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TUESDAY • SEPTEMBER 22 • 2015
Video depicts safety concerns at New York School Permanent fences go up at construction site where boy was injured By Karen Dillon Twitter: @karensdillon
More than five weeks after an 8-year-old boy was seriously hurt when he wandered onto the construction site of New York Elementary School, a neighbor of the school set out to show district officials that
the construction zone is still WATCH THE VIDEO not secure. See the video made by LawEast Lawrence resident Eric rence resident Eric Kirkendall Kirkendall produced a nearly showing the safety concerns 10-minute video showing that at the New York Elementary on Sunday anyone could easily School construction site at have walked onto the construcLJWorld.com/nysafety tion site, stood at the edge of a 4-foot trench, gotten into the cab of a piece of dirt-moving equipMax McGill, the 8-year-old ment and several other scenes. boy, was injured Aug. 13 when
he was at the New York Elementary playground with a baby sitter and he wandered off and fell. He suffered a broken nose, broken collar bone and rib. The top portion of both of his lungs collapsed. After seeing Kirkendall’s video, a spokeswoman for the district said permanent fencing was being installed on the
site Monday. It is unclear why the site hasn’t previously been secured. Lawrence Superintendent Rick Doll and his spokeswoman Julie Boyle did not return phone calls requesting an interview. Kirkendall’s video, which he posted on Facebook, shows that any effort construction crews had made to put up fencing around the site had been Please see SAFETY, page 4A
Defendant was ‘close’ to victim in murder case
ROOM TO GROW
By Caitlin Doornbos
Twitter: @CaitlinDoornbos
Mike Yoder/Journal-World Photos
STUDENTS RECITE THE PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE in a new kindergarten room at Hillcrest Elementary School. AT RIGHT: Hillcrest Elementary School Principal Tammy Becker greets students at an entrance to the new addition to the school.
Portable classrooms a thing of the past at Hillcrest Elementary By Rochelle Valverde Twitter: @RochelleVerde
Editor’s note: This story is the second in a six-part series preceding Saturday’s public tour of the recently completed construction projects in the Lawrence school district. Hillcrest Elementary School recently had as many as eight portables on its grounds, but with the addition of seven new classrooms, the school’s principal is happy to say the portables are no more.
“All the new space has allowed us to get rid of portable classrooms,” said Hillcrest Principal Tammy Becker. “This is the first time in over 25 years that all our students are within one building space.” As part of its recently completed construction, the school now also has a dedicated lunchroom and gym — both new additions — where before that was a shared space that lacked a fully operational kitchen. Previously, Hillcrest had a “satellite kitchen” in which food was brought in from other
IF YOU GO The Lawrence Parade of Schools open house will be held 10 a.m. to noon Saturday at Langston Hughes, Cordley, Hillcrest, New York and Quail Run elementary schools. In addition, there will be a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new Lawrence College and Career Center, 2910 Haskell Ave., 10 a.m. Saturday.
The 49-year-old Eudora man accused of murdering one of his home health care clients took the stand Monday and described his “close” relationship with the man whom he claims to have helped commit suicide. Jurors heard Ronald Eugene Heskett tell police in (Moulton) a recorded interview last week would tell me that he twisted when I got in a bath towel around Vance in the morn“Van” Moulton’s ing I might as neck on Sept. well just shoot 12, 2014, and tucked it under him in the Moulton’s body, head. Later in asphyxiating the the day he’d disabled Lawsay, ‘I wish rence man until he died. Heskett you’d just told police the shoot me.’” act occurred after months of — Ronald Eugene daily requests from Moulton to Heskett “shoot him.” Heskett told jurors Monday about his friendship with Moulton, who was 66, indicating their closeness went
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Please see HESKETT, page 4A
Please see HILLCREST, page 6A
Survey details sexual misconduct at universities
O
Heard on the Hill
Sara Shepherd sshepherd@ljworld.com
ne of the largest and most detailed surveys yet of campus sexual assault shared results on Monday, and it says nearly one in four women who responded said they’d experienced “nonconsensual sexual contact” by physical force, threat of force or while incapacitated at college. It also includes the uncomfortable details about what that “contact” entailed — ranging
Business Classified Comics Deaths
Low: 66
Today’s forecast, page 6A
research universities. I joined a national press call about the survey Monday morning, and one key discussion point was the survey’s breakdown of circumstances surrounding the students’ encounters. For one, the report differentiates between penetration (by anything — body part or object) and sexual touching such as
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RONALD EUGENE HESKETT TESTIFIES in his defense Monday in Douglas County District Court. Heskett, 49, of Eudora, is charged with the firstdegree murder of Vance Moulton. Prosecutors allege Heskett had a financial motive to kill Moulton, but the defense says Moulton’s death was an assisted suicide. See a video of Heskett’s testimony at LJWorld.com/ Please see SURVEY, page 4A hesketttrial.
INSIDE
Warmer
High: 85
from clothes-on rubbing to forced intercourse. The Association of American Universities conducted its “Campus Climate Survey on Sexual Assault and Sexual Misconduct” at 26 AAU universities and one other school, polling students at the end of the spring 2015 semester. Kansas University is an AAU member but did not participate in the survey, though most schools that did are fellow large public
Not road warriors The KU football team’s best chance to end a 33game road losing streak might be at Rutgers this Saturday. Sports, 1D
Vol.157/No.265 28 pages