The Mail-Journal, Volume 22, Number 19, Milford, Kosciusko County, 8 May 1985 — Page 15

It happened . . .in Milford

10 YEARS AGO, MAY 7,1975 Milford American Legion commander Dan Levernier states past department commander George R. Morton, Sr., of Michigan City will be the town’s Memorial Day speaker this year. Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth Wright of Our Town are in the process of remodeling the old Troup house on South East street. In Our Towm the name of Smith has not been a hard one to have because Smith, Miller, Jones, Green and all the so called “busy American names” have not been as prevalent as names like Beer, Wuthrich, Yoder, Haab, etc. Kathy Weisser, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Fred Weisser of r 1 Milford, entertained some of her friends on Friday evening at a slumber party and also for her eighth birthday which was May 1. 20 YEARS AGO, MAY 5,1965 Milford Street and Water commissioner Marion Deeter stated this week it might become necessary for the water in Milford to be shut off in town during the next week to ten days. Water may be off for a few minutes or a few hours. Workmen are laying a water line in the northeast section of town. According to dates released by the Milford town board at its meeting on Monday night in the town hall, the construction of the sewage disposal plant should begin on May 1, 1966. Douglas Wiesser, who celebrated his fourth birthday on May 5, was honored in the home of his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Fred Weisser of near Milford on Sunday evening. The regular meeting of Ancil Gieger Unit 226 American Leion Auxiliary at Milford was held at the Milford fire station on Tuesday evening. The business meeting was conducted by the president, Mrs. Wade Mishler, with 35 members and one guest, Mrs. Gordon Rhodes, present. 30 YEARS AGO, MAY 5,1955 Augsburger’s I.G.A. Store,

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located on road 15 in Milford, saw the first signs of a complete facelifting this week. The interior of the Coy building on Main street has been redecorated, and will be used by Miss Bonnie Rassi as a flower gift shop. Miss Rassi will have floral arrangements, hand-paintings, gift figurines, etc., and centerpiece rentals for special occasions. A music studio is being considered for later. Mr. and Mrs. Charles R. Brittsan celebrated their golden anniversary at a reception Sunday afternoon in the social room of the Methodist church. Many callers from Milford and out of town came to offer congratulations. Ruth Stieglitz, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Stieglitz and a junior in Milford high school, has been chosen by Unit 226 American Legion Auxiliary to go to Girls State in June. 50 YEARS AGO, MAY 8,1935 W.O. Scott received word from

Humanly speaking — Who can give some answers?

By DAVID L. ROGERS "I want to take better care of myself, who can give me some answers?’’ This is the thinking that many persons have, and it’s understandable. In our culture there is the belief that there are experts for everything. To answer this question do the following exercise. Write down ten things that are enjoyable. Then answer the following questions: How many of these things have been participated in this week? How many have been done in the last month? How many of these things are new experiences or activities within the last year? How many of these activities can one do alone? How many can only be done with someone else?

his son Frank and family of Philadelphia that they will arrive here the middle of May for a week’s visit with him and other relatives. Approximately 25 boys and girls from Kosciusko County were among the 2,000 4-H club members from all parts of the state who attended the Purdue Round-Up May 1 and 2. Daylight savings time is now effective in most of the cities throughout northern Indiana and will continue in effect until 2 a.m. Sunday, September 29. America’s newest brother-can-you-spare-a-dime game is sweeping the country according to a report of the News Service. The first letter on this “dime chain” reported in Milford was received last week by Miss Eloise Pinkerton. The scheme promised a return of $1,562.50 for the investment of one thin dime. Postal authorities have classed it as illegal.

How many cost money? How many involve little or no expense? This exercise can do several things for a person. It helps one to realize some personal responsibility for activities. Persons do not have the power to chose what they want. It also reminds persons how dependent they are on other people and/or how creative they are in doing things alone for themselves. There is a tendency to look beyond oneself for answers when the true "expert” is within. Self awareness is a key. Bob Dylan, popular lyricist, has written, “He who is not busy being born is busy dying.” A look at what’s happening in one’s life enables a person to know what he likes and what he wants to change. Needs and wants can be discovered and plans can be developed to have them met. In many ways a person can crate a life that is desired. Trusting one’s own thoughts and feelings, exploring one’s own values, accepting strengths with confidence and showing compassion for self in weaknesses can all be helpful things as a person takes responsibility for self. A person can begin to realize that he or she knows the self better than anyone else. Choices about changes to be

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JOINS LAKE CITY BANK — The Lake City Bank board of directors have announced that Jonathan Cousins has joined the bank as assistant manager in the Milford and Syracuse offices. He will be working with Henry Smith, vice president, in this area. Cousins holds a bachelor of business degree, as well as an associates of arts degree from Northwood Institute, Midland, Mich. He is treasurer and an active member of Alpha Kappa Psi professional business fraternity. He resides with his parents, Dean and Margaret Cousins, on r 2 Milford.

made and cultivation of values already enjoyed can be made utilizing one s own resources. Sometimes help is needed in knowing how to use individual resources and how to get started. It is, however, essential to realize that no person is helpless even though he or she may have lost touch with the reservoirs of knowledge and intuition, of confidence and energy. If help is needed in getting started the Bowen Center has available a staff of psychiatrists, psychologists and counselors to work with persons with individual or family concerns. Persons may call 1-800-342-5653 or 219-267-7169. The therapist on call will help in referring the caller to the staff person best trained to meet his/her need. Berry pies When making blueberry, elderberry or any flat berry pie, instead of adding lemon juice or vinegar, try one teaspoon of salt to a small pie and 14 teaspoons to a large pie. Stir well, this will bring out the flavor of the berry. Topping for pudding Half a small jar of jam or jelly folded in a cup of cream whipped stiff will turn out a nice topping for puddings.

Mexico trip sparks controversy

By CHRIS CAULEY Staff Writer The suspension of four Wawasee High School students for consumption of alcohol during a trip to Mexico has sparked a controversy over the strictness of the athletic code at Wawasee. The four students, all juniors — Mindi Wakeland, Irma Cruz, Angie Graff and Becca Stiver — were among 17 Wawasee Spanish students who spent Spring Vacation touring Mexico from March 28 to April 4. Mrs. Donna Yargosz, a Language Arts teacher at Wawasee, and Mrs. Lisa Hull, wife of Principal Dr. Howard Hull, chaperoned the students on the trip. The incident that led to the suspension of the four girls occurred on the third stop of the weeklong vacation, Acapulco. The students had previously visited Mexico City and Taxco. Soon after checking in at their Acapulco hotel, the four girls discovered some alcohol in an unlocked refrigerator in their room. They opened four bottles or cans of beer, “toasted Acapulco,” set the beers down and adjourned to the beach to join the other students. The missing beers were reported by a maid who checked the room the following day — Wednesday — and hotel security informed Mrs. Yargosz of the matter later that day. Wakeland, Cruz, Graff and Stiver heard from other students on Wednesday that the chaperones were aware of their transgression and they went to Mrs. Yargosz at 9:30 p.m. that day to confess. Yargosz ordered them to stay in their rooms for the duration of the evening — curfew was midnight for other students — and the girls received their athletic suspensions upon arriving home and going to school the next week. The girls were suspended from athletics for 12 months, a penalty that will be reduced to six months if they successfully complete a seven-week program of drug and alcohol awareness counseling. The girls were also given three days in I.S.S. (In-School Suspension), which they have already served. Thus far, only one of the girls, Angie Graff, has indicated that she will definitely undergo the drug and alcohol counseling, although two of the other three girls may soon follow suit. All four girls have been active in athletics at Wawasee. Cruz has been active in cheerleading and in track, Graff in gymnastics and as a manager for the baseball team, Stiver in cross country, basketball and track, and Wakeland in tennis and cross country. Parents Protest The parents of two of the girls, Wakeland and Stiver, protested the suspensions in a three-step appeals procedure that is part of the Wawasee athletic code. The parents first met with a coaches’ council, then met with Dr. Hull, Vice-Principal Donn Kesler and Athletic Director Hal Traviolia. Finally, in Step 111 of

the appeals procedure, the parents .had a hearing with the Lakeland Community School Board on Tuesday, April 23. At all three levels of the appeals procedure, the suspensions were upheld. Hie parents, Bob and Sandy McNary and Tom and Karen Stiver, contended during the appeals process that the punishments were too severe for what their children did, that Mrs. Yargosz and Mrs. Hull were partially to blame for the incident since they were chaperones, and, thirdly, that their appeal was not being “heard” by school administrators and the school board. “We do not deny what the kids did,” Tom Stiver said. “We accept it because they told us what they did and they told the school authorities. Our biggest problem is with the punishments that have been handed out, the degree of the punishment. “We felt that due to the fact that there was no intent by the girls when they went in there (their hotel room) to do anything, the fact that the degree of consumption was a sip each, that this momentary indiscretion did not deserve the extreme amount of punishment.” Bill Little, president of the Lakeland Community School Board, noted that the girls knew from the outset that the Mexican trip would be handled the same as any other school affair, that school rules would apply. “There didn’t seem to be any question at all that a violation had occurred,” Little said. “Inasmuch as a violation had occurred and the rules are there, those rules were upheld.” A Matter Os Degree? Wawasee A.D. Hal Traviolia was a part of the first two steps of the appeals process, and he said that “degree” of guilt is not weighed in the athletic code. “There is no degree of guilt,” he said. “They are guilty. They are admitted guilty. They admitted to having consumed alcohol. The code does not state, ‘how much alcohol.’ It says, ‘consumption of alcohol.’ Consequently, the girls are guilty. They’re guilty of consumption of alcohol. It is clear as to what the penalty is. “I know that some people say, ‘One beer is not the same as getting drunk,’ ” Traviolia added. “But where do you actually draw the line? Do you say it’s a sip, do you say it’s a half-a-beer, do you say it’s one beer? Is it six? Is it being drunk? The line has to be drawn somewhere, and the line in our code is drawn at consumption.” A couple of other circumstances complicated the issue involving the four girls. Number one, should the hotel rooms have been checked by the chaperones before the girls could enter and thus find the alcohol? Secondly, one of the other students on the trip — the student was not punished — somehow obtained a small bottle of alcohol (apparently tequila) and gave it to Mrs. Yargosz, who transported it through customs for the student and then gave it to his parents upon arriving home. The McNarys and Stivers contend that the student in question was as guilty of possession as their daughters were of consumption, and thus that the school is practicing a double standard by punishing one and not the other. “Consumption is consumption and possession is possession,” Sandy McNary said. “I said to him that I would carry it across the border and give it to his parents,” Donna Yargosz said. “I didn’t think about the other end of it, that he would have to get it somewhere first. Nobody granted him permission to buy.” Yargosz added that she feels it was “neither illegal nor immoral,” to hold the alcohol for the student. “I must say that given the furor that resulted I probably wouldn’t do it again,” she said. “But at the time I certainly didn’t see it as a problem. It’s an adult carrying something to give to an adult.” The school board members did not see it as improper either when they met on April 23. “We feel as a board that there

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Wed., May 8,1985 —THE MAIL-JOURNAL

was a very clear distinction between youth and adult,” Bill Little said. “There wasn’t anything improper at all for an adult to carry this through customs.” y However, as said, the parents of Becca Stiver and Mindi Wakeland did not think it was fair to condone one and punish the other. “They kept telling us that black was black and white was white,” said Karen Stiver. “We’re saying apparently it’s not because they did not punish this kid who had possession of alcohol, no matter whether he was given permission or not. That’s beside the point. Possession is possession.” Busy At Check-In As to whether or not Mrs. Yargosz and Mrs. Hull should have checked the rooms (the Wawasee students had a total of six rooms) before allowing the students to enter them, it should be noted that if there is a law saying that chaperones have to check rooms on school trips, it is an unwritten law. “Whether they checked our rooms or not doesn’t make any difference because we did it,” said Angie Graff, one of the students who is not protesting her punishment. Mrs. Yargosz explained that the checking-in process at the Acapulco hotel made it practically impossible to check the rooms before allowing the students to enter them. The biggest obstacle, she said, was that the students’ rooms were in two different towers of the hotel, so that it was anywhere from five minutes to 20 minutes from one to the other, depending on how busy the elevators were. Also, Mrs. Yargosz said, she and Mrs. Hull were the last ones in the Wawasee party to get their luggage and their room keys, and they spent some time after that pleading with hotel management to get all the rooms closer together, at least in the same tower. When she and Mrs. Hull did reach their room, they quickly started calling students to see if everything was okay. All the students said they were going to the beach, if they hadn’t left already. (Mrs. Yargosz said that the chaperones did not literally preinspect the rooms in Mexico City or Taxco either. She said that the chaperones would visit each room five minutes after check-in to see if everyone was okay and to remind the students about such things as dinner times). Spur Os Moment The opening of the four beers occurred moments after the four girls found their room. They described the incident as a “spur of the moment” thing. “That’s what it was,” Irma Cruz said. “We were so excited. We were in Acapulco and everything, and it was great.” ‘ Cruz explained the beerdrinking episode in detail. “We were looking around the room and the first thing we saw was the refrigerator,” she said. “Angie opened it up and she saw these ice cubes, and we were happy about that. And then we got dressed or whatever and were still looking around the room, and then we saw the beers. We just opened ’em and it was like a toast. ‘We’re here!’ and all that, and then we went down to the beach.” Cruz, beginning to sob as she spoke, recalled what the girls did on Wednesday night after they had spoken to Mrs. Yargosz and returned to their room. “When we first found out that we were gonna get it, I can’t say we all broke down,” she said. “Angie was more or less shocked. It was like she was numb or something. She started to pack. Me and Becca were crying ’cause we knew what we were gonna get. Mindi was, too. We just knew. It hurt!” Cruz does not dispute the fact that she broke a school rule, but does question having to attend the drug and alcohol awareness program. As of last week, she had not registered in one. “I only took a sip and then put it down,” she said. “I don’t think I need to go to something like that to tell me not to do it again.”

Cruz is also aware that if she does not attend the counseling program she will be ineligible for cheerleading or track her senior year. If she does attend the program, she will be eligible on Oct. 1, as will the other three girls. “I don’t think we deserved as much as we got,” she said. A Correctional Facility? That, of course, is what Tom and Karen Stiver and Bob and Sandy McNary are contending, , that the Wawasee athletic code is too severe. “Our girls did not willingly go to a party or get drunk,” Karen Stiver said. “They were put in this room with an unlocked bar. Like Sandy stated, they’re silly 16-year-olds in Acapulco. Nobody can seem to think that you can be excited and do something spur of the moment.” « “The code is not designed for the student,” said Tom Stiver, who used to be a teacher at Wawasee High School. “It’s designed for school appearances. The idea is not to help the student but to say, ‘The school does not tolerate this type of thing.’ ” Sandy McNary feels it’s even tougher than that. “I feel that Wawasee High School is losing sight of the fact that it’s an educational facility,” she said. “It’s a correctional facility. “Half the student body up there has done this same thing and lied about it,” McNary added. “I’ve had parents tell me, ‘Boy, we were just lucky. Our kids lied and got out of it.’ ” Rules Can Change As the three-step appeals process has been exhausted, the athletic code issue is now a dead one unless someone would take it to court and challenge its legality. The athletic code can also be changed. It is looked at yearly by the school principal, superintendent, athletic coaches and by the school board. Any changes are voted on early in the year (January or February) by the school board. Hull, who will this summer begin considering any possible changes, said that he is not averse to changing the athletic code. He said that he does not, however, want to be forced to change it because of one emotional issue, such as the one involving the four girls. “It’s an unfortunate situation,” Donna Yargosz said, “and I certainly regret that the whole thing happened. Being a parent myself , I can certainly identify with people, where your child is in trouble and you want to be right in there making sure that if there is punishment, that it’s the way it should be. “We went to Mexico with a very good group of people,” Yargosz said. “The trip had many, many positive things that came out of it. It’s a shame that one incident has overshadowed all of the many things.” WITH NIPSCO 25 YEARS — Two Syracuse men, Frederick L. Avery and Donald L. Weaver, recently marked 25 years employment with the Northern Indiana Public Service Company. Avery, left, is area supervisor in the Goshen district, having joined NIPSCO in 1960. He is a Syracuse High School graduate and resides with his wife Elinor and their three children at 522 North Huntington Street. Weaver, a mechanic equipment operator in the Goshen district, joined NIPSCO in 1960. He was born in Mishawaka and graduated from Wakarusa High School. He served eight years in the U.S. Army. Weaver and his wife Diane and their three children reside on r 1 Syracuse, and attend Wawasee Lakeside Chapel.

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