Edmonton Journal from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada • 17

Marked crosswalks may cause more accidents than they prevent B3 ncity Off Your i Wash sia .4 IWdHMiiriiiii I mmdd 6 CONVEMENT LOCATIONS TO SBWE YOUr1 fcfcliiilllri fi'lft? Lisa Gregoire Journal Staff Writer Suspensions up as schools get tough on behaviour Get Out and Stay Out Of the 6,543 students expeled from Edmonton Public Schools in 1997-96: 1,419 were from elementary school 2,775 were from junior high 1,422 were from high school 840 were from a combined elementary-junior high school 87 were from alternative programs More kids are being suspended and expelled from Edmonton public schools than ever before. Some officials say it's because kids are more defiant and more blatant with alcohol, drugs and knives. Others say it's because the Edmonton Public School Board has developed formal rules, stricter penalties and better record-keeping for bad behaviour. The policy calls for zero tolerance toward aggression, defiance, drugs and alcohol, weapons and fighting. Even students carrying Swiss army knives are reprimanded.

"We're hoping the message just got out that inappropriate behaviour was going to be dealt with very firmly," said Huculak. Please see TOUGHB6 But whatever the reason, more kids are being sequestered, sent home or kicked out of the district for defying school rules. From 1991 to 1998, the number of suspensions in the public school system has more than tripled to 643 from 2,151. The numbers rose steadily and peaked in 1996-97 with 7,074. Dennis Huculak, public schools supervisor in leadership services, said he expects 1998-99 to end with about the same number of suspensions as last year or perhaps mora The number of expulsions grew to 95 last year from two in 1991.

For the first half of 1998-99, mere have been 8L The zero tolerance against violence policy implemented in 1993 is credited with making a difference. Autographed Stick Will Raise Money for Books Gregg's Time for Gretzky ideas to be Ml short-listed memento scores big at school Florence Loyie Civic Affairs Writer Edmonton on Ux life at 3 1u rMki 110' xi ilfii 1 City staff have stopped counting, but not collecting, the steady stream 'of ideas people are proposing as ways for Edmonton to honour Wayne Gretzkjf But there are two ideas that will likely not make the short list renaming city hall or the Skyreach Cenfpe, says Coun. Terry Cavanagh, whos chairing the six-person selection committee struck to do the job. 5s "I think renaming the (Skyreach Centre) now would be out Those kinds of things would be very difficult abd we also have to be very careful on how many dollars we are going to spend on it," Cavanagh said. 1' When the city commissioned the bronze statue of Gretzky in 1988, it cost more than $100,000.

"I have had a couple of calls from people saying 'Don't use my tax so I think that is something we are going to have look at as well," he said. In addition to Canavagh, the committee will include representatives from the Edmonton Oilers administration, the Edmonton Oilers Oldtimers Hockey Club, a longtime Oilers season ticket holder, a member of the local sports media and one other person, said communications manager David Schneider The selections should be finalized by the end of next week, he said. After May 16, all the ideas will be gathered and sorted. The selection committee will then pick one or more ideas and present the short list to city council on July 16. While the city wants to collect as many ideas as possible, it is not a voting contest, Schneider said.

The chances are not any greater for an idea thafs already been received, he said. "So if your idea is to rename 99th Street, we already have that one" I The committee will consult with the Gretzky family and with the Oilers organization to ensure the city efforts are M)rdinated and acceptable Duncan Thorne Journal Staff Writer Edmonton Former Oiler Randy Gregg still remembers Wayne Gretzky and teammates passing round the hockey stick to sign after winning their first Stanley Cup. It was one of a few sticks they autographed for themselves as they were clearing out their changing room, probably the day after beating the New York Islanders in a five-game series. Gregg kept the .1984 suck for almost 15 years but has now given it to his former elementary school, Ingle-wood, to raise cash for books. "One of the nice things about being involved in a team like that is the mementos are your memories," Gregg, who played defence during those golden Oilers years, said in an interview.

"The memories I won't giveaway" So he has no concern about giving away a mere stick, even with all those signatures on it "It'll be worth a number of books for the kids." Inglewood principal VTad Eshenko said Gregg arranged a winter carnival in February for Family Day Eshenko said an earlier volunteer group had piled up snow banks to form the boundary of a rink at the start of winter, but it was never flooded. So Gregg was out every night during the week before the carnival, putting water down. The former Oiler, who runs the Edmonton Sports Clinic, also co-ordinated the building of igloos for the kids during the carnival, the principal said. "At the end he gave every kid a canvas school bag, donated by a youth group, a used hockey stick, and Shaughn Butts, The Journal Inglewood students with principal VTad Eshenko and the stick that was donated by former Oiler Randy Gregg T-shirts to girls who didn't want hockey sticks." Gregg's final gift was the team's old autographed stick, Eshenko said. He's now ready to take up Gregg's suggestion of selling it to raise cash.

"What with Gretzky retired, this is going to be an antique." Eshenko doesn't know what the stick is worth. Bruce Romaniuk, who deals in and collects memorabilia of the Great One and the Oilers, said the value depends whether any of the Oilers used it, and which player it belonged to. If Gretzky used it in the final 1984 game it might be worth up to $2,000, while if it was an unused stick from the teams' rack it would probably start at $300. Romaniuk has a stick Gretzky used while on the world junior Team Canada in 1977, before Gretzky turned professional "It would probably start at $5,000." Brawling bylaw not the end-all, be-all to boozy business I 1 itmm Liane Faulder W. Els' byte Avenue bar manager Tim Fuhr has a new tool to soothe the boozing beast Instead of separating drunken, brawling hotheads with his standard line: "Hey, buddy it's really not worth it" Fuhr can dole out words with more weight "Hey buddy have you thought about that $250 fine?" Edmonton has just enacted a new public fighting bylaw.

It was initiated by Const Palle Nicolajsen, a beat cop in Old Strathcona who hopes the new rules will decrease the nightly street fights which characterize Whyte Avenue in the summer. Nicolajsen says if been hard for the police to punish those who fight in the street or in a bar Often, you don't know who started it and collecting evidence to lay a charge can be difficult unless a weapon is involved. "A consensual fight isn't an assault" says Nicolajsen. "Often, it's two guys with attitudes who find each other, square off and end up duking it out" To date, there have been no repercussions for fighting over a girlfriend or a pool table Plus, an assault charge is a heavy hit for a minor incident the number of officers in Old Strath- cona during the summer; Phair says mere still won't be enough cops on the street between midnight and four Thursday Friday and Saturday nights. He says city council also has to took atnewzoningmeasuresasawayto I distinguish restaurants which serve a minor amount of alcoholfrom those I which are clearly bars at a certain point in the evening.

Some good work has been done on getting bar owners to create a sane environment that doesn't end up dis- gorging puking punks in a residential neighbourhood at three am. But even as responsible bar man- 1 agers, includingTim Fuhi; try todeal with issues such as how to stop drunks from drinking even more, irresponsible pub owners continue to offer ridiculously cheap drink specials. Combine that reality with last year's changes to the area zoning, plus an ongoing concern about the possible reduction of parking requirements and local irritation about traffic noise and garbage related to drinking and you've got a troublesome brew. It could be one hot summer in the city grow as the number and size of bars increases in the Old Strathcona area. In just over a year, the number of seats in bars and restaurants serving liquor has jumped by more than 2,300.

It's estimated there are close to 8,000 such seats in Old Strathcona. City council has toyed with ideas on how to limit the number of places that serve drinks, but if not easy to control business activity in a city that prides itself on being pro-business. "We do have some new tools, things that we'll try so it can be a reasonable place for residents and businesses," says Ward 4 councillor Michael Phair. "But Fm afraid we don't have some bigger sticks we need to look at" Phair says the overuse of alcohol continues to plague the Strathcona area late at night Some bars still give liquorto minors, plus continue to serve people who are clearly beyond drunk Bom practices are forbidden under provincial liquor regulations, but enforcement is limited due to a shortage of manpower and the difficulty in establishing exactly when a restaurant should know better than to serve another drink. Though the police service has upped "So in the past young hotheads would not be charged with anything, they'd just get a mean-nothing police warning," says Nicolajsen, who points out fisticuffs are also common along Bourbon Street at the West Edmonton Mall or 118th Avenue Urban Lounge manager Fuhr thinks the new bylaw will be a real deterrent especially for rowdy students who are a large part of the problem.

"For those trying to get through university thafs going to hurt them where it counts, in the pocketbook. They'll think twice before they do it again," says Fuhr, who is on the board of Bar-watch, a voluntary group of drinking establishments working together to deal with problems and have surveillance cameras on their premises. The new bylaw is a great idea and an important addition to the tool kit Shaughn Butts, 77m Journal Const Palle Nicolajsen and bar owner Tim Fuhr, outside the window police employ to deal with bad behaviour on Whyte Avenue But it seems that the number of creative ways to deal with noise andor rowdiness are small in comparison with the potential problems which I OiybtbiWi) OHmviiliiinlfiiiiili 111' 4lln 1 ni iIH 'IS 1 WMMUMPj! W-BJ JiJlMUMITiMlffM 3E.