| AP 4-Mar-1997 22:38 EST REF6083
Copyright 1997. The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
Girl Expelled For Tiny Knife
ALEXANDRIA, La. (AP) -- An 8-year-old girl who brought her
grandfather's pocket watch to school was expelled because of a tiny
knife attached to its chain.
Under Rapides Parish's "zero tolerance" policy, a student who brings a
weapon to school must be expelled.
Kameryan Lueng was expelled Friday from her school for above-average
students and sent to the Redirection Academy -- the last resort for the
district's most troublesome students. She must stay there at until at
least March 31, when the district's disciplinary committee rules on her
appeal.
"I sent my 8-year-old child to prison school This is an A-B student who
never missed a day of school," said her father, Glenn Lueng.
Lueng said he would rather have kept Kameryan home. But he didn't want
people to think she was getting special treatment because he is
president of the Rapides Parish Advisory Council and the PTA at his
daughter's school.
Lueng said the school's policy on punishment for weapons gives teachers
and principals no discretion. However, state policy lets school
officials decide the penalty for children who bring a knife that has a
blade less than 2 inches long, he said. His father's watch fob has an
inch-long blade.
"It's used for cleaning your fingernails and your cuticles," he said.
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| AP 4-Mar-1997 22:13 EST REF6066
Copyright 1997. The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
9-year-old Faces Felony Charge
By ANGIE BLUETHMAN
Associated Press Writer
LAS VEGAS (AP) -- He's been arrested, searched, charged with a felony
and now 9-year-old Jeremy Anderson is headed for trial -- all because
he wrote his name in wet cement.
An innocent plea was entered Tuesday for Jeremy, who is charged with
malicious destruction of property valued at more than $5,000.
"I think it's outrageous. I think the charge is ludicrous. The whole
thing has been mishandled," said Jeremy's mother, Barbara Anderson.
In November, Jeremy and some of his friends were on their way home from
school when a construction worker asked if they wanted to write their
names in a freshly poured cement sidewalk, Jeremy says.
"The man said I could, so I did," said Jeremy, who has won citizenship
awards at his elementary school.
He and his friends wrote their names and made hand and footprints.
A few weeks later, the contractor contacted Ms. Anderson, saying she
owed $11,000 because the company would have to redo the sidewalk. She
refused.
Ms. Anderson forgot about the conversation until Jan. 28, when Jeremy
didn't come home on the school bus. His school said police had taken
Jeremy and they couldn't reach her at work.
In Nevada, police can legally arrest anyone 8 years and older for a
crime, and property crimes above $5,000 are considered felonies. The
other children weren't charged because they are younger than 8.
Cranford Crawford, assistant director of Family and Youth Services,
said children are stripped down to their underwear and searched during
booking at Juvenile Hall.
"That's a lot of horrible mental anguish to subject a mother to," said
Robert Kossack, a civil rights attorney representing the boy.
Jeremy doesn't quite understand why he is in trouble, but said he knows
it's "for the sidewalk."
"He's not a behavioral problem. He's never done anything wrong. ...
It's a tragedy actually, and it can happen to anybody's child," Ms.
Anderson said.
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| AP 9-Mar-1997 22:55 EST REF5587
Copyright 1997. The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
Calif. Bar Bans 'Straight' Kiss
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- A city commission has reprimanded a popular
Market Street gay bar for a policy that bans heterosexual couples from
kissing.
The Cafe, in the city's predominantly gay Castro District, violated
non-discrimination laws by ejecting a man and woman last August and
invoking a "no straight make-out" policy, according to Cynthia
Goldstein of the Human Rights Commission.
After The Cafe failed to retract its policy, Goldstein asked the
commission to issue a "director's finding" against the bar on Feb. 23.
The bar faces no penalty, but is on record in San Francisco as having
committed discrimination.
"I was trying to be sensitive to the needs of my customers," bar
manager Morgan Gorrono told the San Francisco Examiner on Saturday. "My
main complaint from customers is there are too many straight people
here."
Gorrono said he has since changed the policy and now bans heavy kissing
by people of all sexual orientations.
The kissing dispute started when Damon Jacobs, a friend of the couple,
complained to the city after the couple was thrown out of The Cafe last
summer.
The couple was "kissing pretty deeply," Jacobs said.
"The bartender went up to them and said something like 'This is a gay
bar. What you're doing is very offensive to people here. I'd like to
ask you to leave for your own safety."'
Moments later, Jacobs, who is gay, and the couple were thrown out by
the bouncer. Another friend also was forced to leave.
"I was appalled that this was happening to my friends in this
community," Jacobs said. "It's very disappointing to me that our
businesses are being such poor role models."
Gorrono said the man and woman were ejected mainly because they were
drunk; they began kissing and blocking the bar only after being refused
drinks, he said. "It wasn't really a straight issue. It was a drinking
issue," he said.
But the Human Rights Commission took a closer look at the incident
after Gorrono wrote to the Bay Area Reporter, a local gay newspaper.
Gorrono's Sept. 19 letter defended his bartender's decision to eject
the couple.
"She (the bartender) told them a lot of gay people find it offensive
when straight people come into a gay bar and start to make out,"
Gorrono wrote. "It's like throwing water in our face ...."
"As for The Cafe changing our policy on straight people making out,
this will not change," he wrote. "They will still be asked not to,
once. If they don't like it, they can leave. This is a gay bar and they
are the guests of our community."
Said Goldstein: "Whether they were drunk or not drunk was not really
the issue. (Gorrono) stated there was a policy that treated people of a
different sexual orientation differently."
Gorrono maintains that The Cafe welcomes everyone. But in recent years,
he said, more straight people have frequented the bar, causing
complaints from some gay customers.
"People feel the Castro is being invaded," he said. "But we don't care
about straight people (coming to the bar) as long as they don't flaunt
it.
Some of Gorrono's customers agreed with a ban on straight kissing.
"When we can get married, they can kiss in our bars," said Patrick
Wagner, a Castro resident sipping a beer on the bar's outdoor deck on
Saturday. "There are several hundred bars where straights can go kiss.
So, out of respect for our community, I think they should refrain from
kissing here."
But Maurice Harris, a patron at a nearby bar, said any ban on sexual
expression would mar the Castro's tradition of embracing all lifetyles.
"Anyone can kiss around here," said Harris, who is bisexual. "You can
be anything you want in the Castro. The Castro is all about tolerance."
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