NATION/WORLD UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Monday, October 11, 1993
5
THE NEWS in brief
MORAINE, Ohio
'Beavis and Butt-head' blamed in fatal fire that killed 2-year-old
MTV said it will take another look at its show 'Beavis and Butt-head' after a woman whose 5-year-old son set a fatal house fire blamed the cartoon for promoting burning as fun.
"According to the mother, right after that she caught him playing with matches," he said.
Austin Messner, whose 2-year-old sister Jessica Mathews died in Wednesday's fire, watched an episode in which the cartoon characters said fire is fun. Moraine, Ohio, Fire Chief Harold Sisler said.
Austin, his mother, Darcy Burk, and her boyfriend, Steve Sears, escaped the flames.
"Beavis and Butt-head" features two animated teenagers who comment on rock videos and spend time burning and destroying things.
Carole Robinson, a representative for MTV, said Friday that the cable network would "re-examine issues regarding'Beavis and Butt-head."
"Responsibly programming MTV has always been and will continue to be our top priority," she said.
Sigler said he wants MTV to eliminate any shows that might encourage playing with fire and would like to see violence on the program reduced.
"When you take a child in the formative years and you get these cartoon characters saying it's fun to play with fire ... this is going to stick in that kid's mind and it's going to be with him for a long time." Sidler said.
A similar fire took place in Sidney, Ohio, on Aug. 23. Sidney Fire Chief Stan Crosley said three girls started a house fire after watching a "Beavis and Butt-head" episode that featured one character setting fire to the other hair by using a match to ignite spray from an aerosol can.
Colorado's gay-rights issue in court
DENVER
Colorado's attorney general, Gale Norton, will go to court tomorrow to try to prove that homosexuals in her state face no discrimination, have plenty of political clout and are free to change their sexual proclivities — all of which will disqualify them from state constitutional protection.
The state is defending its new amendment, which will ban state and local laws that prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation. It also would cancel existing gay rights ordinances in Aspen, Boulder and Denver.
Norton said the issue was whether homosexuals can claim to be an identifiable group, or "surse class", whose constitutional rights have been trampled—such as those hurt by racist voting and housing laws.
To qualify for constitutional protection, she said, there had to be a history of discrimination, the group has to be incapable of changing its status, and it must be politically powerless, all of which the state of Colorado is challenging in the case of homosexuals.
The legal challenge to Amendment 2 was originally brought by a coalition of those three cities and nine individuals who believe the law is unconstitutional.
Boulder attorney Jean Dubofsky, representing the coalition, said she will produce witnesses who will show there is a history of discrimination against homosexuals, that sexual orientation is established at an early age and that gays and lesbians cannot change their status.
"Amendment 2 itself is proof of the political powerlessness of this group," she said.
Amendment 2, passed by voters last November, was scheduled to take effect Jan. 15, but Denver District Judge Jeffrey Bayless issued a preliminary injunction, saying there was a good chance the law would not pass constitutional muster.
The state Supreme Court upheld Bayless's injunction in May, saying the law probably violates the U.S. Constitution's 14th Amendment, which forbids denial of equal rights to any person.
Norton has appealed the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court, which has not decided whether to take the case. She said the issue could end up before Congress, which may have to decide whether to add protection of homosexuals to the federal Civil Rights Act.
TBILISI. Georgia
TBILISI, Georgia Army pushes back rebel forces
Pounded by government jets and artillery, fighters loyal to ousted President Zviad Gamsakhuria pulled back in western Georgia on Saturday. government officials said
Fighting flared around the rebel-held Black Sea port of Poti after Georgian forces pushed north along the coastal highway to the outskirts of the city, the officials said.
Government military spokesman Guliko Mchedildez said a number of government troops had entered Poti, but his claim could not be independently verified.
Gamsakhurdia said on Saturday that the week-old conflict had escalated but denied that his troops had been forced back.
He also denounced Georgian president Eduard Shevardnadze's decision last week to bring Georgia into the Commonwealth of Independent States, accusing his long-time adversary of being Moscow's oumet.
"It is now clear Shewarddadze is Moscow's agent," Gamskhurdia said. "Shewarddadze is a self-proclaimed leader. His government has no right to determine Georgia's fate."
Gansakhurdia was the former Soviet republic's first democratically-elected president, who was topped in a January 1992 uprising, and replaced by Shevardnadze, a former Soviet foreign minister. He returned to Mingrelia, his native stronghold in western Georgia last month.
BROOKSHIRE, Texas
Students strip-searched for money
An entire high school Spanish class was strip-searched after one girl complained that her money was missing, school authorities, numils and parents said.
"It was horrible," said one student from the Royal High School class. "It was very embarrassing — and nobody even took her money."
Officials of the Royal Independent School District in Brookshire, Texas, about 15 miles southwest of Houston, confirmed that the students were searched Thursday. The money was not found.
Students and teachers told The Houston Chronicle that the search was ordered by an assistant principal while top administrators were in a meeting. Students said they were told that their parents had consented to the search, but parents later denied they were told of the search or that it would be a strip search.
Female students were searched in the nurse's office and male students were searched in the assistant principal's office. All were ordered to strip to their underwear and to move their undergarments to allow a visual inspection.
Superintendent James Kemp would not comment on an investigation by Principal Jimmy Davis. School Board President Elton Foster said that the incident will be discussed in a closed session today.
Compiled from The Associated Press.
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