The All State

» associated press

CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. — A task force has been formed to look into the problem of suicides in Montgomery, Houston, Humphreys and Stewart counties.
The counties were selected because they’ve had more than their share of suicides when compared to the rest of the state, Tennessee Suicide Prevention Network Executive Director Scott Ridgeway told The Leaf-Chronicle.
Ridgeway said Cindy Johnson, who is the Community Education Director for the Behavioral Health Care Center at Clarksville, will lead the task force. He said Johnson has worked tirelessly against the problem since losing her son to suicide in 2009.
Ridgeway said Johnson was selected because he considered her “one of the best examples I know of someone turning their grief and pain into action.”
Since losing her son, Johnson has given several interviews, recorded public service announcements and worked with suicide survivor groups to combat the problem. She also wrote a book about her experience titled “Turning Tragedy into Hope — Becoming the Person You Never Even Imagined You Could Be.”
The decision to set up a task force targeting the region came after nearby Fort Campbell, which straddles the Tennessee-Kentucky state line, worked with the Tennessee Suicide Prevention Network to bring down its suicide rate. TAS

» By BRIAN BIGELOW – bbigelow@my.apsu.edu

Ever wanted to jump into a pool of near freezing water with 200 other people for a good cause? Then maybe you were at the Polar Plunge.

The brainchild of Kelly Kler, a former APSU graduate assistant, the Polar Plunge has become a campus tradition, even prompting President Timothy Hall to participate each year by jumping into the frigid waters of the Foy outdoor pool in a full suit.

“I’ve participated every year,” Hall said. “I figure I’ll be old the moment I stop.”

“After the first second, nothing runs through your body at all. The first second is a little bit of a shock and then you’re good,” said Jeff Carnagey, one of the participants and the first person in the pool.

“Originally, I had wanted to tag it on to do some sort of … community service or some sort of special event to either help the community or help individuals in need … to get people involved in some sort of community service event,” Kler said. “I just always hoped that it would be a tradition … and that it would continue year after year and people would just continually get excited and get involved in it.”

The annual event, which was held on Friday, Jan. 20, was sponsored by University Recreation and functioned as a fundraiser for the new S.O.S Food Pantry on campus. Participants who brought in two or more canned goods to the event received a free T-shirt.

“We had such a big outcome, we wanted to try to do some good with it … so with the opening of the food pantry on campus we thought it would tie in perfectly and [was] a great way to help support another organization … on campus,” said Jason Wills, coordinator at the Foy Fitness and Recreation Center.

In its third year, the Polar Plunge attracted an unprecedented 211 people, up from about 190 last year and approximately 160 its first year. However, talks are in progress to explore the possibility of transforming the Foy’s outdoor pool into an indoor pool, meaning the Polar Plunge tradition may be in jeopardy.

“It is a conversation, not a plan,” said David Davenport, director of the Foy Fitness and Recreation Center, of the talks. “We’re just exploring options.”

Despite the talks of converting the pool to indoors, there are plans to continue the Polar Plunge tradition, according to Wills. TAS

» ASSOCIATED PRESS

Washington — Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, the son of Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul and a frequent critic of the Transportation Security Administration, was stopped by security at the Nashville airport Monday, Jan. 23, when a scanner set off an alarm and Paul declined to allow a security officer to subsequently pat him down. The White House said airport security acted appropriately.

Police escorted Paul away, but he was allowed to board a later flight. The security scanner identified an issue with the senator’s knee, although Paul said he has no screws or medical hardware around the joint.

Paul, who frequently uses the airport about an hour from his home in Bowling Green, Ky., told The Associated Press in a telephone interview that he asked for another scan but refused to submit to a pat down by airport security.

Paul said he was “detained” at a small cubicle and couldn’t make his flight to Washington for a Senate vote scheduled later in the day.

White House spokesman Jay Carney did not confirm that the incident involved Paul, but said the passenger in question was never detained. He defended the TSA.

“Passengers, as in this case, who refuse to comply with security procedures, are denied access to the secure gate area,” Carney said. “I think it is absolutely essential that we take necessary actions to ensure that air travel is safe and I believe that is what TSA is tasked with doing.”

Paul said the situation reflects his long-standing concern that the TSA shouldn’t be “spending so much time with people who wouldn’t attack us.”

TSA spokesman Greg Soule confirmed there was an incident but didn’t identify the passenger as Paul.

“When an irregularity is found during the TSA screening process, it must be resolved prior to allowing a passenger to proceed to the secure area of the airport,” Soule said in a written statement. “Passengers who refuse to complete the screening process cannot be granted access to the secure area in order to ensure the safety of others traveling.”

Carney said an alarm was triggered during routine screening, but the passenger refused to continue with the screening process to resolve the issue. Local police escorted Paul out of the screening area, he said.

Paul went through a millimeter wave machine that uses a generic outline of a body for all passengers, according to a TSA official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss agency screening procedures. When an alarm goes off, TSA officers target the area of the body that triggered the alarm and pat down the passenger.

Paul’s father, Ron Paul, used his son’s experience to promote his “Plan to Restore America,” which would cut $1 trillion of federal spending in a year and eliminate the TSA.

Rand Paul told reporters at the airport that he had no idea why his knee raised concerns with TSA.

He said he showed his knee to the security agents and doesn’t have any medical hardware or issues in the knee.

Paul said he didn’t want special treatment from TSA because he’s a senator. “I think we need to treat everybody with dignity.”

The TSA said Paul was allowed to board another flight after a different screening.

In a November Senate hearing, Paul asked TSA Administrator John Pistole to change the policy so that adults could go through the machines a second time when an alarm is triggered on the first attempt.

“Let us go back through the machine rather than get a pat-down. You’ll get rid of a lot of the anger and animosity towards the TSA and towards what you’re doing, and give us a little more dignity when we travel,” Paul said. “Just let us go back through the screener again — you know, I mean, people don’t want to have a pat-down.”

Paul is a member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. The committee does not regulate TSA, but holds hearings about airport security. TAS

» staff report

Retired APSU Public Safety police officer, Lt. Loris Linda Ellsworth, 67, died at her home Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012. Ellsworth served in the U.S. Army for 11 years as the first and only female aircraft technical inspector and 30 years with APSU campus police.
Services were held Monday, Jan. 23, at the Sykes Funeral Home Chapel in Clarksville. Donations in her honor can be made to the American Cancer Society. TAS

» associated press

GORDONSVILLE, Tenn. — The parents of a Middle Tennessee teenager say constant bullying over being gay led their son to kill himself. More than 100 family members and friends of 14-year-old Phillip Parker gathered Saturday, Jan. 21, in Gordonsville to remember his short life.
His family told WSMV-TV that they reported concerns over his bullying to Gordonsville High School, but the bullying got worse.
His grandmother, Ruby Harris, says the boy complained he felt like a rock was on his chest and he “wanted to take the rock off where he could breathe.”
An official with Smith County Schools told WSMV the district is coming up with a plan to address the issue with students on Monday, Jan. 23. TAS

» By JENELLE GREWELL – jgrewell@my.apsu.edu

Shannon Doss, a graduate student in Social Work, was sitting at Captain D’s waiting for her order, listening to an NPR radio show about food pantries closing down due to people using them so much and depleting the pantries of their supplies. She said one caller on the show was a man from the University of Michigan who talked about how the food pantry on their campus services over 4,000 students a year and there are very few on-campus food pantries in the United States.

With this information, inspiration struck Doss and she went to fellow graduate student in Social Work, Kaytrena Shepard, with the idea of starting a food pantry at APSU for a project on business analysis required for their macro social work class and the “Save our Students” or “S.O.S.” food pantry was born.

The S.O.S. food pantry will open Wednesday, Feb. 1, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and regular hours will be posted after. Doss said the food pantry will serve all active student body and their families with a student I.D. required prior to receiving goods.

Doss said they will be giving out dry goods, canned vegetables and other nonperishable food items and, hopefully, will be getting diapers, wipes, soaps, cleaning products and other household goods.

Doss said they are currently located in the Student Life and Leadership office in a coat closet with shelves. “We are going to quickly outgrow that,” Shepard said.

They want to reach out to anyone who needs help, including military families because there are a number of military families on food stamps. “It’s not going to be fancy, but if it’s bad enough where you need Ramen noodles, you can have them,” Doss said.

Shepard said she wants the pantry to focus in part on helping single mothers and mothers that are recently divorce.

Not only will the S.O.S. food pantry help students in need, but it will be a place for social work students to gain experience and do internships. Doss said part of their job as social workers is to help people. “If we have people coming into the food pantry more than three to five times, there’s other issues going on and maybe we can get them into accounting or counseling,” she said. She said they will have other outside resources to help these students. Both Doss and Shepard expressed the importance of giving social work student experience when building this project. “This is really a social work project and we are very much wanting them to be into it,” Doss said.

Another way the S.O.S. food pantry is helping get the campus involved is in the design of their logo. Doss said they are still in the process of creating a logo and they want to go to the Art department and get students involved in making a logo for the pantry. They both said they want it to be from the school and the students since the pantry is for the students.

Doss said people are donating supplies to help students in need. She said they have gone to Urban Ministries where they may get some of the overflow of donations they receive and eventually want to try to partner with Second Harvest food bank in Nashville.

Shepard said students taking advantage of the food pantry who don’t really need it is a risk that has to be taken into account, but with the implementation of the additional services after three to five visits, it should weed out those who are taking advantage of it.

Donations can be made at any time at the Student Life and Leadership office or at the social work department.

Shepard said eventually they want to get plastic bins with permanent locations around campus where people can donate goods.

For more information, visit the Student Life and Leadership website and click on the link for the Food Pantry. TAS