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Tuesday, September 11, 1990 / University Daily Kansan
Keith ThorneIKANSAM
From left, Gina Balandron, Lakewood, Colo.; Justin Liby, Hutchinson; and Megan Irish, Kansas City, Kan.; (all seniors) complete a behavior modification exam. Their class was evacuated yesterday from Waworth Hall.
Evacuation steals research time
By Yvonne Guzman and Holly M. Neuman
Kansan staff writers
Keshava Kumar and Abe Oommen waited on the lawn south of Haworth Hall yesterday an Lawrence firefighters and police circled the building to make sure no one entered it.
Kumar and Oommen are two KU researchers whose laboratories were deserted yesterday morning when Haworth Hall, Malott Hall and the Computer Services Facility were evacuated because of an odor permeating Malott.
Oommen said he had been purifying a protein as part of a larger experiment.
"It just an experiment that takes a half-hour," said Ommenn, a Lawrence graduate student in biochemistry "but it's been four years and it's still going, so it's basically gone.
Kumar, a research associate in pharmaceutical, said he re-entered Malott to save his
experiment. He had been isolating a glutamate-binding protein, a two-day process.
Kumar went back into Malawi and placed material he had been working with in a
"Once you start, you have to finish," he said.
Kumar was one of the people who was able to enter the building before the doors were chained shut. Later in the day, groups of researchers gathered around the police compound requesting permission to return their laboratories and do their work and prevent further chemical spills.
University employees who work in the buildings and who had taken car and house keys with them when they left the buildings were told they could go home on administrative leave. Those people who had not taken their keys were told they might have to wait for two hours to get information about when they could retrieve them.
George Stewart, associate professor of microbiology, said he was angry that he had been wrong.
"I have a grant that is due Friday, and I have a student that is going to give a dissertation on Friday," Stewart said. "There is a lot of stuff I have to do."
Lt. John Mullens of the KU Police said officials were trying to prevent further problems without admitting people back into the buildings, but firefighters were escorting some researchers, whose unattended matter might become dangerous, back to their labs.
Edwardo Veliz, Panama graduate student,
was one researcher who, about 4.30 p.m.
m yesterday, still was trying to return to his
work and had been experimenting with
anti-cancer drugs.
"I need to stop that reaction." Velz told officials. "It's six months of work down the road."
Class action suit filed over education finance
31 Kansas school districts say system violates rights
The Associated Press
TOPEKA  A group of 31 Kansas school districts has filed a class action lawsuit here challenging the way the state finances public education.
The lawsuit was filed in Shawnee County District Court late yesterday.
Led by Unified School District 508 in Baxter Springs, the group of school districts alleges that the state's public education financing system violates students' state and federal constitutional rights. The lawsuit says the system makes school finance "a function of the taxable wealth of the school district in which (the student) resides."
The lawsuit seeks to represent all public school students in Kansas who are similarly affected.
Named as defendants are Attorney General Bob Stephan, the State Board of Education, state Treasurer Joan Finney and Education Commissioner Lee Drogemeyer.
The case was assigned to Shawnee County District Judge E. Newton Vickers.
In past years, the state has used a complicated school finance formula, taking into account such things as enrollment, spending per-pupil and district wealth. The system, known as the School District Equalization Act, sought to reward poor districts with higher fees for the sending less aid to already wealthy areas.
In 1990, however, the Legislature decided to base state aid to school districts on what the districts received the year before, without regard to changes in district wealth.
The lawsuit says the move has hurt certain districts and asks that the court order the state to revert back to the old financing method.
Attorneys Larry A. Prauser of Columbus and Fred W. Rausch Jr. of Topeka will represent the districts and children in the lawsuit.
Praiser said there were news reports several months ago that the Baxter Springs district had filed a lawsuit. But he said those reports were premature. He said yesterday's filing in Topeka was the first court action by USD 508 and its associated plaintiffs.
Guns
Continued from p. 1
Ayoob said he was not aware of any accidental shootings that had occurred because of mechanical problems with the Glock.
He said he was concerned that in a high-stress situation where an officer was in danger, a Glock with a light trigger pull struck the trigger little room for human error.
"Most gun accidents are caused by human error in some degree." Ayoob said. "The Glock is very uninjuring to that respect. Any short-triggered gun, not just a pistol, is better well. And by definition, if it's easier to shoot well, it is easier to shoot by accident."
He said 40 hours of Glock crossover training should be more than sufficient
Denney said the Glock had three passive safety features that would help prevent accidental discharges. These features are a firing pin that is mechanically locked until the trigger is pulled, a drop safety that will not release until the trigger is pulled and a trigger block that prevents anything from releasing the trigger except
for a human finger.
Ayob said that he approved of the first two features but that in spite of the trigger block, the trigger could be released if it got caught on something.
He said that guns with manual safeties were less prone to human error and accident.
He said that if a police department were going to spend the time and money to train its officers to load, hold and shoot a gun, he would have to cook a gun that had a manual safety.
Denny said the department chose the Glock because it did not have to be cooked to be ready to fire, it cost less and was lighter than the revolvers, and it was lightweight.
"This is one of those unusual situations where financial economy also coincides with efficiency and the best thing to do," he said. "I have a great joy with it because it turned out that way."
Dennew said no KU police officer had fired a weapon in the line of duty since 1975.
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