a court-appointed psychiatrist urged "the maximum sentence allowed by law." Gardner was a registered sex offender in Escondido, in San Diego County, from January 2008 to January 2010, with some gaps, Carter said. On Jan. 7 of this year, he registered as a sex offender 55 miles north in Lake Elsinore, in Riverside County. Seven weeks later, King disappeared in San Diego, and Gardner's name didn't turn up on the list of neighborhood sex offenders because he had already registered that he moved north. Authorities are also investigating the case of a 16-year-old girl who reported that she ran away after a man asked her for directions then tried to force her into a car at gunpoint on Oct. 28 in Lake Elsinore, the Riverside County Sheriff's Department said. The suspect was described as a man 30 to 35 years old with a squarish jaw, brown eyes and a blond crew cut. A sketch appears similar to Gardner. "There are similarities," Capt. Joseph Cleary told the Riverside PressEnterprise. "If there is a connection, we will track it down." Investigators checked out local sex offenders at the time, but not Gardner; he was registered as living in San Diego County, Sgt. Patrick Chavez said. |