Mental Patients' Rights Stir Controversy in Kansas
By DAGMAR R. PADEN
They strip you, throw you in a 6-foot-square room and lock you there with only a mattress and a bucket to keep you company.
Then they drag you out, shackle you to a pillar,
douse you with cold water and force you to stay
till the doctor warns after you get your prescribed
medication and, perhaps, after you drug you
sound the rest of the day in narcotic stole
You're a patient in a mental hospital. And, according to recently published reports, patients at some of the nation's mental hospitals often are abused and treated impronerly.
Cries of abuse have prompted several legislative and judicial studies of mental patients' rights.
IN KANSAS, AN interim committee of the Kansas
In an earlier investigation, a select committee of the Kansas House found that existing laws were far reaching and modern" but that recent court rulings have made standards and procedural requirements" were needed.
Legislature held hearings this summer to consider a bill granting civil rights to patients in mental hospitals. The bill is the second piece of legislation passed by Congress in recent months, but come before the legislature in the past two years.
"The time may be at hand for justice to patients in mental hospitals," said Lloyd Frydman, an analyst with the Department of Justice.
Fryman said mental patients were among many minority groups now clamoring for civil rights. Movements for granting more rights to mental health professionals in California, Massachusetts and New York, he said.
PATIENTS ARE DEMANDING that isolation and involuntary detention be limited, according to a list of proposals submitted to the legislature by which the Attorney Committee, of which Frydman is a member.
Ted Chabasinski, 37, spent most of his childhood in solitary confinement in a New York mental hospital.
"I would curl up into a ball, clutching my knees, and rock back and forth on the mattress, trying to comfort myself," he said. "And I cried and cried, hoping someone would come. It will be good. I said, 'I'll just stay in here.' We decided through the little window with wires in it so I couldn't break the glass and kill myself."
"Every few days, Dr. Claryd would come in surrounded by attendants and tell me that I had learned to 'adjust.' 'Well adjusted' was a phrase
that Dr. Clardy used often, by the age of 10, I had adjusted well to being in solitary confinement."
ALTHOUGH CHABASNSKI strongly criticized the use of solitary confinement, Kenneth G, Keller, a Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services official, defended it.
"Patients on occasion will get into such a state that, if the psychiatrist feels they'll do bodily harm to themselves or others, the best place for them is a 'quiet room' for a couple of hours and sometimes half a day," said Keller, assistant director of the Division of Mental Health and Retardation.
Patients in the solitary confinement "quiet rooms" are brought out periodically to see whether they have calmed down, Keller said. He said mental illness had often woken him in "quiet rooms" for extended periods.
The University of Kansas Medical Center refuses
to isolate its adult mental patients because, it claims, isolation can lead to psychological communications equipment installed there, he said.
"SECLUSION IS NOT helpful," said J. Lee Denner, acting chairman of the Medical Center's department of psychiatry. "It promotes regression and it tends to be used for punishment as it was for centuries. That's why I would never allow it on any ward where I was in charge."
There is, however, a quiet room for mental disturbed children at the Medical Center, although
Solitary confinement exists to varying degrees in other mental hospitals in Kansas. The quiet-room facilities at Larned State Hospital have been used to hold prisoners, and the recent series of reports in a Wichita newspaper,
See MENTAL Page 8
Forecast: Partly cloudy to cloudy with
snowfallers or thunderstorms. High
85th Year, No. 1
Wednesday, August 21, 1974
Welcome Back!
See Special Sections
Kansas Staff Photo by JAN SEYMOUR
The task of moving in takes its toll on Cindy Smith, Wichita freshman. Smith moved into GSP-Corbin yesterday and now is one of nearly 400 new residents at the hall.
Moving In
Students Jam Area Housing; Dormitories Near Capacity
By DENNIS ELLSWORTH
Korean Staff Reporter
Almost all living quarters available to students are occupied
Residence halls, fraternities, sororites, scholarship halls, single apartments bordering the campus and apartment complexes all over town are either full or nearly full.
"It's frightening. There are going to be kids sleeping in a staircase. Connie Martin, the manager of the Real Mart."
MARTIN SAID THAT she had access to 3,000 to 4,000 units and that she had very few little.
"A person who would be purchasing a home can't get a loan because of the tight money situation and is renting instead," Martin said.
She said she had been renting to all kinds of people.
OCCUPANCY OF APARTMENTS in
Mexico was over 75 per cent all summer.
Martin said.
"I think the next thing you'll see is incremental rents of maybe 5 or 10 per cent," she said.
Debbie DanSau, rental manager for Lawrence Property Management, said there had been many people looking to rent since last March and April.
SHE SAID THAT she handed rentals for Jayhawk Towers, Quail Creek and Trailridge apartments and that all 750 places she had available had been rented.
Rentals are going faster than last year,
same McBride, manager of Stadium
Apartments
"We've done quite an extensive job of remodeling our apartments. Naturally the
Wilson said there were 300 more rooms contracted for than at the same time last
He attributed the increase mainly to increased leadership and student participation.
*THE INPUTS OF AUHR and student
members into the unit we offer have
been taught by Wilson and Williams.
Frickey said the most important thing the halls had to offer was convenience. He said programming and staffing were probably
Kansan Staff Reporter
All 496 rooms in Naisimh Hall have been rented since the last part of July, and 85 students are on the waiting list. Linda Terry, secretary to Naisimh's director,
A book that cost $5 last semester may be wearing a $10 price tag this semester.
Store Gives Old Books New Prices
MCBRIDE SAID SIE expected to rent all of her apartments by the beginning of
Books from old shipments have been marked up to prices of new shipments, according to Charles Bills, assistant manager of the bookstore.
Although fees charged to the hall's residents went up $100 for the nine-month school year, Terry said that demand was greater than it was last year.
For example, the bookstore might buy 100 copies of a book in January for a copy. It
Bv JACK McNEELY
If the book is used the next fall, the bookstore must reorder. But now, because of inflation, the bookstore might have to pay $4 a copy, Bills said.
might sell only 80 copies during the spring semester, leaving 20 copies on its shelves.
Frank Burge, Kansas Union director,
So, the old books are marked up to the new price, according to Bills.
IN THE SPRING, Battenfeld had two to three times as many applications as it had positions to fill, Keller said. After the late cancellations were made, men who qualified were contacted about filling the position, a newly found other places to live, he said.
He said that Battelford hadn't had any hate cancellations last year and was filled to
said they would be staying in the ball this fall and then changed their minds, Nel
THE HALL FEE provides a room, meals.
mail service and social activities, including current films and parties, she said.
"It it's a great place to live," she said.
J. J. WILSON, director of the dormitory hall, said he expected the residence halls to be 98 percent full by the beginning of the semester.
The deposit protects the company against persons who run up bills they can't pay or who leave Lawrence without paying their bills, Both
The present arrangement of having no deposit fee and allowing contracts to be held by students until after the close of school probably will be considered by the All Scholarship Hall Council this semester, Keller said.
Terry said she thought the hall offered more of what students wanted than did the college. "It was a great experience."
About 1,400 of the 1,500 spaces in fraternities will be filled this semester, Rick McLaughlin, president of the Interfraternity Council, said. A tremendous rush effort by fraternities accounted for this situation.
Roommates are charged an additional $10 each and the company pushes push-button phones and extensions.
Keller said the hail hadn't lowered its required grade average in its search for
Deposits Nip Students
Southwestern Bell Telephone Company asks any student who hasn't had service in the last three months to pay a deposit, said Ron Bothwell,
Utility deposits really can add up.
For the new student in Lawrence, that minimum $80 bill may be an unexpected shock. Not every one ends up with such a bill, but the
The phone company wants at least $3 deposit, the gas company wants at least $10, the power company wants $20 and the water
But the Bell system is charging to a new computer system, so it's hard for the local office to check a student's credit. Bothwell said.
Last fall the phone company didn't require a deposit if a student had good credit with another phone company.
"I guess we're just like any other business. We're out for that dollar." Rothwell said.
Six of the eight university residence halls will be full by the beginning of classes, Phil Fricke president of the Association of University Residence Halls (AURH), said.
"When we've got 2,200 students dumping in on us, it's literally impossible to do." he said.
Fewer deposits have been taken in this fall and the company has received only one complaint. Be well said.
A student can avoid the phone deposit if his parents or a relative completes forms stating that they will be responsible for the student's
HERMAN MAD HE really didn't know why the SAID hadn't had any late cancellations. He said the house couple was really good at that the hall residents were not.
"There has not been, and I put my job on
the man who any chance he could find."
That merchant came in. Burge said.
Bothwell defended his company's hard sell of its equipment.
Benny Herman, prot. of Grace Pearson said the ball was nearly full and always well on top.
Students' deposits are returned, and the final bill is taken out of the deposit.
Miller Hall also had problems with people who said they would be coming back in the fall.
"We do not believe we would be justified or be keeping faith with our students if we sold those books (from an earlier shipment) at new inflated prices." Burge said.
In May there was about $500,000 of merchandise in the bookstore.
denied yesterday that such mark-ups were the bookstores policy.
Bills said the bookstore must raise the prices of books from old shipments to defray the cost of paying more than 50 per cent when it buys books back.
A student who buys a book for $10 would expect to sell it back for $5. But if the price of a new book rises to $12 before the student buys his book back, the bookstore would pay $8.
At the end of each semester the bookstore bays back books from students, usually at 50%.
Bills said the books were marked up to finance the buy-back program.
"You'll see several prices on the same edition now," Crestman said.
"Everything is sold at the current new
price because buy it based on the
current bills," said Rick.
Burge later admitted that some books from old shipments might have been marked up to the inflated prices of new shipments.
He said his office would review the bookstore's pricing practices and issue a statement today. If the review shows that the bookstore has raised prices on old shipments, Burge said the practice will be abandoned.
Templin Hall has 50 more spaces occupied than at this time last year and McCollum Hall is filling up at about the same rate as last year, Frickey said.
See STUDENTS Page 10
"The bookstore is there for only one purpose and that is to render the best possible service to the students at the lowest possible cost," Burge said.
MCCOLLUM'S PERCENTAGE OF capacity has remained about the same despite increased charges for com-
The scholarship halls are nearly full, though problems with contractual arrangements have accounted for several vacancies. ball spokesmen said.
BATTENFELD HALL WILL be about eight residents less than capacity to handle a normal operation.
Computer Fouls Class Ranking At Enrollment
Worried that you might have flunked last year? Don't be.
The computer now used for enrollment doesn't know about a change in the numbering system made by the Kansas Board of Admissions and Records, said recently.
The class designation on the computer card in your enrollment packet is a final password.
Dyck said students were classified according to the number of hours they had
Students with 30 hours are sophomores, students with 60 hours are junior and seniors.
The dean of each school is responsible for permitting the students enroll in his library.
Morning classes will be shortened Monday so that Chancellor Archie R. Dykes may present an opening convocation. It will take in 5:00 to 10:30 a.m. in Allen Field House.
Larry Knupp, director of the Division of Information, said the official projection for this semester's enrolment was 18,800 students on the Lawrence campus.
Students should read the Official Timetable of Classes to avoid confusion.
Students should be prepared to pay their tuition at the end of enrollment at Allen Field House. After enrolling, students may buy health insurance, pay class dues, pay for a Jayhawker yearbook and join various clubs.
that is 845 more than last spring's 17,955
students and 197 more than last fall's 18,003.
Students should read the Official
Rules of College to avoid confusion.
Kansan Staff Photo by JAN SEYMOUR
Pick a Card
Tom McNeil and Marie Haida, Manhattan freshman, started the process of officially becoming KU students yesterday at Hoch Auditorium. Registration started at 9 a.m. and enrollment at Allen Field House beings today.