THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
VOL.101.NO.104
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
HURSDAY FEBRUARY 27,1992
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Women in Big 8 issue are not all students
Magazine caption misidentifies model as KU cheerleader
By Greg Farmer
Kansan staff writer
On page 118 of *Playboy*'s April "Girls of the Big Eight" issue, the caption above a photo of a topless Nikki Merle says she is a "cheerleader and engineering major at Kansas."
Merle is one of five women featured in the pictorial who did not use their real names, a Playboy representative said.
But spirit squad members and coaches say Merle never led cheers at the University of Kansas. And staff at the School of Engineering say they don't recognize the woman.
But of the women who did use their real names, three are not enrolled at any Big Eight Conference university, including one who was registered according to the universities' registrar offices.
Some of the 41 women in the pictorial, including two who are enrolled for this semester at KU, are scheduled to appear today from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Town Crier Bookstore, 930 Massachusetts st. , and from 3:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. at Hastings Books, Music and Video, 2000 W. 23rd St.
None of the women could be reached yester day for comment.
Playboy would not release Merle's real
name, but Scott Lamontagne, KU cheerleading coach, said that he had seen the picture of Merle.
"She is not a cheerleader," he said. "She has never been a cheerleader at KU."
Lamontagne said he was angered by the Plavbov pictures.
"It's unnerving for me to see our program associated with a person who is not a part of it," he said. "My kids work very hard. Competition means you are going away from my team and the members of it."
Lamontagne said there were no rules against squad members posing nude.
"But we try to keep kids on our squad that portrays a clean-cut image," he said.
Elaine Brady, spirit squad coordinator, said the pictures were in *now you* was not the type of pictures he would be in. The spirit squad
"The kids on our squad are all-American kids," she said. "These kids are beautiful on the inside and the outside. It's disturbing to me that this picture in a national magazine will be associated with our program."
Kendra Shaffer, a cheerleader and Toppera junior, said she wanted to find out who Merle
"I want to know if Playboy made up the cheerleader part or if the girl led," she said.
"Did she say she was cheerleader?"
Elizabeth Norris, a public relations representative for Playboy, said from Chicago yesterday that Merle had indicated cheerleading as one of her hobbies on a questionnaire.
"She said her hobby was cheerleading," she said. "She never said she was a cheerleader at
When asked whether the magazine's caption made Merle seem like a KU cheerleader, Norris said the caption's wording "certainly did."
In a telephone interview later yesterday, Norris said she had talked to the caption's witness.
"The caption says Nikki is a cheerleader,
orris said. "Then it says she's an engineering
student."
But after looking at the Playboy picture of Merle, seven staff members in the office of Carl Locke Jr., dean of engineering, said they did not recognize her. Locke said.
"We would recognize most of them," Locke said.
He said the School of Engineering had 226 female students.
Whether any of the five women who used false names in the pictorial are enrolled at a
A representative of KU's registrar said no one named Merle was enrolled at KU.
Big Eight university could not be determined because Playboy would not release their real names. Norris said Playboy often allowed women to use false names.
But at least three women who posed for the pictorial under their real names, including one who claimed to be a student at KU, were never enrolled at the universities at which they
claimed to be students, according to the universities' registrar's offices.
A representative of KU's registrar said Gindy Schuetz, who appeared on page 115 of the magazine, registered at KU during pre-enrolment for spring, which would have been her first semester, but never completed enrollment by paying fees.
Theresse Bulver, who claimed to be a student at Iowa State University, was never a student at Iowa State, a representative of the registrar's office said.
And a representative at the University of Oklahoma registrar's office said Tina Lavon Wahl, who claimed to be a student at Oklahoma, had no records at the university.
Norris said Playboy required applicants to present a valid student identification card or a receipt for fees when they were interviewed for the pictorial during the fall.
She said the magazine required women who appeared in the pictorial to be full-time or part-time students when the pictures were taken or when the magazine was published.
"All I can say is that our fact checkers verified all the women with the registration offices at the universities," she said. "We don't want girls who are not students, and we went out of our way to make sure they met our requirements.
Breaking away
"But remember that sometimes people will do anything to appear in Playboy."
By Shelly Solon
Kansan staff writer
When her stepfather picked her up from school on the last day of seventh grade, Sherree Lane knew she was in trouble.
Editor's note: This story contains graphic descriptions which may be disturbing to some readers.
A teacher told Lane's father she had misbehaved in class that day.
"He had my teacher watch me," says Lane, now a St. Louis sophomore. "I kissed and hugged a boy."
"It's such a relief to have this all out in the open that don't feel like have to spend nearly as much time thinking about things and being angry or depressed." Lane says.
Lane knew she would have to be punished.
She laid down, and her 6-foot, 230-pound stepfather got on top of her.
"He told me to strip down," she says. "He took a leather belt and whipped me down to the back of him. He rolled me down on the living room floor."
"Then, he stuck his penis in my vagina," she says.
He yelled at her: "You're on your way to becoming a slut! Is this what you want?"
It was then, at age 13, that Lane learned about 'checking' and 'pushing.'
"Checking' meant he was 'checking my numbers,' or seeing how wet I was." Lane says. "Depending on how wet I was, he would assign me a number. If I was completely dry or at number one, I had a good attitude. If was at 10 or above, I needed 'help.' If was i higher than one, I had to be 'pushed,' which meant he had to stick the head of his penis in my vagina. He said this would pull my numbers down. He would stick his finger in my vagina and check me in the car on the way to school, when I got home or whenever."
He said he was keeping her from becoming a whore and preparing her for sex.
During her junior year in high school,this happened ever
"He'd push to the left, 'Does that hurt?' He'd push to the right, 'Does that stimulate you?' He'd lift my legs, turn me around. The whole time I'd just go numb, stare at the ceiling or the green curtains. I disconnected myself from it. It'd just say 'yes' or 'no' in a totally monoteye voice."
Just a student
spending a lot of time in the library.
In some ways, Lane is no different than other accounting majors at KU. She is hoping for a 'B in business statistics, trying to survive on Pell Grants and
But like a small number of KU students, she has more than grades and money problems to cope with. More than 22 percent of females and 8 percent of males surveyed at the University of Wisconsin had been sexually molested or assaulted before age 18.
school, he happened By then, she realized he was ejaculating inside her. He also had anal sex with her.
Lane says she was sexually abused by her stepfather until the second semester of her freshman year. Until she went last year to the Emily Taylor Women's Resource Center and KU police, she had found no way to escape the abuse.
With their support, Lane declared independence from her parents, went into therapy at the counseling center in Bailey Hall and filed a rape charge against her stepfather.
Although the abuse has ended, Lane continues to deal with her past.
Sometime, maybe in six weeks, maybe in six years, Lane knows her life will be interrupted by a suboenae.
She will have to tell a Kansas court how the man she called "dad" for eight years raped her.
Lane never cries or hesitates when she describes the abuse. She talks about it like she might describe her weekend. She smiles and laughs like it's a casual conversation.
"I think I have a good chance," she says. "I know they'll put me through hell, though. I know the jury will have a problem with me, because I won't cry."
When Lane does feel like crying, she goes for a walk. She hates to cry in front of friends.
They pay for Lane's room and board. She stayed with them this summer when she went to therapy. During therapy, she learned to tell her stepfather how she felt about him.
She even sent a letter, but never sent it to the Missouri prison where he is serving time for forgery and passing bad He will face the rape charge in Kansas when he is paroled.
"When you have someone who's finally listening, there's no need to cry." she says. "I no want you to be kidding."
Lane says she doesn't want pity and feels lucky to have her grandparents' support.
"If I could do whatever I wanted to 'I'd put a bullet in his genitals, watch him suffer for a few minutes and then shoot him in the head, or I'd want to cut the
fingers he put in me down to nothing so he'll never use them again," she says.
She says she hopes men in prison will do to her stepfather what he did to her.
Asfar as Lane is concerned, he should die violently.
Falling on deaf ears
Her story is no secret. But Sherree Lane is an alias she used for this story. Lane is her mother's maiden name.
Lane has told friends, therapists, KU police and a counselor at the women's center about
what happened to her. She's beentrying to get people to listen for years, starting with her mother.
Her mom would confront her stepfather. They would argue and her mom would leave.
"Then it would all come down on me." Lane says. "He'd slam me into the wall. He'd backhand me once in the face in just the right place so my nose would bleed."
When Lane realized her moth
Although Lane's grandparents and relatives had little contact with her, she suspected that she was afraid of her stepfather to act.
er was not going to stop her stepfather, she gave up. Other relatives, a social worker and a therapist, were in attendance enforced Lang's loathness.
Finally, one of Lane's uncles called a child abuse center in St.
Continued on Page 6
Abortion bill to be debated in Legislature
By Gayle Osterberg
Korean staff writer
TOPEKA — After less than one hour of discussion, a House committee yesterday passed by voice vote a bill that would make abortion legal in Kansas if Roe vs. Wade were overturned.
"I'stime we put a state policy in place," she said.
State Rep. Kathleen Sebelius, D-Toppea, who heads the House Federal and State Affairs Committee, said that this summer the U.S. Supreme Court could overturn the Roe vs. Wade decision, which legalized abortion.
Committee members briefly discussed several aspects of the bill before the vote.
House Speaker Marvin Barkis, D-Louisburg, said during yesterday's House session that the bill would be debated on the floor Friday.
A specific count is not taken during a voice vote and individual votes are not recorded unless a committee member questions the outcome.
Sebelius led committee discussion on the bill later in the day.
If Roe vs. Wade were overturned, if the proposed bill were defeated, current Kansas law would go into effect.
The bill would make abortion legal if the fetus were unable to live outside the womb. It also would legalize late-term abortions if the mother's life were in danger, or the fetus was severely deformed.
Current law prohibits abortion except when the mother's life is in danger, the fetus has a severe deformity or the pregnancy resulted from a rape.
During committee hearings on the bill earlier in February, an opponent called the bill the "abortion clinic protection act."
Sebelius said the bill was a reasonable policy for Kansas.
"The anti-choice voices in this legislature will not be satisfied unless we criminalize abortion," she said. "When I listened to those 22 (opponents), there was no suggestion that would be an alternative for anyone at any time for any reason."
Sebelius said she did not know how many favorable votes the hill would receive in a House vote.
"The House traditionally is more favorable of things like this, (the Senate)," she said.
State Rep. J.C. Long, R.-Harper, an anti-abortion advocate and committee member, said the entire House was more conservative on the issue than the committee.
"I think the entire bill has problems," he said.
nRequire a woman under age 16 to be counseled about her alternatives before having an abortion.
nP prohibit the interference of access to or from a health care clinic that performs abortions.
The issues of parental notification and viability would like raise debate on the floor. Sebelius said.
Viability is the stage at which the fetus can survive out side the womb without extraordinary medical measures.
Amy Bixler, a representative of the National Organization for Women, attended yesterday's meeting and has discussed the bill with House members.
Two students shot at Brooklyn school
The Associated Press
NEW YORK — A 15-year-old student shot and killed two classmates Wednesday in a high school swarming with security guards preparing for a visit from the mayor, police said
Later in the day, a 16-year-old classmate distraught over the killings attempted suicide and was not expected to survive.
Ian Moore, 17, and Tyrone Sinkler, 16, were shot pointblank in a second-floor hallway at violence-plagued Thomas Jefferson High School in the rough East New York neighborhood of Brooklyn.
The suspect went to school looking for them, then "walked right up to them without saying a word and shot them," said Deputy Inspector Patrick Carroll.