Roswell Daily Record
Berrendo student threatens to shoot classmate THE VOICE OF THE PECOS VALLEY
Vol. 123, No. 70 75¢ Daily / $1.25 Sunday
JILL MCLAUGHLIN RECORD STAFF WRITER
Berrendo Middle School staff and county sheriff’s deputies Thursday uncovered a student’s apparent plan to shoot a female classmate, possibly preventing another tragedy. Chaves County deputies were called to the school at 2:40 p.m. by staff after a student alerted them to the threat, said Chief Deputy Britt Snyder. “A note that was found seemed to be threatening a
March 21, 2014
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child and alluding to another school shooting,” Snyder said. “That particular student was kind of being threatened … so we followed up on the note, found out who wrote the note and found out what their motivation was.” Deputies did not arrest the 12-year-old girl who is suspected of making the threat. She was sent home with her parents, but may face charges related to making a terroristic threat, Snyder said. “There is a terroristic-
Spring cleaning
threat type statute that might apply, especially in light of the school shooting we had,” Snyder said. The school continues to heal following the earlymorning shooting Jan. 14, when a 12-year -old boy opened fire inside the gymnasium using a shotgun. The boy seriously injured two classmates: an 11year-old male and 13-yearold female. In Thursday’s case, the note that was placed inside a locker alluded to a shooting that would take place in
the near future. “It was threatened, I believe, specifically for tomorrow or sometime in the future. Not right at that moment,” Snyder said. “That’s the kind of thing we need to stop these things from ever happening. If somebody knows something, they’ve got to tell somebody.” Deputies were fortunate to find out how the note came to be in a few hours, Snyder said. They will follow up with the school today and will talk with the
Mark Wilson Photo
FRIDAY
district attorney and juvenile probation to find out whether anyone will be charged. School of ficials took immediate steps when they discovered the note. “We’re telling them, you’ve got to take everything seriously. You can’t blow things off. The same goes for us,” Snyder said. “It’s important we work together on situations and try to sort out this as quickly and accurately as we can, what threat may exist.”
Roswell Independent School District Superintendent Tom Burris said staff acted appropriately.
“Any time we get any concern about any of our students, we react according to policy, and we’ve done that,” Burris said. School will be open on schedule today.
Parents sue state, seek more funds for public schools SANTA FE (AP) — Parents of public school students have sued the state to increase funding for education and target more assistance to disadvantaged students who are living in poverty or learning English. The lawsuit was announced Thursday by the New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty, which filed the case a day earlier with a Gallup lawyer on behalf of parents of students in the Albuquerque Gallup-McKinley and school districts. The lawsuit contends the state is inadequately funding schools in violation of the New Mexico Constitution’s requirement to provide an equitable and “sufficient” education for all children. If the lawsuit is successful, the state could be forced to come up with hundreds of millions of tax dollars for schools. A study
“We’ve got everything handled,” Burris said.
in 2008 concluded that New Mexico was underfunding schools by as much as 15 percent or more than $300 million at the time.
“Public school education in New Mexico is in crisis,” the lawsuit said. “New Mexico’s students rank at the very bottom in the country in educational achievement.” The Public Education Department, which is under the control of Republican Gov. Susana Martinez, was named as the defendant. Larry Behrens, a spokesman for the department, said the agency hadn’t seen the lawsuit and couldn’t comment on it.
But Behrens said the governor has signed budgets approved by the Legislature to increase spending on public schools since taking office in 2011.
Tensions over Rio State group protests for immigrant rights Grande escalate A crew from Riley Industrial Services perform a spring cleaning at the Cahoon Park swimming pool by sandblasting, readying it for summer fun, Thursday.
SANTA FE (AP) — The tension was high Thursday as top water managers from New Mexico, Colorado and Texas gathered to discuss management of the Rio Grande in the face severe drought and a legal battle that has the potential to leave farmers in the arid region without a much-needed source of water. Members of the Rio Grande Compact Commission heard from several federal experts that the river has been stretched beyond its limits, leaving little for farmers, Native American communities and endangered fish to
fight over as the dry conditions persist.
JILL MCLAUGHLIN RECORD STAFF WRITER
“We have a lot of really smart folks in the room, some of the most sophisticated water managers in the West. But I also want to say I’m generally disap-
Protestors from Somos Chaves County, an affiliate of a statewide immigrantled organization, held an event outside Rep. Steve Pearce’s Roswell of fice Thursday. Nearly 60 people held signs, chanted and spoke out in Spanish to demand the congressman support a path to citizenship. Dairy worker Pablo Hernandez said he had lived in Chaves County for 30 years and it was time for Pearce to support them. “Families have been separated due to Congress not acting. We demand a stop
See TENSIONS, Page A3
See PROTEST, Page A3
The commissioners indicated they were willing to work together to solve some of the region’s water problems, but New Mexico State Engineer Scott Verhines was more direct about the battle his state is locked in with Texas over the river’s water. He pressed for more communication and cooperation.
The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, the nation's only underground nuclear waste repository near Carlsbad remains idle on Thursday, March 6.
TODAY’S FORECAST
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Protesters from Somos Chaves County, an affiliate of Somos Un Pueblo Unido, chanted outside of the Roswell office of Rep. Steve Pearce, R-Dist. 2, Thursday as part of the group's National Week of Action for Immigration Reform.
Nuclear waste from WIPP may go to Texas
ALBUQUERQUE (AP) — With the gover nment’s only permanent nuclear waste dump shuttered indefinitely by back-toback accidents, officials are making plans to ship radioactive waste from Los Alamos National Laboratory to rural West Texas.
AP Photo
Jill McLaughlin Photo
The Department of Energy and the operator of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad in southeastern New Mexico say they have signed an agreement with Waste
Control Specialists to truck the waste to its site in Andrews County.
The agreement will help Los Alamos meet a June deadline for getting the last of thousands of barrels of plutonium-contaminated clothing, tools, rags and other debris of f its northern New Mexico campus before wildfire season hits its peak. The waste, which is shipped and stored in huge sealed canisters, would come back to New
TODAY’S OBITUARIES PAGE A7 • NATALIE LEMONS • ALMA C. MCDANIEL • DAWNELL SALAS • KENNETH LURRELL JAY • WINNIE ELIZABETH EOFF • FLORENCE OPENSHAW • JANET LEE BOUTON • RAMON RODRIGUEZ LICON
Mexico for final disposal once the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant reopens.
“We are pleased that WCS is in a position to provide temporary storage for this waste while the WIPP is shutdown,” said Waste Control Specialists President Rod Baltzer. “This will allow the Los Alamos National Laboratory to meet its goal of having this material removed by this summer so it can no longer be threatened by wildfires. WCS has never CLASSIFIEDS ..........B5 COMICS .................B4 ENTERTAINMENT .....A8 FINANCIAL ..............B3
had a wildfire because all surrounding areas are covered with asphalt and caliche roadways. In addition, the waste will be in storage facilities that have sprinkler system, and in the event of an emergency, WCS has its own fire truck on site.” But not everyone applauded the plan. Watchdog Greg Mello of the Los Alamos Study Group says that shipping
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HOROSCOPES .........A8 LOTTERIES .............A2
See WIPP, Page A3
OPINION .................A4
SPORTS .................B1
WEATHER ..............A8