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David’s Law passed in the Senate Committee on State Affairs April 20.
Senate Bill 179 passes in State Affairs Committee ‘David’s Law’ seeks to criminalize cyberbullying, require schools to have cyberbullying policy By Meredith McCown @meredithrhoads Successfully accomplishing the first step in the legislative process, Senate Bill 179, known as David’s Law, passed in the Senate Committee on State Affairs and will strive to end cyberbullying abuse in younger generations. The bill was named after 16-year-old David Molak, an Alamo Heights resident who took his own life in January 2016. Its goal is to help prevent cyberbullying with minors and simplify the unmasking of anonymous usernames. While the bill has been making its way through the legal process, it must pass in the House and the Senate before moving to a full vote. The bill would require schools to have a cyberbullying policy, give students the opportunity to report cyberbullying anonymously, allow schools to investigate bullying off campus and other stipulations. David’s two older brothers, economics senior Chris Molak and Cliff Molak, medical student at the UT Health Science Center in San Antonio, are patiently waiting as the bill is now en route to the Senate to be voted on at a later date. Chris said the bill has been given immense support by the team working to pass it. “It’s been a long year. There’s a lot of working pieces, but luckily we’ve got a good team of lawyers and lobbyists that work pretty hard and do a pretty fine job behind the scenes,” Chris said. “The team that we have is really ultimately responsible for getting us to where we’re at now.” According to Chris, if passed, David’s Law will make it logistically easier to uncover cyberbullying that goes on behind the scenes. “As far as I know currently … it prohibits cyber abuse to minors for one,” Chris said. “And two, there’s an unmasking portion of it, where anonymous usernames can be revealed without having to go through a really expensive legal process.” In terms of cyber abuse, Chris said it is much more than a screen for the victims. “I hope for one, it shows those who have been affected negatively by cyber abuse and harassment, let them know that this kind of thing shouldn’t be tolerated,” Chris said. “Also, I hope it mainly serves as a deterrent for parents to get involved with their kid’s lives, and actually feel like there could be some repercussions if their children misbehave, in the ways that we couldn’t pursue legally the first time around, so we’re trying to just create a precedent for families to go through.” Initially David’s Law received about $80,000 in donations, and within the last year and half the number increased to more than $250,000. “It’s been a lot of relying on helpful connections,” Chris said. “And we’ve got awesome financial support that started off with that GoFundMe.” Chris said the change will ultimately be enacted by his generation, and he gave a call to action. “We’re in the crunch time as we speak,” Chris said. “So constantly just talking to people around you, and contacting your state legislators, let them know how you feel about everything that’s happening, and how you perceive the digital world we live in, I think would make an enormous help … from where we were a year and a half ago to where we are now is like light years away.” Senator Jose Menendez is leading the fight to get the bill passed, and said he was thankful for the work that’s been done so far. “Yesterday was an important day for Texas students and victims of cyberbullying,” Menendez said. “Members of the State Affairs Committee made a thoughtful decision after hearing emotional testimony from families who lost a child. I want to thank the senators of that committee for helping us advance this cause.”
Jenny Hollowell — THE BATTALION
This weekend, 189 student engineering projects were judged by industry profssionals during the 2017 Engineering Project Showcase.
Engineering on display Engineering project showcase presents students’ design projects to industry professionals By Josh Hopkins @texasjoshua1
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full semester’s worth of students’ engineering work and the accumulation of a lifetime of knowledge and education was on display this weekend for industry professionals to judge and admire. More than 1,000 students working on 189 different projects took part in the 2017 Engineering Project Showcase Friday. The various teams presented work from engineering capstone projects, design competitions and even the top freshman Engineering 112 projects.
Three of the top teams walked away with $1,000 and an additional 12 $500 awards were given to the top projects for various departments. Among the leaders this year was a project emphasizing rescuing turtles and a project focusing on CPU cooling. The event’s fifth year was the biggest yet, according to Magda Lagoudas, executive director for Industry Partners and organizer of the event. “This is the first time we are showing the work of over 1,000 students — this hasn’t happened before,” Lagoudas said. “This is the first time we actually have 100 industry judges — we’ve had a couple hundred industry people but we’ve never had 100 judges from industry. It’s amazing to talk to them
and hear what they have to say.” Jane Prugakova, software engineer and industry judge, said she was impressed with the diversity of projects and the tight timeline many of the students faced. “I get to see the next generation of science make their wave and I get to see how smart these people are,” Prugakova said. “Most of what I’ve seen is software technology in some state or form and A&M is really creating a great new generation of software engineers — it’s awesome.” One of the presentations Prugakova judged was Ignis, a customizable firefighting simulator developed over the course of the semester as part of a capstone project. Forrest ENGINEERING ON PG. 2
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In the Aggies’ 11-1 win over Missouri in the first game of the weekend series, Brigham Hill pitched seven shutout innings.
AGGIES OUTSCORE MIZZOU 25-4 IN DOMINANT 3-GAME SERIES SWEEP A&M cruises to fifth-straight series win behind offensive outbursts By Heath Clary @Heath_Clary No. 19 Texas A&M capped off its fifthstraight SEC series win Sunday, beating Missouri 7-0 to complete a three-game sweep. The Aggies (32-13, 13-8 SEC) cruised to an easy 11-1 win in the series opener on Friday behind seven shutout innings from Brigham Hill. They jumped out to an early
lead with a three-run first inning and never looked back as the offense churned out 14 hits and eight of the nine starters recorded at least one hit. Braden Shewmake went 4-for-6 at the plate with a run scored and two RBI, George Janca connected on his fifth home run of the season and Nick Choruby reached base four times and drove in two runs. Because of a possibility of inclement weather on Saturday, the teams played the second game of the series on Friday as well. Missouri (27-18, 8-13 SEC) sent its ace Tanner Houck to the mound in the back-half of the doubleheader, and the junior right-
hander kept A&M off balance for the first six innings of play. The Tigers got on the board first in the third inning when Chris Cornelius scampered home on a passed ball, and the score remained 1-0 until the fifth. Hunter Coleman reached base with a walk, advanced to third on a one-out double by Blake Kopetsky and then scored on an Austin Homan sacrifice fly. A&M starter Corbin Martin ran into trouble in the fifth by issuing a walk and then hitting a batter, but Kaylor Chafin came on in relief to shut the door. Chafin not only BASEBALL ON PG. 2