EBay awash in
war-related items,
but bidder beware
by Matt Campbell
Knight Ridder Newspapers
Forget gnomes. Instead, picture Saddam
Hussein's head in your garden.
A posting Friday on the eßay Internet auc
tion site professed to offer the head from the
40-foot statue that was pulled from its pedes
tal by joyous crowds last week in Baghdad,
Iraq.
"Get a piece of history by buying Saddam's
giant head," wrote the seller, identified only
as "freedomfighterman" of Clearwater, Fla.
Bidding was up to nearly $1 billion by mid
day Friday-an indication would-be buyers were
taking this about as seriously as the seller, who
turned out to be a radio host in Tampa, Fla.
He also was selling office chairs, purport
edly from Iraqi government offices, and even
Saddam's presidential yacht, the Mansur.
"This vessel was recently blasted by U.S.
bombs (16 laser-guided 500-pound bombs to
be exact) BUT is still in good condition," the
eßay posting says.
On Friday the number of real or manufac
tured Saddam-related items for sale on eßay
hovered around 1,500.
The most common authentic items are bank
notes with pictures of Saddam. Posters and
stamps also are available. Much of the mate-
stamps also are available. Much of the mate
rial dates to the 1991 Persian Gulf War.
The site also is awash with Western-made
kitsch:
-Decals selling for $4 depicting comic-strip
character Calvin urinating on Saddam's head.
-For $4, a Saddam key chain with a U.S.
fighter jet attached.
-For $l5, a Saddam voodoo doll (complete
with pins).
-A wristwatch with Saddam's face is accom
panied by the words: "His head on a platter,
where it belongs."
The postings read like the ads in the back of
an old comic book: Saddam "hunting permits";
anti-Saddam T-shirts; a Saddam pocket com
pass; toilet paper imprinted with Saddam's
face; Saddam "dope-on-a-rope" for the shower;
Saddam golf balls; a Saddam mask; and
Saddam mouse pads, dart boards and wanted
posters.
Novelties aside, looting remained a serious
problem Friday in Iraq as people reportedly
were stealing from banks, hospitals, colleges
and government offices. There also was a re
port that the national museum in Baghdad,
which contains priceless antiquities, was
breached.
Assyrian and Babylonian artifacts, however,
are more likely to arrive on the black market
than on eßay
Still want that giant head or Saddam's yacht?
Bidding will be open until April 18. But be
fore you get carried away, read the fine print:
"Buyer pays for all shipping costs."
Solon Hall put on alert for SARS
by Bob Groves
The Record
Seton Hall University put its campus on alert
Tuesday for severe acute respiratory syndrome
after learning that one of its students may have
had the illness, health officials said.
The student, along with a 68-year-old woman,
were the state's fourth and fifth suspected cases
of SARS, a mysterious, sometimes fatal respi
ratory illness that originated in China last fall,
according to the New Jersey Department of
Health and Senior Services.
Both patients, who were unidentified, have
completely recovered, state officials said.
The woman traveled to Asia March 14, de
veloped a cough on March 23, and a fever on
March 25, state officials said. The woman was
hospitalized overnight in China and was re
leased the next day when her fever was gone.
Her cough subsided on March 30, and she re
turned to New Jersey on April 11.
The student is one of the few U.S. cases of
secondary transmission-someone who caught
the disease here, instead of Asia.
The student had symptoms of a respiratory
illness before being visited in a dormitory for a
couple of hours April 5 by a relative later diag
nosed with SARS, according to an e-mail sent
to Seton Hall staff and students by Eddy A.
Bresnitz, the state epidemiologist. The student
developed a fever and worsening symptoms af
ter the exposure, but was not hospitalized and
is doing well.
IPUkWalfti.
CAMPUS NMM
T II I e
deaths
by Amy Worden and Nancy Peterson
Knight Ridder Newspapers
By 7:30 a.m. Thursday, the packed cafete
ria at the Red Lion Area Middle School was
noisy, bustling and brimming with adoles
cent energy. As always.
Several hundred eighth-graders - most of
the class - congregated there, as they always
did before classes started. Weaving in and
out of the students gathered at the tables was
the affable principal, Eugene Segro, greet
ing the kids by name, like he always did.
Then came the unexpected: Eighth-grader
James Sheets, wearing a
black overcoat, stood up,
pulled out a handgun and
fired a single shot into
Segro's chest.
For a moment the sev
eral hundred students in
the crowded room sat in
shocked silence, trying to
figure out what had just
happened. Then someone
yelled, "He's got a gun."
Some terrified students
dove under tables and oth
ers fled toward the doors.
Angel Williams, 14, was
sliding along the wall
heading toward the exit
when she saw Sheets point a gun to his head
and pull the trigger.
"I saw him shoot himself in the head and
fall to the ground," said Williams, holding
her index finger and thumb at her ear. "The
look on his face was horrible."
Sheets, 14, of Red Lion, died at the scene
of a single gunshot wound. Segro, 51, of
York, was pronounced dead at York Hospi
tal.
Red Lion Borough Police Chief Walt
Hughes said Sheets entered the school armed
with at least three handguns that he had car
ried in his book bag.
Hughes said he learned from Sheets' par
ents that the boy had somehow gotten the
key to his parents locked gun safe and took
three revolvers. The principal was killed with
a .44-caliber weapon, while the student was
believed to have been killed with a .22-cali
ber weapon, York County Coroner Barry
Bloss said.
Hughes said he did not yet know of no mo
tive for the killing, which occurred at 7:38
Some said Sheets had been angry about
something and had threatened to kill him
self and Segro on several occasions, includ
ing the night before the shooting.
"The night before he called friends and said
he was angry and would kill the principal
"It is unclear whether the Seton Hall stu
dent actually had SARS, and it is unlikely
that anyone other than the student's room
mates had the level of contact with the stu
dent sufficient to acquire SARS," Bresnitz
wrote. "The potential for transmission to
anyone on campus is very low."
No one has gone to the student health cen
ter complaining of any symptoms, Seton
Hall spokeswoman Jennifer Hopek said.
Classes at Seton Hall resumed Tuesday af
ter the holiday weekend. Students inter
viewed Tuesday afternoon said the e-mail
had not yet generated much anxiety, al
though there was some wishful joking about
classes being canceled.
"Some kids run out of here when it snows,"
said Pete Murphy, a sophomore from
Boonton, N.J.
Still, Murphy said he would like to know
which dormitory the student lives in, "so we
can take precautionary measures."
Manesh Dadlani, a sophomore from
Paramus, N.J., said he has doubts that Seton
Hall would have only one case of SARS.
"It's only one person, but it spreads so
quickly," he said.
State health officials and the federal Cen
ters for Disease Control and Prevention told
staff and students that any person who was
on campus between April 5 and April 15-
and who developed or develops SARS
symptoms between April 6 and Saturday
should report to the university's student
Friday, April 25, 2003
shooting ends
of principal, student
school
"I saw him shoot himself in the head
and fall to the ground...the look on
his face was horrible.
and himself," said Williams. "He'd said it be
fore but nobody did anything because he didn't
actually do it."
At a press conference late yesterday, after
interviewing 100 people, Hughes said the
shooting may have been an attention-seeking
stunt gone awry.
"If you were trying to impress somebody it
may go further then you planned," he said.
"Sometimes they surprise themselves with the
outcome."
Hughes said Sheets may have had a girl
friend, but was not sure if the relationship was
a factor in the shooting.
-Angel Williams, 14, on witnessing her classmate's
suicide, after shooting and killing Red Lion Area
Middle School principal Eugene Segro
"We have a lot more questioning to do to
get facts we don't have," he said.
Autopsies were being conducted on both
victims Thursday. Bloss said a third shot was
fired, but apparently hit the floor.
Classmates described Sheets, known by
friends as "Jimmy," as someone who got along
with everyone and played on the school foot
ball team.
"He was nice and was friendly with lots of
different kids," said Alisha Stambaugh, 14,
who sat next to Sheets in science class.
Sheets lived with his mother and stepfather,
Arthur Baker, in a well-tended split-level
house, outside the borough.
Asked what Sheets was like, a group of dis
traught neighbors consoling each other in the
yard next door said only: "He was a good kid."
Segro, who officials say was married and
had children, lived in an older community in
south York.
No one was home at Segro's tan, split-level
home. A red Honda was parked in the drive
way. Several bird feeders hung in the back
yard and the flowerbeds were freshly mulched.
Neighbors shooed away a reporter, saying they
were told not to speak to the media.
Segro came to the school in 1988 as an as
sistant principal and was promoted to princi
pal in 1997. He was remembered by students,
parents and other administrators as a princi-
SARS, a viral lung use
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health services or their own doctor
Symptoms include a temperature of 100.4
degrees or higher, and any of the following: a
dry cough, shortness of breath, difficulty
breathing, muscle aches, fatigue, or headache.
The CDC distinguishes between suspected
The Behrend Beacon
pal who reached out to all students.
"He cared about the kids, it was more than a
job for him," said Nicole Wisor, 16 who once
attended the middle school. "He tried to keep
kids out of trouble. He kept me out of trouble."
By early afternoon shaken students and an
gry parents began streaming into the high
school seeking counseling and information
about the incident. Another counseling session
was held Thursday night at the school, which
will be closed Friday.
"The school district is grieving the loss of
our beloved principal and the student." said
Larry Macaluso, district superintendent. •
nessed the shoot
ing. "The kids
could not get out
and there was no
one to lead them out or talk the boy down."
The school district had only recently received
a grant to hire a security officer for Red Lion's
junior and senior high schools, but he was at
the neighboring high school at the time of the
shooting.
Gov. Edward Rendell called it a "regrettable
and tragic incident."
A spokesman for Vicki Phillips, the state sec
retary of education, said the state will work
with the district to determine what went wrong.
But she stressed that school violence has de
creased statewide, as it has across the nation.
"We could put metal detectors on every street
leading up to the school and something could
still happen," said Keith Pierce, press secre
tary for Phillips.
Ronald Stephens, executive director of the
National School Safety Center, said yesterday
that "despite the public's perception, schools
continue to be one of the safest places for
young people to be - even if it's difficult for
that message to resonate in Red Lion today."
Data from the center show 56 violent deaths
in or near schools in the 1992-93 year com
pared with just three across the nation in 2002-
03, until yesterday.
"I don't want to minimize the importance of
any single life," Stephens said. "However,
when you look at the numbers, there are very
few instances of violence in schools."
cases of SARS-a 100.4-degree fever and other
symptoms-and probable cases, defined as hav
ing SARS symptoms and X-ray or autopsy evi
dence of pneumonia or respiratory distress.
The first New Jersey resident with suspected
SARS-later determined to have probable
SARS- is fully recovered. The second is re
covering at home. The third was discharged
from a Pennsylvania hospital and was diag
nosed with another illness; doctors are await
ing tests to rule out SARS. Most of the sus
pected cases of SARS may turn out to be other
viral respiratory infections, Bresnitz said.
The three previous New Jersey people with
SARS had traveled to Asia, and there have
been no reported cases of SARS transmission
to people who had contact with them.
SARS is believed to be an airborne illness.
The primary means of transmission is close,
person-to-person contact.
SARS is also believed caused by a
coronavirus responsible for some common
colds. SARS first appeared in the southern
China province of Guangdong in November,
and had spread to Hong Kong by February. To
date, the World Health Organization has re
ported 3,947 probable SARS cases in 27 coun
tries, including 229 deaths. The largest num
bers of cases have been in China.
The CDC has reported 190 suspected SARS
cases, and 38 probable cases in 35 of the
United States. There have been no SARS
deaths in the United States.
Page
Parents said their
children told them
the three teachers
in the cafeteria at
the time fled after
the first shot
"My worst
nightmare has
come true," said
Tammy Williams,
mother of Angel
Williams and 15-
year old Christy,
who also wit-