Thursday, December 6, 2018

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Look inside for special offers from Kroger. Find the insert in the IDS print edition each Thursday. Thursday, Dec. 6, 2018 | Indiana Daily Student | idsnews.com

IDS

Venezuelan family awaits asylum in Bloomington See pages 9 and 10

Former IU employee charged with rape By Joe Schroeder joemschr@iu.edu | @joemschroeder

A former IU employee was arrested at his apartment Monday after allegedly binding a woman with duct tape and raping her. Originally, police received a call from the woman’s coworker Nov. 30 saying her friend had called her and was lost downtown. Her roommate told police she had not spoken to the woman, but she was supposed to be staying downtown with a friend. Bloomington Police Department officers were sent out to look for her, Capt. Steve Kellams said. While looking for the woman, a clerk at the Village Pantry on East Winslow Road called officers saying they had seen a woman walking around with a blue sweatshirt and no pants. Police eventually found her on North Sixth Street only wearing a sweatshirt, Kellams said. The woman was apprehensive when talking to officers and repeatedly said she just wanted to go home. Officers drove the woman home and encouraged her to go to the hospital and take a rape kit, which she did later in the day, Kellams said. The woman filed a report Dec. 2, telling officers she and her coworkers went out Nov. 29. The group went SEE ARREST, PAGE 8

IU chapter of Kappa Sigma suspended By Joey Bowling jobowl@iu.edu | @jwbowling08

The IU chapter of Kappa Sigma has been suspended by its national headquarters, according to a letter from the fraternity’s executive director. The Beta-Theta chapter was withdrawn Dec. 3 due to hazing and alcohol violations, according to the letter. The chapter is to suspend all activities and turn over the property and charter immediately. “We are informing the University and the campus community that the Kappa Sigma Chapter is no longer in operation in any form or fashion,” Mitchell Wilson, the Kappa Sigma executive director, said in the letter. Taps was blaring from inside the Kappa Sigma house Tuesday afternoon. A blue banner flapped in the wind. “Olympus has fallen,” it said. Any attempt to continue operating the chapter underground is grounds for suspension or expulsion, Wilson said in the letter. The fraternity may also pursue legal action against members of the former chapter. Eli Friedlander, president of Kappa Sigma, was walking around in front of the chapter house with a hammer in his hand, used by others to remove the letters from the house, around 4:15 p.m. “I have absolutely no comment on this matter,” Friedlander said. The chapter has 30 days to appeal the decision from its national headquarters, according to the letter. The chapter can continue to live in its house for the rest of the semester, but afterward must vacate the premises, said IU spokesman Chuck Carney. The University supports the national organization's decision, Carney said. The Interfraternity Council could not immediately be reached for comment and the Beta-Theta chapter declined to comment. Lexi Haskell contributed reporting to this story.

THE COST OF CONVENIENCE E-scooters captivated IU students, but more than 75 have been hurt so far. TY VINSON | IDS

By Lydia Gerike

Senior Brian Sweeney fractured his left wrist and elbow after falling off a Lime scooter going 20 miles per hour Oct. 25. He had to wear a brace and sling and was cleared to take it off just before Thanksgiving.

lgerike@iu.edu | @lydiagerike

One student fractured his elbow and wrist. Another lost her front teeth. Then there’s Ian McIntire. The junior who fell from a Bird was never in a coma, despite what some of his IU peers may have heard, but he’s still dealing with the effects of cracking his skull. He doesn’t remember the accident. The last thing he recalls from that day is trying to find a scooter while his friends took an Uber home. Now he’s on medical leave from IU and stuck living at home in Indianapolis. “It was just not a good decision,” he says. * * * Companies such as Lime and Bird tout their product as a way to solve the “last mile” problem — when a final distance is too close for the bus or a car but still too far to walk — but the scooters have created new issues as well. Injuries have been reported in hospitals across the country. At least two men, one in Dallas and one in Washington, D.C., died this summer from scooter-related crashes. A class-action lawsuit was filed against e-scooter companies Oct. 19 in the Los Angeles Superior Court. The lawsuit claims dropping e-scooters into cities without warn-

MATT BEGALA | IDS

Wires stick out of a broken Bird scooter Oct. 28 on a sidewalk outside Franklin Hall.

ing is a sign of “gross negligence” that is “aiding and abetting assault,” according to court documents obtained by the Washington Post. After e-scooters arrived in Indianapolis, the city suspended their operation it implemented rules in September. In Bloomington, more than 150 scooters were impounded by the IU Office of Parking Operations for not being parked near a bike rack. One man was arrested for allegedly driving a Lime while drunk. Beth Rupp, medical director at the IU Health Center, has been tracking student escooter injuries since October. As of Wednesday, there have been at least 55 scooter-related injuries recorded at the IU Health Cen-

ter. Rupp said she knows through medical records 22 students have been seen at the IU Health Bloomington Hospital emergency room. The numbers are almost certainly an underestimate, Rupp said. IU Health Bloomington Hospital does not keep track of scooter-related incidents, according to multiple spokespeople. Additionally, IU Police Department Chief Laury Flint said some injuries likely go unreported. “I think part of it is the embarrassment,” Flint said. “They don’t want to call us.” Although Rupp doesn’t know if the e-scooters should be completely removed, she said riders don’t seem to fully understand the risks.

“I think campus would be safer without the electric scooters,” she said. Some riders, like IU senior Brian Sweeney, have experienced malfunctioning e-scooters. Sweeney almost rode into Walnut Street traffic because his Lime wouldn’t stop. He slowed down and jumped off, but the Lime kept going until it toppled over. He said no one from the company has responded to Sweeney reporting the broken scooter through the app, but when a Lime he’d ridden went missing, he was contacted within a few days. While riding another Lime on Oct. 25, around two weeks later, Sweeney fell. He believes he was going about 20 miles per hour. Sweeney was only about a block away from his Gateway apartment near Square Donuts, but it was hard for him to get home. Dizziness crept up. He usually faints when he’s injured, and he fought lightheadedness as he walked. When he made it back to his place, he wiped the blood and gravel off his knuckles, texted his SEE E-SCOOTERS, PAGE 8

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

IU extends nation's longest winning streak By Dylan Wallace dswallac@iu.edu | @Dwall_1

IU Coach Teri Moren took the cliché, “just one game at a time” approach as her 7-0 team prepared for the 6-0 Butler Bulldogs on Wednesday night at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall. As repetitive as that phrase is, Moren uses it as a necessary attitude to make sure her team doesn’t get too far ahead of itself. As there were some national whispers about her squad’s start to the season, Moren kept the focus on Butler and as a result, the Hoosiers defeated the Bulldogs 66-46 to improve to 8-0 on the year, which is the best start Moren has had to a season in her five years at IU. Perhaps more impressive than the 8-0 start to the season is that IU currently has the longest active win streak in the NCAA dating back to last season with 14 straight wins. Behind Moren’s relaxed “one game at a time” mantra is a deeper preparation from her staff that allows the Hoosiers to be prepared for each opponent they see on the court. The streak started March 15 in

ALEXIS OSER | IDS

Junior forward Ali Patberg dribbles in the lane toward the basket against a Butler defender Dec. 5 at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall. Patberg scored sixteen points as the Hoosiers defeated the Bulldogs, 66-46.

the first round of the WNIT when Tyra Buss and Amanda Cahill were running the team. But, the improvements and identity of this team formed much earlier than that. On Jan. 20, IU defeated Michi-

gan State 69-65 and went on to win seven straight games after that. After beating Butler Wednesday night, IU has now won 23 of its last 25 games. Even though 15 of those wins

were largely due in part to two of the most prolific players in IU history in Buss and Cahill, the team’s preparation and play style has been SEE BASKETBALL, PAGE 8


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