A8 The Huntsville Times, Sunday, September 7, 2008

Traffic Correlation found creased, Taylor said. “It’s clear-

Continued from page A1
now, Taylor said.
Although the city’s more
than 31,000 traffic citations
brought in nearly $3 million
last year, a large portion of that
goes to the state, and what the
city keeps is less than 1 percent
of its total revenues.
The number of tickets
jumped when the department
launched several traffic en-
forcement campaigns and put
federal grant money into its
traffic and DUI task forces. So
farthisyear,23,120ticketshave
beenwritten,puttingpoliceon
track for a significant increase
over last year’s numbers.
Thosetrafficcampaignsand
theresultingticketincreaseare
not inspired by budget needs,
Reyessaid,butareeffortstore-
duce the high number of acci-
dents, injuries and deaths.
Thecityhadarecord46traf-
fic fatalities in 2005. Only 15
people have died in wrecks so
far this year, a statistic the de-
A 2007 study by two uni-
versity professors showed that
officers in Massachusetts
towns in a “fiscal crunch”
wrote more speeding tickets
than officers in other towns.
The researchers from
George Mason University
noted that police officers are
employedbycitygovernments
and, to a degree, must be in-
fluenced by those cities’ finan-
cial needs.
Thestudyacknowledgesthe
officers’ personal sense of ob-
ligationtotheirdutiesandtheir
communities, which Reyes
said should be – and is – the
drivingforceforHuntsvillepo-
lice to pull over motorists who
violate the law.
“Weexpectourofficerstodo
that,” he said. “We don’t tell
them you have to write a tick-
et when you stop somebody,
but if you see a traffic violation,
you should pull them over.”
Huntsville,however,doesn’t
have the same restrictions that
may have influenced those
Massachusetts officers. Many
of the towns in financial trou-
ble had limits on the property
ly better to bring in money an-
otherwaythantohavethehaz-
ards that come with those
trafficcitations.We’llfigureout
how to pay our bills.”
A municipality can always
raise taxes. Court fees and
fines, however, are paid by
thosewhobreakthelaw,notall
homeowners and consumers.
The Legislature has used
court revenue for decades to
pay for the poor to have legal
representation in court, to
compensate victims of violent
crimefortheirmedicalbillsand
lost wages, and to give police
new technology including
DNA testing.
Tickets from state troopers
anddeputiespumpevenmore
cash into the state general
fund–upto$54acitation.The
state general fund receives $21
from each Huntsville police ci-
tation.
None of the money goes di-
rectly to the issuing police
agency,but$3goesinthePeace
Officers’ Annuity and Benefit The Associated Press
Fund, which many officers Richard Cherry Jr., right, departs Boys' Latin of Philadelphia with his father, Richard Cherry Sr., in
don’tevenchoosetojoin,Reyes Philadelphia on July 15.
said.

School rekindles debate

partment attributes to in-
creased police presence and
checkpoints.
taxtheycouldlevy,andthecash
brought in by tickets played a
more significant role in mu-
nicipal budgets.
The state-imposed fine for
speeding is $20. The rest is
court fees – $107 in Huntsville
and $135 in the county.

“It’s just like any other death
–alifeislost,” Reyessaid.“That
is just another part of our en-
forcement efforts that we feel
the public wants us to do, even
thoughwehavepeoplecalland
complain: ‘Oh it’s all about the
money’ or ‘You’re just trying to
meet your quota.’ ”
Mom, 2 teen girls accused in slaying
75-year-old man
was robbed,
stabbed in Texas
The Associated Press
PASADENA, Texas – Two
teenage girls are accused of
stabbing a 75-year-old man to
death in a robbery that netted
them just $15, and police say
the mother of one of the teens
helped put them up to it.
Dannette R. Gillespie, 38,
gave knives to her 15-year-old
daughter and Vanessa Anne
Ocampo, 19, then waited in
theircarwhiletheteensrobbed
‘We’ll find a way’
Huntsville isn’t going to de-
clarebankruptcybecausedriv-
ers start obeying the law.
“We depend on all the rev-
enue, but we would find an-
otherway”ifticketrevenuesde-
and killed Eugene Palma, ac-
cording to a probable cause
warrant.
All three were charged with
capital murder Friday and
were being held without bail.
Police did not immediately re-
spond to a call Saturday ask-
ingifthesuspectshadattorneys
to speak for them.
Palma, a bar owner, was
found stabbed several times in
thedrivewayofhishomeinthis
Houston suburb Wednesday.
He did not know the women,
Pasadena police said.
According to the warrant,
Ocampo told police the three
on single-sex education
“The vast majority of the
(city’s)budgetissalestaxesand
that type of revenue,” Reyes
said.“Wedon’tevenlookatthe
money coming in.
“We do want our officers to Philly’s Boys’ Latin
be proactive, looking for vio-
lations and enforcing the law. proves popular,
That’s our expectation.” but some not sold
By KATHY MATHESON
The Associated Press
PHILADELPHIA – Call-
ing all ninth-grade boys! Raise
had been looking for someone
to rob that morning.
your hand if this school sounds
like fun: wearing jackets and
“He would’ve given them ties every day, staying until 5
money–that’s thecrazything,” p.m.,learningLatinand–totop
it all off – no girls.
Kim Nawrot, a bartender at
Palma’s bar, told the Houston Who’s in?
Turns out, about 270 boys.
Chronicle. “He was the kind of
And 100 more are on a wait-
guythatwould’vegivenanyone
ing list.
the shirt off of his back.” Boys’ Latin of Philadelphia,
A palm print on Palma’s car one of the city’s newer charter
led police to the women, au-
schools, began its second year
thoritiessaid.Gillespieandher
on Wednesday, aiming to be an
daughter, who was not identi-
educational beacon in the fi-
fied because she is a juvenile, nancially and academically
were arrested in Pasadena.
troubled district.
Ocampo was arrested in San Because it’s a single-sex pub-
lic school – one of four in the
Antonio.
city–Boys’Latinfacedhugeop-
positionandalmostdidn’texist.
Critics contend it’s unfair for
taxpayers to fund a prep school
curriculum for boys only. Sup-
porters say Boys’ Latin is des-
perately needed in a city where
45 percent of students drop out
and male academic achieve-
ment badly lags that of females.
“Obviously something had to
be done differently to engage
these young men and prepare
them for graduation, and for
success beyond high school
graduation,” said David Hardy,
Boys’ Latin co-founder and
acting principal.
The Women’s Law Project
and the American Civil Liber-
ties Union of Pennsylvania had
opposed Hardy’s charter ap-
plication based on its exclusion
of girls.
It was initially rejected by
Philadelphia school officials in
January 2006, but was ap-
proved five months later after
then-district CEO Paul Vallas
called the gender achievement
gap “a crisis.” Boys’ Latin
opened in fall 2007.
New rules implemented by
the U.S. Education Depart-
ment in 2006 allow same-sex
education whenever schools
think it will expand the diver-
sity of courses, improve stu-
dents’ achievement or meet
their individual needs.
But ACLU attorney Mary
Catherine Roper said those
regulations conflict with the
ConstitutionandTitleIX,afed-
eral law banning sex discrimi-
nation in education. There are
nonexclusionary ways to im-
prove education, such as de-
creasing class sizes, she noted.
“There is no justification for
offering kids different oppor-
tunities based on their gender,”
said Roper.
The 167,000-student
Philadelphia district, which is
under state supervision for
poor performance, has tried to
improve by establishing char-
ter schools, hiring private com-
panies and universities to man-
age schools, and offering single-
sex education.
Results have been mixed.
Three months ago, the district
took six schools away from pri-
vate and university managers
for failure to improve suffi-
ciently, including an all-boys
high school.
There are at least 442 pub-
lic schools in the United States
with single-sex educational op-
portunities, according to the
Exton-based National Associ-
ation for Single Sex Public Ed-
ucation. Most of those are coed
schoolsofferingsingle-sexclass-
rooms.
Asking if single-sex educa-
tion is good is like asking if coed
educationisgood,saidLeonard
Sax, the association’s executive
director.
“It’s a very diffuse and not
very meaningful question,” Sax
said. “There are different ra-
tionalesforsingle-sexeducation
and different track records.”
Juniors at the city’s public
High School for Girls, which
has been single-sex since its
founding in 1848, scored 79.3
percent proficient or higher in
math and 85.3 percent profi-
cient or better in reading.
Hardy noted that no one has
suggested making that school
coed.
Peter Kuriloff, research di-
rector at the Center for the
Study of Boys’ and Girls’ Lives
at the University of Pennsylva-
nia, thinks single-sex class-
rooms are worth trying in

SLEEP BETTER…
some cases if paired with a
strong curriculum.
“It is not a panacea,” said

SAVE MONEY!
Kuriloff. “Just putting boys in
a boys school and girls in a girls
Remember… school is not going to do any-
At Mattress
King thing.”
0000022794-03

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You Boys’ Latin, which opened in
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now teaches freshmen and
sophomores in a renovated
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Now Serving You In 9 Locations It will add a grade each year
until it has grades nine through
12.
Richard Cherry Sr. said he
sent his son, Richard Jr., to
Boys’ Latin because of the

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“They’re not the same,” Velez
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at different times of their lives.”
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Member FDIC. ©RBC Bank (USA) 2008. ®Registered trademark of Royal Bank of Canada. September 11th, 2008
™Trademark of Royal Bank of Canada. Used under license. RBC Bank is a trade name used by RBC Bank (USA)
and its branch offices operate under this trade name. ”Let’s do something giant.” is a registered trademark of
at 7:00 p.m. at
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