UNCA students protest
About 100 UNCA students walked out of classes and gathered on the quad to protest the firing of Margaret Weshner, a 28-year employee who got a pink slip as part of a restructuring. WLOSer Cherub Charu brought us the story.
Weshner worked as head of the college’s counseling center. Students said they need mental health counseling and other help that Weshner provides. Weshner said her center is understaffed. A university vice chancellor, Bill Haggard, said the revamped student health/counseling center will better serve students.
Gun on campus
Police are looking into a report that a woman brought a gun on campus at W.D. Williams Elementary School.
The mom came to school because she got a letter saying her kid had missed more than 40 days of school, WLOSers said. During her conversation with the school officials, she let it be known she had a gun in her car.
Hillcrest shootings
There were two shootings within a 24-hour period at the Hillcrest projects, so WLOSers sent Holly Headache to investigate. Nobody was seriously injured, by the way.
The shootings weren’t related The cops told Holly that they think the Hillcrest violence is a result of police crackdowns over at the Pisgah View projects
Simon’s in the trash
WLOSer Pat “Simple” Simon went through somebody’s trash with a private investigator at his side to show how easily somebody could get your Social Security Number and steal your identity.
Simon snapped on some rubber gloves in dramatic fashion. He searched through shredded documents. He found a SSN and a signature and an account number. The mom who invited WLOSers in said it was all very “scary.”
The bottom line to Simon’s report – get a really good shredder and you’ll be OK.
Mumpower and Mundy read
Jones Elementary School held a read-a-thon on Wednesday, with a number of community members showing up in classes to read. WLOSer Susan Mundy was there, as was Asheville City Councilman *Carl Mumpower. Young Simon Rangel was interviewed.
Crazy liberty dude
John “Punnyman” Le went out to Hendersonville to do a story about a whack-job who is prancing up and down Four Seasons Boulevard in a Lady Liberty suit, all to pimp his business, Liberty Tax Services. It is tax season, after all.
Le said the guy was zooming around “like a patriot missile.” The former West Henderson High student, named Jose Case, was the “Carrot Top of national monuments.” The act was “American cheese,” Le said.
Whatever.
School dropouts
WLOSers said state lawmakers may raise the age a student is allowed to drop out of high school from 16 to 18. But will it cut the dropout rate, WLOSers asked.
Finding to answer is difficult, says *Pat “Simple” Simon, who went to Enka High School to check it out and who has been doing a lot of reporting lately.
A couple of students Simon interviewed said yeah, it will work. But a school counselor said the key really is supporting and helping students all the way through their school career. Simon said the proposed bill would raise the age to 17 in 2009, then make the dropout age 18 by 2011.
WLOSers have apparently figured out how to do Web polls, because they told everybody to go to their new web site and vote.
In other news…
Patients owe more than $800,000 in Hendersonville for using EMS services – namely, ambulance rides… There will be a downhill race of outhouses on Sunday at Sapphire Valley Ski Resort. The event is some sort of fund-raiser.
In other news…
Somebody shot a window at the Haywood County Justice Center. Despite the fact that they have 60 security cameras, not one camera caught the action… A new driver training track proposed at AB Tech could help train new cops on how to drive in chase situations and might cut down on all the wrecks we’ve been having recently involving cops…. Despite erosion problems at the Timberwolf subdivision under construction in Henderson County, the project got county commissioners’ go-ahead… And U.S. Rep. Heath Shuler met with community college officials to hear them complain and stuff. WLOSers said he’ll take their ideas back to Washington. Yeah.