S PRING 2021 •
THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE? Pandemic unmasks service industry struggles Page 4
inside: Performance arts adapts, Ritual murders, gators, and more
A U NIVERSITY P RESS M AGAZINE
CONTENTS © University Press 2021
S PRING 2021 A U NIVERSITY P RESS M AGAZINE
EDITOR Olivia Malick MANAGING EDITOR Tim Cohrs STAFF Sierra Kondos PHOTO STORY Preston Wooten Tim Cohrs
STUDENT PUBLICATION ADVISORS Andy Coughlan Stephan Malick
SERVICE Struggles of forgotten frontline workers
IN PERFORMANCE
PAGE 9
LU departments adjust to COVID challenges
GATORS
PAGE 12
Park offers insights into reptiles
SATANIC RITUALS
PAGE 16
Gruesome murder spotlights ritual killings
NO MISSING
PAGE 21
Writer says goodbye to restaurant job
7 FACTS Cover design by Olivia Malick
PAGE 4
PAGE 22
about ExxonMobil in Beaumont Photo by Preston Wooten
A publication of the
UNIVERSITY PRESS The student newspaper of Lamar University
200 Carl Parker Building Lamar University Beaumont, Texas 77710
lamaruniversitypress.com editor@lamaruniversitypress.com
@uplamar
COVID
Story package by
Olivia Malick
Understaffed, overworked and scared of getting sick Food service workers detail pandemic hardships By May of 2020, three months after the COVID-19 pandemic was declared a public health emergency in the United States, the nation’s restaurant industry had lost 5.9 million jobs, according to restaurantbusinessonline.com. Those workers who remained employed had to take over extra shifts and some had to take pay cuts while enduring sometimes unruly customers. ‘Sally,’ ‘Mary’ and ‘Jane’ are all Lamar students who worked at local PAGE 4 • SPRING 2021
restaurants during the COVID-19 pandemic. Their names have been changed for fear of potential retribution from employers. SALLY When restaurants in Texas were cleared to open for dine-in services in May 2020 after closing that March, Sally was hesitant to go back to work after being furloughed. Her boyfriend has sickle-cell anemia and she lives with her elderly relatives — she didn’t want to get them sick. Her general manager reached out to let people know that if they had reservations about coming back to work, the restaurant would accommodate them. But the reality was much different. “I was not ready to go back, and I expressed that,” she said. “Then, employees were told by management that if we did not come back, we would not have a job any-
more. That was obviously threatening, so I pretty much had to go back because that’s my job.” Sally reluctantly went back to work at a local restaurant that, she said, didn’t follow state or municipal guidelines, such as monitoring capacity limits or strictly enforcing Texas’ then-in-place mask mandate. “For example, say you were exposed to somebody with COVID,” she said. “They didn’t really care. At one point, there were a few people that had it and were waiting on test results and ended up being positive. “That was scary, because I’m around people that I can’t give COVID to. It was really stressful, because you want to do the right thing but it’s hard when everyone around you is not doing the right thing.” The lack of support from management, and difficult customers, made working throughout the pandemic tough, Sally said.
“You have some customers that understand and know you’re understaffed and that you have to wear a mask,” she said. “But on the other hand, we had customers who thought they didn’t have to wear a mask, and we’d have to tell them to leave and they’d get mad.” Sally said a lot of customers did not seem receptive to the struggles restaurants were facing during the pandemic. “Most of the time I feel like we have customers that have never worked in a restaurant ever before in their life,” she said. “Nine times out of 10, we were always understaffed and dealing with some of the worst people you could deal with ever. I am out here risking a lot.” Sally eventually contracted COVID in October. “When I did have COVID, that was the scariest thing ever, and I was so extremely
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worried about my boyfriend and grandparents,” she said. “Customers don’t see that because they don’t care. “They’ll get COVID and they’ll probably still go on with their lives. I don’t think anybody will ever know how it feels until somebody they know gets it and is fighting for their life. Of course, I don’t wish that on anyone, but they won’t know how it feels until something like that happens.” Sally said that in addition to some customers fighting her over having to wear masks, she was working twice as hard without seeing it reflected in the money she was making. Even on nights when Sally made good money, it didn’t feel worth it for the mental exhaustion that followed, she said. “People are not feeling as generous as they used to,” she said. “Around Christmas time, usually we have customers who come in and they tip outrageous amounts of money. This past Christmas, the first Christmas we’ve had in this pandemic, was probably the worst holiday season I’ve ever worked in my life. “If you can’t afford to tip, simply do not go out to eat. It costs nothing to cook food at home, instead of coming to my place of work, sitting in my section making me do this and that for you, with a good attitude — for you to not tip or tip poorly, it’s kind of a slap in the face.” Sally said there was no support from higher levels of management, either. “I’m probably most disgusted with the owner, actually,” she said. “When we were down to 50 percent (capacity), it was very busy, and he was in the restaurant and he says, ‘Sit every table.’ “He obviously didn’t care. Another (higher level manager) had COVID and still came into the restaurant without a mask on.” Sally thought about going to the health department to report the COVID guideline violations, but she was scared of retribution and wasn’t certain the health department could even do anything. “I had discussed it with another coworker of mine, and we thought if we both called and got more people to call, they would take it seriously,” she said. “But I know the kind of power the owner has, and I really thought, ‘I will probably lose my job if I do this.’ “I work in a kind of place where if you see something wrong happening with managers, or anything in that area, and you say something about it, you will be shut down. They do not want to hear about it. You’re going to be in the wrong regardless. This has been going on since I started working there almost three years ago — it’s always been like this.” When Sally finally contracted COVID, she said management’s response was surprising.
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“I was told, ‘You can still come to work, I won’t tell anybody,’” she said. “That’s really messed up. Obviously, I did not go back to work. I quarantined for two weeks, but it made me weary because, ‘Could I be working with somebody who has COVID right now?’” Sally said management rushed her back to work even though she had mild COVID symptoms and her quarantine period was not over yet. “Someone telling me that I could come to work and not tell anyone may seem like they care about me in order for me to make my money, but they obviously don’t care about the health of others,” she said. “I could have easily spread that to the whole restaurant, everyone I worked with. Not only that, I heard that they thought I was lying, even though I did send in my, not one but two, positive test results as proof. “I was being rushed during my quarantine as to when I was coming back, and it was really annoying because I’m trying to focus on getting better and isolating. I don’t want to be dealing with that and I shouldn’t have been dealing with it.” Sally said that while she didn’t necessarily enjoy her job before the pandemic, it has become almost unbearable since it began. “It’s terrible,” she said. “Working in a restaurant is already mentally draining enough, but during a pandemic it’s almost off the wall crazy — it’s terrible. I’m always telling my boyfriend or my family about it — I’m always dreading going to work. “I get it, a lot of people don’t want to get up and go to work. But I don’t think I’ve ever felt this way about a job. It’s almost not worth it. I have thought about looking for something else, but I just can’t risk the money. I don’t think I’ve ever been this overwhelmed and stressed before, and a lot of that does have to do with my job. “I come home and all I can think about is every negative thing that happened at work, whether it was a customer and their attitude, or just management, or another employee bringing me down.” Customer service has never been easy, but it’s never been this hard, Sally said. “Before COVID, it was definitely tolerable,” she said. “I mean, customers were customers. Some are hostile at some points but overall, everyone just wanted to have a good time. We weren’t stressed about anything or having to enforce these rules that most customers don’t want to follow anyway.” Now that the mask mandate and capacity restrictions have been lifted, Sally said it doesn’t feel like everything has gone back to normal. “Something feels off and strange,” she
said. “I don’t think I’ll ever get that feeling back that I had before the pandemic, of just going to work and knowing it’s going to be busy and dreading it, but still just trying to have a good time and serving a bunch of drunk people. It seems like I should be back home. Something feels off and I don’t really know what it is.” Sally said she’ll probably never look at the service industry the same and there are some experiences she’s had while working during the pandemic that will stick with her for a long time. “The numerous times of being yelled at for telling people to simply put on a mask — being cursed out by grown men, watching them slam doors — it will definitely stick with me,” she said. “I feel like I can never go to a manager about any problems again.”
MARY Mary, who works at a different local restaurant, was one of the few employees retained by her job to work through the dine-in shutdown. “When the pandemic first started, we didn’t have staff, a lot of us got laid off,” she said. “Basically, only the people who could work in more than one position were allowed to stay. So, it was like six of us doing the job of 20 people — just overworked then arguing with everybody, basically.” Mary has worked as a cashier at the restaurant for almost five years, but has also worked as a host, server and sometimes line
Food service — page 6
Two out of three restaurant employees lost their jobs because of the pandemic.
Source: The National Restaurant Association SPRING 2021 • PAGE 5
Approximately 19 percent of Americans say they tip less than they did before the pandemic.
Source: Harris Poll for Fast Company
Food service — from page 5 cook when needed. If there is one thing she gained through the pandemic, it’s patience, Mary said. “I had to (have patience), because the biggest thing was when masks were enforced, you had a lot of people coming in not wanting to wear them,” she said. “We had one man come and rebuke the store in the name of Jesus. We’ve gotten into screaming matches with people just about masks.” Mary said that once the restaurant reopened for dine-in, she became increasingly anxious about contracting COVID-19. “I got nervous when things started to reopen,” she said. “We started having more people coming in and I knew people weren’t PAGE 6 • SPRING 2021
going to social distance. We had signs on tables separating them, and people would just move the signs. “I was nervous for my health because people got sick. We had people at our job catch it, because they were going places. Then we’d all have to go get tested and have to shut down the store.” Mary said the restaurant’s management was strict about enforcing the mask mandate when it was still in place, but they weren’t as cautious as they could have been. “We had a manager who came to work knowing that he had to go take a COVID test because he didn’t feel good,” she said. “He had a fever of 102 degrees and was coughing but didn’t tell anybody that. He left on his lunch break, came back and was serving food and helping out until another manager
came up and told him to go home. “We asked why and (were told) he tested positive. So, he knew he had to get a test, tested positive, still came back to work, and HR didn’t fire him. He’s still working with us — he tested negative and they let him come back. He put everybody — not just us, the customers — he put everybody at risk that day.” Mary said dealing with customers was tough, especially when it came to enforcing the mask mandate. “When things started opening back up, there was more animosity,” she said. “We knew that we were going to have at least one or two customers a day that we were going to have to tell them, ‘Hey, wear a mask,’ and getting into arguments — especially people with MAGA hats always coming in not want-
ing to wear masks. “They would say, ‘My president, Donald Trump, he doesn’t wear one, I don’t want to wear one.’ Some of our coworkers also didn’t agree with the mask mandate and you can’t work here without wearing one. So, there were a lot of arguments because there were so many different beliefs about it.” Mary said about 75 percent of customers were nice and understanding. “When the stimulus would hit, they would leave nice tips,” she said. “A lot of people would thank us for staying open during the pandemic and coming to work. We had one lady who would come every day and give us pretty masks. “But, of course, you had people coming in complaining about how long things were taking. We were understaffed, so it’s going
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to take longer to get things done because you don’t have as many people doing the same amount of work. “When we were doing to-gos only, we started charging 50 cents for food packaging because we were using more of it. One man said, ‘Are you charging me for staying alive?’ No, we’re not, you know, we just have to make a living. But I try to focus on the 75 percent.” Mary said, for the most part, she was used to dealing with difficult customers, but there seemed to be a lack of understanding during the pandemic. “I had already been there five years so I knew that people could be nasty — I did not know how nasty,” she said. “I did not know how much we really don’t communicate with each other, how much nobody really tries to step into your shoes. “There’s almost no human decency sometimes. I consider myself to be very calm — I live with seven people, I am patient.” Mary said she did feel the restaurant did a good job of alerting its employers when someone got sick. “Our head manager was serious about it because his daughter has sickle cell, she is high risk,” she said. “So, he took this to heart. If anybody tested positive, if anybody even looked sick, he’d make them go home get tested. And if you were in that area with Source: The National (them), he’d make you get tested and they Restaurant Association would sanitize everything.” In addition to the stresses of working through the pandemic, Mary said there was the added stress of being a student and keeping up with her classes. “I’m working over 40 hours a week and I have these classes,” Mary said. “And then in the middle of all that, money got short, so both my parents ended up losing their cars. “So, I’m driving everybody everywhere, driving to work, trying to get stuff done to the point where I’m listening to my classes on my way to work, just listening to them while I’m driving around and getting points off because, you know, you’re not participating, your camera’s not on. I’m just tired.” Mary said it took a toll on her mentally and physically. “I lost weight because I almost couldn’t eat at some point,” she said. “There’s a way to explain it to your professors, but I really didn’t even try to because they’re going to be like, ‘Well everybody’s going through something.’ But they’re giving twice the work and I’m already working twice as hard (at the restaurant). I made it through, but it wasn’t fun to get through.” The physical, mental and financial stresses added up and culminated in an argument with one of her managers, Mary said.
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“Me and a manager got into a giant argument — it was the straw that broke the camel’s back,” she said. “We were making plates and I made something twice on accident. It was Sunday, and Sunday’s are busy — we’re understaffed, and I’m in school, stressed about school, stressed about money, stressed about home, stressed about work. And (my manager) yelled at me over chicken. “I just remember stopping and just going completely off. I was, like, my parents don’t talk to me like this, you’re not going to talk to me like this, and, honestly, at this point, we can take it outside. I’m not violent, but we were coming to blows. “My other manager had to pull me to the side and tell me, “I’m not going to write you up, because you’ve been here so long, and I watched what happened. But I am going to tell you this, don’t let someone take you outside of your character like that.’ “I’m 21 getting into arguments with 40year-old men. I have always been the nice one, I have never raised my voice. But it’s hard.” JANE Jane worked at her local family-owned gas station complex which consisted of a
restaurant, convenience store and a snocone stand. She said that when the pandemic began, it felt like the apocalypse was happening. “There was a definite tone shift, for sure,” she said. “We had the curfew, nobody was allowed to go out. For a while, it seemed everybody was scared of this pandemic. It was very busy for us because everybody was stocking up on gas, almost like a hurricane, stocking up on gas and food and water. And then it was just kind of dead. Nobody would come in, it seemed like there were hours without any customers. “The restaurant closed beside us for a couple of weeks but everyone was crosstrained so no one had to lose their job. We ended up doing takeout orders and drivethru only. That was extremely bizarre, because we were busy all the time — we were one of the only places that was open at the time doing that. We were offering family meals for discounted prices and, I'm not even joking, wait times for those family meals got into two and three hours because everybody was ordering so many.” Jane said her boss was outspoken about his beliefs regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. “(The business) was privately owned by a
man who is very anti-mask,” she said. “He wouldn't dissuade us from wearing a mask, however, he went out of his way to tell us that it wasn't necessary. And everybody that came into the store-gas station-restaurant, was not required to wear a mask for the entirety of this pandemic. That was something that I never agreed with and, eventually, was why I left the job.” Jane left the job in November and started at a retail store in January. Jane said she didn’t face a lot of customer backlash at gas station during the pandemic because her owner never required masks, even though it was mandated by the state of Texas from July 2020 to March 2021. “Everybody was happy not to wear a mask,” she said. “We were cleaning and doing all that extra kind of work, but we didn't have any plexiglass up and I just felt that it wasn't safe for us employees. As far as customer service went, everybody was happy. I was constantly getting, ‘Oh, it's so good that y'all aren't requiring masks’ — completely different now from my current job.” Local law enforcement did nothing to reinforce the mandate, either, Jane said.
Food service — page 26
Minimum wage for servers is $2.13 and hasn’t increased since 1991.
Source: The Economic Policy Institute SPRING 2021 • PAGE 7
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ON STAGE
Ginger Mouton, Kalan Bonnette and Aaron McClendon perform in LU’s production of “The Good Doctor” in March 2021. Courtesy photo.
‘Adapting: A Continuing Performance’ Performing arts face challenges without being face-to-face Story by Tim Cohrs PAGE 9 • SPRING 2021
“Adapt” is defined as “to make fit, often by modification,” according to Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary. This word perfectly describes 2020, going into 2021, as the world has had to adapt in every way possible. Lamar University is no exception. On March 12, 2020, the university shut down, except for on-campus necessities such as the dining hall and residence halls, and moved all classes online.
This included performance-based programs, such as theater, music, band and dance, which rely on meeting in large groups, using enclosed spaces, having live audiences and, sometimes, not being able to socially distance. These departments have had to adapt their art forms to fit the changing world — whether it be at the start of the pandemic when the world entered lockdown, or when the world is slowly starting to ease restrictions.
SHUTTING DOWN James Han, LU associate professor and director of choral activities in the Mary Morgan Moore department of music, said the scale of the pandemic took everyone by surprise. “We didn’t know how it’s going to impact our class setting,” he said. “As vocal-
Performance — page 10
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LU marching band performs during the halftime show at the March 6 football game in Provost Umphrey Stadium. Photo courtesy of Jesus Lopez.
Performance — from page 9 ists, we produce a lot of droplets while we’re singing. We are one of the groups affected very seriously, because we had to stop in-person singing. So, we needed to convert everything into a virtual way to accommodate what we needed to provide to students.” Han said there was a moment at the beginning of the pandemic where he thought he could continue some in-person instruction, but in a hybrid format, with some students meeting in person individually and some students meeting online. However, due to regulations set by the university, city, state and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Han had to move all his classes and programming online. While this was challenging at first, Han said he adapted using the tools available. “It was challenging, because we’d never done the full scale of a virtual online setting for choir,” he said. “But, we worked hard, myself and the students, so we were able to adopt a few online tools, like Zoom, Teams
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meetings and sometimes Facebook — the well-known online settings.” It was also challenging for students to quickly adjust to the new norm, Lorenzo Johnson, Katy sophomore and vocal performance major, said. “As a music major it is pretty difficult doing school online since you literally have to perform in front of people,” he said. “At the beginning of the pandemic, it was pretty tough to adjust and adapt to doing everything online. Piano class, voice lessons and rehearsals all online can be tough, especially when you are trying to stay together as a choral ensemble. But overall, after a few weeks, I finally had gotten used to everything.” Some departments had more of a challenge than others. Programs with smaller classes could meet in person in a large space and be socially distanced. Joel Grothe, associate professor of theatre, said the first thing the department did was cancel everything. “Starting last spring, we moved our classes online, which was a disaster and we didn’t have any live performances,” he said.
“Teaching and directing online is kind of pointless — not very effective, in my opinion.” The campus lockdown also fragmented students, with collaborative spaces closing. This made the usual bonding experience essential to building an ensemble difficult, Rachael Ogburn, Fort Worth sophomore theatre major, said. “First thing they did, they closed down all of our meeting areas,” she said. “We have a green room which is where most of the times we go, because we usually have classes back to back, so we go in there and sleep and socialize — that’s where we live to be honest. They closed that down — it really made it hard to interact with some of the younger students that were coming in, and there’s a big disconnect.” ADAPTING Han said online tools did not support the variety of vocal ranges in his class, at least without some adjustment. “We had to go into specific settings, because singing requires different ranges and sequences, compared to our normal speak-
ing,” he said. “We had to research more how to change and how to use the equalizer to really fulfill human voice range, because sopranos — high female voices — they sing low notes, too, way above the speaking voice. For example, when they sing through the Zoom, some of the music we cannot hear, because it’s out of Zoom range. So, we had to change the settings, and modify the online tools to fulfill that need. We made it, I think — so far, we have been very productive.” To account for the loss of cohesion, Han had his students pre-record their performances which he edits all together into a cohesive group performance. This method allows students to work at their own pace and practice as much as they wish, Johnson said. “Rehearsals have changed by going totally virtual, and so now we either send in pre-recorded performances or we schedule times to record livestream performances,” he said. “It is stressful, but I honestly think that it is only easy (because) we, as students, can practice and record at our own pace, but still submit videos within a certain time limit.” While video performances work for some, it does not work for everyone. “A lot of theaters tried going online, my feeling is that video theater in general is just bad theater,” Grothe said. “It’s not the way it’s meant to be experienced. We don’t have the production values of a ‘Hamilton’ or something like that. It’s really not the same and it’s not the experience you’re going for. “I’ve done a number of these Zoom auditions lately and I just think they’re pointless, because you don’t see if there’s any connection, you don’t see if you’re actually affecting the other person. We did our best, we did some stuff online, and we did some performances and had some discussions, but it’s just not the same experience as being in the room with the people.” FINDING A WAY Because online theater is, as Grothe said, “bad theater,” and COVID cases were still high in the fall, Grothe postponed in-person performances until the spring. “Professional theater is still not doing live performances, and, actually, a lot of colleges are not either,” he said. “We made that decision for the fall that we were not going to schedule any performances. We tried to make a plan for the spring that would allow for a limited audience, and ways to minimize the risks for performers and things like that.” Theater was able to offer in-person classes in the fall, as they worked with SPRING 2021 • PAGE 10
small class sizes and had the ability to utilize large spaces within the department, Grothe said. “We’re pretty good creative problem solvers, so we were the only department that was completely on campus in the fall,” he said. “There’s certain classes that are very difficult to teach online. I was able to move my acting class into one of the theaters and we were able to have class in there. “The same is true with dance. (Students) were able to map out their space and they couldn’t move across the space — everybody was sort of in a box, they had boxes taped out on the floor. Whenever we could, we took our classes outside.” Grothe said the department quickly real-
ized they had to try to find a way to do performances in the spring. “After a fall semester of no shows, I think we realized, ultimately, theater and dance is for the audience,” he said. “Doing it without an audience is not really what it should be, but at the same time, our students need a chance to practice their craft.” LU bands faced a problem of fragmented practices, as they comprise large groups and it is difficult to find spaces that allow for adequate social distancing. Practices had to be broken up into smaller groups because of the amount of air droplets produced by instruments. “The (COVID-19) protocols have had significant impacts upon the concert band rehearsals,” Andrew McMahan, associate
professor of the Mary Morgan Moore department of music and director of bands, said in an email interview. “We ensure that all students are placed with at least six feet of distance on all sides, but with an additional three feet in front of the trombones. Due to the size of our rehearsal room, we are unable to fit more than approximately 40 students at a time in this configuration; therefore, we typically rehearse in large sections. In other words, most rehearsals are either brass only, woodwinds only, brass and percussion only, woodwinds and percussion only, etc. “The only opportunity we have to hear the full ensemble together is on the day of the performance.” Han said in-person choir rehearsals only
started to be eased in early in the spring semester. “While we planned it from the fall, I was personally planning to resume in-person rehearsals after spring break — that was our plan,” he said. “We also made the agreement with the students that everyone should feel safe. “Our first priority is each student’s safety, including faculty members as well. It looks like a majority of students feel in person is needed because we have been missing so many wonderful moments in person. But we’re going to start as an individual setting. I meet individually with students and then we
Performance — page 25
James Han’s choir class perform a virtual choir concert for which students submitted individual videos which Han edited together. PAGE 11 • SPRING 2021
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GATORS UP CLOSE
Stories and photos by Tim Cohrs
Preserve offers ‘snap’ shot of reptiles’ lives Photo package by Preston Wooten and Tim Cohrs PAGE 12 • SPRING 2021
A park worker dangles a piece of string with a weight on the end and hits the floating gator on its nose. After a minute or so, the gator lifts its head, opens its mouth wide to reveal rows of sharp teeth and snaps its giant jaws closed before disappearing back under the water, as the watching crowd cheers. This is part of the daily show routine at Gator Country Adventure Park located just outside Beaumont, Texas. The park, founded in 2005, is home to more that 450 rescued and/or donated American alligators, snakes, lizards, tor-
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toises, caimans and other various animals. The park also provides internships for university students and helps them gain experience in animal care, exhibit maintenance, landscaping, gardening, construction, security, retail assistance and tour guiding. “I really love working at Gator Country, because not only do I get hands on experience working with alligators, crocodiles, venomous snakes and other kinds of animals, the environment is just so amazing — I love it,” Zach Schneider, a Gator Country intern from Indiana, said. “The people here, they’re knowledgeable and I cannot wait to learn more about everything.” The park survived Harvey and Imelda, during which some gators escaped in the high water — they were all later found. The park and gators also survived the recent winter storm which affected Southeast Texas as no animals were lost or affected by the storm. The COVID-19 pandemic caused the park to limit the amount of people allowed in, but they did all they could to keep everyone safe and healthy, such as requiring masks and placing hand sanitizer stations around the park. Because the park is mostly outside, visitors are able to socially dis— Penny Clark tance to reduce risk of getting COVID. Gator Country is located at 21159 FM 365 in Beaumont. Admission is $16 for adults and $13 for children ages 3 to 12. For more information, visit www.gatorrescue.com.
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SATANIC PANIC
Story package by
Sierra Kondos
Stories and photos by Tim Cohrs
PAGE 16 • SPRING 2021
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Kidnap, murder, ritual sacrifice Student’s death in Matamoros led to 1989 Texas legislation In 1989, Texas was gripped by a “Satanic Panic,” following a discovery of a mass grave in Matamoros, Mexico. The grave filled with 15 dismembered bodies was discovered as a result of a routine missing-persons investigation of Mark Kilroy, a Texas student who disappeared on spring break. What followed is a tale of ritual sacrifice that led to legislation that stayed in effect for four years. A SPRING BREAK TRIP In the early hours of Saturday, March 11, 1989, Kilroy, a senior at University of Texas at Austin, Bill Huddleston and Bradley Moore, both juniors at Texas A&M, and Brent Martin, a student at Alvin Community College, in Alvin, Texas, piled into Martin’s car and headed to South Padre Island. The friends were former high school basketball and baseball teammates in Santa Fe, Texas. They had planned a week of drinking, sun-
bathing and partying on the beach. The next day, the quartet made a trip through Brownsville and crossed the Rio Grande into Mexico to visit Matamoros’s main tourist attraction, Calle Alvaro Obregon, that houses a large selection of bars that sold cheap alcohol. The guys met up with four Kansas coeds and partied until about 2:30 a.m. and went back to their hotel. The following day, they decided to revisit Matamoros again, but this time, they left their car on the American side of the border and walked to the risqué town. While at the Hard Rock Café, Kilroy left his friends to talk to a woman he knew. When the other three were ready to call it a night, Kilroy rejoined the party and they walked back across the bridge to their car. On the way, they stopped to use the restroom, Huddleston said, in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine, they saw a Mexican man motion for them to join him. He assumed Kilroy knew him because he heard Kilroy ask the man, “Didn’t I just see you somewhere?” or “Where did I last see you?” When Huddleston rejoined Martin and Moore, Kilroy was not with them. They assumed he had gotten a ride with someone else, and they returned to their hotel. By the next day, however, Kilroy had not returned. The friends contacted the police and filed a missing-persons report. The police said
Matamoros, Mexico, is located just across the Rio Grande from Brownsville, Texas. The city is a popular spot for college students who head to south Texas for spring break.
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that students were commonly reported missing and usually showed up hours later with a hangover and no memory of the night before. However, the disappearance of Kilroy was soon suspected as foul-play, once he could not be located in the hospitals or jails. Investigators decided to bring in a hypnotist to uncover clues. Under hypnosis, Martin recalled Kilroy talking to a young Hispanic man with a cut on his face. There were no other leads. Kilroy’s parents, James and Helen Kilroy, flew to Brownsville and led the search for their son. They passed out more than 20,000 leaflets and offered a $15,000 reward for information concerning his whereabouts. The Kilroys met with Texas officials, including Attorney General Gene Mattox, Governor William Clements and Senator Lloyd Bentsen. On Sunday, March 26, the Kilroy case was featured on “America’s Most Wanted.” The television show produced an outpouring of mail and telephone calls but no clues. The Kilroys left a few days later with the police’s promise to not give up the search for their son. A BREAK IN THE CASE A few days before the Kilroys returned home, the United States and Mexico announced the implementation of a massive drug interdiction program along the border. The antidrug operation included 1,200 agents, helicopters and airplanes. It was described by one official as “possibly the largest of its kind.” In April, a few weeks after Kilroy’s disappearance, Elio Hernandez Rivera, 22, a resident of Matamoros, was arrested for running a routine police roadblock and for being in possession of marijuana. Under police questioning, Rivera identified several drug dealers and revealed his family had a small ranch 20 miles west of Matamoros. The police handcuffed Rivera and took him to the Santa Elena Ranch, that had a reputation among the officers for staging a ring of marijuana smugglers. The police group was led by Comandante Juan Benitez Ayala of the Mexican Federal Police; they uncovered 75 pounds of marijuana on the property. In a routine procedure, the police officers passed a photo of Kilroy to the ranch caretaker. He told them that he had seen the young man and pointed to a shack 400-feet away from where they were standing.
Mark Kilroy A GRUESOME DISCOVERY As the police officers approached the building, they were engulfed in a stench of rotting flesh. Buried in several shallow graves, were 12 male bodies, including the body of Mark Kilroy. The victims had been slashed with knives, while others were shot as well. One body was burned, and another was hanged. Many were savagely disfigured with their hearts ripped out, their eyes, ears and testicles removed. One had been decapitated. Three more bodies would be found during the investigation, bringing the total body count to 15. Inside the building, police found blood covering the floors, as well as an iron kettle filled with iron and wood spikes, a charred human brain and a roasted turtle. They found urns that contained congealed blood, human hair and animal parts. Police also found a large oil drum that they believed was used to boil the victims. One witness described the scene as a “human slaughterhouse.”
Satanic — page 18 SPRING 2021 • PAGE 17
shove a video camera and microphone into one’s face and demand answers. According to Tulsaworld.com, this was originated by Geraldo Rivera, an American television host, who made his reputation by taking his camera to the action and “becoming the news” rather than “covering the news.” This resulted in officers not mentioning a ritual relationship in crimes even when recognized. Secondly, officers were only beginning to get training in recognizing such ritual relationships. Veal, who said 256 police officers throughout the state attended a seminar on ritualistic crimes in Killeen in 1988, urged senators to, “Give us a law to work with. If we don’t have a Corpus Delicti, we don’t have a crime.” Merriam-Webster defines corpus delicti as “The substantial and fundamental fact necessary to prove the commission of a crime,” and “The material substance, such as the body of the victim of a murder, upon which a crime has been committed.” According to the bill background, law enforcement officers say ritual abuse can include sexual abuse, sensory deprivation, and actual or illusionary torture of humans or animals. They say the greatest obstacle to investigating such allegations, and the biggest reason they often miss ritual relationships, is that the abused children are terrorized into silence. Groups that supported the bill included the Texas Medical Association and the Texas Council on Family Violence.
Satanic — from page 17 According to Rivera’s testimony, along with four others, the victims had been ritually slain in the belief that human sacrifice would make the gang invincible and protect their drug business from the police. Rivera and the other suspects showed no sign of remorse when they recounted the events related to Kilroy. Based on their testimonies, warrants were issued to five other cult members, including Adolfo De Jesus Constanzo, 26, the mastermind and religious leader, and Sara Aldrete, a 24-year-old student at Texas Southmost College in Brownsville — she became known as “the witch.” Kilroy was kidnapped after Constanzo ordered the sacrifice of an Anglo student. Kilroy had almost escaped, Rivera said, but had been wrestled back into the car and taken to the ranch. After being bound and gagged by tape, he was imprisoned in the shack. Kilroy was told nothing was going to happen to him and the suspects said they fed him eggs, bread and water. Twelve hours after he was captured, Kilroy was led outside, where Constanzo executed him by chopping him in the back of the neck with a machete. When the police found Kilroy’s body in one of the graves at the ranch, his legs had been severed at the knees and his brain and spine had been removed. Kilroy’s murder highlighted an issue that was already being discussed in the Texas legislature. CORPUS DELICTI On May 3, 1989, the Houston Chronicle, in a story headlined “Children ‘bred’ for sacrifices, senators hear,” warned that ritualistic crimes were on the increase in Texas, and that a state senate committee approved legislation to increase penalties for certain offenses — but not murder — against children. Police officers told the panel they believed members of some cults bred children for human sacrifice and other ceremonial abuses. No one has ever been prosecuted in Texas for human sacrifice, but Walker Veal, director of the Killeen Police Academy, said he had seen a “satanic calendar,” on which some days were marked for human sacrifice, with the sex and age of the desired victim specified. Steve Baggs, a Department of Public Safety narcotics officer based in Austin, told reporters he knew of 20 to 25 cult-related crimes in Texas during the previous two years involving children and adults and “everything from murder to kidnapping.” The legislation was filed by Senator Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, before the 15 bodies PAGE 18 • SPRING 2021
Texas Attorney General Gene Mattox inspects a ritual sacrifice site in Matamoros, Mexico, in 1989. were discovered buried on the Matamoros ranch. Zaffirini called the bill a “first step” in fighting a problem that law enforcement officers were only beginning to recognize. The bill would enhance the punishment for several crimes, including assault and sexual assault, committed against someone younger than 17 “as part of a ritual or ceremony.” For those crimes, the bill would provide stiffer penalties if ritual elements were involved. A third-degree felony offense, for example, would become second-degree under the bill’s provisions. Zaffirini introduced the bill at the request of Lee Reed, an Abilene police detective,
who said ritualistic abuse was “very systematic and organized” and “much worse” than other child molestation cases. Reed said he had not arrested any suspected offenders, but was trying to build one ritualistic abuse case involving four children. Information provided by officer Reed, and corroborated by DPS, the Fort Worth Police Department’s Gang Intelligence Unit and others, indicated a growing problem in Texas with ritual abuse and murder. The background bill stated the ritual relationship often goes unmarked for two reasons. One is that law enforcement officers fear the “Geraldo Syndrome,” which is when the media
A BILL PASSES On Aug. 14, 1989, Senate Bill 30 was proposed in the Texas Senate and provided three sections of the penal code which provided a higher range of punishment for similar conduct because the victim is a child (Sections 22.04 (b) and (c) (injury to a child or elderly individual), and Section 22.021 (aggravated sexual assault). This higher range of punishment, however, comes into play only when the victim is 14 years or younger. Additionally, there are no provisions of the penal code which increase the range of punishment because of the role of
Judith Zaffirini
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the actor’s beliefs in committing the offense or since the offense was committed during a ceremony manifesting the actor’s beliefs. The bill became effective Sept. 1, 1989. PANIC IN SABINE COUNTY “In 1989, news stories arose about a satanic cult in a small East Texas town that led to a mass panic,” Stuart Wright, Lamar University Professor in the department of sociology, social work and criminal justice, said. “I decided to go investigate this case. I arranged to interview the county sheriff and some teachers in the high school where the alleged incident took place. I took two senior sociology majors with me so they could get some field experience. I was able to watch local TV video that showed parents panicked and showing up at the high school to pick up their kids after a rumor circulated that a satanic cult was planning to kidnap and murder blonde, blue-eyed girls. The video showed coverage of screaming parents and a chaotic scramble to ‘rescue’ offspring.” Wright said one woman claimed to have heard that animals were being sacrificed and stuffed into school lockers. “Others claimed there was blood smeared on the walls of the school gymnasium,” he said. “But TV cameras entered the school building to find none of these things. It turned out to be a vivid case of what we call ‘moral panic’ in sociology. “I was familiar with the few satanism groups in the U.S. at the time that the first claims arose about satanic ritual abuse. I immediately thought that the claims were far-fetched and not based on any real research. As I looked further into this phenomenon, I found that the claims were driven by rumors and fears, not real evidence.” STRIKING THE BILL Four years later, no charges had been filed under SB 30. The 72nd Texas legislature enacted HB 93, which repealed the penal code, except for the sections on capital felonies, murder and capital murder, on Sept. 1, 1994. Committee Substitute Senate Bills 1067 and 532 formed a package to restructure the criminal justice and corrections system in Texas. Each bill is contingent on enactment of the other. CSSB 1067 established a new felony category, reclassifying offenses based on their nature and severity, reconfiguring the probation system and revamping eligibility for parole. The bill also consolidated provisions within the code, eliminating duplicative sections — such as SB 30. Offenses relevant to the satanic rituals covered in SB 30 fell
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Sara Aldrete, aka “the witch,” and Adolfo de Jesus Constanzo, aka “The Godfather,” who was the religious leader responsible for the ritualistic murder of Mark Kilroy. under the charges that include first-degree murder, aggravated sexual assault, injury to a child (intentional with serious bodily injury), first degree aggravated kidnapping, among others. Offenses that are second-degree are injury to a child (reckless with serious bodily injury), indecency with a child (touching), sexual performance of a child, among others. As such, SB 30, which was introduced with great fanfare, simply disappeared with barely a whimper. THE END OF THE STORY Graphic media reports of the Santa Elena killings drew attention to satanism and the occult. Throughout the Rio Grande valley, town meetings and university seminars on voodoo and witchcraft drew overflow crowds, and attendance at churches increased. A false rumor that satanists were planning to kidnap children in retaliation for the Matamoros bust caused hundreds of nervous Texans to pull their children out of school. Meanwhile, the search for Constanzo and Aldrete took on the dimensions of a holy war. Two weeks after the discovery of the mass grave, the Mexican police burned the shack to the ground and placed a cross over the area. Two weeks after that, the po-
lice located Constanzo in an apartment. In a final act of defiance, he began throwing money out of a window and firing his gun at passersby. Constanzo’s ability to bend weaker minds to his will was a talent that served him right up to his death, according
A law enforcement training manual, created in 1995, which claims to have been compiled from years of occult investigations.
to the Rolling Stone article. As police closed in, Constanzo ordered his partner Alvaro De Leon Valdez, to shoot him and his longtime companion Martin Quintana Rodriquez. Aldrete said that Constanzo was telling Valdez, “If he did not shoot him, he would pay for the consequences in hell.” When police burst into the apartment, they found black candles, two swords, a skull made of white wax and a blindfolded doll holding another doll. Constanzo and Quintana were found slumped together in a small closet, their bodies filled with bullet holes. Constanzo, was his own last victim. De Leon Valdez, Aldrete and three other occult members were charged with homicide, criminal association, wounding a police officer and damage to property. James and Helen Kilroy turned their grief into action by establishing a nonprofit anti-drug foundation in Mark’s name. The organization’s mission is to provide antidrug scholarships, at-risk youth interventions and summer programs. “We’re definitely putting our energy into the fight against drugs,” James Kilroy said, after hearing that his son’s killer was dead. “For that reason, we don’t look back. We try to look forward.” SPRING 2021 • PAGE 19
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RE: Dear service industry. I will not miss you Restaurant management, angry customers A few thoughts
Note: After a year working in restaurants during a global pandemic, UP editor Olivia Malick has some heartfelt observations. To my dirty apron that will forever smell like crawfish seasoning and warm tortilla chips, thank you for catching every stray chip for me to find later crushed at the bottom of my pocket. I will not miss you. To the numerous work T-shirts I bought (at halfoff, what a steal!) but no longer wish to wear, I will not miss you. To the non-slip shoes that now have nowhere to go except my garage, thank you for never giving me the support I needed. I will not miss you. To all of the random bruises from bumping into too-close-together tables and chairs and scratches from too-sharp corners, thank you for the physical reminders of emotional pain. I will not miss you. To my stained blue jeans that I can’t afford to throw out, see you next week. To my former place of employment, I have some things to say: To the soda machine that never failed to coat my entire hand in syrup, thank you for always making me sticky. I will not miss you. To all of the brand-new equipment that never seemed to work right, thank you for at least being consistent. I knew I could always count on you to fail. I will not miss you. To the phone that I spent the better part of two years answering, thank you for hanging up for no reason. Thank you for blowing out my eardrum and simultaneously being too low for me to hear. Thank you for keeping me on my toes — there’s nothing I love more than anxiety. I will not miss you. To the unleveled floor, thank you for giving my legs the work out they desperately needed. Thank you, too, for always having at least an inch of water for me to tread through. I will not miss you.
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To every customer I had the absolute pleasure of serving, I have some things to say: To my very last table, thank you for making me stay three hours after the end of my shift.Your tip did not make it worth it. I will not miss you. To the group of people who left me $0.17 earlier that same day, your generous contribution made it so I no longer had to work. I will not miss you. To every drunk old man waiting outside to greet every woman as she walked in, thank you for the creepy compliments. It in no way made me feel uncomfortable or unsafe. I will not miss you. To every person who complained about having to wear a mask while not wearing one, thank you for giving me COVID — I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. I will not miss you. To the man who threatened me with physical violence because I reminded him of a mandate I did not write, thank you for your insight on the current political climate — I will surely bring your points to the governor at our next meeting. I hope you look back fondly on the day you threatened to pull a gun on a 21-year-old waiter for asking you to wear a piece of cloth for 30 seconds. Good thing I didn’t let the high schoolers intervene, they might have been too tough on you. I will not miss you. To every person who called with a question that could be answered by Google, thank you for giving me acting experience. My customer service character is bulletproof — I think I’m taking her to Hollywood! Thank you for believing that I could accurately guide you from your house in Louisiana to Beaumont, Texas. I tend to doubt myself since I sometimes can’t tell the difference between left and right ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. I will not miss you. To every customer who made a mistake for which I got in trouble, thank you for teaching me my place in this world. I will not miss you. To customers that forgot or never realized that I, too, am a human being, thank you for showing me
just how entitled you could be. It made losing my faith in humanity a bit easier. I will not miss you. To all of the rude people I encountered daily, thank you for “thickening my skin” or helping me with my “character development.” I’m sure your verbal assaults will really come in handy later in my life. I will not miss you. To the nice customers who didn’t actively try to make my life a living hell for no reason, thank you for letting me retain my (dwindling) faith in humanity. I might miss you. To my coworkers, I have some things to say: Some of you were no better than the outstanding customers I thanked above. Thank you for making sure each shift was as dramatic as possible. Thank you for picking favorites — it totally didn’t make the work environment hostile. I will not miss you. As for the others, thank you for being a little glimmer of relief through truly horrible shifts.You were the only friends I was able to see for the last year — without the banter, I think I truly would have gone insane. Sorry we had to meet under such horrible circumstances. I will miss you. Lastly, to the service industry: Thank you for always being a reliably shitty industry. Even on your best days, you’re still usually pretty bad. Thank you for never giving me a stable income that I would still rather have than most other jobs. Thank you for showing me the American way — work really hard for not a lot and don’t complain about it because at least you’re getting something, am I right? I hope we never have to meet again, but with a journalism degree in this economy? Looks like I might have to keep the apron in my closet just in case. I will not miss you. See you in the summer (probably). Sincerely, Olivia
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7 FACTS
you might not know about ExxonMobil in Beaumont ExxonMobil is committed to producing the energy and chemical products that are essential to modern life, economic development and improved standards of living. In doing this, we are also committed to protecting our people, the environment and the well-being of communities where we operate. Built along the banks of the Neches River in 1903, ExxonMobil’s Beaumont refining facilities have grown into an integrated petrochemical complex that today supports the energy needs of our nation and the world. We’ve maintained ongoing dialogue with our surrounding community for decades, including informing our neighbors on how we’re complying with all environmental laws, regulations and permits. Take a look at some facts you might not know about how ExxonMobil, and specifically our people in Beaumont, are working to deliver the energy and products the world needs, while managing environmental impacts, including the risks of climate change. Note: Some photos presented in this article reflect pre-COVID-19 pandemic activities. ExxonMobil adheres to established public health and safety guidance, including physical distancing and facial coverings, to safeguard our workforce.
PAGE 22 • SPRING 2021
25% reduction in flaring†. In Beaumont, we’ve successfully reduced our overall emissions 70% since 2002 – including an annual reduction of 600 tons in nitrogen oxide emissions and 10,000 tons in sulfur dioxide emissions since 2005. We are also not on any air pollutant watch lists monitored by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. †Compared to 2016 levels #6: We support the Paris Agreement and other efficient climate-related policies. We believe in efficient #7: We’re working to deliver real results to address the risks of climate change. Few would disagree that one of the most urgent societal challenges we face today is addressing the risks of climate change. We believe that climate change risks warrant action and it’s going to take all of us — business, governments and consumers — to make meaningful progress. In 2020, we announced plans to reduce the intensity of operated upstream greenhouse gas emissions by 15–20% by 2025†. This will be supported by a 40–50% decrease in methane intensity, and a 35–45% decrease in flaring intensity across our global operations. Last year, we achieved a 15% decrease in methane emissions and a
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policies that reduce climate-related risks at the lowest societal costs and accelerate energy transitions while stimulating economic growth. Through our own efforts and collaboration with others, we support the goals of the Paris Agreement, an economy-wide price on carbon dioxide emissions and industry-wide methane regulation. In Beaumont, we engage continuously with city, county and state lawmakers to contribute to the development of sound policy solutions. Our monthly Community Advisory Panel meetings also allow us to provide additional information to our neighbors and address environmental, safety and other concerns.
#5: We’re helping our customers reduce their emissions. As consumer demand continues to grow, we continue to work on developing and delivering advanced products to improve energy efficiency and help customers reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. These products include lightweight plastics and advanced fuels and lubricants to improve fuel
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economy and transportation efficiency. The Beaumont lubricant blending and packaging plant manufactures lube oils and greases including those used in the wind turbine industry, and is the only manufacturer of Mobil aviation greases. Mobil 1, the world’s leading synthetic motor oil, is manufactured and packaged in Beaumont. #4: We’re ready for severe weather and other emergencies. Managing the risks of emergencies and natural disasters, like hurricanes on the Texas Gulf Coast, remain a core value for ExxonMobil. In Beaumont, we have an emergency response team of about 140 rigorously trained employees to ensure world-class response capabilities. Our response teams routinely test emergency notification equipment and simulate emergency scenarios in collaboration with city and county teams to ensure preparation and coordination. We also work closely with the city and county to coordinate mutual aid and off-site assistance, helping to safeguard our employees, contractors, neighbors and facilities. Most recently, the combined impact of freezing weather conditions and curtailment of natural gas supplies caused by Winter Storm Uri resulted in a temporary shutdown of our manufacturing units across the Beaumont area. During that time, our remaining operating units successfully exported 200 megawatts of electricity back to the grid, enough to power 140,000 homes.
program for plastic manufacturing facilities that encourages the use of best practices for pellet management and containment to reduce pellet loss. We have incorporated OCS principles into our global Operations Integrity Management System, which is applied at our plastics production and handling facilities around the world, including Beaumont. In both 2018 and 2019, ExxonMobil had no reportable plastic pellet losses. In 2019, we also joined OCS Blue, which is a voluntary extension of OCS in the U.S. that includes enhanced commitments for the awareness, prevention, management and reporting of plastic pellet releases to help further reduce plastic pellet loss at industry facilities.
#3: We share society’s concern about plastic waste in the environment. Plastics provide significant sustainability benefits versus alternative materials, and will continue to play an important role in helping society mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. However, they should not end up as litter, either in our oceans or anywhere else in the environment. The Beaumont polyethylene plant, located on 300 acres west of Beaumont, produces granular and pelletized polyethylene, which is used in the manufacture of plastic products. Since 2008, we have been a member of Operation Clean Sweep® (OCS), a voluntary international industry
#2: We believe hiring local is mutually beneficial for Southeast Texas and ExxonMobil. We are committed to utilizing local suppliers and workers for the preparatory and construction phases of our major projects in Southeast Texas. Still, due to the enormous industry growth across our area, ExxonMobil and the rest of industry project a 50-percent shortage in skilled craft labor, particularly in the fields of welding and pipe-fitting. We work closely with Lamar University, Lamar Institute of Technology and other organizations to assist in developing a skilled, locally-based workforce. ExxonMobil contributes about $250,000 an-
SPRING 2021 • PAGE 23
nually toward education and training in furtherance of technical and engineering education. Education programs span elementary to higher education, including
funding for engineering programs, technical programs, scholarships, STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) development and workforce skills training. #1: We believe in devoting our energy to being a good neighbor. We strive to support the Beaumont area economy through community investments that spur local development and improve quality of life, particularly in the Charlton Pollard, South Park and Amelia neighborhoods. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we donated 25,000 gallons of fuel to help keep local first responders moving. In 2020, ExxonMobil contributed more than $260,000 to local nonprofit organizations, including a $160,000 contribution to the United Way of Beaumont and North Jefferson County to support a variety of programs across the region. We invite our neighbors to learn more about ExxonMobil in Beaumont on our social media channels “ExxonMobil Beaumont” on Facebook and LinkedIn and @exxonmobilbmt on Twitter and Instagram.
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Important Additional Information Regarding Proxy Solicitation Exxon Mobil Corporation (“ExxonMobil”) has filed a definitive proxy statement and form of associated BLUE proxy card with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) in connection with the solicitation of proxies for ExxonMobil’s 2021 Annual Meeting (the “Proxy Statement”). ExxonMobil, its directors and certain of its executive officers will be participants in the solicitation of proxies from shareholders in respect of the 2021Annual Meeting. Information regarding the names of ExxonMobil’s directors and executive officers and their respective interests in ExxonMobil by security holdings or otherwise is set forth in the Proxy Statement. To the extent holdings of such participants in ExxonMobil’s securities are not reported, or have changed since the amounts described, in the Proxy Statement, such changes have been reflected on Initial Statements of Beneficial Ownership on Form 3 or Statements of Change in Ownership on Form 4 filed with the SEC. Details concerning the nominees of ExxonMobil’s Board ofDirectors for election at the 2021 Annual Meeting are included in the Proxy Statement. BEFORE MAKING ANY VOTING DECISION, INVESTORS AND SHAREHOLDERS OF THE COMPANY ARE URGED TO READ ALL RELEVANT DOCUMENTS FILED WITH OR FURNISHED TO THE SEC, INCLUDING THE COMPANY’S DEFINITIVE PROXY STATEMENT AND ANY SUPPLEMENTS THERETO AND ACCOMPANYING BLUE PROXY CARD, BECAUSE THEY CONTAIN IMPORTANT INFORMATION. Investors and shareholders can obtain a copy of the Proxy Statement and other relevant documents filed by ExxonMobil free of charge from the SEC’s website, www.sec.gov. ExxonMobil’s shareholders can also obtain, without charge, a copy of the Proxy Statement and other relevant filed documents by directing a request by mail to ExxonMobil Shareholder Services at 5959 Las Colinas Boulevard, Irving, Texas, 75039-2298 or at shareholderrelations@exxonmobil.com or from the investor relations section of ExxonMobil’s website, www.exxonmobil.com/investor.
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Performance — from page 11 are opening little by little — like a soprano section, a small group. We are paying attention to university guidelines, city guidelines and state guidelines to ensure that our safety is guaranteed.” Han said he has been meeting virtually with students who are not comfortable with in-person classes yet. “I have probably less than 30-percent of students (who) still want to stay virtual with many different reasons, and I have close to 60 percent of students that are OK with in-person setting right now,” he said. “I already finished one meeting individually and they are all OK expanding our meeting into small groups now. That’s where we are heading. Probably, at the end of semester, maybe there is a chance I can have everyone in person.” Han said masks are required at inperson rehearsals, but instead of regular masks the students wear specially designed singers masks. Also, extra social distancing is implemented, above the CDC requirement. Han said he uses larger classrooms which allows the student to sing 12 feet away from him or more. He said the students are very courteous with regard to protecting him and themselves. The band members’ fragmented practice originally contributed to a lack of cohesion when playing as a group, McMahan said. “With regard to section cohesion and the ‘sound’ of the ensemble, it was a dramatic adjustment in the beginning,” he said. “However, we have gotten much better at rehearsing with everyone spread out over the past six months. Of course, some types of music works better being ‘spread out’ than others, so the directors were very careful with regard to repertoire selection, choosing works that we felt would be more successful with the challenges we faced, (for example,) players spread further apart than usual, never getting to rehearse with all players at once, etc.” TAKING THE STAGE Grothe said the decision to present in-person performances for the public affected the selection of performance choices. “Essentially, this semester, we’ve done two shows so far,” he said. “They’re both in our smaller space. I directed a play called ‘The Good Doctor,’ which is mostly two-person scenes. The
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Lamar dance students practice in the Studio Theatre. The taped out boxes on the floor promote social distancing. Courtesy photo. students were able to be self-contained and rehearse a couple of people at a time. The show also has a lot of jokes about spreading germs and sneezing, and things like that, so it just seemed appropriate — and also as a comedy. You know, comedy was an important choice right now, because people don’t necessarily want to see something really dramatic or tragic. Everything went fine. Everything went without an issue. “We did a similar thing with dance, in the smaller space, smaller ensembles. They wore masks all the time. We kept our audience at about 30 people. They all have to wear masks. If you come with a group, you can sit them all together. But we just sort of adapted to it.” Because of the aerosols instruments can produce, McMahan said he has adapted his rehearsals to be shorter, and also make adaptations to the instruments to make them safer to use indoors. “Scientific studies last summer suggested that with good air circulation/ventilation, bands can safely rehearse as long as they are socially distanced and, when inside, that the rehearsals are not too long so that the ventilation system can ‘catch-up’ every hour or so,” he said. “There are some instruments that produce more
aerosols than others, and we did buy bell covers for those instruments when used indoors. We also asked students to wear masks when not playing the instrument, both inside and outside.” Han, McMahan and Grothe all said they hope things will return to normal in the fall. “We plan to have a live audience in the fall as of right now — presuming it doesn’t get worse,” Grothe said. “But it’s hard for me to say. I don’t know at this point exactly what that’s going to entail. I’m optimistic we can do (live shows), and we could have close to a full audience or 75 percent or something. “That’s a decision we’ll make probably closer to the start of next school year.” UPSIDE The pandemic gave the university a chance to do maintenance on performance spaces, such as the University Theatre. “Because we didn’t have shows last spring, we thought it was a good time to do some assessment on our spaces,” Grothe said. “One of the things that we discovered when our spaces were assessed, was that the University Theatre needed some work so that it would be Eboni Bolton, Dallas freshman, rehearses a song in a practice room set up for shows later in the semester.” in the music building, April 6. UP photo by Tim Cohrs
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Food service — from page 7 Local law enforcement did nothing to reinforce the mandate, either, Jane said. “So, funny enough, we were a gas station by the local high school,” she said. “A lot of times, we’d get security from the high school, and also a lot of police officers that’d come in with no masks. “They definitely were not enforcing the mandate whatsoever. The one health inspection that we did during the pandemic was after the restaurant had opened back up to 50 percent capacity. Even though the people at the restaurant, workers included, didn't have to wear a mask, it was a virtual health inspection, so my manager made everyone wear gloves and masks, even though that wasn't required initially. “Basically, the health inspector ‘walked through’ and made us show everything that was going on. I feel like it was just very easy to falsify, because the things that the health inspector saw weren’t things that were happening every day.” The retail store where Jane works now heavily enforced masks during the mandate and still encourages them, she said, adding that she has faced more difficult customers working there as a result. “If somebody came into the store without a mask, we were to ask if they had a mask
with them,” she said. “If not, we provided a mask. Lots of times people would storm out, or get in our face and be, like, ‘Well, you've lost a customer,’ and things like that. “Recently, before the mask mandate lifted, it was during our Valentine's Day rush. It was just a couple days before Valentine's Day, and these two older men had come in. They had worn their masks in, but once they approached the counter with the plexiglass where I was, one gentleman pulled his mask down while he was talking. I didn't say anything, personally, because I'm just not confrontational. “But it did bother me and one of my coworkers came up behind me and she was, like, ‘Sir, please, your mask, (lift up your mask),’ and he threw his wallet down on the counter in front of me and turned to the man that he was with and he was like, ‘Pay for my shit. I'm getting the f--- out of this place with all these f---ing bitches.’ “I was so taken aback. I finished that transaction and I just had to go on break, because I was like, ‘What the heck was that?’ That was the first time I have been verbally cussed out like that because of masks. Otherwise, people are normally very accommodating. A lot of people do try to come in without a mask and we have to ask them if they have one, and most of them turn around and go get masks out of their car. But we did have quite a few people who
Highest-risk setting for COVID-19 in restaurants: on-site dining with indoor seating and no restriction of capacity where tables are not six feet apart. Source: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
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tried to fight us on that.” While her boss at the gas station didn’t require masks, Jane wore one, though she admits that she probably wasn’t as cautious as she should’ve been. “When I was on the front counter, I wore one,” she said. “But for the majority of the time while I was there, after COVID at least, I was promoted to an office assistant position so it would just be me and the manager in the office. So, most of the time, I wouldn't wear it just because I was around this person every day. And probably being in that environment, I wasn't taking it as seriously as I should have.” Numerous coworkers tested positive for the virus and were asked to stay home, following guidelines, Jane said. But they were asked to keep quiet about their diagnoses. “(Management) didn't want it to get back to the restaurant or back to the business because they were afraid that people would have hard feelings about people being sick there,” she said. “So, while, yes, they were asked to stay home and they were respectful of that, they were also asked to remain quiet.” Jane said other employees were not told if a coworker had tested positive, however, which she did not agree with. “The only reason that I knew was because I was an office assistant,” she said. “Even then, I wasn't directly told. I was just
Sally and Mary both work in that environment.
there for the phone calls. I always, from the very beginning, thought it was wrong. “Even though I felt like I couldn't say anything, it just never sat right with me. So many people got COVID, it's not going to be bad for the business or whatever. Just something about them telling (employees) to be quiet or not telling people. I mean, we all ended up finding out because these people would be gone for two and three weeks at a time, but still be on the schedule. So, we're, like, well, they're not fired, so they must be sick — everybody kind of figured it out anyway. But it was a respect thing — not being respected enough to be told, bothered all of us.” Jane’s fiancé and grandmother, whom she lives with, both have asthma. She said she was constantly worried about exposing them to the virus. “I was terrified,” she said. “For a while, I was taking so many vitamins because I was so scared. I still do. We always had Germ-X and things like that provided, and I was constantly using that, always trying to stay six-feet back away from people. I realized that a lot of times people didn't respect that kind of space and I would actually have to ask them to step back, because I just wasn't comfortable. “I wasn't scared to get sick myself, I was scared for them to get sick, so I was just doing whatever I could. Looking back, I don't like a lot of the things that I did. I felt like it wasn't enough, probably. But I was in an environment that said that masks didn't need to be a thing. Everybody hated them. I think I really took a part of that to heart. I guess there's partial blame on myself there, too.” By April 19, all adults in the United States will be eligible to receive the COVID vaccine. As more people are vaccinated, more people will be going out to restaurants all across the country. Throughout the pandemic, there have been countless stories of people coming together to show their appreciation for frontline workers in the health industry. While the sacrifices and work done by healthcare professionals cannot be denied, restaurant workers have become the forgotten members of the frontline. When disasters occur, communities can band together to recover. As the stories above have shown, the coronavirus pandemic hasn’t always brought out the best in people. The experiences of Sally, Mary and Jane are just three of the many stories told by workers in the service industry — the stories of hardworking people just trying to live. Remember them — and tip your servers.
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