Hattiesburg American from Hattiesburg, Mississippi • 25

Thursday, November 28, 1985 Hattiesburg AMERICAN 1 iffiiaftCfJJf CAJUN MOVIE, Page 2C SVM! jy NEW WAR AT 0LD BATTLEFIELD, Page 3C pywVUS) MT NOAH'S ARK SEARCH, Page 4C STUDENT'S WORK IN SPACE, Page 5C Walters says suits frivolous Officials learning to grade teachers 1 jir jumping off this thing. "It'll only take five lawsuits to eat up $10,000, and that's what I paid last year. I don't know of a recent year when I didn't have more suits filed than that." Walters advocates imposing a penalty on plaintiffs whose lawsuits are found to be frivolous. "I am told that in England if you file a frivolous lawsuit against a law enforcement officer, if you win, so be it," he said. "If you lose, five years is added to your time.

I like that." The sheriff said filing numerous lawsuits is becoming a way for prisoners to "beat the system." "For instance, prisoners throughout the United States who are known to file lawsuits are being released from jails because of the expense," Walters said. "Another example we've got a prisoner in Florida who is a known 'writ "He's already got a suit pending against us here, a suit pending against the Jones County sheriff, a suit pending against Parchman. Florida called to release him to us because he's served his time in Florida," he said. "Our first reaction is to leave him in Florida but I decided that if we did that, he'd have beaten the system. We can't set that kind of precedent." Walters said the prisoner will be returned to Forrest County.

By JANET BRASWELL AMERICAN Staff Writer Forrest County Sheriff Gene Walters thinks a rash of what he calls "frivolous" lawsuits led to the recent cancellation of his liability insurance policy written through the National Sheriff's Association. "The situation with frivolous lawsuits being filed against sheriffs and other law enforcement agencies is at a crisis state," Walters said Wednesday. "A penalty must be imposed on those filing a frivolous lawsuit; otherwise, prisoners are beating the system." Although Walters and his department currently have no liability insurance themselves, they are covered by the county's general insurance policy while the board of supervisors tries to find a less expensive policy for Walters. The premium on his NSA policy jumped from about $10,000 to $25,000 a year. The NSA has cancelled policies nationwide because of the rising legal costs associated with prisoner lawsuits.

"I've been sued many, many times and I've never lost a lawsuit, but that doesn't mean it's not an expense," Walters said. "It takes $1,500 to $2,500 in attorney's fees to answer a lawsuit. They have to do the work, do the depositions, make the discoveries. It's time consuming, and they have to get paid. So that's the reason the insurance people are Cjtate Roundup AP Photo SALVATION ARMY Corpar Sgt.

Maj. Alfred 250 to 300 men Thanksgiving Day at the 'Hawkins (left) watches as cooks (from left) Salvation Army in Jackson. The menu will Dillard Abbott, Larry Benstem and Winton include turkey and dressing with gravy, corn, Forrest prepare some of the eight turkeys and peas, mashed potatoes, hot rolls and pumpkin vegetables that will be served to an estimated pie. Supreme Court OKs raise on 1 6th Section land lease Turney refused to sign the new lease for the 31 acres of 16th Section land he leased and appealed the decision to the Supreme Court, Cooper said. Turney said he refused to sign the new lease because the school board refused to take into consideration that the leaseholder had to pay taxes on the land rather than the school board, which actually owned the land.

Normally, the landowner is responsible for paying taxes on leased land. Turney also disagreed with the language in the new lease, arguing that it would "waive my right to due process of law." In 1982, the state Supreme Court ruled that the Marion Councy School Board had to reappraise Turney's land and base the lease price on "fair rental value" rather than any arbitrary price determined by the School board, Turney said. was hoping the Supreme Court would further define fair (rental) value," Turney said. "My argument has never been over a particular dollar amount," he said. "It's the way things were done.

Now, I guess the school board can set any rate so desired. ByBILLSUTLEY and SUSANA BELLIDO AMERICAN Staff Writers The Mississippi Supreme Court Wednesday affirmed a Chancery Court decision that the Marion County School Board acted properly in raising 16th Section land activist Steve Turney's land lease. "It's a shocker," Turney said Wednesday. Ironically, the state Supreme Court ruled in favor of Turney in 1982 when he challenged the school board's method of determining how much to charge for a 16th Section land lease. Justice Lenore Prather wrote the latest decision affirming the Marion County Chancery Court ruling on the suit the school board filed against Turney.

Fred Cooper, the tchool board's attorney, said the January 1984 decision by then-Chancellor Michael Sullivan, now a Supreme Court justice, stated the board had properly determined Turney's rent amount and did not exceed its authority by asking Turney to sign a new lease. Sullivan did not participate in the appeal. By CATHEY O'DONNELL AMERICAN Staff Writer Instead of their usual job of coordinating school activities next week, several local school ad-minstrators will be learning new ways to evaluate teachers. "We want to be fair with teachers," said Petal Assistant Superintendent Mike Walters. "This is one thing that makes teachers more nervous than anything else.

They want to be assured that the evaluator knows what he is doing." School administrators from Hattiesburg, Petal, Forrest County and Forrest County Agricultural High school districts will attend a five-day session to learn how to objectively evaluate teacher work performance. Dr. John Frisk, director of curriculum for the Hattiesburg public schools, said the evaluators will be trained to look for "very specific things." He said the Mississippi evaluation system is based on a Georgia model. The Professional Teaching Evaluation Training program teaches school administrators to look for 16 different aspects of a teacher's work, said Alan Evans, director of the School Executive Management Institute. Factors range from how the individual teacher makes lesson plans to how effectively that teacher grades the student.

"This is an ongoing effort," Evans said. "This is not any different than what people in business and industry do. A successful businessman knows that when you put time into training your managers, they become better." The new teacher evaluation program has been implemented for the first time, and Evans said more than 1,000 administrators across the state will learn the program this year. Next year, the program will teach the other 1,000 school ad ministrators. Although the Education Reform Act mandates that all teachers will be evaluated by 1988, beginning teachers must establish their professional competency immediately.

"The program starts with the beginning teachers," Allen said. "They will have up to three years to demonstrate competency to get a license." New teachers in the school district will receive a provisional license until they become fully certified, Evans said. Walters, who has already been through the program, said the administrators must evaluate four different teachers, observed on a videotape, and then rate them in the 16 competency areas. After that, the administrators' ratings are compared to those of evaluation experts. Walter said the ratings, one through five, must be the same.

"The school district must use the same method as the rest of the state so that the teachers can expect the same things," Walters said. Eventually, all teachers in the state will have to learn the evaluation process, Walters said, because teachers who have student teachers in the classroom must evaluate them according the basic competency standards. "Unless teachers are certified with the TAI (Mississippi Teacher Assessment Instrument), the teachers will not be able to have student teachers," Walters said. In addition to evaluting individual teacher performance, Walters said the new rating system will have an impact on each school district's performance-based accreditation standards. The rating system might also be used in deciding which teachers would receive merit pay, he said.

Blue laws may be on legislative agenda JACKSON (AP) Lawmakers say the furor over Mississippi's blue laws may push the Legislature into another attempt at revising the statutes when the 1986 session begins in January. Three cities Hattiesburg, Meridian and Ridgeland have decided to defy the ban on Sunday sales in recent weeks, while Columbus has announced it will continue enforcement of the laws. Mississippi prohibits Sunday sales In general but allows 82 exceptions. Enforcement is left to local officials and varies from strict to non-existant. "Hopefully, we can do something in the next session to at least differentiate what is legal and not legal, said Sen.

Con Maloney of Jackson, which has decided not to enforce the laws. Rep. Jerry Horton of Ecru said he hoped the dispute would enable the Legislature to break the deadlock. Roadblocks planned for holidays Hattiesburg police Tuesday began a holiday season crackdown on drinking and driving with a roadblock at U.S. 49 North and Broadacres Shopping Center.

"We're planning on running more roadblocks throughout the holiday season," Police Chief Keith Oubre said. "We're going to intensify our DUI enforcement efforts. With that in mind, we hope the public will be more careful with their drinking and driving." Oubre said Tuesday night's roadblock netted three arrests for DUI, four for suspended drivers' licenses, one each for ridiculing an officer, disorderly conduct and misdemeanor possession of marijuana and 11 traffic citations. Bynum arrested in shooting deaths MERIDIAN (AP) Lauderdale County officials have arrested Tommy Chris Bynum on murder and other charges in a shooting that left Doug Troxell, 35, of Chunky, dead and his wife wounded. Bynum, 23, was apprehended without resistance Tuesday night by Neshoba County authorities, sheriff's deputies said Wednesday.

Bynum also was charged with aggravated assault in the wounding of Gloria Troxell, 25, in the same incident and with shooting into an occupied vehicle. Authorities said the Troxells were shot Saturday from another car which had pulled up beside theirs near the old Irvin Motel on U.S. 80 east. Investigators gave no motive for the shootings but said Bynum had a police record that contained drug-related cases. Inmate mother free until Feb.1 JACKSON (AP) An inmate mother will be allowed to remain free until Feb.

1 so her 10-day-old baby will not be "punished for sins of the mother," Gov. Bill Allain said Wednesday. At a news conference, Allain said he took the action because he was concerned about the baby's health not because he believed 39-year-old Diane Southerland had a constitutional right to breast feed her child while behind bars. "We're not setting a precedent here," Allain said. "Each case will be determined on the facts at hand.

We're concerned for the health of the baby. We don't believe the baby should be punished for the sins of the mother." In McComb, a tearful Ms. Southerland said, "I was beginning to understand how the condemned must feel while on death row just waiting for the governor's call. I am so happy, and I want to thank Gov. Allain for his decision.

"Now I will be able to spend Thanksgiving and Christmas with the kids and help them get settled." Nurse refuses to treat man, may be fired PASCAGOULA (AP) A nurse on the staff of Singing River Hospital says she has been suspended without pay and may be fired for refusing to care for a patient she believes has AIDS. Mrs. Rose Marie Fuller of Escatawpa said she was suspended Tuesday for three days after she declined to enter a man's room to care for him. A hospital spokesman said there was a patient with suspected AIDS related complex, but said confirmation that he had AIDS was very difficult at this time. Mrs.

Fuller said she was told to call the hospital when her suspension was up "to see if I still have a job." She said her refusal to enter the room was based on fear she might contract the disease and pass it to her two small daughters and her husband. I KrBrM I if I Tr? i 18 If i ti a i APPtxXO She said it was the first time in her three years at the hospital she had refused to care for a patient. MEMBERS of the Columbus Light Department are already placing some decorations high above the city streets in the Friendly City. Turkey-cranberry ritual stems from chief's remark vension and hoecake because a deer is larger than a turkey and less elusive, firearms of the day had barrels that flared like bugles and you did not fire them anywhere near the house for fear of bringing down a relative. Oh well, maybe there were 20 or 30 turkeys.

Are you with me? One of the Indians, a minor chief by name of Breaking Wind, a quiet man who had no idea that in the long run descendants of his benefactors would slaughter Indians and pen them up like pigs on various reservations, discovered if he dumped cranberries on his gummy turkey it would kill the taste. "It is more than passing strange that when eaten alone, these berries are lousy but on the meat they are not all that bad," the chief said. A table-hopping Pilgrim by name of Jeremiah Fawnwell happened to overhear the remark and that night, in the privacy of his home he tested the idea on a chunk of leftover turkey. Within the month Fawnwell was growing his own cranberries in a bog near his log house. Prior to this time cranberries only grew wild and you rarely ate them because mayhaws were better.

So, of course, was cherry cough syrup. In a natural, but accidental progression, Fawnwell came up with cranberry juice and jelly because if he threw them into the yard they drew flies, which will eat anything. The bears would not touch the stuff. No great stretch of imagination was required in a decision by one of Fawnwell's cousins to capture and breed some turkeys, so that there would be something on which to put the cranberries. Breaking Wind was not appraised of any of this and hadn't an idea that his casual dinner chitchat would launch in years to come celebration of a national holiday, this built almost entirely on the fact turkey is I have researched this thing in good conscience, yet knowing it would not be well received; and what I must tell you is that an ancient Cranberry Conspiracy inspired by a hungry Indian is responsible for Thanksgiving as we know it.

Early on in the history of the nation, the people who grew cranberries knew the only way to market them successfully was to slather them on turkey. Why turkey? Because only one cook in a hundred knows how to cook it and many times it comes from the oven too dry, or absolutely slimy. Don't be deceived by the fact roast turkey is photogenic. A full-color picture of a heat-varnished turkey corpse excites the tongue-buds. Yet, the truth is turkey has a sickly-sweet taste to it, no matter how patiently it is prepared.

They say that the Pilgrims didn't even serve all that much turkey on that fateful photogenic and that cranberries disguise the sickly-sweet taste of it. Left to their own devices the Indians of succeeding generations did not celebrate Thanksgiving and for damned good reason. Nor did they show any recorded appetite for turkey or cranberries. They preferred walnuts eaten right out of the shell and buffalo jerky, whatever that is. What I am saying here is gustatory sacrilege but Thanksgiving likely never would have caught on if the chief hadn't said what he said and Fawnwell hadn't heard it.

It shouldn't have caught on, anyway because if you need an official reminder to be thankful you are indeed in deep trouble. True gratitude is chronic. So, unfortunately, are turkey and cranberries. Elliott Chaze, a novelist, is a former city editor of the American. Qn the lopside ELLIOTT CHAZE long-ago day when they sat down with a few Indians up in Massachusetts or somewhere and expressed gratitude for survival by stuffing themselves silly.

Well, they could have had seven or eight turkeys but no more, according to the historians. It was mostly.