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About The Clackamas print. (Oregon City, Oregon) 1989-2019 | View Entire Issue (April 28, 1999)
4________________________ NeWS___________ TI-IE ClAckAMAS P rînt Wednesday, April 28, 1999 ASG releases official candidates list ROBERT SCHOENBERG News Editor Clackamas has more candidates for this year’s ASG elections than ever before, said ASG Elections Officer Paul Creighton. Four can didates are campaigning for Presi dent and three seeking the office of Vice-president. Every registered student has a vote. It should prove to be one of the more interesting ASG campaigns in a long while. Not only will there be many candidates, the elections will be held during a week when events outside the Community Center will bring students out of doors. Except for one candidate, the of fice seekers are already involved in ASG. Campaigning for President this year are, in alphabetical order: • ASG Chief of Staff Lynn Brown • ASG Senator at Large Mike Lewis • ASG Childcare Senator Jennifer Rankin • ASG Student Access Officer Rachelle Snowley Those seeking the position of Vice-president are: • ASG Campus Affairs Officer James Gould • Student Jacob Pence • ASG Legislative Officer Chris tine Reed ASG adviser Norm Bemey said he is not aware of any election that has had as many candidates. The candidates and their elec tion managers can begin campaign ing today. The ASG provides ma terials, using student activity funds, for the posters and flyers that will appear on campus. Next week, a candidate’s forum will be held on campus at a loca tion to be announced. The candi dates will present their views and take questions from students, said Creighton. Over the last three years, voter turnout during the spring elec tions was low. There were 1,554 full-time students enrolled for spring term, 1996. Only 214 cast ballots. In 1998, of 1,964 full time students, 204 voted in the elec tions. ASG Student Affairs Officer Laurie Robinson said that voter turnout was high in the year when the polls were open during Inter national Week. This year the elec tions will be May 10 and 11. The Environmental Fair will be May 10 and 12. On May 10 the Clackamas Chamber Singers will perform out side the Community Center. Creighton said that election vol unteers will walk the campus that day asking students to vote. He expects a high turnout this year. Polling stations will be set up outside the Community Center for eight hours each of the two days of the election. The candidate with the most votes, even without a majority, will win. What makes a kid A/OTexplode, turn SUSAN ABE StaffWriter In his Senior year of high school, Lance was killed in a car accident. Chuck was the driver, andfor months friends feared that his life was over, too. Years later, Joe’s sanguine reaction was: “It couldn’t have happened to a nicer pair of guys.” Now, Joe’s not a cruel, insensi tive guy. In fact, he was shocked that he could react so callously to a tragedy touching people he knew. But Chuck and Lance had tormented him, day after day after day, since sophomore PE, had re jected him and put him down. Eventually that had eroded his ability to see Lance and Chuck as human beings. Joe can understand the emotions that drove Eric Har ris and Dylan Klebold to massa cre their classmates in Littleton last week. But Joe never killed anybody. Neither did Leah, or Jeremy, or Sarah, or Bernie. Why not? Reducing the motive Every crime involves motive, means and opportunity. This week, people have looked at gun con trol—reducing means—and school security systems—reduc ing opportunity. Others are trying to reduce motive, by taming vio lent young people. According to human develop mental theory, teenagers are tasked with differentiation —learning how they differ from other people and defining their own separate identi ties. As a consequence, feelings of isolation are common; Simon and Garfunkel’s “I am a rock” and Joy Division’s “Love will tear us apart” resonate in high school. Most kids manage to endure it. How? Joe remembers one talk with his father, who said, “At graduation, your life begins. These guys, their time will be over.” Leah got in volved in journalism projects. Jer emy and Sarah were certain that they’d get caught and that their tormentors weren’t worth facing punishment. Bernie didn’t want to disappoint his dad. Here is the common factor: each of these people knew that some body noticed and cared what they did. Adolescent counselors report that youths who become violent are often not convinced that any body knows or cares. How do we provide every ado lescent with that knowledge? Juvenile Crime Prevention Across the country this week, civic leaders are debating ways to establish firm supports for shaky kids, supports that will endure when the horror has worn off. In Salem, Governor John Kitzhaber’s Juvenile Crime Preven tion Agenda, first announced in January, 1998, is moving to the fore. The first days of the 1999 legisla tive session were devoted to a work shop on the issue. Senate Bill 555 adds youths who are “taken into custody for pos sessing a firearm or dangerous weapon in a public building” to the list of those who must appear in court before being released to their parent or guardian, and requires the court to order a mental health and sociological evaluation. It was heard before a crowd by the Sen ate Judiciary Committee on Friday afternoon, April 23, and appears likely to pass. SB 555 is only one element of the Agenda. Other goals focus on intervening with children and youths before they begin carrying weapons, investing in crime pre vention rather than punishment. Specifically, the Agenda calls for: • Community support for high-risk juveniles before they fail. • Protection from domestic vio lence for children and families. * Ensuring the health of each child entering school (and also insuring each child’s health). Most of these ideas do not re quire new statutes. They do require funds. Kitzhaber has called for $30 million for these programs in the 1999-2001 biennium; since the budget is the last task for every Legislative Assembly, this won’t really be debated before late May. Various departments of state government are directing special at tention at at-risk youth. Most of the money, however, Kitzhaber in tends to devolve to the counties and cities to use according to the needs of the specific communities. Who is an at-risk youth? The difficult question, in a popu lation where almost every teenager feels isolated, is identifying those most urgently in need of help. Kitzhaber’s Agenda targets those who are disproportionately repre sented in youth correctional facili- ties: those who have not suc ceeded in school, those with a his tory of self-abuse, those with fam ily members convicted of crime, those with gang affiliations and those with children. Such a complex target popula tion requires diverse support so lutions. The Legislature will cer- Gun control shot down in Oregon House Senate Bill 700 would require gun sellers at gun shows to check that purchasers are not convicted felons or otherwise ineligible to buy firearms. Recent investigations by the Portland police bureau indicated that up to 27% of the guns used in the city’s gang-related crimes were purchased at gun shows, mainly from unlicensed gun dealers and collectors. SB700 passed the Senate but is dying in the House Committee on Busi ness and Consumer Affairs, where Chair Roger Beyer, R-Molalla, is disin clined to allow it to be debated. Last Wednesday, the day after the Littleton shooting, Randy Leonard, D-Porfland, tried a rare parliamentary action to remove it from the committee and bring it to debate on the floor. The Republican leadership of the House, protecting the authority of the committee chairs, got wind of the attempt and organized its members to vote against the measure. Under Beyer, it is unlikely that SB700 will pass in this session. Such a measure has been proposed before, and will probably reappear in 2001. SALE SOFTWARE Some software priced BELOW COST! 39.99 ■ïSiOill HMSiiSfB 37. 1 49.99 HHI! 49.00 fl ¡Mfl • School participation in this com munity support. ? b i 25.00 20.00 • Adult and juvenile substance abuse prevention. 50.00 100.00 Call your legislator Most Clackamas students are represented by Kurt Schrader, D-C anby, or RogerBeyer, R-Molalla, in the House, and by Rick Metsger, D- Welches, in the Senate. Metsger:(503) 986-1714, or metsger.sen@state.or.us ' Beyer: (503) 986-1428, or beyer.rep@statc or.us Schrader: (503)986-1423, or schrader.rep@state.or.us It vou aren't sure who represents you, but you do know your ZIP code, Project Vote Smart can tell you at http://www.vote-smart.org/ ce/states/OR/s-leg.html. tainly allocate some money to the effort, although probably not the $30 million that Kitzhaber re quested. Organizations around the state, inside and outside govern ment, are making plans to use those funds, and they are looking to the Governor’s Agenda to help coordinate those diverse plans. 100.00 CCC Bookstore North End - McLoughlin Hall 657-6958 x 2248 or x5168
