WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 2015
CHESTER COUNTY PRESS
3A
Chester County Press
Local News Dr. Gail Dines... Continued from Page 1A
of the connections between violence and pornography. “Last October, I gave a lecture in Boston to social workers who deal with violence against juvenile boys and girls,” Dines said. “By the time I’d finished, there was virtual mass hysteria in the room, because here were social workers whose job it was to stop violence against young girls, and not one of them had linked porn to that violence.” It’s a direct link, Dines said. While younger women have been socialized to be “porn ready,” young men have been influenced by the pornographic images they see on the internet. The result, she said, is creating an entire culture engaged in quick and tawdry “hook up” sex. “Dating is over,” Dines said. “The studies are showing that on college campuses, very few people date. The guys have been socialized on porn and thus want porn sex. They don’t want commitment, or intimacy. What they want is quick sex and then move onto the next one and then the next one.” The key point where young men and women construct their identity today is through the media, Dines said. Showing several compromising photographs of Victoria Beckham, Rihanna, Miley Cyrus and Beyonce,
Budget.. Continued from Page 1A
per student. There is no correlation between how much the school district sends to the charter school and the actual costs of educating that student. The home school does not have the ability to monitor the Individualized Education Program (IEP) for the student. Kennett is seeing a $141,456 increase in costs associated with students attending Chester County Intermediate Unit classes or special education offerings. The district has also budgeted $61,000 for security and safety services. This helps pay for a Middle School security guard position and other initiatives that are intended to keep the schools safe. On the revenue side, the district is expected to have an increase of about $133,681 for assessments on local properties. Earned-income taxes are also climbing by an anticipated $250,000. Finnegan said that during preparations of the preliminary budget, district officials made an assumption that the level of state funding would remain the same. “We’re saying that they will be the same, but we don’t know,” said Finnegan. He noted that because there
Dines said that our mainstream media has become an “assault of images.” “We are putting our young girls and our young boys in an impossible situation,” she said. “We, as adults, should be arguing for the right of our kids to be able to create sexual intimacy and creativity and identity that’s all of their own making, and not produced by the porn culture.” Violence against women is not a form of deviance, Dines said. Rather, men who become sadists and sexual predators and commit rape are over-conforming to the messages that they see through pornography. They are not born pimps or johns or porn users, but fully human. “But it’s the culture that turns them into that,” she said. “Our sons deserve better than what the porn industry sets them up with. Our young women deserve more than this as well.” Dines said that our nation’s young women are fighting an impossible battle in trying to resemble the models they see in popular media. “Only one in 10,000 women have the proper proportion to be a model. They’re the abnormal, but in the media, we’re the ones who are abnormal. The magazines all say, ‘Love yourself,’ but what they’re really saying is, ‘Hate yourself,’ because the more you hate, the more you spend. It’s crucial to the economy that women develop a sense of self-loathing.”
is a new governor in office, the state has an extra month to prepare the preliminary 20152016 budget, while school districts adhere to the normal deadlines. District officials will have a clearer picture of state funding levels when Gov. Tom Wolf unveils his first preliminary state budget in March. As it stands now, the district would need to raise taxes by 2.67 percent and dip into its fund balance for an additional $714,320 to balance the budget. The state-wide Act 1 Index limit for tax increases is 1.9 percent this year, but KCSD would qualify for some exceptions, including the exception for PSERS contributions. If the final budget were adopted as is, the millage rate would increase to 28.6871 mills. The current millage rate stands at 27.9406 mills. For the average homeowner, a 2.67 percent increase amounts to a $149 hike in school taxes. School board president Heather Schaen said that no one is satisfied with a 2.67 percent tax increase, and work to find additional savings will continue. Board member Dominic Perigo said he would not support a final budget with such a large tax increase. He said that he spoke with Aline Frank,
Fixing dangerous intersection a top priority in Penn Twp.
Photo by Richard L. Gaw
Activist and lecturer Dr. Gail Dines delivered an address on Feb. 7 at the New Garden Township Building.
Pornography has not only become mainstream, it’s a multi-billion-dollar industry, with online porn taking in $3,000 a second and accounting for 36 percent of all internet usage, Dines said. “Their business model is to get customers for life by luring in 12-year-old boys with free accessibility, and later, when they get older, a credit card,” she said. “Because the boy associates relationships with hardcore sex, it desensitizes him to relationships with women. Romance becomes immaterial, and it gives him a corrupted definition of masculinity, that leaves him confused and traumatized.” Methods of defeating the porn culture, Dines said, are already underway. A newly formed, non-profit organization called “Culture Refrained: Solutions for the Public Health Crisis in the
Digital Age” offers a series of web-based programs that educate parents to teach their children about sexuality and pornography. “We need to bring the top tier of educators all over the world, and begin building these web-based programs,” she said. “We need to find a way to get all countries to approach this as a public health emergency. Our job is to pull together the stakeholders of the next generation – the educators, the medical professionals, the community leaders, the parents, the youth workers, the therapists and the activists. “Either we act now, or we are about to lay waste to an entire generation of young boys,” Dine said. “Our kids deserve it.” To contact Staff Writer Richard L. Gaw, e-mail rgaw@chestercounty.com.
who was unable to attend the board meeting, and they both agreed that they would not vote to raise taxes by 2.67 percent. “This is a no-frills budget,” Perigo said. “The administration has done a good job of controlling costs on things that we have control over. We do need to get the budget down to the [Act 1] Index limit, and I think we can do it.” He added that the state mandates a lot of different programs and services without providing the funding necessary to do so. Perigo suggested holding a town hall meeting to educate the public about all the services that the district provides, and how the state needs to provide additional funding for some of the services. “We need their help to get Harrisburg to listen,” he said. Finnegan said that he is opti-
mistic that the school board will be able to find additional cost savings as the budgeting process continues. “We are confident that we can get our tax increase closer to the 1.9 percent Act 1 Index,” he said. “Last year, we started with a preliminary increase of 2.51 percent against a 2.1 percent Act 1 Index, and we passed a final budget with a 1.78 percent increase.” The proposed budget will be available for public review and comment on the school district’s website and in the district office, where it will be available each Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. until June 8. The school board will hold its next meeting on Monday, March 9 in the district office. To contact Staff Writer Steven Hoffman, email editor@chestercounty.com.
P ENNSBURY C HADDS F ORD A NTIQUE M ALL Quality Antiques & Collectibles for over 40 years
Photo by John Chambless
The smaller section of the Red Rose Inn, adjacent to Route 796, will be removed to allow the road to be widened with turning lanes.
Photo by Nancy Johnson
Construction of Penn Medicine’s medical office building, as seen from its entrance on Woodview Road, is progressing, with an expected opening in late spring or early summer.
By Nancy Johnson Correspondent Curtis Mason, the chairman of the Penn Township Board of Supervisors, explained at the Feb. 4 meeting that the township is working closely with engineers to finalize a concept plan for major improvements to the Baltimore Pike and Route 796 intersection. The plan for the intersection is required before the township can start applying for grants to pay for a large part of the reconstruction. The new design will realign the intersection and add turning lanes on both roads to alleviate the current traffic congestion. In order to widen the road, the plan calls for the removal of side structures on the Red Rose Inn property. The original, historic part of the inn, which is now owned by Penn Township, will remain intact. As traffic has increased in the township, the Baltimore Pike and Route 796 intersection has become dangerous, Mason said, adding, “The biggest issue in the entire township, as far as I’m concerned, is that intersection.” In other business, the supervisors discussed building a large salt shed to store up to 1,000 tons of salt for the township’s winter maintenance of roadways. Currently, the township’s salt is stored at a contractor’s facility, which is costly. Mason said that Franklin Township has shared the plans for their recently built salt shed, and Penn’s building will be similar to that one. He added that the building site will be a township property on old Lewis Road, off of Route 796, where the structure will be set back, “and you won’t even see it,” he said. The newly installed traffic signals at the Route 1 Bypass are now operating, and the fire company has checked them. Mason said all the lights along Route 796 will work in sequence. “This ‘smart system’ is computer and camera driven,” he added. “It’s pretty high-tech.” Penn Medicine’s Medical Office Building is now enclosed and interior work should move quickly. The building should be open by late spring or early summer.
Chester County PRESS SPECIAL SECTION CALENDAR
Wyeth Prints,
Furniture, Jewelry, Silver, Prints, Coins, Toys, Military, Pottery, Ceramics, Glass, Rare Books, Ephemera, Original Art, Quilts, Oriental Rugs, Linens
Over 100 Dealers Upper Level 610-388-1620
Lower Level 610-388-6546
Both Levels Thursday - Monday 10-5 640 E. Baltimore Pike, Chadds Ford, PA 19317 Ample Parking www.PennsburyAntiqueMall.com
February 18 Destination Delaware February 25 Progress 2015 March 11 Ed and Summer Camp Guide