The Montgomery Advertiser from Montgomery, Alabama • 2

Montgomery Advertiser 2A Thursday. September 30, 2004 COMING TOMORROW Peers: 'Your district is very lucky' mm I r- f- From Page 1A and unique ways to look at things. There are nothing but puod things 1 can say about her. Your district is very lucky to have her." Mac Williams, chairman of the Cumberland County Board of Education, said Puree 11 has helped provide pvat leadership for his district throughout the past two years. "She and our superintendent (William Henderson) have worked so well together and I would attribute the success we have seen to that leadership." Williams said.

While in Cumberland County. Puree reorganized the curriculum, Instruction and instructional support services programs into one department, which improved the delivery of serv ices to schools and the communication across the district be said. Last school year, scores on state assessments for African American students improved from 60 percent passing to 67 6 percent; for American Indians from 64 4 percent passing to 72.1 percent; for H.spanics from "6.4 percent pacing percent and for white students from 82.1 percent passing to 86 6 percent "She knows her instruction program well." Williams said. "Once she gets there (to Montgomery) she will get nuht in and identify what needs to be done and then she ill immediately go about getting those things done." Andre Henry, a principal at South Warren Elementary School in Warren County. N.C, said he remembers Puree 11 as being very accessible and pushing for a highly qualified staff.

lur-cell was the superintendent in Warren County from 1995 2002. "Everything was centered around curriculum. She was al Presidential debates Find out hat tri-county residents think about the presidential debate between President Bush and choose to know Nurse remembers experiment victims "1 i- 1 ii un i ii i Ki Wii nr in a T' A By Kirsten J. Barnes Montgomery Advertiser fctWTMSl 0 04MMtt.C6ai COLUMBUS. Ga.

At 19. Mary Starke Harper, a young nursing student from Phenix City, was eager to do whatever was required to complete her courses at hat was then Tuske-gee Institute. The year was and her assignment for community rotation was to assist nurse Eunice Rivers, the primary nurse for the now-infamous Tuskegee Svphilis Experiment. The U.S. Public Health Service began the experiment in Macon County during the fall of 12 and studied untreated syphilis in 399 poor, black sharecroppers.

Another 201 men who did not have the disease were stud-it! as controls. Harper was assigned to give injections and draw blood. She later discovered the study was a hoax. The government was studying what would happen to Negro males who were not treated for the then fatal disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "It's very sad what happened to those men." said Harper, now 85.

"We had a mobile bus and we went to all these communities throughout the county Nota-sulga. Union Springs. The men would meet us there. We gave them all injections." The men were sent letters tolling them when and where to meet the bus. They would come Mary Stark Harper, a student nurse during the Tuskegee Syphillis Experiment, poses with Ernest Hendon, the last living survivor of the experiment during a banquet in Tuskegee in 2002.

Hendon died Jan. 16, 2004. EMERGENCY ROOM Jackson Hospital is today's designated trauma center until 7 un. Friday. LOTTERY Wednesday's numbers Florida Cash 14 3 1 ft, $4 9 2 Fantasy 5:13 3 24 36 lott7 3S 1 26 SO 22 Ceorgia Cash 3 Midday: 6 2 4 Cask 3 Evening: 77 Cash 4 Midday: 0 7 1-3 Cash 4 Evening: 7-7-04 fantasy 13 24-27-31-38 lotto Sovtk 13-15-30-35-39-40 Bontgomrrj dt'trtiscr Visit the newspaper A 65 "ieHSof yJ-V Advertiser 4Ji Moton it I Mail PO.

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Subscription rate changes may be implemented by dunging the duration of the subscription. ways looking at different ways to improve test scores and student performance." said Henry, whose school has about 285 students and is located in rural Warren County. "She believed that all children had the ability to learn, no matter what kind ut background they came from, and our test results later proved that she was ritjht" Otis Smith had two children at Northside Elementary School in Warren County, N.C, while Puree as there. "1 remember her being very straightforward with her staff and with parents," said Smith, who lives in Norlina. N.C "She was aggressive and some people didn't like that but she was exactly hat we needed.

We needed someone who would be aggressive and not listen to excuses. I hold a lot of respect for her and think she did an outstanding job when she was here." Contributed took the case. Gray said Charlie Pollard, one of the men in the study, brought a copy of the newspaper to his office, and told him his story. Four months later, on Nov. 16, the study ended.

"This was a deadly deception." Gray said. "The men were never told that they had a deadly disease." "I remember Mr. Pollard very well," Harper said. "I was specifically his nurse. He was on my Mary Harper, who worked on the project as a 19-yearold student nurse and watched the disease take Its deadly toll on the study participants, disagrees ith both sides.

"The money that's left should go to the families, who can't even pay the rent," she said. In September 1975, the government and Gray agreed to a settlement of $9,086,000, which stipulated that if any money was remaining after all survivors and heirs were paid it would revert to the U.S. Treasury. Approximately $170,000 remains and the government is ready to collect. "If I knew then what I know now about the government abuses, "I would have never entered into the agreement that I did." Gray said.

But the government is steadfast in Its argument. "This is not the mechanism and taxes them unfairly. The state, the suit claims, has a "standard pattern, practice and even an unwritten policy of deliberate indifference" to noncustodial parents and their rights. "Parents are tired of being mistreated as citizens by state courts." Torm How-se. president of the Indiana Civil Rights Council, said in a statement Wednesday.

His organization is coordinating the national class action suit. "We are trying to protect the right of all fit parents to share equally in the custody and care of their children," he said. Weiss' suit also claims that child support payments, based on income shares, are "inherently erred" and "have no basis in fact or established data." In addition, the suit claims, the state has no method of "reasonable accountability" for proving that She was a quiet and thoughtful woman who thought a lot about making a lasting impression on Montgomery." The university is to use its gift for such programs as scholarships, which delights Nance. Young Meadows, of which Young was a co founding member, is to use its gift toward building costs. And Fairview United Methodist Church, which one of her grandfathers helped U.S.

Sen. John Kerr)'. team. As the disease progressed and began to affect the men's brain, nerves, eyes, heart, blood vessels, liver, bones and joints, treatment still was ithheld. Even after 1947, when penicillin became the preferred treatment for syphilis and the medicine was readily available, it was not given to the men.

Between and 1972. it has been documented that 28 men died of syphilis and another 100 died of related complications. Forty of the men's wives were infected and 19 children contracted the disease at birth. The men were told thev had "bad blood," a term the CDC said was used to describe several ailments, including syphilis, anemia and fatigue. In 1976 Gray won a $9,066,000 settlement for the victims and survivors.

In exchange for their participation in the study the men received free medical exams, free meals and free burial insurance. The government provided burial insurance so that It would have access to the bodies for autopsies. "Dr. Jerome Peters, a pathologist, was hired by the project to autopsy all the men who died. I was the person that worked with him," Harper said.

Each Saturday, Harper, eager to learn more about anatomy, went to a Tuskegee funeral home, where she and Peters were given a room to do the autopsies. through which the government disburses monies to charitable organizations," Doyle said. Although Gray and his son, Fred Gray are officers of the center and Gray's daughter is the only paid employee. Gray insists no impropriety exists. The other officers include Milton McGregor, Johnnie Roy-ster, Carl Marbury and Eddie Tullis, none of whom is paid, Gray said.

His daughter makes less than $35,000 a year and "does whatever needs to be done" for the 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, he said. Tax returns support this statement "For the first three years we had no budget and she was paid out of this office," Gray said, referring to his law firm. He said the officers act primarily as fundraisers for the center. "Instead of people giving me honorariums for speaking engagements, I've been asking them to give the money to the has received the child support paid is actually used for the children for whom it is intended. In part, the suit asks the court to give equal custodial status for all "fit" noncustodials, to prohibit custodial parents with minors from moving more than 60 miles away from their original physical residence and to abolish all child support forfeitures, such as revoking drivers' or professional licenses.

Plaintiffs also want the court to prevent their children's names or surnames from being changed without mutual consent and to establish "neutral" visitation centers staffed by professionals. Montgomery resident Charles Wise was once a noncustodial parent His children now are grown, but he said he understands the hardships parents face. Syphilis: President Clinton apologized to survivors in 1997 once or twice a month. Harper said during an interview at her home Tuesday night. Trays of syringes were pre-filled by the doctors conducting the study and Harper and Rivers had no way of knowing what was in each syringe.

"Patients were numbered and the syringes were numliered too," Harper said. After the study was exposed in a 1972 newspaper article, civil rights attorney Fred Gray Sr. for the purpose of creating such a lasting memoriaL" Today, the center is at the heart of new litigation in the case of Charlie W. Pollard v. United States of America the class action suit filed against the government on behalf of the victims of the study.

On July 20, the U.S. Attorney's Office filed a response to Gray's motion, stating that all parties already agreed to return any remaining money and that the government has a right to collect. "As laudable an institution as it is, it Is not a party to this lawsuit. The settlement agreement laid out very specifically how the money would be disbursed," said Stephen Doyle, civil chief of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Alabama.

"We have no authority to do otherwise. This was a binding itHntgamfyKJvft! com "My job was to open the skull so the doctor could see the brain. I handled all the specimens and labeled all the jars," she said. At the time. Harper said, "I felt like I was helping those peo-ple" Now that she knows the truth, she said: "1 feel bad that I was potentially a part of something that was detrimental to those men.

They paid with their lives." Harper said she and Peters did at least two autopsies most Saturdays. "We did four on one Saturday," she recalled. She said she never suspected anything was amiss. "Students have a lot more authority now than they did then," Harper said. "Students now can refuse to do things.

They can question. In those days if you couldn't carry out orders, they said you weren't fit for nursing. "I was a student I was a poor girl and I wasn't about to mess up and ask them (the doctors) their business. I thought they knew what they were doing. I did what I was told," she said.

Later studies, books and films dispute that Rivers was unaware of the deception of the 600 men. but Harper has a different view. "She nor I had any knowledge," she said. "For them to say that she participated in ithholding treatment is a lie." center," Gray said. The issue is before U.S.

Magistrate Judge Vanzetta Penn McPherson now. "She'll make a recommendation to the district court judge," Doyle said. "We anticipate there will probably be another briefing before a ruling." In 1998 the building donated to the center's board by the Exchange Bank of Alabama was turned over to Macon County, which leased it back to the center for use as a museum and visitors center for the county. Now closed for a $400,000 renovation, the center may reopen within 60 days with a display chronicling the history of Macon County, showing the contributions of Native Americans, European Americans and African Americans, said Deborah Gray. It also will feature a circular floor display with all 600 names of the study's participants.

complaint "Dealing with custody and family relationships that are in the process of divorce or separation are very sensitive issues," he said. "Divorce may be a legal separation, but it doesn't dissolve relationships to the extent that your parents are always your parents for future weddings, birthdays, graduations and other family activities." Tim Smith, sitting state president of the Alabama Family Rights Association, said his organization supports the suit The statewide group has about 250 members in Alabama. "Some of the problems are access to children as far as visitation and phone contact access to school and or medical records and recognition as parent" said Smith, a noncustodial parent of an 11-year-old son. "Sometimes we feel that we are half parents." ing from a gas-powered generator in Young's house during a power outage. "Nothing can replace these ladies, but this (news of the bequests) brings comfort to family and friends and benefits Montgomery," Birmingham said.

Her cousin agreed. "It's been 13 days, and I still don't feel like it's real," Cedora Madden said. "But this is the way she has always been, always generous." From Page 1A condition. Instead, they were given injections and pills that had no curing effects on their ailment. On May 16.

1997, President Clinton apologized to the last eight survivors of the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment "We can look you in the eye and finally say on behalf of the American people, what the United States did was shameful, and I am sorry," Clinton said. Before the apology, Herman Shaw, one of the men in the study, said, addition to an apology, we want to construct in Tuskegee a permanent memorial. A place where our children and grandchildren will be able to see the contributions that we, and others, made to this country. I am glad that 1 have helped form the Tuskegee human rights multicultural center, which will be Custody: From Page 1A states over the past two weeks, representing an estimated 25 million noncustodial parents. Weiss said more states are sure to follow.

"It's a uniform class action suit, and we are hoping to have all the class action suits consolidated for all 50 states and have a national class action suit" he said. Gov. Bob Riley and state Attorney General Troy King are named as defendants in the lawsuit Weiss filed. Suzanne Webb, spokeswoman for the attorney general's office, confirmed Wednesday that the office had received the complaint but added: "We do not have any comment at this time." The suit alleges idespread practices" by the state in determining the care, custody and fin- Attorney general's office WANTTOJOIN THE LAWSUIT? You do not have to do anything to "join" the class action suit for noncustodial parents. If you are a noncustodial parent who is a United States citizen, 18 years of age or older and currently paying child support, you are automatically represented in the class.

ON THE WEB To find out more about the national class action custody lawsuit for noncustodial parents, go to www.indianacrc.org classaction.html ancial support of children. The state, the lawsuit alleges, unlawfully deprives noncustodial parents of a relationship with their children, does not ensure them equal time with their children but she said she has heard so much about her from Young Meadows pastor Jim Simoneau. "What a valuable lady she was. And what an example she set" she said. AUM Chancellor Guin Nance agreed.

"I'm almost speechless today with mixed emotions." said Nance, who also considered Young a good friend. "She was not into ostentatious giving. Giving: AUM's gift will help fund student scholarships From Page 1A Meadows. Hightower was there for the news conference, but she and her youngest daughter also wanted to see what the museum offers. "We just moved here in May and are so excited about ARTWORKS (the children's hands-on gallery)." she said.

"We want to check it out" Hightower never met Young, found on Old Selma Road, is to use its gifts for purposes to be determined by the church's governing body. Birmingham, executor of Young's estate, said Young often attended the church as a child, and it as there that her parents met At the time of her death, Young was not alone. Edwina Capleton, Young's maid, and Eva Traywick, Young's nurse, also died of carbon monoxide poison 4.