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WEDNESDAY • OCTOBER 8 • 2014
City delays decision on high-speed Internet Commissioners want more time to craft policy for service providers Nick Krug/Journal-World Photo
FREE STATE HIGH SCHOOL SENIORS BRIANNE MARTIN, CENTER, AND ALLY BRITTIAN listen as Charles Thomas, the FSHS coordinator for “Can We Talk,” which is a program for addressing various societal issues, talks about stereotypes associated with both FSHS and Lawrence High School during a student-led talk on race in schools called “One Community” Tuesday.
Twitter: @ehughes12
Nearly four weeks after two instances of racially tinged vandalism shook Lawrence’s two public high schools, dozens of community members gathered Tuesday in a public forum to make sure they didn’t get swept under the rug. About 50 students, parents and Lawrence school district employees — less
than half of whom were white — talked about stereotypes, race relations and solutions regarding the student bodies of Free State High School and Lawrence High School. Audience members divided into groups to hammer out the talking points before sharing them with the room. Many said there should be more official school functions that mingle the two student bodies in a non-competitive set-
ting, such as shared dances or art clubs collaborating. “I think getting behind an initiative like Breast Cancer Awareness (Month) or bullying, or something that we do together, that would be easy and powerful,” said Keith Jones, assistant principal at FSHS, who led Tuesday’s event. Jones also oversees the “Can We Talk” program at FSHS, in which stu-
Twitter: @clawhorn_ljw
dents discuss societal issues once a week before school. LHS has the same program, and the two collaborated for Tuesday’s event. In group sessions, students described a nuanced relationship with their peers at the opposite school. Several said many inter-school friendships exist and no one is teased over it. However, sports
Getting super-fast Internet service in Lawrence is anything but a fast process. City commissioners on Tuesday didn’t make much headway on deciding whether to offer a $300,000 loan guarantee to Lawrence-based Wicked Broadband to build a pilot project to bring 1 gigabit Internet service to 300 addresses in the downtown area. Commissioners directed staff members to do more research on how the city could create a policy that treats all potential providers of Internet service in the city equally, but commissioners also kept alive the idea of offering financial incentives to Amyx Wicked. That left in limbo a proposal by a Baldwin City-based company to begin providing some gigabit service to homes and businesses in the second quarter of 2015. “We still have a lot of questions and uncertainty based on what we heard tonight,”
Please see FORUM, page 2A
Please see INTERNET, page 5A
High school community confronts stereotypes, seeks to build unity By Elliot Hughes
By Chad Lawhorn
State’s SAT scores unchanged, higher than nation By Peter Hancock Twitter: @LJWpqhncock
Average SAT scores in Kansas this year were virtually unchanged from last year, according to figures released Tuesday by the College Board, reflecting a national trend, although students in Kansas continued to perform significantly better than the national average. Overall in Kansas, 74.6 percent of Kansas students taking
the SAT last spring met the College Board’s benchmark for college and career readiness. Last year, the rate was 74.8 percent. The benchmark is a composite score of 1550. Based on studies by the College Board, that score corresponds to a student having a 65 percent probability of earning a B- grade average during his or her first year at a four-year college or university. Average scores on the SAT
in Kansas are typically much higher than the national average because a much smaller percentage of SCHOOLS students take the exam. The SAT is one of two major college entrance exams taken by high school students in the United States. In Kansas, the overwhelming majority take the alternative ACT exam, although
some students take both. Although neither exam is required for admission to most colleges and universities, in Kansas they can be used as one way of meeting the qualified admissions standards for universities in the state Regents system. The College Board is a private company that administers the ACT. It also provides curricula and sets standards for advanced placement, or AP
courses, and other academic programs used in both public and private schools throughout the United States. In its report Tuesday, the College Board noted that Kansas has made significant progress in increasing the number of students who enroll in the college preparatory AP courses. Last year, 10.7 percent of Please see SAT, page 2A
Brownback says Kansas should defend gay-marriage ban By John Hanna Associated Press
Topeka — Republican Gov. Sam Brownback said Tuesday that Kansas should defend the state constitution’s ban on gay marriage in court because it was enacted through a statewide vote, while Democrat Paul Davis’ campaign described him as focused on other issues. Brownback is in a tough race for re-election, and his public support for the gay-marriage ban in the face of adverse court decisions could energize conservative Catholics and Christian evangelicals who’ve been a key part of his political base ahead of the Nov. 4 election. Davis,
Brownback
Davis
the Kansas House minority leader, opposed the gay-marriage ban as a lawmaker, but he’s portraying himself as a bipartisan centrist in wooing disaffected Republicans. The Kansas GOP’s platform supports “traditional” marriage as “the foundation of society,” while the Democratic counterpart says, “Kansas Democrats support marriage equality.”
Business Classified Comics Deaths
Low: 59
Today’s forecast, page 8A
Please see GOVERNOR, page 2A l Candidates say
same-sex marriage is a non-issue in 2nd District congressional race. Page 3A
Gay rights group seeking couples to challenge state’s constitutional ban By Peter Hancock Twitter: @LJWpqhancock
Topeka — For a brief time Tuesday, a lesbian couple in Hutchinson had reason to think they would be the first same-sex couple to receive a marriage license in Kansas. Regina and Julia Johnson went to the Reno County Courthouse to apply for a marriage license and were initially told it would go through. In fact, Regina Johnson said, employees in the court clerk’s office congratulated them for applying. “They informed us that they had not spoken to the judge, but they
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The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected appeals from five states seeking to maintain gaymarriage bans, including Utah, which is in the same federal appeals court circuit as Kansas. Gay couples in several counties seeking marriage licenses were turned away, and the American Civil Liberties Union expects to file a federal lawsuit. Kansas amended its constitution in 2005 — with nearly 70 percent
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were going to process it just like anyone else until they were told otherwise,” she said. But almost as soon as they went home to celebrate, they received a phone call saying their application for a license would be denied. “They said the reason was that they did not have the proper legislation in place,” she said. “It was a little disheartening.” The Johnsons, who have been a couple since about 2000, are just one of several same-sex couples who have applied for marriage Please see CHALLENGE, page 2A
Wind energy winding up Wind farm construction across the state in the latter half of 2014 has increased significantly, and several more projects are underway. Page 3A
Vol.156/No.281 52 pages