MONDAY
SEPTEMBER 28, 2015 VOLUME 105 ISSUE 16
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CITY
San Marcos Unitarian Universalist Fellowship shows support for LGBTQIA organizations By Autumn Wright NEWS REPORTER @autumnwright697
DARYL ONTIVEROS STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Jeremy Kennard is accompanied by his service dog, Athena, Sept. 23 in the Writing Center.
Veteran hopes to educate community after service dog incident By Darcy Sprague and Clayton Kelley NEWS REPORTERS @darcy_days and @claytonkelley
An Iraqi veteran is accusing Texas State of implementing an illegal policy after an event regarding his service dog happened earlier this year. Jeremy Kennard, social work senior, contacted a lawyer when he discovered the university enforced a policy he felt violated the federal American Disability Act. Kennard entered the classroom of Raphael Travis, assistant professor in the School of Social Work, on the first day of the fall semester with his service dog, Athena. He said
Travis asked him to produce paperwork proving Athena was a certified service dog. Travis said after he requested the dog’s certification, and then Kennard left the class in a “clearly frustrated” manner. According to the ADA, a person is only allowed to ask someone with a service dog if the animal is a service dog and what it is trained to do, Kennard said. Travis said he told Kennard he must comply with the university’s policy of providing proof of the dog’s service certification. He said Kennard attended class the next day, presented the requested paperwork from the Office of Disabili-
ties and apologized for leaving class abruptly during the previous session. Kennard said Texas State would face a $50,000 fine for its first violation of the law. Every violation after that would be double the previous cost. “It’s not about me,” Kennard said. “It’s about a policy that needs to be changed.” Kennard does not intend to pursue the issue in court. “It’s not (Travis’) fault. He didn’t know,” Kennard said. “Don’t shoot the messenger.” Travis said there have been students with service dogs in his classroom before the policy of asking for documentation was implemented. He
has never had to ask for proof that a dog was a service animal in the past. “(Faculty and staff), were instructed by Texas State just recently this year that anyone who has a service animal needs to provide paperwork in order to keep it in the class,” Travis said. Kennard said Texas State installed the policy during the summer, despite the fact that it is in violation of federal law. “The Office of Disabilities encourages every student to register the use of their service animals in order for our staff to provide them with appropriate assistance,” said Clint-Michael Reneau, director of Disability Services.
Reneau said registration is not required and that he is aware of the ADA law stating only two questions can be asked of a person with a service animal. “If I ask you for your documentation for a service dog, I am asking you for your medical records,” Kennard said. “How would you feel about that?” Kennard said he suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. He obtained Athena four years ago. While Athena was certified by the school that trained her, there is no standard certification required for service dogs,
See KENNARD, Page 2
One of the primary donors to this year’s SMTX Pride Parade and Festival was a local church. San Marcos Unitarian Universalist Fellowship showed its support of the LBGTQIA community by donating to the event. Additionally, the institution lends its facilities to monthly meetings of Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays. Sylvia Sandoval Hernandez, executive organizer of SMTX Pride, said she received a $650 donation from SMUUF this year and a $550 contribution last year. Hernandez said she grew up in San Marcos and has noticed a change in the community’s attitude toward the LGBTQIA community. “I think it (has sunk) in already,” Hernandez said. “There’s a little bit more acceptance.” Hernandez said she is already planning for next year’s SMTX Pride and gives credit to SMUUF for encouraging her to bring the celebration to a new level. “They’re the reason why I started San Marcos Pride,” Hernandez said. Hernandez said the church has proven that it consists of good people because its members have volunteered
See PRIDE, Page 2
CITY COUNCIL
Q&A with Shane Scott, Place 6 city council incumbent By Anna Herod NEWS EDITOR @annaleemurphy
versity
Anna Herod: Where do you call San Marcos City Council home and why? elections are quickly ap- Shane Scott: San Marproaching. The University Star sat down with Place 6 candidate Shane Scott to discuss his campaign.
Born: December 9, 1966, Kingman, Arizona Occupation: City councilman, filmmaker, owner of Porsche shop German Elite Education : B.A. in Criminal Justice from thencalled Southwest Texas Uni-
cos. I made San Marcos my home because it is like a balance of everything I like. I raised my daughter here and I was a single dad for a long time. It’s just home.
AH: Why did you decide to run for public office? SS: I originally was motivated to run for office by the previous mayor, Mayor
Susan Narvaiz (San Marcos mayor from May 2004 to November 2010) at the time. And her passion for the city and the community inspired me at the time to go, “You know what, that’s what I need to do.” I saw city council as being an opportunity to do just that. It’s like you’re problem-solving all the time. You’re trying to make decisions for everybody as a whole, and you can’t fall into the popular trend of the day. You have to really understand the long-term impacts that your decisions make. I think that’s critical—
independence. I don’t have to do this. I do it because I love the citizens and the community. You don’t need anyone who has an agenda. And basically I think we always need people who are independent that way.
AH: What issue is at the heart of your campaign? SS: I don’t have any issues. Like I said, some people go into (their campaign) with an agenda. It makes me very sad because my opponents are using the Memorial Day flood as a platform to run
for office. Even the independent group that looked at all the details, who said if there were a 100-foot wall (on the construction site of the Woods Apartment Complex) it wouldn’t have mattered because everybody was going to get flooded anyway. Cape’s Camp didn’t flood (the adjacent neighborhoods) because we made sure (the apartments) were higher and out of the flood plain. If you want to blame somebody (for the flood) then blame God. Because
See SCOTT, Page 2
—COURTESY OF SHANE SCOTT
CITY
Green Guys Recycling took Memorial Day flood ‘personally’ By Darcy Sprague SENIOR NEWS REPORTER @darcy_days
Green Guys Recycling, a San Marcos company dedicated to household recycling, was affected when some of its employees lost everything during the Memorial Day weekend flooding. Laura Driver, administrative service manager at Green Guys, said the company’s dedication to disaster relief runs deeper than just its employees’ personal losses. “When one of your own is affected, even if they are just
from your community, it hits you hard,” Driver said. “We took the flood personally.” She said the company made two donations to the floodstricken community of over $15,000 after the natural disaster occurred. Employees began collecting scrap metal in San Marcos and Martindale the day after the flood to fund the first donation. Green Guys Recycling gifted money to the American Red Cross, My Neighbor’s Keeper, United Way of San Marcos and seven other local charities, according to the organization’s Facebook page.
Driver said the city subcontracted the company to help clean up after the flood. To fund the second donation, Green Guys picked up and weighed scrap metal along with various metal appliances in Wimberley and donated the monetary value back to Hays County, she said. “We didn’t want to profit from a disaster,” Driver said. “We also wanted to divert (the collected materials) from a landfill.” According to the Green Guys website, the company gathered over 733,000 pounds of debris from the flood and
removed 223,000 pounds of damaged appliances from landfills. Hays County has accepted money from Green Guys and KVUE in order to create an upstream monitoring system for the Blanco River, stated Laureen Chernow, Hays County communications specialist, in an email. Driver said the system sets off a trigger warning when floodwater rises upstream in order to alert those who reside downstream. Six feet of water flooded the Martindale house of a Green Guys Recycling employee
during the Memorial Day weekend flood. Driver said everything was ruined by the time it was safe to try to salvage items in the house. “(The employee) escaped through a window with his dog,” Driver said. “Then he drove off in a pickup truck.” Driver said Green Guys encountered countless customers who had lost everything due to the flood. “They were trying to sell metal they collected just so they could have some money to start over with,” Driver said. My Neighbor’s Keeper, a Wimberley nonprofit that
offers cash grants to locals after disasters, was able to distribute $340,000 to the community after the flood. This included money donated by Green Guys Recycling, said Tom Keyser, director of the nonprofit. Keyser said the grants were available to all Wimberley residents. “We give undetermined, nopayback grants,” Keyser said. “That means people can use this cash to use for whatever they need.”