Fire at Habitat for Humanity may be hate crime \nGARY -- A fire that damaged a Habitat for Humanity home a week before a family was scheduled to move in was arson and may have been racially motivated, authorities said.\nGary Fire Department investigators said the fire early Saturday in the city's Black Oak section may be considered a hate crime.\nThe house was ablaze, and the front door was open when firefighters arrived shortly after 5 a.m., according to a report. Fire investigator Steve Johnson's report said there were pour patterns in the living room and hallway that indicated an accelerant had been used. Damage was estimated at $10,000 on the $95,000 home.\nRacially motivated graffiti and Ku Klux Klan insignia were marked on the house, according to the report.\nArchie and Altovise Ferguson, who are black, intended to move into the home with their two children in about a week. The fire has put the family's move on hold.\n"All these years of prejudice should really be dead, but it's not," said Altovise.
South Bend schools implement new attendance policy\nSOUTH BEND -- South Bend schools are implementing a new, more strict attendance policy to help improve their attendance rates, which are among the lowest in the state.\nSouth Bend Community Schools have lower-than-average attendance rates, 93.5 percent compared to a statewide average of 95.9 percent.\nWhile the district's elementary and middle schools averaged 95.1 percent, South Bend's four public high schools combined for an average attendance rate of just 89.8 percent last school year.\n"Our high schools are simply not working," said Superintendent Joan Raymond. "We have lost control of our students as our systems of student management have deteriorated."\nIn the past, each high school has set it's own system of recording attendance.\nStarting this year, students in all four high schools are assigned to a home room. Teachers in all classes are now required to take attendance and submit the report electronically within the first 10 minutes of class. That report is then reviewed by the home room adviser the next day. It is the adviser's responsibility to determine which absences are excusable and which are not.\nAt Clay High School, Principal Ruth Warren has noticed better attendance.\n"I think the biggest advantage of the home room is that adults are paying attention to students," Warren said. "This way they see the students every day and sort of take them under their wing"
