NEWS 1
dailygamecock.com UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
MONDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2015
VOL. 106, NO. 29 ● SINCE 1908
TAKING STRIDES FOR SC PRIDE Courtesy of Kyle Hayden
Fair continues after shooting Following Saturday night’s shooting at the South Carolina State Fair, which left a 15-year-old injured, the fair reopened at regular hours and with no additional security on Sunday, according to The State. The extent of the teenager’s injuries are unknown, but he is in a stable condition, according to a sheriff’s department spokesperson. Sheriff Leon Lott also said that no one else was in danger, and that the shooting was not gang related. Lott has not identified the victim or the reasons for the shooting. The sheriff’s department said an arrest could be following soon. Fair manager Gary Goodman said it is unclear how the gun got into the fairgrounds. Security personnel have not confiscated any guns in Goodman’s memory, but they have taken hand weapons, such as knives. Compiled by Ben Crawford
Courtesy of Zoe Dale
Ben Crawford
Men’s golf wins first place Kelli Caldwell @TDG_ARTS
South Carolina men’s golf team snagged another Camden Collegiate Invitational title for the second straight year. In a total of three rounds, the Gamecocks finished with an overall score of 838 (-2). There were five competitors in the invitational, including red-shirt senior Sean Kelly and sophomore Kennan Huskey. There were also three freshmen: Scott Stevens, Will Miles and Ryan Stachler. South Carolina bypassed Charleston Southern and Furman who finished second and third, respectively. Huskey finished with his premiere medalist honors in the third round, with a score of 68 (-2). He finished the weekend with a total score of 205. Huskey managed to finish the invitational with a new team record of 12 birdies. Head coach Bill McDonald was impressed by the team’s first win for the fall season. “It was a great win for our guys, and I’m really happy for Keenan. I think we created some great building blocks for the future of our program, and I am excited for the remainder of this season as well,” McDonald said. “The golf we played as a team over the last 45 holes of the event was truly special.” In his first season, Miles fi nished this invitational strong with a second place finish and only two under par. The Gamecocks finished with the most birdies in the tournament with 51. This also marks the first time the team went under par since last season in the NCAA Regionals. South Carolina will end the fall season in Hawaii in the Ka’anapali Collegiate Invitational from Nov. 6 to 8.
@BENLCRAWFORD
Rounding off the events of Pride Week, the annual S out h Ca rol i n a P r ide Parade and Festival is, by some measure, the largest public celebration of the LGBTQ communit y in the state, drawing in tens of t hou sa nds over t he course of a single day. For over a qu a r terc e n t u r y, P r i d e h a s been provided visibility and a sense of place to s o m e o f C o l u m b i a ’s most marginalized communities, increasing in scope and scale each year. This past Saturday marked the 26th anniversary of the event and was the first Pride since the Supreme Court ruled that same-sex marriage is constitutional. Two questions remain: how has Pride changed and how will it move forward? Protesters a nd t he parade Thirty minutes before t he parade, Harold Geddings stood on the St at e Ho u s e g r o u nd s in a pink wig, high heels and a Soviet-style jacket. Standing around seven feet t a l l w it h heels,
he held a colorf ul and carefully-penned poster: “Homosexuality Prevents Abortions.” Some distance behind Geddings, a small group of white men huddled in a circle, heads bowed in prayer. Colorless signs leaned against their knees: “1 Ma n + 1 Woma n = M a r r iage” a nd “Pr ide goeth before destruction.” Every year, a dwindling contingent of protesters stand silently alongside the SC Pride parade on the Statehouse side of Gervais St., rebelling against the r ise of what t hey c a l l “alternative lifestyles.” On the invitation of a f r iend na med Tw itch, G edd i ng s i ntended to protest the protesters. The Soviet uniform — replete w it h Ru ssia n m i l it a r y medals impor ted f rom Ukraine — was his way of gleef u l ly t r y i ng to offend as many of them as possible. “This is my one big party of the year,” Geddings said later. “[Twitch] had organized this thing on Facebook, basically, to annoy the ‘angry old white men’ as she put it.”
Geddings smiled. “So, y’know, I can’t pass up an opport unit y like that.” The protesters, primarily religious Baptists, play an increasingly minor role at the SC Pride parade each year. Only a dozen showed up to protest Saturday. Jeff March, the 2015 president of SC Pride, said that Pride’s message was slowly getting through to them. “You can change them one at a time,” he said. And maybe we changed many this year, because that was a third of what was there last year. Maybe we scared them off.” Yasmine Fields, a black, gay mother of one who came out for Pride, argued with a protester before the parade began. “Our authority is not us, but the scriptures,” Lindsey said to Fields. “A nd the scriptures clearly state that homosexuality — sodomy — is an abomination. And we are standing for that principle, those scriptures.” Fields’ response was swift. SEEPRIDEPAGE4
Teach for America supports young teachers
Courtesy of Teach For America
Patrick Ingraham @PATTYMILLS11
I n t he Un ited St ates, over 16 million children grow up in poverty. Nearly 300,000 of those children live in the state of South Carolina. Of those children, only nine percent
will have an opportunity to receive a degree from a college or university by the age of 25. T here a re nea rly 350 teacher vacancies across Sout h Carolina p u b l i c s c h o o l s , a 25 p e r c e n t increase from 2014. Vacancies can s ig n i f ic a nt l y i mp ac t e duc at ion
and development of elementar y, middle and high school students. Teach For A merica (TFA) helps mobilize college graduates to lead classrooms in rural communities. The organization has partnered with t he state and low-income school districts to give students a chance to learn from qualified leaders. C h a r l e s M c D o n a l d , T F A’s Ma nag i ng Di rec tor of Grow t h, Development and Partnerships, said in an email that University of South Carolina st udents have a histor y of helping in classrooms across the country and across the state. “The University of South Carolina has a long tradition of contributing graduates to our teaching corps,” McDonald said. “Today, 28 USC alums are current corps members t h r o u g h Te a c h Fo r A m e r i c a , impacting the lives of students across the country.” McDona ld sa id t he R iseSC recruitment initiative was launched this year because of the need for education in South Carolina. The initiative aims to build partnerships with colleges and universities to
“increase the number of diverse, homeg row n leaders who are teaching and leading high-needs South Carolina classrooms.” O ne of t ho se a lu m n i i s 2012 g raduate and former TFA corps member Justin Dunham, an eighth grade science teacher at Darlington M idd le S c ho ol i n D a rl i n g t o n , South Carolina. Dunham became a member of t he teaching corps because of his belief in Teach For America’s mission. “I want to help spark the change needed to eradicate educat ional i ne q u it ie s i n m y c o m mu n it y,” Dunham said. “I applied to Teach for America and was accepted into the program. I was even more excited to get an assignment in Darlington Count y. It was an opportunit y to come home and give back.” Cor ps member a nd 2014 USC graduate Brandon Johnson said that his major at USC, athletic training, didn’t give him an opportunity to give back like the teaching corps did. SEETEACHPAGE2