The Courier-Journal from Louisville, Kentucky • Page 3

THE COURIER-JOURNAL, THURSDAY, MARCH 3, 1994 3 Schools might not drop testing of seniors 1 kml sage that the 12th grade is a throw-away and we ought to forget about it," Tom Gish said. Scores released last fall for seniors dropped drastically compared to scores for fourth- and eighth-graders, which generally stayed the same or improved. Many principals want the tests moved to the 11th grade because they think seniors don't take them seriously. But skeptical state board members would like to consider splitting the tests in half. One option suggested was having llth-graders answer the short-essay question portion and having seniors do writing portfolios, which are collections of students' work, and performance events, in which groups of students solve problems.

The Office of Education Accountability plans to review the entire testing system, including the question of moving the tests to the 11th grade. Several board members were agreeable to waiting until the study is done before deciding. "I'm really kind of loath to say move it, or absolutely leave it the way it is," Helen Mountjoy said. Ed Reidy, the deputy commissioner for Learning Results Services, said he will present a series of options to the state board at its May meeting. It is possible to split the tests because they are used to judge schools, not students, he said.

Reidy added, however, that there is not much difference between the achievement levels of 12th-graders tested early in their senior year and llth-graders tested late in their junior year. The advantage of moving the tests to the 11th grade is that they can be graded in time to make changes in the 12th grade to help students improve, he said. In other action, the state board: Heard a recommendation from Education Commissioner Thomas Boysen to change the name of education goals from "learner outcomes" to "academic expectations." Boysen said the change is part of an effort to rewrite and reduce the number of goals so they focus more on academics and to help laymen better understand them. Heard testimony from Clinton County school officials on a budget deficit that has led to the resignation of the superintendent and accusations of wasteful spending and political favoritism. The board will wait until its next meeting to accept the district's plan for eliminating the deficit.

It includes a proposal to lay off 18 non-tenured teachers. By MARK SCHAVER Staff Writer FRANKFORT, Ky. Seniors could still be tested on how they are doing under school reform next year under new proposals that the state school board will consider. The Education Department has recommended moving the tests to the 11th grade, but some state board members said they would like to consider testing both grades instead. Some also want to consider moving the tests from the second half of the senior year to early in the 12th grade.

Board members on the learning support and results committee said they were concerned about the message they would send seniors if they moved the entire test to the 11th grade. "What I keep hearing is the mes Laketa Jones stood in the doorway of a coroner's Inquest room yesterday listening to testimony regarding the death of her 3-year-old son, David Wayne Woods, shown above in a family photograph. The boy suffocated Just hours before he was to be released from Kosair Children's Hospital last November. STAFF PHOTO BY BILL LUSTER 1 if Woman at work Watts calls phone company to task over sex-segregated signs Jury scolds hospital in death of boy, but doesn't place blame a 'v'-wV ft replace the signs by year's end and, meanwhile, to paint over the word "Men" on signs that can be painted. The move will cost the phone company $36,000 to $40,000.

"We take our role as a responsible corporate citizen very seriously," said Ellen Jones, a phone company spokeswoman. Another utility in Jefferson County, Louisville Gas Electric is gradually replacing its "Men working" signs with neutral versions as the old signs are damaged or broken, spokesman Clay Ryce said. "We recognize the fact that there is gender issue involved, and we are trying to move ahead," he said. The Louisville Water which rents its signs, uses "whatever is on the market," said spokeswoman Barbara Crow, including signs that warn of "Flag men ahead" and "Men at work." Weinstein, who heads the Commission on Women, said those signs send a message that "only men work, and women don't." The gender issue is hardly new. In 1978, the Federal Highway Administration dropped "Men Working" in favor of "Workers" or a symbol of a person working in its "Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices," the bible of highway signs.

Laura White, a spokeswoman for the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, said the highway department has leaned toward the pictograph although she said "the perception is that it is a male. It looks like it has pants on." By ANDREW WOLFSON, Staff Writer To lawyer Charles Zimmerman, the battle is a perfect example of "petty, nit-picky government bureaucracy" that drives up the cost of doing business. Conservative businessman Bill Stone calls it "intellectual harassment," "crazy" and "a joke." But to Marsha Weinstein, executive director of the Kentucky Commission on Women, there is nothing trivial about road signs that say "Men working." "Language is fundamental in how we view society," Weinstein says. And Kathleen Jordan, staff lawyer for the Kentucky Commission on Human Rights, believes that "Men working" signs are just as offensive as "Whites working" signs would be. On Dec.

29, a staff member of the human rights panel spotted a "Men working" sign at a South Central Bell work site in Jefferson County. Beverly Watts, the commission's executive director, brought the matter to the attention of Margaret Greene, the president of South Central Bell in Kentucky. "Perhaps," Watts wrote, "you are unaware that such sex-segregated signs can be viewed as perpetuating a discriminatory work environment and could be deemed unlawful under the Kentucky Civil Rights Act. "Perhaps you may wish to consider use of sex-neutral signs now that this matter has been brought to your attention," Watts suggested in her Feb. 4 letter.

Greene replied on Feb. 21 that the signs STAFF PHOTO BY BILL LUSTER A gender-neutral sign alerted drivers to work on the new Belvedere Connector on the Louisville riverfront yesterday. would be replaced as they were "retired." In an attached memo, the company said it would "migrate" to more gender-neutral verbiage as the old signs wore out. "I trust this will be satisfactory," Greene concluded. It wasn't.

Three days later, Jordan replied that the law requires prompt remedial action. Jordan wrote that she felt confident the "Whites working" signs "would be immediately removed." On Tuesday, South Central Bell agreed to her past. She agreed she had once been an Army medic and had been trained in the use of tracheostomy tubes. She said she hadn't known that if David's tube were removed he unlike most tracheostomy patients wouldn't be able to breathe while it was cleaned. Adams said after the inquest that he would file suit within 10 days against the hospital, Gregoire and her supervising nurse.

The boy's mother, Laketa Jones, testified that Gregoire had promised to stay with David while she went to fill prescriptions for him. She returned 30 minutts later to find his room filled with doctors and nurses. David was pronounced dead at 1:10 p.m. Jones who said she knew nothing of her son's death took a polygraph and passed every question, Louisville police Detective Kevin DeSpain testified. Several witnesses testified David was very careful about his tube and rarely let anyone touch it.

If a nurse or doctor wished to clean it, David would sit very still during the procedure, said Sally Sanders, his speech therapist. The only sound David could make was a low grunt, Sanders said, so no one would have heard him if he tried to scream. Nurses said it would have been nearly impossible for David to untie the string holding his tracheostomy. The string was at least double knotted, according to several witnesses. Nonetheless, Dr.

Mark Harrell said he found the tracheostomy string in David's bedding. The ends were crinkled, he said, as if they'd been untied. The tube was spotted by several nurses at the foot of David's bed completely separated from the strings. However, neither the strings nor the tube was recovered. Hospital workers searched the room's trash and a hospital administrator, John Smither, testified that he directed someone to follow a dumpster to the landfill to sift through the hospital's trash.

Asked why the trash wasn't saved for police, Smither said: "Well, we felt we wanted to go through it." By GARDINER HARRIS Staff Writer They couldn't decide who was responsible for the Nov. 30 death of a 3-year-old boy, but a coroner's jury scolded Kosair Children's Hospital yesterday for waiting a day before calling the coroner. "I feel the hospital was being very evasive," juror Kim Humphreys said after the verdict. "I have a problem with the fact that they decided at 6 o'clock to call the coroner, then they went home to have a nice dinner and get a good night's sleep before they called it in." Jefferson County Coroner Richard Greathouse called an inquest into the death of David Woods after the boy suffocated just hours before he was to be released from the hospital. The boy, who was born prematurely, breathed through a tube in his throat.

It somehow got dislodged, and David suffocated. The coroner's jury labeled the death accidental. None of the witnesses called at the inquest could provide a clear picture of how the death occurred. Kosair's lawyer, Karen Arnett, disagreed with the jury's conclusion that the hospital was negligent in waiting so long to report the death. "We believe we reported the incident in a timely way," Arnett said.

Much of the testimony focused on a student nurse, Christine Gregoire, who was the last to see the boy alive, according to testimony. Gregoire testified she checked on David one last time around 12:40 p.m. and noticed that he was sitting up in bed with his back to her, playing with some toys she'd left for him. When she returned moments later to feed him, David was unresponsive, she said. She said she checked his pulse but found none.

She said she didn't notice if his tracheostomy tube was still inserted in his neck. She said she ran out to find another nurse, and efforts were started to revive the boy. Gregoire refused to take a lie detector test. Bart Adams, an attorney for David's family, grilled Gregoire about Suit seeking ouster of Breathitt judge dismissed Breathitt Commonwealth's Attorney Mike Stidham filed suit to have Henson ousted from office. Henson and Stidham, who belong to different factions of Breathitt's Democratic party, had feuded over a plan to bring a state juvenile-detention center to the county.

But Stidham denied he was playing politics. Stidham, who won the ouster of Powell County Clerk Sherry Bowen on a similar lawsuit in Powell County last month, had noted that Henson filed his $50,000 performance bond Jan. 7, four days after his term began. The state law requires that county officers such as Henson must post performance bonds "on or before" the day they take office. If an official violates that provision, the law says, "his office shall be considered vacant, and he shall not be eligible for the same office for two years." Stidham could not be reached for comment yesterday.

He had said earlier that he would not appeal the case if he lost. Henson largely declined to comment, saying only that "justice and fairness have been done." It's unclear what effect the lawsuit might have on the case involving Bowen, the Powell County clerk. Her lawyer, Charles Coy, has already said that she plans to appeal her ouster. Coy could not be reached for comment yesterday. Special Judge Charles S.

Sinnette ordered Bowen removed from office last week on grounds that she failed to post her $75,000 performance bond until February, though she took office in January. Stidham had filed the suit seeking her ouster at the request of the Powell Fiscal Court, which is trying to collect about $100,000 in county money that was determined to be missing by a state audit of Bowen's office. Bowen has questioned the accuracy of the state audit and says no money is missing. In dismissing the suit that sought Henson's ouster, Frazier had drawn a distinction between county officials such as clerks, who handle large sums of money, and judge-executives, who do not. The opinion indicated that it would be more important for clerks to file performance, bonds than for judge-executives to do so.

"A county judge does not handle money, so what performance does the bond ensure?" Frazier's opinion asked. "The court does not have an answer." Ned Pillersdorf, Henson's lawyer, said it was "unfortunate" that the Bowen case would be appealed, because the case may ultimately uphold the constitutionality of a law that he said "disenfranchises voters on a technicality." By JOHN VOSKUHL Staff Writer JACKSON, Ky. Breathitt County Judge-Executive Nim Henson will keep his office despite his failure to post a required performance bond on time, a circuit judge ruled yesterday. In dismissing a lawsuit that had sought Henson's ouster, Special Circuit Judge Stephen "Nick" Frazier wrote that the state law requiring performance bonds for county judges is "a vague, poorly written statute with which it is almost impossible to strictly comply." Also, Frazier noted, several county officials across Kentucky have been similarly slow to file performance bonds. To throw each of them out of office would be absurd, he wrote: "The result would be chaos." The opinion would seem to settle a controversy that began after Refugees hope to heal scars of Bosnian war at Louisville hospital i'if sional chess player, was a soldier in the Bosnian army last November when a grenade landed in his trench.

The explosion blew off his right leg and damaged nerves in his left leg. "It is a living hell in Sarajevo," Kuljic said through an interpreter. Kuljic said he was glad to be in a clean, well-equipped hospital. He greeted his father, Marko, who had flown to Louisville Tuesday night. Marko Kuljic said he was grateful his son could come to Louisville for treatment, especially when so many Bosnians need help.

University Hospital and staff physicians are donating all medical services to the refugees. Several churches will support the families during their stay. Pasic said the Jefferson County Medical Society has been sending medical supplies to Bosnia for 18 months, including two tons last week. Most of the Bosnians who arrived this week fought for the Bosnian army. They include Serbs, Croats, Muslims and Catholics, a band of compatriots who defy the line that the war in Yugoslavia is based on irreconcilable religious differences.

"This is not a civil or religious-rights war," Pasic said. "This is a war of aggression." The refugees will have trouble adjusting to their new lives in Louisville, he added, "But they'll survive. There are others who are worse off." 1 it 3 I (I Wearing a U.S. Air Force cap and chewing a wad of gum, Hazeljic smiled frequently and answered questions from doctors, reporters and well-wishers crowded into his room. His interpreters included Iskren Abdomerovic, a 17-year-old Eastern High School student who moved to Louisville from Bosnia two years ago, and Dr.

Resad Paste, a Bosnian obstetrician who came to Louisville for a medical conference two years ago and found that he couldn't go home. More than 200,000 people are believed to be dead or missing in the war that erupted after Serbs rebelled against a decision by Bosnia's Muslims and Croats to declare independence from Serb-dominated Yugoslavia in the spring of 1992. From a continent away, the Louisville community has witnessed the horrors in abstract. Now refugees have arrived wearing the scars of war: Safet Kovacevic, 26, was a police officer in Bosnia last July when he tried to take a bomb from a man who threatened to throw it into a crowded restaurant. Kovacevic re- By HOLLY HOLLAND Staff Writer Last May, while fighting for the Bosnian army, Semsudin Hazeljic stepped on a mine outside Sarajevo.

The explosion ripped off both his legs. To get him to a hospital, friends and strangers carried Hazeljic by human chain through a nearly mile-long tunnel that had been dug by hand beneath an airport runway. Septic water lined the tunnel which was 3 feet wide and 5 feet high adding the risk of infection to his injuries. Conditions weren't much better at the hospital. With limited surgical supplies and no electricity or running water, doctors managed to close Hazeljic's wounds the physical ones at least.

Yesterday, the 25-year-old former engineering student found himself surrounded by a new layer of support at University of Louisville Hospital. He is one of five men who have arrived in the past two days for extensive surgery and rehabilitation. Zt mf STAFF PHOTO BY JAMES H. WALLACE Marco Kuljic visited with his son, Goran Kuljic, 29, yesterday in his room at University of Louisville Hospital. Kuljic, a soldier in the Bosnian army, lost his right leg last November to a grenade blast.

trieved the bomb. It exploded in nerves and muscles in his right leg. said Dr. Steve Henry, an orthope- his hand, tearing off his left leg at A holster Kovacevic wore on his die surgeon who reviewed his the knee and part of his right fore- hip apparently prevented internal wounds yesterday, arm. The explosion seared skin, injuries that could have killed him, Goran Kuljic, 29, a semi-profes.