THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
FRIDAY APRIL 28
FRIDAY, APRIL 4, 2008
NEWS
3A
CRIME
State to focus on rape prevention
BY JESSICA WICKS jwicks@kansan.com
Kansas Attorney General Stephen Six promised to work with sexual violence centers across Kansas to maintain grant funding and government cooperation at an awareness conference Thursday.
GaDuGi director of survivor services, Elyse Towey, said that because of major federal budget cuts, the state and local governments had less money to fund sexual abuse clinics.
Towey said despite tight purse strings, they would maintain all survivor services when making decisions about their budget cuts.
"These women are our sisters, our daughters, our auctions," Towey said. "If it were my loved one, I would want to know someone was there to hold their hand through their process no matter what."
Six visited Lawrence's GaDuGi Safe Center to show the government's role in awareness for Sexual Assault Awareness Month.
"We have come a long way, especially in Douglas County," Six said, "but we still have a long way to go."
Six said that while Lawrence was doing well, many other towns in Kansas didn't have the resources to be as effective.
He said the state would focus on decreasing the amount of rapes in Kansas and making sure those who do suffer from sexual assault are
taken care of despite the monetary issues.
"We are dedicated to making sure victims know their rights and services," Six said, "and that those services are of the highest quality."
Laura Montgomery, GaDuGi treasurer and board member, said it was especially important for people in Lawrence to be tuned in because most sexual assault victims are college-aged, 16-24 years old.
"You can either ignore it," Montgomery said, "or you can become a part of trying to end the violence."
Montgomery and Towey asked students to help by volunteering or using their campus resources to fundraise for the center.
She said they relied on community help just to buy food for Thursday's conference.
"Starbucks donated the coffee today, and we had to ask our board members for donations for snacks," Towey said. "Before, it wouldn't have been an issue." She said universities breed an environment that attracts sexual violence.
"Students who live in dorms or other college environments think they are safe," Towey said, "but sexual predators are all over college campuses."
—Edited by Samuel Lamb
POLITICS
Role of first spouses changing
JESSICA WICKS
jwicks@kansan.com
Jennny Sanford, first lady of South Carolina, spoke about her role as a first spouse at the Dole Institute Thursday night. With a bachelor's degree in finance, Stanford helped reorganize operations in South Carolina, resulting in savings for taxpayers.
Expectations of first spouses are changing in the midst of the upcoming election, senior fellow of the Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics, Jennifer Schmidt said.
Jessie Fetterling/KANSAN
First lady of South Carolina. Jenny Sanford, shared how she handles those expectations at a conference at the Dole Institute Thursday night.
"They called me a Hillary," Sanford said. "That is a bad word; it means they think you are running your husband's affairs."
Sanford was the campaign manager for her husband, Mark Sanford, in his 1994 run for Congress and again in his 2002 campaign for governor, all while raising their four young boys. Sanford said some people thought that she had her nose in her husband's decisions.
"I am just making the trains run on time," Sanford said.
Schmidt said that when it came to politics, people had a view of what that person should be instead of who that person actually was.
"You've got to know who you are, and you have to be willing to take the criticism." Sanford said.
Sanford said that she told her children that they were held to a different standard because of the family they were in. Schmidt commented on governor Kathleen Sebelius' husband, Gary, who likes to call himself the first dude.
"He doesn't have the same ceremonial expectations as he would if
he were another gender," Schmidt said. Hillary Clinton said her experience as first lady gave her credibility on the White House.
She said the role of a first spouse was fluid and women are taking a more active role than just hosting tea parties.
"I would say that her experience as first lady, coupled with her Senate experience, would be a better way to put it," Sanford said.
"I think it's ridiculous in this day and age that you would criticize a woman for wanting to do anything," Sanford said. Sanford said that her first priority was raising her boys. She said she was highly criticized for putting them in private school, but it was the best decision she ever made because it gave her children a place where they could stick together.
"The Lord only gave me one chance to raise these children",
Sanford said.
Sanford's husband is thought to be a possible choice for a vice
presidential candidate for John McCain.
Schmidt asked Sanford if he intended to accept a nomination.
Sanford said that the chances of that happening were small and they were just focusing on raising their children well amidst the fame of their father.
Sanford said that the position of first spouse in the White House would be up for interpretation.
-Edited by Russell Davies
STUDY
CDC researches infant neglection, abuse
ATLANTA — About one in 50 infants in the U.S. have been neglected or abused, according to the first national study of the problem in that age group.
Nearly a third of the victims
Most of these cases involved neglect, not physical abuse. In the case of the newborns, experts said the data suggests drug abuse by the mother may
were one week old or younger when the maltreatment was reported, government researchers said Thursday. The study focused on children younger than 1.
have been the cause for reports of neglect, but they couldn't be certain.
Maternal drug abuse is often discovered through blood tests while newborns are still in the hospital, CDC researchers and others said.
"That is the story here," said Dr. Howard Dubowitz, a professor
of pediatrics at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.
The researchers counted more than 91,000 infant victims of abuse and neglect during the study period Oct.1,2005 to Sept. 30,2006.About 30,000 of those cases were newborns aged one week or younger.
The information came from
a national database of cases verified by protective services agencies in 45 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.
Other studies looked at national child abuse and neglect cases, but this is believed to be the first to focus on infants, said study co-author Rebecca Leeb, of the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention.
The results mirror what a study in Canada found, said Leeb.
"We certainly were distressed" by the study's results, said Ileana Arias, director of the CDC's National Center for Injury Prevention and Control.
Associated Press
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