127 items found for your search. If no results were found please broaden your search.
(04/03/14 8:55pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>It started with a bang. IU sophomore Xinya Cheng was driving north on Woodlawn Avenue in her white Mini Cooper, boyfriend Jincheng Liu in the passenger seat. He was visiting her on his spring break from the University of Delaware. Donn Hall was pulling up to the stop sign at the intersection of Woodlawn Avenue and Cottage Grove Avenue in his blue 2012 Camaro. It was finally clean, he said, because of all the rain. Hall began to drive away from the stop sign, and Cheng slammed into the front left tire of his car, in a burst of smoke. The bang echoed for blocks. Liu got out of the passenger side of the car and began yelling at Hall. “He didn’t stop,” Liu said. IU junior Vincent Rowold was walking to class with his friend and IU junior Eli Staton when the two heard the crash and turned. As they watched, the Mini Cooper began to roll backward. With Cheng still in the car, the car began to roll south on Woodlawn. She had forgotten to put the car in park. However, rather than applying the brakes, she jumped out of the moving car, and the passenger-less car began to pick up speed. Rowold ran across the street as the car veered west onto a lawn. The car’s back tires went over a stone wall, and for a moment the Mini Cooper stopped, shuddering. Then it began to do a 180-degree turn, back toward Woodlawn Avenue. As the car began rolling toward the street again, now facing south, Rowold ripped open the passenger door of the moving car. He said he was going to try to dive inside to stop the car but, before he could, the car had moved past him, brushing a telephone pole that caused the door he’d opened to slam shut. Staton ran to the intersection of 10th Street and Woodlawn Avenue, yelling at students to get out of the way, while the car continued to roll down Woodlawn Avenue. Students screamed and dashed out of the way. Cars in the way of the Mini Cooper began to reverse as much as they could. Still gathering speed, the car crossed 10th Street, through traffic, and careened over the curb on the southwest corner of the intersection of 10th and Woodlawn Avenue. Leaving tire tracks in the mud and flowerbeds behind it, the car crashed into a tree outside of Collins, causing all of the air bags to deploy. No one reported serious injuries by press time, although the drivers of both vehicles did report soreness and some seatbelt lacerations from the initial crash. Within an hour, the scene was cleaned up. Emergency vehicles had towed away the Mini Cooper, and ambulances and firemen had dispersed. However, bricks still lay scattered where the car had hit the wall, and scrapes line the telephone pole and tree where the car made contact. IUPD could not be reached for comment. Between the time of the accident and press time, BFD had not released an official statement.Follow reporters Hannah Smith and Amanda Marino on Twitter @hannsmit and @amandanmarino.
(03/31/14 4:11am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Three and a half years ago, a 16-year-old girl at Muncie Central High School was dragged into a school bathroom and raped by another student during her lunch period. Her attacker then returned to finish lunch with his friends. The girl, crying and bleeding, went to the front office to report the assault to the principal. What happened next led to a legal debate that went all the way to the Indiana Supreme Court. On Thursday, the Court issued a stinging rebuke to the principal. Muncie Central High School’s principal, Christopher Smith, never called the police that day. Though several police officers were on campus, Smith didn’t tell any of them, either. The principal wasn’t sure whether he believed the girl’s account. Even after someone else drove the girl to the hospital, he ignored repeated suggestions that the case was a police matter. He never blocked off the bathroom where the rape occurred, resulting in a contaminated crime scene. He questioned the rapist briefly, but then allowed him to go home. Prosecutors charged Smith with failing to immediately report an instance of child abuse to authorities. A trial judge found him guilty and sentenced him to 120 days probation and 100 hours community service. A year later, the verdict was overturned on appeal. On Thursday, the Indiana Supreme Court reinstated the principal’s conviction and reprimanded him. “When time was of the essence, Smith dawdled, delayed and did seemingly everything he could to not contact DCS or the police,” Justice Steven David wrote for the majority. “Whether this failure was out of ignorance, a desire to protect the reputation of the perpetrator or perhaps a wish to keep his school from receiving negative publicity on his watch is not clear.”The rapist, then-16-year-old Steven Moore, admitted to the rape six days after the investigation started. He was sentenced to five years with four years executed and one year probation. Smith’s court decision came barely a week after a girl at Lawrence Central High School reported being raped in a gymnasium during school hours.When parents send their children to school, most assume their children are safe under the guardianship of teachers and administrators. That assumption of safety could be misplaced.For two years, the Center for Disease Control found Indiana has the second-highest percentage of high school girls reporting they’ve been sexually assaulted. While 10.5 percent of high school girls throughout the nation report they’ve been sexually assualted, that number is closer to 18 percent in Indiana — nearly one in five.This does not include the fact that up to half of sexual assaults likely go unreported, said Anita Carpenter, CEO of the Indiana Coalition Against Sexual Assault.“There are probably sexual assaults that are happening in high school campuses that we don’t know about and would be totally shocked to know about, because we’re shocked about the ones we do know about,” Carpenter said. “When we have perpetrators sexually assaulting another student in the middle of the school day, that’s a problem.”In the days and weeks following the rape at Muncie Central, detectives interviewed all people involved to piece together what happened before, during and after the rape was reported. Based on police reports, testimonies and more than 600 pages of court documents, here is what happened Nov. 9, 2010:The girl who was raped was already considered by the school to be at-risk. She was under the guardianship of a youth home, and school officials knew she needed more attention than the average student. That day, assistant principal Kathy McCord and three school security officers were patrolling the lunchroom. McCord saw Moore and the girl together in the hallway and asked them where they were going. Moore replied he was going to the library, while the girl answered, “the gym locker room.” Instead, the girl said in her statement Moore then followed her to her locker. “Come here,” he said to her, in the hallway near the locker room. She did, and he pulled her into the boys’ restroom and raped her. After he left, the girl moved to the girls’ restroom and discovered she was bleeding.Back in the cafeteria, McCord saw Moore return just in time for the bell to ring. The cafeteria was so crowded, she didn’t stop him as he followed the crowd toward his next class.The girl eventually left the restroom and saw her friend. She asked the friend if she had any extra clothes, and the friend saw the girl was crying. With some prodding, the girl told her friend she had been raped. The friend insisted they tell someone.McCord had just returned to the main office when the girl came in with a friend, at 12:20 p.m. She was visibly upset, and the friend had an arm around her. McCord took both girls into her office and listened to the story as the girl cried.McCord told the principal. He asked the girl who had done it. Without hesitation, she said, “Steven Moore.” However, within five to 10 minutes of the report, Smith and others questioned the girl’s claim, given she had allegedly faked a seizure earlier in the year and lied about an attendance issue.Smith radioed the school nurse to come to the office, not to examine the girl, but because Smith said he wasn’t sure what the girl needed. He sent McCord to review video evidence of the hallway where the girl said the rape occurred, which took more than an hour.Smith asked the girl for a written statement. She wrote hers without uncertainty, describing how Moore had put his hand over her face during the attack and ignored her pleas.“I was like, ‘Stop Steven,’” she wrote, “but I didn’t want to be loud because I didn’t want to draw attention.”Around 2 p.m., a representative from the girl’s group home took the girl to a hospital for a sexual assault exam. Smith tried to call the school system superintendent to see if a security officer should be involved, but Smith could not reach him. Afterward, Smith called Moore to the office, and he invited the athletic director to sit in on his conversation. Moore said he hadn’t had sex with the girl, but they had exchanged sexually explicit notes. Smith allowed Moore to go back to class. Both Moore’s and the girl’s lockers were searched. Graphic notes were found, but none were signed. At the end of the day, Moore went home.Once both students were out of the main office, Smith and others resumed their interviews for an open administrator position.It wasn’t until 4:30 p.m that Sloan called the Child Abuse Hotline for Smith to report the incident. The operator advised him to call law enforcement. Neither Sloan nor Smith ever did.An hour later, Smith went to the hospital to check on the girl, but left after 40 minutes to attend a school board meeting where he recognized several coaches and the volleyball team. During all this time, more than 10 adults knew a student had reported a rape, and not one of them reported it to the Muncie Police Department to report it. Three different people had suggested to Smith personally that he contact police.Smith said he did not know that he had to contact the police directly, or that under Indiana state law sexual contact between minors is usually considered child abuse, which must be reported “immediately.” His defense said he thought “immediately” meant within 24 hours of the report.In response to this, Judge Thomas Cannon read to him from the Webster dictionary in court, defining “immediately” as, “in an immediate manner; specifically, a) without intervening agency or cause; directly; b) without delay; at once; instantly.”“Under the facts of this case,” Justice David wrote in the Supreme Court ruling, “no reasonable person of ordinary intelligence would have difficulty determining whether or not Smith acted with a sense of urgency or primacy of purpose.”According to his LinkedIn profile, Smith still works for the Muncie School Corporation as an adult education teacher at Muncie-Work One. During an interview with detectives 10 days after the incident in 2010, once details of the events began to become clear, detectives asked Smith if he would have called police sooner, if he had the chance to go back.“If I had to do it over again,” he told them, “I probably would.”Follow reporter Hannah Smith on Twitter @hannsmit.
(03/13/14 4:11am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Principal Jeffry Henderson learned of the explicit photos circulating throughout Bloomington High School North when one girl met with administration to discuss a conflict she was having with another student.She had sent a nude photo to her boyfriend, and then, when they broke up, he showed it to a friend. Since then, at least 100 students have seen the photo, and her conflict was with one of them.Police discovered 18 other students have sent explicit photos of themselves.Henderson said in his nine years as principal, he has never seen an incident so widespread. “Nothing to this extent at all,” he said. Within a few days of alerting the administration, a case of a girl sending a sexy photo to her boyfriend turned into a massive investigation into child pornography. So far, it appears everyone involved was younger than 18 years old. The section on child pornography in the Indiana Code has been amended three times in response to situations like this. Because of the code, there are exemptions from child pornography when it comes to minors in dating relationships, contingent on certain relative ages. However, when a photo from a relationship is shown to a third party, it crosses the line into child pornography. Aviva Orenstein, a professor in the Maurer School of Law, said the law might help persuade kids to be more careful when it comes to sexual photos. Even if it’s not originally child pornography, it’s just one upload away from becoming that, she said. “Once it’s out there, it can be sent anywhere,” she said. “It could become child pornography when some goofy guy sends it to his friend, who then puts it on his Facebook page, and then that friend puts it on the Internet. And then you have a picture of a nude 14-year-old, and that’s not OK.” Orenstein said the original girl could also, in theory, be found in possession of child pornography for having a nude photo of herself, but it’s unlikely this would occur. Distribution is the area in which problems arise, in this case. The Monroe County prosecutor has yet to determine whether charges will be filed against the students involved. The office declined to comment because the case involves minors. Capt. Joe Qualters of the Bloomington Police Department confirmed it’s too early to know whether the prosecutor will go forward with charges. “There have been preliminary discussions with the prosecutor’s office about charges, but nothing has been determined since the case is still under investigation,” he said via email. “It is possible that the event will serve as an opportunity to educate students on the legal and social implications related to this type of activity.”Qualters said if charges are pressed, possible charges could include child exploitation, intimidation and harassing communications. Child exploitation is considered a class C felony. This is not a problem exclusive to BHSN. Qualters said they have received reports from area middle schools in the past as well. Across the country, minors have been put on trial and charged as sex offenders for sexting scandals such as this. If any adolescent is labeled a sex offender, it’s a label that he or she most likely carries for life, just like any other sex offender. “I would describe it as a problem for teenagers across the country,” Henderson said. In the weeks leading up to the investigation, Henderson said BHSN released a video to parents Jan. 17 about how to teach technological privacy and safety to avoid situations like this. It was produced in conjunction with the prosecutor’s office and the Monroe County School System. On Feb. 3 — weeks before the investigation began Feb. 25 — the school also invited panelists to discuss these issues in depth with parents of students. “Obviously, this (incident) then causes us to take pause and redouble our efforts,” Henderson said. Parents have been informed of the investigation through a letter from BHSN. Henderson also said a significant number of parents met with the detective. Though the issue of teens taking explicit photos can spark much debate, Orenstein said she thinks it’s more of a cultural problem than a law problem. She said students need to understand the laws are intended to protect them. “The line from when it turns from dating behavior to something sinister, it can happen in a nanosecond,” she said.
(02/18/14 5:29am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The Howards wake up with the sun. Mist rolls over the hills surrounding Maple Valley Farm, and their house glows warmly through a pre-dawn dark that smells like rain. In the field in front of the house, a rooster crows. The front door to the house opens, and light spills out. Three blonde children — Ethan, 12, Elena, 10, and Grant, 8 — stumble into the morning, in rubber boots and cargo pants. It’s time for morning chores. Under fluorescent lights in the barn in front of their home, Grant clambers over a fence and into the pig pen where a mother pig and her piglet live. She had a litter, but accidentally killed her babies except for this one, the size of a football with a curly-q tail. The Howards had problems in the first few years with all the animals on their farm. After decades of industrialized farming, the animals had been bred out of their natural instincts, from what to eat to how to parent. The mother pig is the latest animal to join the farm, and she’s still learning. Confused, she sat on her newborns, suffocating them. Pigs in mass farms sometimes live in pens too small to sit, and their piglets are usually taken immediately after birth. She hadn’t known any better. The way the Howards run their farm — without supplements, antibiotics, filler feed or help when the animals get sick — they hope that she, like the others, will re-learn. While Grant feeds the pigs slop, Ethan fires up a tractor and drives out of the barn, toward a field near the road. The tractor’s puttering is the only sound as he drives past the laying hens in their roost, where Elena walks, collecting eggs. Next to the hens is another sort of open-air barn, wall-less but roofed, with fridges, tables and a fence beneath, where the slaughters are done. The hens live beside where their counterparts — the meat chickens — will die.Ethan parks the tractor next to the meat chickens’ mesh-and-tin coop, in the farthest field from the house, and Elena and Grant join him. The three children take positions around the coop, Ethan and Elena on one side and Grant on the other.“Tell us if we’re gonna hit any chickens,” Ethan calls to Grant. With a lurch, the three children pick up the coop and begin to walk. The chickens squawk and run forward on their raptor-like feet, anxious not to get hit as the coop moves around them. Once over fresh grass, the children set the coop down again. When the sun is up in earnest, their mother, Tina, calls the kids inside from their front porch, to eat breakfast with her and their father Larry. The family links hands and prays before eating. Though many people might not want to think about where their food comes from, it’s a concept Tina, Larry and their children are faced with every day. Today, they’re eating fresh eggs and fruit smoothies.The children play an integral role on the farm, maintaining their own enterprises of specific animals, where they make all decisions relating to their assigned animal. They will lose or make money based on their decisions. They also help with the slaughters.Sometimes Larry worries how the work affects his children but he knows it’s simply a part of their lives.“To us, it’s natural,” he says. “They’ve seen a lot of death.” As the morning brightens outside, the meat chickens continue to peck at the fresh grass beneath their coop, ruffling feathers and clucking. During the next few weeks, the chickens will swell in size and reach maturity. Then they’ll be slaughtered, and 8-year-old Grant — now sitting at the table and giggling, eating his eggs sunny-side-up — will be the one holding the knife. ***Grant’s hands are soaked in blood as he reaches into the side of a trailer and lifts a chicken up by its feet. At first, the chicken flutters, but soon it calms, wings stretched out from its sides.Boots scuffing across pavement, Grant lugs the bird toward a fence where several metal cones are tied, tip-side down. With effort, he lifts the bird above one of the cones and drops it in, forcing it down until the chicken’s head comes out a hole cut in the bottom. From the ground, Grant picks up a small paring knife. Carefully, he makes two light incisions on the chicken’s neck, and immediately blood bursts out in spurts, trickling down into the blood-filled trough below. Larry has taught him it’s important not to cut too deep and sever the windpipe. This unnecessarily stresses out the birds, and everything on the Howard farm is geared against stress for the animals. When they bleed out rather than asphyxiate, it’s as if they’re falling asleep. The chicken shudders, spraying blood over Grant’s clothes and face, where it falls starkly against his white-blonde hair. The slaughter is the first and simplest step when it comes to harvesting the chickens. Today, a sunny day in October, the Howards are harvesting 83 chickens outside in a sort of open-air laboratory, with a freestanding roof protecting metal tables and refrigerators. Several visitors have paid to participate and learn how to butcher chickens. The way the Howards do it, there are five steps. First, a chicken is put into one of the cones, has its throat slit and is drained of its blood. This takes about 3 to 5 minutes. From there, it goes to the scalder, a machine full of water kept at a precise 148 to 150 degrees — hot enough to loosen the skin and feathers without cooking the chicken.After the scalder, the chicken enters the plucker, a contraption the Howards made themselves. It’s a metal basin filled with rubber tendrils that scrape all of the feathers from the chicken with the assistance of a hose, manned, for the most part, by Ethan.Next comes the butchering, where the volunteers are stationed. Here, the head is torn from the chicken’s body by bracing the chicken against the table and ripping the head down over the edge. After this, the guts are removed. The feet, heart and liver are kept for human consumption. The rest is fed to their work-dog or composted.Tina and Elena stand at the last table — the final and cleanest step. Here, the chicken is inspected and packaged. The whole process starts around 9 a.m. and continues for hours. Within minutes of beginning, the wet smell of poultry floats through the air, tinted with the copper scent of blood. Eventually, a neighbor comes to pick up some chicken he’s ordered. He stays for a while to chat, but upon leaving, says, “I’ll take my chicken livers now, so that nobody else gets ’em.” Everybody present laughs. In the background, Grant goes into the trailer to retrieve another chicken. ***Several times every day, Larry and Ethan trudge the steep path down to a ravine behind their house to check on the larger animals. When time comes to move them to a new pasture, they roll out sections of electrified fence around the new field. The fence serves to keep the flock protected from predators, and it keeps the animals inside their enclosure. The fence is only 5,000 volts, like a strong static shock. On the day of a move, the animals watch from their old pasture, disinterestedly, until Larry opens up a section of their fence into the new field. Then, like a war cry, he cups his hands around his mouth and yells, wiggling his tongue: “Oodloodloodloodl!”The animals charge forward single-file — first the sheep, then the cows, then the goats. Upon entering its new domain, one goat promptly turns his face toward the sky, squats and takes a piss. “It’s like if you get a bunch of children and yell ‘ice cream,’” Larry says, grinning as the animals hustle past him. Larry and Ethan watch, smiling, both with hands on their hips as they watch the animals tear at the foliage. These animals aren’t slated for slaughter quite yet. Those that have been chosen are sequestered up to a smaller field, near the house. Larry would like to do all of their slaughters on site like the chickens, but at this point it’s impossible, because they don’t have the right facilities. Instead, the animals are loaded into trucks and driven to Rice’s Quality Farm Meats in Spencer, Ind. For most animals, it’s the first time they’ll leave the farm.After a week or two, they’ll come back as food. ***The chill isn’t immediately overwhelming at the butcher, but the smell is. It’s the sweet smell of cold, wet concrete and fresh meat. The main room is kept cold — the kind of chill that creeps in from the feet up. The meat locker is even colder. A manager in a white lab coat pushes open the metal door to the locker. All the workers wear lab coats, caps and sneakers, which will be soaked with water and blood by the end of the day. When the worker opens the door, a gasp of cold air escapes into the main room. Within the locker, racks of skinless carcasses hang from meat hooks, the open necks of the cows nearly brushing the floor. White fat is marbled over the deep red muscle, held together with translucent connective tissue. The worker slides the front-most rack of lambs out from the fridge and into the main room, along a ceiling track. The lambs swing on their hooks, and tags dangle from their front legs, tied together as if they’re praying. The tags contain the animal’s serial number and the family name: Howard.The worker stops the carcasses on the track above a metal table. On a stand above the table is a chainsaw. The worker takes the first lamb down from its hook and places it on the table, rib cage up. With sure precision, he picks up a knife, curved at the tip, and reaches below the rib cage, between the legs. With one cut he severs two sacks — the testicles — and places them on the table next to the carcass. Next, he picks up the chainsaw. It roars to life at his touch. He lowers it down to the base of the lamb’s ribs. The sound of the saw is a dull roar until it hits the backbone. Then, with a high-pitched squeal, the saw shudders and slows, bone fragments spraying into the air like sawdust.In just a few seconds, the lamb is severed in two. He makes another cut with the saw closer to the neck, so the lamb is divided into thirds. From there it’s transferred to another, larger metal table, where three additional workers wait.Each takes a third of the lamb, and they make quick work of sectioning it further. One of the workers has his earphones in, heavy metal blasting, to help make the time pass quicker. He said he likes to listen to Korn while he works. They cut the meat down farther with another saw for cutting bone and knives for slicing tendons. The testicles are brought to the table and cut as well. They’re punctured with the tip of a knife, and then the veined skin is sliced and removed, as if peeling a grape. They’re tossed into the box of requested cuts of meat. After that, they’ll be packaged by hand for the customers. In a few days, the Howards will come back to pick up their meat. The way the Howards and the butcher work, humans are involved in every part of the process, rather than machines.The Howards are with their larger animals until they come to the kill floor, and then the butcher takes control. Though it can be a difficult concept to reconcile, the Howards know the way they do it is best. “You always think about it,” Larry says. “We always say, you know, they have one bad day, because they have such a great life.”***The menu for the night at the Howard household is standard for them: sweet potato biscuits, steamed vegetables, roast chicken and a goat butchered just days before, with the lambs. It smells like Thanksgiving. Ethan and Tina take to the kitchen, while Larry helps Elena in the living room with some of her math. She’s currently doing long division, and she sits next to Larry on their couch, her textbook spread over both of their laps. Almost everything in the meal comes from their farm or farms nearby. Tina sometimes shops at Bloomingfoods or Kroger for things they just can’t get themselves, like butter or occasional treats. Right now, bags of Tostitos chips inhabit their pantry. Ethan is in charge of the biscuits. The dough on the counter in front of him is a sticky blob, bits hanging from his fingers. Grant giggles. “I think you need more flour,” he says from where he sits at the dining room table, feet dangling and kicking through the air. Begrudgingly, Ethan adds some. They use spelt flour from a farm down the road. The chicken for dinner was slaughtered two days prior, and it comes out of the oven a deep shade of brown. All of the kids gather close to look at it. “Do you think I killed it or Ethan did?” Grant asks Larry.Larry grimaces. “It’s hard to know, buddy.” “I know I put it in a bag,” Elena says, with a laugh. The only difference tonight is the Howards usually only have one kind of meat and no biscuits for dinner, except maybe once a month. They try to avoid too much bread.Although the children prefer chicken hearts and liver smoothies, tonight, they’ll have to settle for roast chicken and goat chops. Before dinner, the family says a prayer, linking hands. Then, they grab plates and head for the food. The chicken falls apart right off the bone, it’s so fresh. The goat is a little tougher because of the age of the goat, but marrow seeps out of the t-bone surrounding the meat. After dinner, the kids play with toys in the backroom, and Larry and Tina stay seated at the table, dirty dishes in front of them. Outside the window, the sun sets in front of the house, and the farm’s turkeys are visible, retreating into their roost for the night. In the sky, stars begin to appear. Tomorrow when the sun starts to rise, the Howards will wake up and begin again. Follow reporter Hannah Smith on Twitter @hannsmit.
(10/15/13 6:23pm)
A Morgan County man faces a preliminary murder charge for the fatal shooting of his 19-year-old son Sunday.David Carrender, 49, is being held without bail in the Morgan County Jail and is expected to be arraigned Wednesday, Morgan County Sheriff Robert Downey said.Along with a charge for murder, Downey said it is likely the prosecutor will tack on other charges, including criminal recklessness with a deadly weapon.Wyatt Carrender was shot Sunday at about 8:25 p.m. after he and his father were at Buffalo Wild Wings in Indianapolis watching a football game with their family and friends. Sabrina Canfield, Wyatt Carrender’s girlfriend, was at the restaurant and said David Carrender consumed about 10 Blue Moon beers and several shots of whiskey, according to a statement she gave police. Wyatt Carrender was reportedly the designated driver.After the game ended, the father wanted to go on to another bar to watch more football, while the son wanted to look at cars for sale and then go home. Downey said an argument broke out between them as they drove back to their home in Martinsville, Ind.Once home, the fight escalated. According to the police report, the pair fought in the stairway, and Wyatt Carrender head-butted his father, sending him crashing down the stairs.David Carrender’s girlfriend, Cynthia Lloyd, was downstairs baking cookies while the two argued upstairs.David and Wyatt Carrender then went to their bedrooms. David Carrender retrieved a .40 caliber handgun from his room and went into his son’s room, where Wyatt Carrender sat on his bed with his pregnant girlfriend, Canfield, according to the report. Wyatt Carrender stood and started moving toward his father, and David Carrender proceeded to shoot his son five or six times in the chest, arm and pelvis, according to the police report.In her interview with police, Canfield stated that David Carrender said just before firing the first shot, “I always knew I was going to have to do something like this.”Canfield ran downstairs to tell Lloyd what had happened, and Lloyd called 911.Wyatt Carrender was found dead at the scene.Downey said authorities had responded to several domestic disputes at the house prior to this incident, and Lloyd said in her interview with police it wasn’t uncommon for David Carrender to become drunk and aggressive.During his interview with police at the station, David Carrender reportedly began crying, saying he “had killed the thing that he loved most in the world,” according to the police report.Follow reporter Hannah Smith on Twitter @hannsmit.
(09/03/13 4:32am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The Bloomington Peace Action Coalition took to the square in downtown Bloomington Monday evening to protest against the current proposal for U.S. military intervention in Syria. The protest followed President Obama’s announcement last Saturday that he would seek congressional approval for U.S. intervention in the ongoing Syrian Civil War. Timothy Baer, an organizer of the event in Bloomington, said 110 people were present at the protest during its peak. He said military intervention in Syria should be important to people living in Bloomington, despite the fact the war is happening more than 6,000 miles away.“We’re United States citizens, and this will affect the people of the United States and the people of the world,” Baer said. Obama’s current proposal to Congress involves what he has labeled as a limited military strike on alleged chemical weapons and military sites. As of now, his plan sets no limit on the duration of time spent in Syria or on the geography involved.David Keppel, another organizer of the event, said protesters want Congress to vote “no” to Obama’s proposal. He said the current course of action carries the high risk of America becoming entrenched in the Syrian conflict going forward. Instead, Baer said he advocates a diplomatic solution that would engage all of the involved parties, including Iran and Hezbollah, event though the U.S. has no formal diplomatic ties with either.“They need to put all of the parties together,” he said. “There shouldn’t be any pre-conditions stipulating they aren’t terrorists.” Keppel said the Bloomington Peace Action Coalition has another protest planned to take place at 5 p.m. Wednesday in front of the Monroe County Courthouse.In the meantime, the group suggests citizens contact their government representatives with personal letters or phone calls and not just settle for signing a petition. Keppel said given the complexities of the situation, many Congress members may surprise their constituents with which side they fall on. Baer said to himself and many others, it’s clear what Obama has proposed in Syria is only going to make matters worse. Keppel said although Obama says he is “sending a signal” to Assad, a signal only works if it’s a signal of something else. “This will no more be a limited strike than an alcoholic taking their last drink,” Keppel said.Follow reporter Hannah Smith on Twitter @hannsmit.
(04/22/13 4:39am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>The news broke Friday through a post on Jezebel: “Indiana sorority girls attend totally cute homeless-themed party.”The sorority is the IU chapter of Kappa Delta, and the article discusses a party thrown during Little 500 week.Michael Goodman, senior assistant director for fraternity and sorority life at IU, said inappropriate themes are not a new occurrence.“We do receive reports within the Fraternity/Sorority community regarding themes or incidents where there is a lack of sensitivity,” Goodman said in an email. “Student Life and Learning works closely with the Commission on Multicultural Understanding (COMU) and the Incident Teams to partner in addressing these incidents, and to also provide as much education to the community as a whole.”The story came complete with photos of sisters wearing signs such as “Give me a nickel and I’ll tickle your pickle” and “Why lie? It’s for booze.” The author of the blog post released them after getting the tip and photos from an IU student who is Facebook friends with the girls shown.As of Sunday night, the article had nearly 200,000 views and had been shared more than 9,000 times on Facebook.This party was a paired party with the fraternity Sigma Pi. As the themes are often selected through collaboration between the sorority and fraternity, it’s not clear who actually chose the theme.The story about the party came out a day after Kappa Delta was awarded the Outstanding Organization award from the Office of Student Ethics, according to an IU press release. Last semester, the sorority donated 72 purses to the Middle Way House to benefit homeless women, according to a tweet from their account on Sept. 26, 2012.The Kappa Delta national headquarters released a press release statement condemning the chapter’s behavior.“National and local leaders of Kappa Delta Sorority were recently made aware of an inappropriate event theme that perpetuated insensitivity toward the homeless community,” the release said. “Kappa Delta does not condone these actions or any language that demeans an individual or group.”Aubrey McMahon, the president of the IU chapter of Kappa Delta, issued a similar release, although she refused comment.Some sorority members also insist it was an “Occupy”-themed party rather than one targeting the homeless.National headquarters referred to it as a homeless-themed party.Anjulia Urasky, president of the Panhellenic Association, said the theme crossed a line.“They made light of a situation that is very severe in this country and especially in Bloomington,” she said.Urasky also said the sorority will go to trial through the honor board, where a punishment will be decided.She said she could not say at this time what that punishment will be.Despite what Goodman said, Urasky said an incident like this has never happened before.The sorority was paired with the fraternity Sigma Pi for the event. Although Sigma Pi did not offer comment, Sean Jordan, vice president of communications for the Interfraternity Council, said there will be an investigation.“Moving forward, we do plan to take some kind of action in regards of accountability, probably with regard to our standards board,” Jordan said.He also said most likely some form of punitive and educational action will be taken against the fraternity.Goodman said he thinks this is an educational opportunity for the entire community. He also said it’s important students speak up. “If students are seeing inappropriately themed parties, we want to know about them, and we want to hold those folks accountable,” he said.
(04/16/13 3:23am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>IU School of Journalism alumnus Tim Nickens won a Pulitzer Prize on Monday for editorial writing. He won the award for a series of editorials he and Dan Ruth wrote for the Tampa Bay Times after the local government removed fluoride from the drinking water in 2012. As a result of the editorials, voters elected commissioners whose first vote was to put fluoride back in the water.Nickens graduated from IU in 1982, and he served as editor-in-chief of the Indiana Daily Student during the same year. He is currently the editor of editorials at the Tampa Bay Times in St. Petersburg, Fla.“It’s very rewarding and exciting,” Nickens said. This is Nickens’ first Pulitzer, although his team was nominated last year and became a finalist.Tom French, a Pulitzer Prize winner himself and a professor of practice in the IU School of Journalism, said he has known Nickens for 35 years. They worked together at the IDS and then at the Tampa Bay Times. “Tim is a very dogged, creative, tenacious, tireless reporter,” French said. “He always was, and that’s who he was back at the IDS, and that’s the reporter he is today ... He’s somebody who’s going to be doing great work for a great time.”Nickens becomes one of 35 School of Journalism alumni to be awarded Pulitzer Prizes, according to the school’s website. This includes French and World War II correspondent Ernie Pyle, for whom the building that houses the School of Journalism is named.Nickens said he celebrated in the Tampa Bay Times newsroom alongside fellow IU alumni and with a School of Journalism flag in his hand.“My experience at Indiana University and my education at the School of Journalism means everything to me, and I’m very proud of that,” he said.
(04/04/13 4:26am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>More chalk graffiti reading “#whitegenocide” was discovered around campus Wednesday. The graffiti was found in various places, including outside the art museum, near Woodlawn Avenue, near the Kelley School of Business, near Wright and Teter quads and around Ballantine Hall and Dunn Meadow.“#whitegenocide” is a slogan associated with a group by the same name, which claims the “white race” is being forced into extinction through assimilation and interracial marriage, according to its website. Another common slogan of the group is “Anti-racism is a code word for anti-white.” Mark Land, vice president of communications for IU, said at this point there is not much the IU administration can do about it, because the chalkings do not, as of now, appear to violate the IU Code of Conduct.“They have a right to express their opinions,” Land said. “But, if they do it in such a way that it can be seen as intimidation or that you can categorize it as hate speech, that would be a violation of policy.” He said an example of a violation would be if the graffiti were burned into Dunn Meadow rather than written in chalk on a sidewalk. Land said it can be a challenge to know where free speech ends and hate speech begins.“A college campus is supposed to be a place where people can speak their mind, and we embrace that, obviously,” Land said. “At the same time, there really needs to be a level of respect.” Because of this distinction, Land said it’s uncertain how the culprits, if caught, would be punished, if at all. He said although there are cameras around campus, it can be hard to identify people, particularly if they’re hooded or wearing baggy clothing. “It’s really hard to do a hypothetical,” he said. “A lot of that is a case-by-case thing.” Land said the school doesn’t condone anything that indicates intolerance toward other races or sexual orientations. He also said incident team members are responding personally to all individuals who called the office of the Dean of Students to report the chalkings. Associate Dean of Students Carol McCord said the school is trying to walk the line between facilitating free speech and protecting those in the IU-Bloomington community. “We of course support First Amendment rights, free speech,” she said. “It’s a vital underpinning philosophically to university life. But we also want people to be sure to be respectful and civil in their communications with one another on differences of opinion, particularly about topics ... in which deeply held views can be widely divergent.” Land and McCord both said plans are in the works for a campus-wide discussion in the near future to educate on free speech and First Amendment rights in response to these incidents. “We have seen that there’s a growing concern about this, and so we are going to talk about having a symposium or discussion,” McCord said. Land said in the meantime the administration will be monitoring the situation.“We’re keeping a very close eye on it,” he said. “We’re doing everything we can to support any students who may feel threatened or unsettled by this.”
(03/26/13 3:51am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>An urn bearing the IU emblem rested on a table below the auditorium stage. Between the American and Indiana flags was the police chief’s official department photo. On the podium above him, there was a can of Foster’s beer. At 4 p.m., police officers filed in to the sound of a bagpipe. They were dressed in their formal uniforms, distinctive to their rank and department. Some wore black uniforms with flat caps, and others wore brown sheriff’s attire or navy dress pants with short-sleeved shirts. They walked down the aisle and in front of the stage, filing into the rows, while the audience behind them stood, watching silently. The officers stopped behind their seats as the rest filed in. They stood with their backs to the stage. In the overhead lights, their different badges twinkled on their chests.Taped across their badges were strips of black cloth, matte against the gleaming gold or silver. All had entered and the bagpipe stopped, replaced by ringing silence. No one so much as coughed or moved. Then came the sound of whispered counting. A group of officers filed past. The first held an American flag, folded into a triangle. The second carried the urn, embossed with the red-and-white IU emblem. Four officers followed behind them, one keeping time. As they walked past, the hundreds of standing officers saluted. In the back row, one officer removed his hat and bowed his head. His face crumpled as he began to cry. This service was the final time they would salute IU Police Department Chief Keith Cash. Friends and family from around the world gathered Monday to attend the Celebration of Life service for Keith, who died suddenly Wednesday. During the service, family and friends spoke. They told stories about the pranks that Keith pulled, many times laughing through tears. One speaker brought a beer for Keith — a Foster’s — which he opened and left on the podium. The audience applauded the gesture. Mike Diekhoff, Bloomington chief of police and Keith’s longtime friend, was one of the speakers. He had a request for the audience. “I ask that you remember Keith not only as an exceptional person,” he said. “But that you also remember his laugh.”
(03/21/13 3:25pm)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Thomas Dauer, SPARC for IU’s candidate for IU Student Association vice president of congress, withdrew himself from the election Wednesday night, according to a press release. This resulted in an incomplete executive ticket for SPARC, and the Election Commission has ruled that SPARC was no longer eligible to run in the election.However, after SPARC filed for an injunction, it was granted by the IU Supreme Court. Therefore, they will be treated as a legitimate ticket until their public hearing on March 27, and they will participate in the debate in Fine Arts 015 at 6 p.m today.The commission cited the election code, which reads, “a candidate for any one of the four elected executive offices of President, Vice President, Congressional Secretary, or Treasurer must be a running mate with a candidate for each of the other three elected Executive offices, forming an executive slate ... No individual may run for an IUSA executive position without the aforementioned running mates.” The Election Commission ruled that it would be unfair to let anyone apply to fill this vacancy post-deadline.Continue checking idsnews.com for updates.— Hannah Smith
(03/21/13 4:19am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>IU Police Department Chief Keith Cash died Wednesday around 6:20 p.m. of a heart problem after being transported to IU-Health Bloomington Hospital. He was 50 years old and a 29-year veteran of IUPD. Monroe County Coroner Nicole Meyer said after the autopsy that Cash died of natural causes as a result of of aortic stenosis. IUPD Deputy Chief of Police Laury Flint is serving as acting police chief until a permanent successor is found.“Keith served Indiana University with enormous distinction and honor for nearly three decades culminating in a highly successful, and all too short, tenure as chief,” IU President Michael McRobbie said in a statement. “Keith’s love for this University, and the Bloomington campus in particular, was apparent to all who knew him. Our deepest sympathies go out to his family members. He will be greatly missed, and we all grieve at the loss of such a wonderful man.”Cash was a native of Jeffersonville, Ind. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in criminal justice from IU-Bloomington, and he graduated from the FBI National Academy in 2004.In 2010, he was appointed police chief for IUPD, after years of service as a patrol officer beginning in 1984. He was also an instructor at IU, as well as a guest lecturer in classes, and an instructor at IU Police Academy.He served on the Board of the Indiana Association of Indiana Chiefs of Police and was a member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police.In 2011, Cash received the Trevor R. Brown Award, an honor given by IU student media for his support of student journalism. “We are shocked and deeply, deeply saddened,” said Mark Land, associate vice president of IU Communications. “Not only is Keith great at his job, he was a great friend to many people here, around town and on the campus. Our thoughts go out to his family.”Cash is survived by his mother, Judy Cash, his father, Tom Cash, his brother, Mike Cash, and another brother and sister-in-law, Steve and Nancy Cash. Funeral arrangements are pending.Jerry Minger, public safety director for IU, said Cash treated the entire IUPD force as extended family. “He had a close relationship with everybody, not just the police department,” Minger said. “He maintained relationships like that with every entity of the University that he dealt with. Tonight I can’t tell you how many phone calls and emails we’ve fielded from many people outside of IU.”
(03/21/13 12:36am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>IU Police Department Chief Keith Cash, 50, died this evening due to a heart problem.Cash was taken by ambulance to IU-Health Bloomington around 6:20 p.m. Wednesday evening, according to Laury Flint, IUPD deputy chief. Next of kin have been notified. "We are shocked and deeply, deeply saddened," said Mark Land, associate vice president of IU Communications. "Not only is Keith great at his job, he was a great friend to many people here, around town and on the campus. Our thoughts go out to his family." Cash first started at IUPD as a patrol officer in 1984. He was named chief in October 2010.Flint said no decisions regarding succession have been made at this time.- Matthew Glowicki & Hannah Smith
(03/13/13 2:22am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>On March 8, a rape by force at Willkie Quad was reported to IU Police Department.The female student who reported the alleged rape said she went to off-campus party March 7 near the corner of 15th Street and Dunn Street, IUPD Chief Keith Cash said via email.Cash said she went with two friends to the party and then she left with a male acquaintance at 12:30 am. Cash said the victim believes she was sexually assaulted at some point after leaving the party.The investigation is ongoing and active. — Hannah Smith
(03/08/13 5:30am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Panhellenic Association voted Tuesday to move women’s sorority recruitment to after winter break. Formerly, recruitment began the weekend before dead week, which is intended to be a time for students to study for finals.“It was sending a mixed-value message,” Kelsey Bergren, vice president of recruitment said.She said they expect girls to receive high grades, but then were at the same time asking them to go through recruitment during a time of “heavy academic focus.” Michael Goodman, senior assistant director for fraternity and sorority life, said the initial discussion for the change came from an Indiana Daily Student opinion column that ran last December, titled “Sorority Stupidity.” The column points out the contradictions the high-academics sororities teach their women to value, and the kind of choices these same women were forced to make given that recruitment came during a time meant for studying. “A lot of woman said it’s exhausting,” Goodman said about the previous rush dates. “In between rounds, they’d be studying.” Although Bergren said she discussed this change with the dean of students, the decision was ultimately made by the chapters. “I talked to a lot of chapters individually as well and people seemed pretty receptive to the change,” she said. The new dates for women’s rush will be implemented next year, and Bergren said there is hope these will be the new dates for years to follow. — Hannah Smith
(02/22/13 5:26am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Chalk graffiti was found on campus early Thursday morning, stretching from the south steps of Showalter Fountain to behind Woodburn Hall, past Ballantine Hall and toward the Phi Gamma Delta house on Third Street. The graffiti referenced Fiji, stating at the beginning near Showalter “GOT AIDS, THEY DO, FOLLOW THE LINE.” The line stretched across campus on the streets and sidewalks. Peppered around it were references to AIDS, Fiji’s members having AIDS and homosexual profanities. These included phrases like “fudgepackers,” “bangin monkeys,” “cumguzzlers” and “sausage jockies.” The line ended just in front of Fiji house.Mike Girvin, campus division manager for IU Physical Plant, said the obscenities and offensive parts have been erased by their crew, and that the cost for the cleanup will be about $500 to $1,000. The cost will be covered by funds paid by all students in their fees. He said his department did not report the incident since the cause at this time is unknown. “Sometimes we’ll get it and it’ll be fixed with a specific group, and then we can go to the dean of students,” Girvin said. “If you don’t know who did it, it’s harder to attest.”Interfraternity vice president of communications Sean Jordan said at this point they do not know who is responsible, or if it was done by another fraternity on campus. “Obviously, investigation needs to be done,” Jordan said. “All we know right now is that we’re very disappointed.”If it is found that a fraternity created the graffiti, then Jordan said they will be taken before the IFC Standards Board for a hearing. After the hearing, he and other members on the board would provide an action plan, be it punitive, educational or both. Michael Goodman, senior assistant director for fraternity and sorority life, said at this time IU incident teams have been dispersed to assist in the situation. These are teams trained to deal with issues of bias, hatred or harassment. “We have no tolerance for this sort of thing in the greek community,” Goodman said. Motivation for the incident at this time is also unknown, although Goodman and others said it was strange how focused the incident was on AIDS and homosexual slogans. “We are troubled by the events that happened last night,” Peter Krusing, corresponding secretary for Fiji, said in an email statement. “At this time, we are unaware of who wrote the statements, and do not know why we were specifically targeted. We do not condone the inappropriate and disrespectful mockery of HIV/AIDS. We will work compliantly with IFC and Student Life and Learning in every way necessary.” Jordan, who denounced the incident, said any intended joking about AIDS or homosexuality is uncalled for. “That’s just something no one should ever be joking about,” he said.
(02/08/13 4:04am)
Some are worried Senate Bill 409 could result in new teachers not having to meet the same set of standards to get a license.
(01/11/13 5:17am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Communication education at IU could undergo a massive overhaul if a proposal currently on the provost’s desk is approved by the Board of Trustees later this semester.The proposal, prepared by a faculty committee, provides for the merging of the IU School of Journalism, Department of Telecommunications and Department of Communication and Culture. According to the proposal, cinema and media studies, communications and public culture, journalism, telecommunications and emergent media arts could be part of a new school, tentatively titled the School of Communication, Media and Journalism.“Students would all major in CMJ — instead of the current departments that will be merged,” said John Lucaites, College of Arts and Sciences associate dean for arts and humanities, in an email. Additionally, students could be required to develop concentrations and specializations, which could “cut across the various departments within the school,” said Lucaites, a communication and culture professor.Administrators said students could have increased opportunities, such as a raised visibility in the job market after graduation.“It will raise the visibility of the three units,” Walter Gantz, telecommunications department chair, said. “It will also attract more students from across the nation.”The committee that created the proposal was convened after a meeting between the provost and the deans of the College and the School of Journalism. It was co-chaired by Lucaites and School of Journalism Interim Dean Michael Evans and included faculty from all three academic units.After a series of public meetings, the committee made 15 pages of recommendations.These include a reorganization of the existing academic units and the possible creation of new areas of study. It also provides for some sort of campus-wide cooperation with communication courses in other schools.The committee recommended a new location for the possible school, bringing together faculty and students currently scattered across campus.“The only problem now is it’s too small,” Evans said. “The same is true for the other two schools. We’re in desperate need of space.”The proposal calls for a new building near the IU Cinema to “reflect the evolving, changing communication and media environment.” However, Franklin Hall has been suggested as a possible home for the school, journalism associate professor Owen Johnson said in an email.Student media — including the Indiana Daily Student, Arbutus yearbook, WIUX student radio and IU Student Television — could also move to one location.“Although not discussed in the report proposal, one of the ideas that has been mentioned is to put all student media in one place,” Johnson said. “This could encourage more interaction among student media, not a bad idea in today’s media world.”An old debateThis is not the first attempt by the IU administration to consolidate communication studies in the University. Since the School of Journalism detached from the College — a process completed in the 1980s, according to the school’s website — the question has occasionally been brought up.New Academic Directions, which was commissioned by IU President Michael McRobbie with “the duty, from time to time, to ask hard questions about (IU’s) academic structures,” includes the recommendations of the second faculty committee organized to explore this option.The committee concluded “there is no reason to consider further a reorganization of communication/media studies on the Bloomington campus.”It cited the success of existing programs, a lack of financial benefits and faculty opposition.Similarly, previous attempts at reorganization during former Provost Karen Hanson’s tenure in office did not succeed.“What has been odd about the whole discussion of merger is that it has been pursued by the administration, not from the faculty,” said Johnson. “The first committee that was formed to discuss the subject found that the units in the discussion really didn’t have much in common,” he said. “So a second committee was formed by the administration, and it found a few possible points of cooperation. The committee that met last fall, the third of its kind, was basically told that it must make a proposal.”Cause for changeThe origins of this desire for a new structure are unclear.During town hall meetings with students, staff and faculty in the fall, members of the committee alluded to a rumor that the trustees became aware of some of the redundancies between the units after a family member was unable to count telecommunications courses toward a journalism degree.One problem addressed by the committee is finding a home for broadcast journalism students, who must choose between a telecommunications degree and a journalism degree.“I think it makes sense to put the schools together,” said senior telecommunications major Lauren Morton. “There will be more focus on journalism than ever before.”It is clear that the merger hasn’t been proposed to solve money, research or development problems.“All three are financially strong and productive,” Evans said. “All three are very strong, but most schools did this merger a while ago. We’re really taking advantage of opportunities.”Mixed reviewsOutside the University administration and faculty committee, the proposed merger has been cause for much debate.Town hall meetings conducted by the committee in the fall drew large crowds and often antagonistic opinions, although the currently available proposal did not exist at that time.Kaleigh Bacher, director of membership for the Beth Wood Chapter of the Public Relations Student Society of America said the merger could be good for public relations students. “I have no place,” she said. “I want to find a home for PR. I feel like PR is the red-headed step-child of the J-School.”Haley Nelson, a journalism student focusing on broadcast and the senior news producer for IU Student Television, said she has mixed feelings about the proposal.“I think if I were to get my major with this plan that it would allow more flexibility and skills,” she said. “But does it still maintain the high quality of journalism skills that I came to IU for?”She and other students also expressed concern about losing the century-long legacy of the School of Journalism.Johnson said he’s concerned the idea of a merger hasn’t been universally accepted, and many details are still foggy because the report is in its early stages and not yet finalized for trustee approval.“It’s almost like an arranged marriage,” he said. “Faculty members in the School of Journalism do not want to be in the College, but after the issuance of the report, individual faculty members in the College tried to suggest that of course the new unit would be in the College. This kind of distrust and backstabbing does not augur well for a new unit.”Moving forwardThe next few steps in the decision process aren’t clear, but they will involve getting the opinions of many specialists in the areas of communications, journalism and telecommunications.“Nothing is finalized,” said Elisabeth Andrews, communications specialist for the Office of the Provost. “It’s a proposal, and the faculty are responding to it. We’re gathering feedback on the report.”The next group to examine the options will be an external committee of professionals in media industries, Evans said.“They’re going to be shown the proposal and asked what they think,” he said. “Would they hire someone that graduated from the program?”Once the final reviews have been completed the proposal will come before the Board of Trustees, likely by the end of the semester.“I think it could improve in some ways, modernize the school, but with the convoluted title, it may convolute the tradition of the school,” Nelson said. “I hope that is maintained.”Michael Auslen contributed additional reporting.
(01/04/13 3:29am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Coming home to Indiana after a semester in Cairo felt surreal.I got questioned in Germany about why I was in Egypt, along with four veiled women. Once in America, I held up a line as the security guard went through my passport and called another guard over to double-check it. My third flight was delayed due to snow — something I’d forgotten about.When I walked out of the final terminal in Indiana, I saw my parents standing there, waiting for me, and I ran to hug them. The relief of being home was overwhelming. After being home for two weeks, all I can think is, “now what?”With study-abroad programs, you are warned about reverse culture shock. Your perspectives have changed, as have you, and that’s going to cause some conflict when you return back home. Some of this is true. The first time I went back to Kroger, it was like sensory overload. The first time I went to a Starbucks and spoke English, it felt uncomfortable. American traffic will always be funny to me now. The way drivers allow others to go first, or stop at stop signs. The fact that we have stop signs. I smile when I see pedestrians trying to cross the street, so tentative compared to how we hurled ourselves across highways in Cairo. It’s strange to hear English all the time and to understand all conversations. It’s strange to eat clean food and breathe clean air and not have to worry about drinking tap water. But even with all of that, returning home was relatively easy to adjust to. For me, reverse culture shock hasn’t been the problem. The problem is the stagnation you feel when you drop back into a life that hasn’t progressed at all from when you left. All of my friends’ lives have moved on for months. They’re in new relationships or new jobs. They have internships this semester and some have even changed majors. Of course, my life has also progressed, but it did so in a country few have been to and with people they’ve never met. I have changed, but nothing in my life here — my real life — has changed to show that. It feels like I’ve fallen behind, or like I need to hurry to catch up. This isn’t true, but that’s what it feels like. It’s hard to explain to people back home everything that happened while you were there. It’s not so simple as a series of events. How are you supposed to explain a total mental shift? How are you supposed to explain what it feels like to see some of the things you saw, or be a part of such incredible events? You can’t. At some point, you realize that and you stop trying to explain. But then you also realize that doesn’t make the experiences any less important. They’re just things everyone has to experience for oneself. Going to Egypt was one of my best decisions. It was also one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. I’ve changed. Everyone who was there with me changed over the course of those four months. I have never felt so capable or self-secure. On bad days here, I just think about some of the things that happened last semester, and it puts it in perspective. A bad day doesn’t carry the same meaning now.This semester, I’ll be back in school on campus. I’ll adjust back to my life at IU, where things like riots or protests don’t constantly interrupt school and work. It’s going to be hard. Two weeks back, and I already know this semester is going to be a challenge. It’s going to be difficult to reconcile the me that came back from Egypt with the life I left behind. After a spending a semester living in Egypt, I know I can handle the semester ahead.
(01/04/13 1:23am)
View overlooking Cairo from the Cairo Tower.