Tomorrow's weather
SUN
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
Sunny and mild.
Kansan
HIGH LOW
74 44
Tuesday
November 16, 1999
Section:
A
Vol. 110 • No. 63
Inside today
Religious demonstrators urged students to repent and worship Jesus Christ yesterday in front of Wescoe Hall.
SEE PAGE 3A
Sports today
The Kansas women's basketball team will play its final exhibition game against Latvia's Club Riga at 7:05 tonight in Allen Fieldhouse.
SEE PAGE 1B
Contact the Kansan
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
WWW.KANSAN.COM
News: (785) 864-4810
Advertising: (785) 864-4358
Fax: (785) 864-0391
Opinion e-mail: opinion@kansan.com
Sports e-mail: sports@kansan.com
Editor e-mail: editor@kansan.com
(USPS 650-640)
Hospital sees more 'rape drug' overdoses
By Katie Hollar
writer@kanson.com
Kansas staff writer
Lawrence Memorial Hospital has reported at least three incidents of a "kitchen sink" drug in the past week.
The hospital has treated at least three patients for overdose symptoms associated with gamma hydroxybutyric acid, a depressant with effects similar to alcohol. Clinical pharmacist Stacy Gray said the potential for other unidentified cases was great.
GHB is not manufactured normally, Gray said, but instead is made in homes. He said the sketchy chemistry of the substance could result in formulas that were too acidic or too alkaline, sometimes resulting in esophageal burns.
Hospital staff has attended to GHB users in two scenarios; overdose and withdrawal.
Lawrence police Sgt. George Wheeler said his office had not seen any cases with the drug. He said that GHB could be used as a date rape drug, but that in all of the cases at the hospital, the drug had been self-administered.
Gray said symptoms of overdose included lethargy, depression, drowsiness, coma and even death.
Symptoms of withdrawal, he said, were similar, but could cause severe and permanent auditory damage, hallucinations and brain damage.
"Basically you've got a young person that's completely incapacitated," he said. "It's a really sad thing to see."
There is no prescribed treatment or antidote for GHB complications. Treatment is merely supportive and symptom-mandated.
While the hospital has not handled any GHB-related deaths, Gray said it was not uncommon.
"I do believe there have been deaths in the state of Kansas and nationwide," he said.
Gray said most users of the drug were high school or college students seeking a euphoria similar to an alcohol-induced one.
Because GHB is not a registered drug, it is not illegal. Wheeler said.
"It's like laughing gas," he said. "It's abuse falls through the cracks."
Edited by Jessie Meyer
Sticking to her guns
"I might cry about the death of a baby, but I'll never shed a tear over some abortionist getting what he deserves."
Rachelle Shannon
Rachelle Shannon feels no remorse for shooting a Wichita physician. But 6 years later, her cause may be losing momentum.
Story by Chris Borniger • Photo illustration by Jamie Roper
achelle Shannon calls herself a soldier.
But instead of serving on some front line, Shannon is serving an 11-year sentence in a maximum-security prison cell at the Topeka Correctional Facility. Her crime: attempted first-degree murder. Her target: Wichita physician George Tiller, one of only a handful of doctors known across the nation for performing late-term abortions.
Her belief in God's will led Shannon to Tiller, whom she calls a "serial murderer." She shot him twice — once in each arm — as he entered his Wichita clinic Aug. 19, 1993. The attack put Tiller alongside other abortion providers across the nation who have been targets: David Gunn, George Wayne Patterson, John Bayard Britton and Barnett Slepian. Tiller, however, is the only one who survived. When she shot Tiller, Shannon sold
When she shot Tiller, Shannon solidified her palace in the history of the Kansas abortion debate, a once pitched
battle now winding down despite the efforts of lawmakers and activists alike.
Profile of a soldier
Profile of a soldier
Shannon, a 43-year-old from Grants Pass, Ore., is a divorcee with two grown children.
Before her arrest, she had worked jobs as a janitor, a desk clerk and a secretary.
She said the turning point in her life came in 1988,
when she read an article about The Silent Scream, a film which depicted a sonogram
of an abortion.
"I had prayed seriously and told God I wanted my life to make a difference and that I would do anything he wanted me to, as long as he made it perfectly clear to me," she said.
Although Shannon denied trying to kill Tiller, she said she had no sympathy for murdered abortion providers.
"I might cry about the death of a baby," she said. "but I'll never shed a tear over some abortionist getting what he deserves."
After her arrest, police found a manual buried in Shannon's back yard that came from the Army of God, a right-wing organization that has claimed responsibility for firebomb attacks on women's clinics and gay nightclubs across the nation. The manual quoted Bible verses, contained instructions for making bombs and advocated the assassination of abortion providers. It said the identity of members remained a secret, so "the Feds will never stop us."
Shannon, however, doesn't see the group as just a loose confederation of activists.
"We're soldiers, not members," she said.
One not from Tiller's clinic — including Tiller — would comment for this article.
Aggressors, legislators can't stop Tiller Things in Kansas have calmed considerably since Shannon's attack on Tiller. Her action marked the climax in a series of events aimed at ending his practice. In 1986, a bomb caused $100,000 damage to the clinic building. In 1991, more than 2,500 people were arrested for blocking the clinic's entrance during Operation Rescue's "Summer of Mercy." In 1994, blocking any clinic entrance anywhere became a federal offense, and
Rachelie Shannon looks at the spectators during her trial for the attempted first-degree murder of George Tiller, a Wichita abortion provider. Photo courtesy of The Wichita Eagle
Attorney General Janet Reno ordered U.S. Marshals' deputies to stand guard at clinics in 11 cities. Tiller's clinic was one of those. And last November, the clinic received a letter claiming to contain anthrax. Test results concluded the contents were not dangerous.
Since then, the atmosphere surrounding Tiller's clinic has remained unusually quiet. Protesters still show up, but not in the numbers — or frequency — they once did.
Even with a Republican-dominated and virtually anti-abortion Legislature, Kansas has proven to be a good business location for Tiller. Indeed, though the past two
See SOLDIER on page 6A
Battery fumes force evacuation
Ellsworth Hall closed for nearly three hours
By Clay McCusition and Michael Terry writer@kansan.com
Kansas staff writers
Battery fumes from the basement of the Networking and Telecommunications Services annex at Ellsworth Hall led to the evacuation of both the annex and the residence hall yesterday morning.
The University of Kansas Public Safety Office received a call from NTS staff about the potentially harmful gasses at 8:05 a.m., Sgt. Troy Mallen said. The office then called the Lawrence and Douglas County fire and medical departments, the KU department of environment, health and safety and Lucent technologies (an NTS technology supplier) to the scene.
No students or faculty were injured by the toxic fumes.
The public safety officers pulled the fire alarm at Ellsworth at 8:14 a.m. No one detected any fumes in the hall, but it still was evacuated as a precautionary measure. Mailen said.
Monica Cardin, Papillion, Neb., Junior.
said she was not prepared to be outside for more than 20 minutes after the fire alarm was pulled.
"I didn't take anything with me because I thought it was just another false alarm," Cardin said. "When I finally found out it was going to be three hours, I was a little upset because I didn't bring any of my books to go to class."
During that time, firefighters and public safety officers donned protective suits and respirators to find the source of the fumes. The group eventually narrowed its search to a rack of backup batteries in the basement of the annex. Several of the batteries were cracked and burned through, said Mike Russell, director of the environment, health and safety department.
Evacuated students were directed to the McCollum Hall lobby until Ellsworth was reopened at 11 a.m.
Russell said he didn't know why the batteries were damaged, but it seemed likely that they were overloaded in some way. Malien said there was no leakage of actual battery acid.
Although the batteries were shut off for examination — leading to fears that the campus telephone system would be disrupted — the only effect on the NTS office was a half-hour blackout of the
Firefighters investigate toxic fumes that caused an evacuation of Elsworth Hall yesterday morning. Photo by Chad Cummings/KANSAN
University's voice mail system between 10:45 and 11:15 a.m.
Marilu Goodyear, vice chancellor for information services, said campus Internet service also may have been disrupted, but for too short a time for users to notice.
The NTS annex was reopened at 11:30 a.m., after firefighters had dispersed the fumes. At press time, Lucent Technologies still was trying to find the reason for the batteries' malfunction.
Edited by Jennifer Roush
Frozen turkeys don't go to gutter after bowling
By Lori O'Toole
Kansan staff writer
For several years, about a hundred Ellsworth Hall residents have participated in the annual turkey bowling event.
In the free program, which begins at 6:30 tonight, residents will use five frozen turkies wrapped in aluminum foil and pillowcases in lieu of bowling balls on the floor of the main lobby.
Many rumors exist about the turkeys themselves. Some say the hall government purchases new turkeys each year and donates them to charity when the bowling festivities are finished. Others believe they are stored in a hall freezer each year and retrieved one evening a year for the event.
Jessica Fishback, Ellsworth Hall president and Florissant, Mo., sophomore, said the same five turkeys are used year after year.
"We don't buy new ones so we don't waste as many," she said. "That's why people get upset — they think we use a ton of new ones every year. I definitely think it's a good thing that we reuse them. Otherwise I would understand why people would get mad."
Fishback said animal rights groups and environmentalists who protested the event each year usually did not understand the turkeys' past.
She said the hall government had not considered donating the turkeys to a charity this year after the event. She also said she did not think this had been done in past years.
"I don't know if it's a good idea to thaw them, roll them on the ground and then give them away." Fishback said.
Paul Turvey, staff member and Lawrence junior, said one of the turkeys that would be used had been stored in his apartment freezer.
...screwed in his apaliment free.
"I don't have my freezer much, but it's just there."
"I have it."
Turvey said two additional turkies were stored in a freezer in the Ewellswood student kitchen, but that there may be a new turkey or two at the program this year. He said one of the turkeys from last year was left out of the freezer and had to be thrown away.
"I'd hope that we can reuse five turkens every year," he said. "It only makes sense. We're not trying to waste food."
Katie Herbst, Ellsworth Hall resident and
See FOWL on page 2A