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| Student Drug Offender Law Knocked |
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Posted by CN Staff on May 22, 2002 at 09:41:24 PT By Mary Leonard, Globe Staff Source: Boston Globe 
Caton Volk, 22, looked at the financial-aid form and knew he would not be spending another semester at the University of Illinois. Convicted of possessing and distributing marijuana at age 18, Volk says he was touched in a large and personal way by a tiny provision in federal law that disqualifies college students with a drug offense from receiving government grants or federally backed loans. After four years on the books, a law that was aimed at steering college students away from drugs is under fire. Its congressional sponsor acknowledges that the aid ban has had the unintended consequence of denying thousands of college-age Americans federal financial aid, and higher-education officials contend it is deterring tens of thousands more from applying for money that helps many low-income and minority students pay for college. ''This provision was clearly meant to apply only to students convicted of drug crimes while receiving federal aid, not to applicants who may have had drug convictions in years past,'' said Representative Mark Souder, an Indiana Republican who wrote the law. A spokeswoman for the US Education Department said it has been implenting the law as written, and has no flexibility to change its provisions. According to the department, a total of 25,000 applicants were denied federal aid because of drug offenses for the 2000-01 and 2001-02 academic years, and 2,000 already have been disqualified for the upcoming school year. Advocates for students say the department is not counting the 33,000 additional applicants last year, and 19,500 this year, who refused to answer or have not yet answered the mandatory question, ''Have you ever been convicted of using drugs?'' Representative Barney Frank, Democrat of Newton, says the law is a ''hysterical overreaction'' because ''it doesn't cover any other crime, so possession of marijuana must be worse than armed assault or rape.'' More than 60 members of the US House of Representatives are cosponsoring Frank's bill to repeal the antidrug provision. Yesterday, Volk and members of student groups that have organized against the law on 200 campuses joined Frank and representatives of civil rights groups at a news conference on Capitol Hill. They contend the law discriminates against minorities, who they say are disproportionately represented in both the financial aid and drug-conviction pool. The National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators also backs the proposed repeal, arguing that the law discourages one-time offenders from turning their lives around and puts new burdens on college offices that manage aid programs. Some college officials have been slow to speak out, fearful of giving the impression they condone drug use. Gregory S. Prince Jr., president of Hampshire College in Amherst, was the first college president to sign a petition calling for the law's repeal and has become one of its most vocal opponents. ''I oppose the law on the grounds that it discriminates against the poor, I oppose it because it steps into our admissions process, and I oppose it because our goal should be to try to help people correct their mistakes and move forward, and education is one of the best ways,'' Prince said. Despite the law's unintended consequences, Souder said he would not support repeal, and predicted the Republican-led House was unlikely to consider Frank's bill. The House Education and the Workforce Committee is expected to produce a set of ''technical corrections'' to the 1998 Higher Education Act this session, including making the student-aid provision apply only to current students or those convicted of a felony. The Senate has no bill of its own but is likely to consider whatever the House passes, a spokeswoman on the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee said. ''The issue remains the same: Students who receive federal subsidization of their education have an obligation to follow federal law,'' Souder said. ''I doubt many members of Congress would find that to be a controversial idea.'' Howard Simon, a spokesman for the Partnership for a Drug-Free America, said Souder's law has merit. ''Something that gives parents one more reason to say, `don't use drugs,' and gives kids one more reason not to use drugs is a good thing,'' Simon said. Note: Some question ban on federally backed loans for offenders. This story ran on page A3 of the Boston Globe on 5/22/2002. Newshawk: mp Related Articles & Web Site: Smoke a Joint and Your Future is McDonald's Who Is Responsible for Students Losing Education? CannabisNews Articles - SSDP Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help |
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Comment #21 posted by directionless9 on July 23, 2002 at 20:41:19 PT:
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| Quote: He did not participate in the crime in any way, and that is why he was not charged. There is no law that mandates a person to report or otherwise become involved in a crime. *Well, actually, thanks to this case, there is now a law in Nevada ("Sherrice's Law") that makes it a crime not to help a child in danger. Quote: Jeremy Strohmeyer was a very dim bulb and David Chase was someone who was accepted into the engineering department at UC Berkeley, and that is a damned hard department to get into. *Jeremy Strohmeyer is highly intelligent. Not that I'm disputing the point that David Cash may very well have had quite a lot more to do with this crime than he admitted to, but the fact is that Jeremy is extremely smart. At the time he gave his confession to police, he had just had an entire bottle of Dexedrine pumped from his stomach - I'm not sure how much had already entered his bloodstream, but neither were the police, who should have waited until they could be sure he was sober. He later said he was repeating details given to him by David Cash. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #20 posted by E_Johnson on May 23, 2002 at 11:08:05 PT |
| Now the guy who liked to terrorize prostitutes for kicks and confessed to witnessing the beginning of a sexual assault on a child without doing anything to stop the assault -- is a nuclear engineer. He's the kind of guy who might find Al Qaeda an interesting group of deranged women-hating nutcases to bond with. But thanks heavens he was never caught with weed or his education at taxpayer expense in how to design and build the latest nuclear reactor technology could have been imperiled. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #19 posted by FoM on May 23, 2002 at 10:36:15 PT |
| Hi Everyone, I just got the satellite hooked up and am going to check a few more things out and will look for news. So far so good! [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #18 posted by E_Johnson on May 23, 2002 at 10:33:46 PT |
| They had a huge article on these guys after the case broke. one of the things Chase taught Strohmeyer to do in addition to downloading child porn was go down to the street where the hookers hang out and pretend to be make a deal with some prostitute, get her to lean over into the car, and then grab onto her head and arms and rev the car and drag her down the street screaming. They called it "whore dragging". [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #17 posted by E_Johnson on May 23, 2002 at 10:13:31 PT |
| The cops wanted a fast conviction. The easiest way to get it was to accept this bullshit story that a confirmed child porn addict stood and watched the beginning of a sexual assault on a child and turned away and left under full self control and patiently waited outside for his friend to come out. Maybe if the police didn't have to spend so much of their time hunting down marijuana growers, they would have time and resources to nail people like Chase instead of letting them turn on their halfwit accomplices for a quicker cheaper conviction. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #16 posted by schmeff on May 23, 2002 at 10:08:48 PT |
| Spooky- I have to disagree with your comment, "There is no law that mandates a person to report or otherwise become involved in a crime." If you know about the commission of a crime and do nothing to bring it to the attention of the authorities, you will likely be charged as a conspirator. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #15 posted by E_Johnson on May 23, 2002 at 10:07:22 PT |
| He did not participate in the crime in any way, and that is why he was not charged.
No the case was covered quite well in the LA Times and the real reason why David Chase was not charged was that he gave up enough about what he himself witnessed to convict Strohmeyer. He rolled fast enough so that whatever he actually did himself became a non-issue to the court. We all know how that one works. He's a completely 100% evil scum and there is absolutely zero doubt that he knew of and condoned what happened. Since he was the one who first introduced his halfwit friend to child porn, one might imagine that he even directed the crime himself. Jeremy Strohmeyer was a very dim bulb and David Chase was someone who was accepted into the engineering department at UC Berkeley, and that is a damned hard department to get into. Chase said he watched Strohmeyer begin the sexual assault and then left. That was the evidence he gace -- that he was a direct witness to the beginning of the sexual assault. Right, a guy who is a proven child porn addict is going to just leave the room in the middle of a scene like that. Please tell me another joke, I haven't had enough yet this morning. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #14 posted by 2Spooky on May 23, 2002 at 06:57:42 PT |
| You mentioned the guy who was "a lookout" for his friend the child raper/murderer. This is a legally incorrect statement. He did not participate in the crime in any way, and that is why he was not charged. There is no law that mandates a person to report or otherwise become involved in a crime. Of course, morally that was very foul, I am sure we all agree, but at the same time, I would not want the hysteria surrounding this incident to lead to the sort of coercive laws so many suggest (i.e. making it a crime not to report a crime, etc). Just think of the abuse such a tool would engender with our wonderful "justice" system. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #13 posted by E_Johnson on May 22, 2002 at 17:26:14 PT |
| The SSDP should find out somehow whether David Cash received federal financial aid while at Berkeley. And use that to torture Souder by calling it a Mark Souder Federal Scholarship for Drug Free Child Killers [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #12 posted by FoM on May 22, 2002 at 17:25:15 PT |
| My one side of the family is from Norway. The other side the wrong side of the tracks! LOL! [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #11 posted by E_Johnson on May 22, 2002 at 17:23:02 PT |
| Here is something written about the Strohmeyer case. This man's education on the public dime was defended by everyone in a position of responsibility in the state system. http://www.pub.umich.edu/daily/1998/sep/09-30-98/edit/edit5.html If he's only been caught smoking a joint, then they would have something bad enough to hurt his education over, eh? [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #10 posted by dddd on May 22, 2002 at 17:20:03 PT |
| ..at least he's not from Finland.......dddd [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #9 posted by FoM on May 22, 2002 at 17:17:44 PT |
| I guess I won't be able to ask any questions very easily. I was the president of the spanish club in school and can only remember how to count to ten in spanish. LOL! [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #8 posted by dddd on May 22, 2002 at 16:51:58 PT |
| ..FoM....What language does the technician speak?....dddd [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #7 posted by qqqq on May 22, 2002 at 16:49:40 PT |
| ...I wouldnt worry about it.......it's no big deal,,,,,,it's not worth spending a bunch of time on...... [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #6 posted by FoM on May 22, 2002 at 16:43:14 PT |
| Tomorrow morning the technican is scheduled to install the satellite. I might get behind on news but I might not. Please be patient and I will catch up with articles if I do get behind. I might not because he won't be working on the computer and I might be able to keep working most of the time during installation. I am keeping my isp for a month just incase there are glitches with the satellite. I sure hope not but I am trying to be prepared since we know how computers are. This will be interesting because the technican doesn't speak a word of english. They send a translator along. Interesting day this will be! LOL! [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #5 posted by FoM on May 22, 2002 at 16:34:28 PT |
| I just did a test post and it worked but one of the comments causes the page to get off center and I'm not sure which post. I could remove one comment at a time and find out which one caused the error. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #4 posted by qqqq on May 22, 2002 at 16:20:39 PT |
| ...FoM.....It looks like there is some sort of glitch here..only comment #5 appears,,and comments wont post.:.......... http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread12917.shtml#post [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #3 posted by E_Johnson on May 22, 2002 at 16:19:03 PT |
| I don't know why they aren't harping on the case of that guy who was the lookout for his friend when he raped a little girl in the casino bathroom in Primm, Nevada. He went to UC Berkley and the students protested and the school said oh sorry even if he was an accomplice to a child rape and murder who gave evidence to the police and went totally scott free -- he's still a student and we have to respect his right to get an education on the public dime. UC is a state funded system. No doubt he got federal student aide as a nuclear engineering major. He should have been awarded the Mark Souder Federal Scholarship for Child Rapists. [ Post Comment ] |
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Comment #2 posted by kaptinemo on May 22, 2002 at 10:30:42 PT:
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| Hitler had said once that he didn't need the help of his detractors; he already had their children under his thumb. Almost all kids were eventually shuffled into the HitlerJugend, and suffered unspeakable indignities to prove their worth to the Vaterland. Souder has tried the exact same thing...and it's starting to come apart. He has tried, through ham-handed social engineering (and him a Republican; shame, shame, shame for making like the Democrats he accused of doing the same!) to mold kids into not just a particular behavior, but philosophy, as well. A philosophy of unquestioning subservience and robotic submission to authority. A phiosophy that borders on the edge of the goals of the HitlerJugend. The students of this country ahve known nothing but DrugWar repression nearly their entire lives. DARE, piss-testing for jobs, now this. Many are asking, as if for the first time, if there might not be another way. Souder and his urine-fixated friends are quick to bellow "NO!". But the students don't believe them anymore. Souder's Republican friends may yet rue the day that they caused the mainly somnambulistic student population in the US to wake up and become politically active. Because the students will now see that it was the Republicans that did this to them...while Democrats stood wimpishly, weakly by and let it happen. I expect a lot of students may vote Green or Lib this coming election. They truly have no place else to go, now... [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #1 posted by The GCW on May 22, 2002 at 10:00:47 PT |
| ''The issue remains the same: Students who receive federal subsidization of their education have an obligation to follow federal law,'' Souder said. ''I doubt many members of Congress would find that to be a controversial idea.'' You can not have ed. $ for using cannabis. You can have $ for murder. Maybe I am wrong, but isn't murder and rape against Fed law? It appears that the only Fed law then must be to not use cannabis, or (some) drugs huh? It should be against the law to feed these wild animals, that have urine mustaches. GCWGCWGCWGCW Howard Simon, a spokesman for the Partnership for a Drug-Free America, said Souder's law has merit. ''Something that gives parents one more reason to say, `don't use drugs,' He should use the gas chamber,,, ''it's Something that gives parents one more reason to say, `don't use drugs,' Buddy hustle with Hitler, with the urine mustache. Got Urine? [ Post Comment ] |
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