) | The Post es EDITORIAL Sunday, October 5, 2003 @UR OPINION Give offending “students a taste of real life to learn from ‘A great deal of ink has been put on paper to publicize, spec- ulate about and comment on the so-called hazing incident in which a Lake-Lehman football player was injured. In the last two weeks, observations and calls for a response have varied from, “It’s no big deal; get over it,” to “String ‘em up,” as par- ents, school officials and officers of the law have struggled to find an appropriate reaction. Clearly, significant punishment is in order for the four boys who taped a younger teammate to a chair, smeared a chemical compound on his face and — however inadvertently — were responsible for breaking his jaw when the chair pitched for- ward as it was being rolled from the locker room into the high school gym. The apparent purpose was to humiliate the player after a poor performance on the field in a junior varsity game. ile some have labeled this a “hazing” incident, it clearly is Wt that, but more a case of dangerous youthful horseplay that got out of hand. Still, the “boys will be boys” approach just is- n’t a strong enough reaction to behavior that caused a serious injury. ' Their guilt was compounded when they ran away after their teammate was injured, obviously more concerned with saving their own skins than with his health and safety. ~ Given that scenario, and that many team members watched the incident unfold and did nothing to stop it, Lake-Lehman probably made a mistake in playing a game the following weekend. Cancelling the season would have been an unfair overreaction, but forfeiting a game would have sent a message more in keeping with the gravity of the incident. On the whole, it is best if the school and their families can arrive at fitting punishment for the damage done. That should include a heavy dose of counseling and community service for everyone involved either actively or as a coldhearted by- stander. It is not enough simply to respond to the obvious in- juries; these young people need to have their eyes opened to the real-life hardships many people deal with while they act out their childish pranks. The four main characters need a stronger lesson; several weeks of one-on-one assistance to physical therapy patients or a long stint serving food at a soup kitchen come to mind as possibilities. There is a chance that criminal charges may be filed, but it’s ard to see what result that approach would bring that a seri- s schedule of counseling couldn’t achieve. Nor does it make sense to force the students out of the district, and thereby let them escape the opprobrium of classmates who are dismayed ® 0 by the negative spotlight their foolishness has cast on Lake- Lehman and by the plain stupidity of their behavior. - As for football, it should be off limits for the rest of the sea- son for the players directly involved. Whatever punishment is decided upon, it won't satisfy everyone. Let’s just hope the final result is young people with a Brave reminder of the Back Mountain's agricultural past. Photo by Ron Bartizek. Oratory contest offers scholarships High school age students of the Back Mountain are invited ¢learer understanding of their responsibifitiesto themselves; “5 compete The 85th annual one another and the wider community, and an appreciation for the relative unimportance of a game compared to the chal- imac, contest. William Kupstas, lenges of real life. EDITOR’S NOTEBOOK You'll notice some changes in The Post this week, and we | jope you like them. The most obvious is the title, which is ow simply “The Post.” The reasoning behind this is simple +— over the years many people have remarked that the title led them to think we were only about Dallas, not the entire Back Mountain region. There has also been a tendency for Lake- Lehman folks to feel we favor Dallas school coverage, which we try very hard to address by making every effort to give each district a comparable amount of space. But the suspicion lingers on, and this may help alleviate it. The other obvious change is really an ad- dition, a “Church & Community” page. The Back Mountain is home to many active con- gregations and it seems they are becoming larger and stronger with each passing year. Previously, we mixed church and social news together, Now it seems to make sense to separate them. But that’s not all we’re doing; we are adding a weekly pastor’s column that we hope will rotate among every religious leader in the region, and a listing of upcoming activities at our churches. If you don’t see your church represented, mention to your pastor that it should be. The deadline to receive items for this page is noon on Wednesdays. {By the way, if you are looking for the classified ads, they are now included with all the others in the main classified pages of the Sunday Times Leader. Wed like to hear what you think about our renovation proj- ct, so don’t hesitate to drop an e-mail to rbartizek@leader.net or call me at 970-7157. RON BARTIZEK | Letters invited | Letters to the editor are welcome and will be published, sub- ' ject to guidelines regarding relevance and suitability. . Letters must be signed and include the writer's home town | and a telephone number for verification. | Names will be withheld only if there exists a clear threat to | the writer. Send letters to: The Post, 15 N. Main St., Wilkes-Barre PA 18711. = Tux POST TIMESeLEADER Coggunity Newspaper Group 15 N. MAIN ST., WILKES-B E PA 18711 « 570-675-5211 dallaspost@leader.net Ronald Bartizek Patrick McHugh EDITOR PUBLISHER Justin Wihogky ADVERTISING ACCT. EXEC. Greg Stauffer AD PRODUCTION MANAGER Erin Youngman REPORTER National High School Oratori- Commander of the Daddow- Isaacs Post 672 American Le- gion, Dallas, said more than $132,000 in college scholar- ships will be awarded to win- ners. Local school officials and fac- ulty are working with the Le- gion and will assist with con- test arrangements. Home- schooled students are also wel- come to enter. The subject in the Prepared Oration portion of the contest must be about some aspect of the Constitution of the United States, emphasizing the duties and obligations of a citizen to the United States government. The prepared oration must be the original effort of the con- testant and must be 8-10 min- utes in length. In addition to awards to win- ners of various elimination rounds of competition, scholar- ships of $18,000, $16,000 and $14,000 will be given to the first through third places in the national finals. Each state win- ner who competes in the first round of the national contest will receive a $1,500 scholar- ship. Participants in the second round who do not advance to the national final round will re- ceive an additional $1,500 scholarship. The top three youth orators who have won all previous elimination rounds of the con- test will vie for top honors in_ the national contest on April 3- 4, 2004 at the IUPUI Confer- ence Center and Hotel, Indi- anapolis, Indiana. The American Legion will pay the expenses of state win- ners at the national contest. High school students in the Back Mountain who are inter- ested in entering the contest will find the complete rules and contest information at the schools, or contact Clarence J. Michael at 675-0488. New books at library The Back Mountain Memori- al Library, 96 Huntsville Road, Dallas, announces the addition of the following books to their collection: FICTION “No Graves as Yet” by Anne Perry “Cold Ridge” by Carla Neg- gers “When the Emperor Was Di- . vine” by Julie Otsuka “How to Meet Cute Boys” by Deanna Kizis “The Present” by Spencer Johnson “Moon Tide” by Clifton Tripp ; “The Maid of the White Hands” by Rosalind Miles NON-FICTION “The Woman's Day Weight- Loss Plan” by Kathy Keenan Isoldi “The Healthy Table” by Luiz Ratto “Macromedia Dreamweaver MX” by Sherry Bishop “Creating Web Pages with HTML and XML” by Patrick Carey “Novels, 1944-1953” by Saul Bellow ; BIOGRAPHY “A Prison Diary” by. Jeffrey Archer LARGE PRINT FICTION “Miss Julia Speaks Her Mind” by Ann B Ross REFERENCE “A Guide Book of United States Coins 2004” by R.S. Yeo- man “Books In Print 2003-2004” “Subject Books in Print 2003- 2004” BOOKS ON CD “The Kingmaker” by Brian Haig “Genesis Force” by Dawn John - Vornholt “Horatio’s Drive” Dayton Duncan and Ken Burns YOUNG ADULT “An American Plague: the true and terrifying story of the yellow fever epidemic” by Jim Murphy “High Heat” by Carl Deuker Back Mountain Senior Citizens The Back Mountain Seniors wish to announce change in meeting dates. Meetings will now be held once monthly, on the first Thursday of the month. meetings wills start at 1 p.m. and will be held in St. There- ses’ Hall on Pioneer Ave. and Davis Street in Shavertown. We will start to work on sleeping bags for the homeless at 12 p.m. before each meeting. For information call Lil at 696-1828 or Marie at 696-3095. 70 Years Ago BOY SCOUTS WIN AT KINGSTON RALLY Boy Scouts from the Dallas Districts, including troops from Jackson, Dallas, Shavertown, Trucksville and Idetown attend- ed the West Side dis trict meet- ing Wednesday night in Kingston. In competi- tion with troops from Kingston, Forty Fort and all other communities on the West Side of the river, the local troops made a good showing in all events. “Prosperity,” the picture that many local fans have been wait- ing to see, is to be shown at the Himmler Theatre tonight and Saturday. Some items you could get at the A&P grocery: Tomato soup, four cans for 25 cents, soda crackers, 2 pound pkg, 25 cents. Rice Pops cereal, two pkgs 15 cents. ONLY YESTERDAY 60 Years Ago PACKS OF DOGS KILL WILD GAME State Game Protector T.A. Reynolds has issued a warning that large numbers of licensed and unlicensed dogs are run- ning wild game throughout the Back Mountain Region. Many of these dogs run in packs hunt- ing rabbits and deer through- out the night until their quarry falls exhausted, an easy prey.. Two members of the Dallas War Price and Rationing Board, comprising the Gasoline Ra- tioning panel, submitted their resignations yesterday to Fred Kiefer, chairman of the board. They are H. Austin Snyder and Howard W. Risley. 50 Years Ago KUNKLE FIREMEN REVIVE INFANT Jason Kunkle and Fred Dod- son saw a ten weeks infant re- lieved from suffocation Monday night when they applied the re- suscitator mask and started op- erations. State and local police ask co- operation in tracing the hit-run driver who seriously injured six-year old Guy Zerfoss Friday night and sped off through Shavertown, leaving the child unconscious. Dallas Water Company will - shortly install a six-inch line to New Goss Manor making it possible for the installation of fire hydrants in that area. -40 Years Ago MIGRANT SCHOOL NOW AT ORANGE School for children of mi- grant workers employed in the harvest of crops in the orange- centermoreland-Falls area is being conducted at the Orange Methodist Church, and will continue for five to six weeks. A boy (Eric Martin) playing a game of war with his compan- ions, supposedly escaped from “his enemy, jumped on his bicy- cle and wheeled down Hillside Street, when his bike was struck by a car driven by Rew. William Meissner. The boy was saved from serious injury. Rightly concerned over the safety of school children cross- ing the dangerous Center Street intersection in Shaver- town, Dallas School Board will contact state representatives in an effort to aid Kingston Town- ship supervisors make the crossroads safe. 30 Years Ago PILOT PROJECT PUTS CITIZENS FACE TO FACE WITH INMATES Channel 44 staffers, both men and women, as citizens, are exposed for the first time to prison inmates. What citizens see are people attempting to demonstrate their concern for their fellow man. Public radio is coming to North Eastern Pennsylvania and volunteers can be a part of the WVIA-FM team. The Singer Company’s Cli- mate Control Division has an- nounced plans of closing its manufacturing facility in Trucksville. 20 Years Ago TOWNHOUSES PLANNED, BOARD CONSIDERS Plans call for a new housing development consisting of 16 townhouses to be built in the area abounded by Church Street, Center Hill Road and Claude Street, an area known as the Samuels property. Entering into the ratings war against “Winds of War” was Dallas Township Police Chief Carl Miers, who was a sunday night guest on radio station WARM. Miers discussed new drunken driving laws with rep- resentatives of MADD (Moth- ers Against Drunk Driving). State grant pays for a tele- scope at Lake-Lehman. Kathryn Gregory, science teacher in the district, recently captured a $3,500 grant from the State De- partment of Education. Q: Where do you find the most Back Mountain news each week? A: Only in The Post
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers