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Friday, March 3, 1978
University Daily Kansan
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Comment
Unengaged editorial represent the opinion of the Kansas editorial staff. Stidged columns represent the views of only the writers.
Jail death needless
Lennis Johnson is gone, but disturbing questions surrounding his death at the Douglas County Jail remain.
Johnson was found dead on his cell mattress last Sunday. He had been arrested four days earlier and on Friday had been officially committed to the Topeka State Hospital.
Local law enforcement and court authorities took quick action to place Johnson where he could best be helped—the Topeka State Hospital—but hospital authorities slowed that humanitarian effort by delaying Johnson's admission.
On Friday the Douglas County District Court asked that Johnson be transferred from behind bars to the hospital. The hospital's reply was to wait until Monday.
PERHAPS IT was only the weekend wait that made the difference for Johnson.
Johnson was an alcoholic, and his alcoholism brought him to the county jail often. On his last trip to the jail, Johnson had remained delirious and hallucinated from the time of his arrest to his death.
Dallas Murphy, undersherif in charge of the jail, said that Johnson was "very irrational and incoherent" most of the time he was in custody.
Originally Johnson was arrested for possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, but the charge was later dropped when it was discovered that he was not a felon.
But the sheriff's department decided to keep him in protective custody until he could be examined by a psychiatrist.
IT WAS obvious that Johnson was suffering mentally. What was not known was that Johnson also was suffering physically.
An autopsy performed by Laurence Price, Douglas County coroner, last week indicated that Johnson died of an internal infection in his chest. The infection was the result of several broken ribs that had gone untreated. The ribs probably were broken in a fall several days before Johnson was arrested, according to Price, and the fall could have been caused indirectly by Johnson's alcoholism.
"He had no external evidence of trauma," Price said. "There was one bruise, but it wasn't much to be concerned about."
Nevertheless, Lennis Johnson needed help—fast.
ALCOHOLISM, like any other disease, needs quick attention so the causes and not just the symptoms can be treated and corrected. For Johnson, that help was a little slow in coming.
Local law enforcement and district court officials did attempt to find the proper
remedy for Johnson's ills. Although Johnson wasn't physically examined, he was examined by a psychiatrist the day after he was arrested.
It was no fault of the officials at the jail that Johnson didn't receive a complete physical examination. It would be an impossible and costly task for every county jail inmate to be examined by a physician. Besides, Johnson had not complained about any pains during the whole time that he was in custody.
But Johnson would have received a complete physical at the time he was to be admitted to the state hospital.
additional evidence. In addition to making sure that Johnson was examined by a psychiatrist, local officials helped Johnson in another way. On Friday, two days after Johnson's arrest, the district court held hearings on the question of whether to commit Johnson to the Topeka State Hospital, a psychiatric hospital.
ALTHOUGH NO emergency was declared in Johnson's case, the sheriff's department urged the court to have Johnson accepted by the hospital as quickly as possible.
Murphy said, "We sometimes have a lot more cases that would appear more urgent than him. He was very irrational, but he didn't seem to be in danger."
It is difficult to predict what could have happened, but it appears that immediate admittance to the Topeka State Hospital would have been helpful in giving Johnson the best possible care.
A man who is delirious and hallucinating for several consecutive days deserves something better than to be locked up in the county jail.
Alcoholism, with its tragic mental and physical side effects, is not a disciplinary problem worthy of confinement. It is a medical problem worthy of proper diagnosis and treatment.
SO WHY was Johnson's admittance to the state hospital delayed?
That is a question Topeka State Hospital officials have repeatedly refused to answer. If there is a logical answer to the question, state hospital officials have denied it to reporters and the public.
Does the Topeka State Hospital have something to hide?
A hospital spokesman said that patients could be admitted on weekends and that there was a doctor always on call to examine incoming patients. Obviously a state hospital—or any hospital—cannot be a five-day-a-week operation.
The disturbing questions surrounding the death of Lennis Johnson must be answered so a similar tragedy can be prevented.
The dollar chase is on again,
and this time there's a twist:
the people chasing the dollar
are being chased themselves.
The issue is the railroad from Lawrence to Tonganoxie, a railroad soon to be abandoned by the Union Pacific company. Ordinarily, when a railroad enters a landland it goes to the owners of the bordering it if no one else wants it.
In this case, several people want it. The stretch of track, to the Oread Bicycle Club, appears to be an ideal place for a bike path. Cyclists interested in distance runs could make good use of the almost 13-and-a-half miles.
"WE'RE GOING to try to keep it open," Jack said Tuesday. "Maybe we should just take people up and down the track to let them know what it was like. The majority of people now don't know what it is."
On the commercial side of the question, a group of Tonganoxic businessmen, led by J. Maratoga, and a local elevator, wants to keep the tracks in place and operate them privately. The tracks would serve the elevator and be called a "tourist railroad."
Old railway should be bike path
With those ambitions, Jack and a group of others, whom he would not identify, have submitte-ness to the United States of away from the Union Pacific.
The bicycle club probably does not have the money to compete with a bid from a landmark law, is governmental unit has first crack at abandoned railroad land. The bicycle club decided to enlist the support of County Planning Commission.
It obtained that support last week. The commission directed a subcommittee to write a letter supporting the bike path. The letter was sent to the club this week.
There was still a question of money. The club asked for a 90-day delay in the official abandonment procedures to allow time to seek federal or state money to buy the land.
MEANWHILE, the Tonganoxie consortium lined up governors from all sides Monday night the Tonganoxie City Council voted to support
the businessmen's request for the rails.
By next Thursday, the Union Pacific must decide whether to grant the delay. If it does not, the consortium stands a good chance of getting the land. And a Union Pacific spokesman said Tuesday that the city of choice at trying to persuade the railroad to let the businessmen have the rights.
Round one to the dollar chasers.
The bicycle club had showed a high card and the businessman had pulled a higher one. The club now sought
Gordon Fitch, a member and tourleader of the club, said
Tuesday he had talked with an aide to state Rep. Mike Glover, D-Lawrence, asking him to support legislation to make the right-of-way state park "we want legislative action to enjoy ourselves." The city selling the land yet and maybe make it into a park," Fitch said.
GLOVER NOW is investigating the possibility of doing that and more. The railroad has long since abandoned it, leaving a stretch extending from Leavenworth to Tonganoxie. If the land from Tonganoxie to Lawrence also were acquired, the resulting bike path could be a whole way in an unbroken jneice.
For the bicycle club, of course, there is also the possibility that it can get its bike path without having to spend money for it. That idea is appealing, especially because the Union Pacific wants money for its track. Gene Wee, a
member the club, said. "The only way the trail people are going to have a chance at it is the state would announce a trail."
Finally, two more factors are involved. One is that the railroad needs very anxious to unload the land, meaning that it might want to go with the businessmen's bid if it can. The other is that some of the people who own land bordering the railroad want to join the consortium and the bike club, which means that the railroad's decision might not be the end of the matter.
THE AIR is still very unclear, and apparently the decision next week on whether to grant the delay in abandonment will be clear it. But there may be more questions than there should be.
Who is in the consortium with J. Marshall Jack? How often do they intend to use the railroad to serve the gale elevator? And
will they be able to maintain the tracks to federal standards out of their own nockets?
The other part of their proposal seems odd as well. A tourist railroad to shuttle up and down a section of track does an agreement "the way it was" and so southernsuspiciously like a tourist trap.
On the other hand, the idea of a state park for bikers, or even a privately financed bike path, is appealing, the height of which is about 10 feet. fitness and sport are overshadowed by the simple fact that a long-distance bicycle run with few steep upgrades would be fun and free. From a bike seems obvious that the bike path would serve the greater number of people. If a state park is needed to assure the safety of cyclists it can be made. The cyclists can easily outrun the dollar chasers.
To the editor:
Driver answers criticisms of bus service
First, let me say that this is my personal response, and that I am in no official way representing the Lawrence Bus Co., its management or its labor pool. Tuesday's editorial.
Minorities want KU aid
To the editor:
We were pleased to see an article written in the Kansas concern the status of the minority students in graduate schools, and we faced problems that center on the post-baccalaureate scholarships. However, we, as members of the Black American Law Students' Association, do not discuss the entire issue was discussed.
The real issue lies with the administration of the University of Kansas. Is it that the minorities enter and complete their education at professional schools to eliminate the gross disproportion of minorities in Kansas or that the blacks continue to make up only a fraction of 1 percent of attorneys practicing in Kansas. The national statistics do not reach from those in Kansas.
In the late 1960's, the post-baccalaureate program, along with other affirmative action programs, was set up to increase minority enrollment and therefore increase the number of students who could be examined after examining the statistics, we find that the discrepancy still exists. Obviously, the very same need that was the basis for this scholarship program is now more widely understand why the University or the Kansas University Endowment Association needs to examine the rationale for continuing the program. Such a cutback would, in essence, be support minorities in pursuit of an undergraduate degree but withdraw such support
KANSAN Letters
We do not dispute the issue that there is a need for financial aid on the undergraduate level, and in fact we feel that an improvement in the program at this level could greatly benefit students. In hand, how can a mere $30,000 from the post-baccalaureate fund significantly improve a program that already has a financial aid program for minority distributes its funds to only 37 minority graduate students at the University of Kansas. If any questions as to the adequacy should be directed toward the deficiencies of the present post-baccalaureate program.
minorities wish to further their education in graduate schools.
While there are obstacles that we would undoubtedly have to face without funding, we also run the risk of hurting any plans to qualify individuals. Unfortunately, we are not sure at this point whether the administration really cares about it or not, but then its attitudes certainly do not follow the national trend.
We are strongly opposed to any cutbacks that may take place with the post-baccalaureate scholarship fund. We would like to note that there are some white who receive the baccalaureate scholarship. The plight of the minority would be seriously set back and therefore cutbacks of any kind would be devastating. If the funding of the program is discontinued, it will be a challenge for individual individuals, cannot achieve our educational goals. We feel that we are certainly more important than items which seem to receive greater priority, such as new furniture or plants for a concerned graduate students, deserve due consideration. Sincerely,
The funds that we, as minority graduate students, do receive in no way cover the major expenses that we incur as students at the University. When one compares the very same information we do receive to that amount provided at other comparable universities, it appears that we are indeed deprived.
The Black Law Students'
Association (BAISA)
University of Kaasaa School of
Law
KANSAN Letters
especially after last week's "bus strike-news stories," prompts me to write.
Let's start with the bus strike articles. I assume the Feb. 20 story started out as a reporter's note about a woman entering a passenger and a bus driver. I was on the scene myself. I pulled my bus over, in front of the other bus, as I was wrong with the other driver.
I got out, talked to the other driver and then summoned the first officer to the scene. Aside from the fact that the reporter accidentally took an actual incident, the main thrust of his article was to interview a number of drivers who weren't on the scene and who were in no way involved with the incident, and misleading questions, he fabricated the story of a bus strike that had no firmer of a foundation than the reporter's own imagination. The editors of this book followed through by giving it a follow-up headline on Page One.
A bus strike because one driver gets hit in the face? What would be the point? A guard on every bus, allow us to arm the drivers with a gun about a strike, which we definitely are not, we could talk about a number of other more relevant matters such as not being paid overtime pay for the workers, not no sick pay, no health insurance, life insurance or retirement plan, no lunch hour or any type of scheduled break. I'm also fairly sure our wage of 100 per hour is low compared with other bus services around the country.
That brings me back to Tuesday's editorial, where I first found out that the driver is stopping at designated spots and collecting money . half of the driver's rapport with the passengers."
My job is to drive the bus around its route, picking up the cars they need for them a day, and to deliver them safely to their destinations.
Also, to do it efficiently, so that I can stay as close to the scheduled time as possible. With 1,000 to 1,600 people piling on the bus at a couple dozen different bus stops, I don't have a lot of spare time to establish rapport or worry about my image. I've been running full just making my rounds. Despite all that, I feel that I do have good rapport with most of all my passengers.
I sometimes "bark" orders; usually I have to. You must realize that all the passengers are situated to the rear of the bus, so you must have my voice, instructing them to do the things they should know by now, they simply will not hear me and no progress will be made. If no prologue is given, you cannot be able to move. This mainly applies to getting people to move to the back of the bus so we can load more people onto the front of the bus. You must also make that order might be to adopt a maximum capacity of, say, 45 to 50 passengers a bus.
This would streamline our service by eliminating the overcrowding, with its tension and lost time. With the current seating capacity, we also necessitate addition of five or six new buses and drivers since, it that rule were to go into effect tomorrow, it would mean that hundreds of students, on all of the routes, would have to an extra 15 to 30 minutes for a come back with room for them.
The editorial also dealt briefly with: pulling the buzzer, reading newspapers by drivers, smoking by drivers and drivers not waiting for people to catch up with them at stops.
The buzzer sits a bit above head high, right in line with the driver's arm. I drive for five miles to get back to the drivers quit the job for no other reason than that the buzzer was driving them crazy. It can, after you hear them day after day, about 90 percent of them unnecessary.
The bit on drivers reading newspapers while they drive was a bit too excuse for that. It is very rarely done, very rarely
It seems most of the drivers
smoke. I do. Would you suggest that we smoke on our break times? We have none, not even to eat. I always crack my front window so the smoke can escape.
There is a problem of people running to the bus stop from a distance, only to watch it pull away before we see them running the bus." I'm sure you've seen in Dagwood comics, "The Honeymooners" or someplace else. It is the responsibility of the passenger to be at a safe distance and that is it my duty, as a driver, to be there at that time. However, it is also my duty to be at the next stop down the line when we reach the occasion, "MISSING THE BOY," MAY also APPLY TO YOU.
Lawrence bus to. driver Students praise KU bus drivers
To the editor:
We are responding to the Feb. 28th editorial concerning the Lawrence Bus Company. We feel that the bus rides could be more enjoyable if the students would attempt to be more friendly toward the bus drivers. The students are at the bus windows and have bad days; bus drivers can have bad days, too. Driving a bus for eight to 10 hours a day would be enough to cause anyone's nerves to
deteriorate. During the day a smile and hello from a student could be a means of saying, "Thank you for your service."
As for being crammed onto the buses, a few minutes of inconvenience can be sacrificed by having the bumpers are shot and heads are pounding. The drivers try to return the students to their residences as soon as possible. Students need to remember that they are home even before the bus can think of going home.
We appreciate the fact that the buses did run during the bad weather we have had lately, even though some routes had to be adjusted to make sure lots is a lot easier than walking up to KU for classes. Communication has been a problem, although KLW, I would broadcast the bus in out loud at the KIDG court bus. En route to KU, the drivers did announce the change in location of the bus stops, so that no one would be left behind on a car. We've seen that most drivers do look for stragglers before leaving a stop.
In conclusion, we would personally like to thank the Ridge Court drivers - Helen and Charlie - for without them, we would never make it to class on time.
Beverly Kamb
Barb Van Meter
Lawrence freshmen
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Published at the University of Kansas daily August 15, 2014.
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