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PRESERVING A CAUSE
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School leaders mull ways to upgrade technology ———
Laptops, tablets could become part of classrooms By Peter Hancock phancock@ljworld.com
Nick Krug/Journal-World Photo
MILLICENT PEPION, FORMER LEADER OF THE WETLANDS PRESERVATION ORGANIZATION, is pictured Thursday at the Medicine Wheel located on the southern edge of the Haskell Indian Nations University campus. Pepion and others fear that this area will be affected by the construction of the South Lawrence Trafficway.
Wetlands advocates look for new ways to stop road as legal battle ends By Chad Lawhorn
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As I’ve learned more about this, I’ve realized this really isn’t an environmental issue. It is really At one time, Patrick Aus- an eco-justice issue. This is about the desecration tin Freeland thought a fancy suit and a trip to Washing- of a sacred place.” clawhorn@ljworld.com
ton, D.C., probably was the best way to stave off the South Lawrence Trafficway. Freeland, like dozens upon dozens of Haskell Indian Nations University students over the last two decades, has been a crusader to stop the South Lawrence Trafficway from being built through the wetlands that are owned by Haskell and Baker universities along 31st Street. For Freeland and others,
— Millicent Pepion, former president of the Wetlands Preservation Organization
the battle has meant more than carrying a sign to a protest now and then. Freeland served as the president of the Wetlands Preservation Organization, an organization that has been a longtime plaintiff in a federal lawsuit regarding the route of the road.
It also meant trips across the country to lobby to groups both sympathetic and hostile to the cause. Freeland was dressed and ready to depart for such a meeting in Washington when one of the resident assistants at the Haskell
dormitory asked the young man in the suit where he was going. Freeland told him, in essence, he was off to try to save the wetlands. “He just laughed a bit,” Freeland said of the issue that happened several years ago. “He said I didn’t have to do that, and he was so sure of it. I asked him why, and he said, ‘Because there is medicine down there. The wetlands has its own medicine.’ That has stuck with me.” Soon, the medicine is going to get tested.
Lawrence school officials envision a day in the not-too-distant future when every student will come to class connected to at least one, and possibly multiple, wireless devices. Laptops, computer tablets and smartphones already have become everyday items in many students’ personal lives. But school officials anticipate those devices will soon be an integral part of daily classroom instruction — as common to students as notebook paper, threering binders and No. 2 pencils have been for earlier generations. “Things have changed so rapidly, just over the last few years, with technolo- SCHOOLS gy,” said Kyle Hayden, assistant superintendent for operations and business. “The iPad didn’t exist over three years ago, so it’s hard to say what’s going to happen three years from now. The only thing we know is that we’ve been seeing an increasing use and desire to have mobile technology. So we just need to have the infrastructure that’s capable of handling it.” To build that infrastructure — the routers, switches, servers and other “backbone” equipment that make wireless devices function for users — the Lawrence school board plans to put a bond issue before voters in the spring. The technology upgrades would be only a small part of a larger bond package. The bulk of the package would fund building renovations throughout the district, mainly in the older elementary schools in central and East Lawrence. The Lawrence school board received a lengthy presentation last Monday from Janet Herdman of Alexander Open Systems, an Overland Park consulting firm
Please see WETLANDS, page 2A
Please see TECH, page 7A
KU student, veteran on mission to get degree after injuries Wounded Warrior Project to receive Dole Leadership Prize By Matt Erickson merickson@ljworld.com
Nick Krug/Journal-World Photo
IN SEPTEMBER 2006, IRAQ WAR VETERAN BRENT WHITTEN was injured while serving as the gunner in a Humvee when a suicide bomber driving a van exploded into the side of it in Baghdad. Whitten, now a student at Kansas University, is in his final year of finishing his undergraduate degree in journalism.
Arts&Entertainment Books Classified Deaths
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Courtesy of Brent Whitten
self up out of the turret with his arms and rolled onto the street below. To understand why Brent Whitten will be at the front of the room
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Brent Whitten couldn’t see anything as his Humvee drove through the streets of Baghdad on Sept. 9, 2006. It was his third day in a new role. As a gunner, his orders were to keep his head down inside the turret atop the vehicle unless told otherwise, in case of snipers. So when a suicide bomber drove his van filled with explosives into the Humvee’s right side, Whitten had
no idea what had happened. “I remember all of a sudden just, like, waking up from a nap I never took,” he said. He was knocked out by the resulting blast — he would later find out he had a concussion. He awoke with the frantic anxiety of someone afraid he’s late for work. His hands looked melted, and his uniform was black. He couldn’t move his legs. But he could see that the inside of the Humvee was filled with flames, so he pulled him-
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today as the Wounded Warrior Project receives the 2012 Dole Leadership Prize at the Dole Institute
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THE HUMVEE Brent Whitten was in, taken by a soldier after it was towed back to a base in Baghdad after it was attacked in September 2006, is pictured.
A new photography book looks back at the River City Reunion, a festival of Beat Generation figures that happened in Lawrence 25 years ago. Page 1C
Please see WOUNDED, page 6A
Vol.154/No.288 58 pages