Fort Pierce News from Fort Pierce, Florida • 6

A6 The News Friday June 13 1997 AIDS clients vouch for TCCAN work Police blame as students involved in fights at anti-crime dance By Yvette Hammett of the News staff Emotional testimony praises network By Erick Gill of the News staff a said Mutter who heads the 13-year-old school resource officer program of not having the dance there was not a whole lot that could have prevented it We had plenty of manpower there really a disappointment" He said it might cause resource officers and school officials to scrutinize who is allowed into dances in the future incident certainly going without One idea Mutter is considering is barring students who have any discipline reports within a nine-week period first thing doing is getting copies of all the police reports and looking at the appropriate action to take against the students involved" Vogel said also looking at a program to help solve problems by peaceful The Student Services department will devise the anti-violence program with input from principals and guidance counselors not certain how lengthy the program will Vogel said we have to impress upon them to solve problems peacefully We will do everthing we can to do Six students went to jail charged with disorderly conduct and five were taken to the hospital to be treated for exposure to pepper spray used by deputies to subdue the crowd of 13- to 7-year-olds The whole matter started with two girls arguing about something that happened prior to the dance Mutter said That dispute was settled peaceably but when students started yelling the dance turned into a violent mob scene within minutes Mutter said Fights broke out in the gym and parking lot In one case 30 to 40 students approached a deputy threatening him and cursing him reports said They refused to let him through the crowd so he used his pepper spray on them In another case a parent and deputy were knocked to the ground and a second deputy had to struggle to get to them reports said Students threw full soda cans and stole candy and sodas from the concession stand as more than a dozen deputies tried to break up numerous fights Broken glass was strewn across the floor said the reports FORT PIERCE Not even 10 deputies could have stopped the fracas that broke out during a middle school anti-crime dance Saturday night one official said Monday A "mob took over as many of the 250 students at the dance fought in the parking lot at Forest Grove Middle School despite the presence of five deputies and seven chaperones said St Lucie County Sgt Joe Mutter But students must learn that violence an answer Superintendent Bill Vogel said And the district is devising a plan that will require every student involved in a fight to complete an anti-violence course before returning to the classroom he said Vogel wants it in place when school reopens in the fall Also the school board will work with the office to discuss possible changes in chaperoning dances Vogel said The superintendent said he still decided how the students involved in fights will be disciplined cated to treating and caring for AIDS patients in honor of Ryan White a teenager who contracted the virus through a blood transfusion Several clients asked why TCCAN hire an outside accountant to handle the paperwork If the audit shows there is a problem they argued why not fix the problem and leave the program alone? slap the wrist instead of cutting off the shouted one man in the audience Members of the audience said the blame should be placed on the Treasure Coast AIDS Consortium which advises TCCAN on how to spend its Ryan White funds (TCCAN) not bad the people in the consortium that are going in the wrong said Pat Vance who has had AIDS since 1992 Other members of the audience claimed TCCAN was steered in the wrong direction by members of the consortium who had personal agendas to push A petition was circulated at the meeting asking the state to remove and replace the existing consortium board members for the Treasure Coast Jacobowitz said she answer any questions about TCCAN's future until the audit is complete executive director was fired in February after three months in the seat The audit was more than six months late causing it to miss out on a contract worth $60000 TCCAN also failed to obtain $15000 from the St Lucie County United Way TCCAN officials said Monday the group has had problems in the past but has corrected them by replacing several employees TCCAN representatives declined to comment why its audit was late but said the audit shows the network is in a good financial situation UDT-SEAL Museum draws TV attention By Erick Gill ol the News staff said But interest is more in the name and not purpose know when or if the sketch will ever be aired" said Lee Ellenberg an assistant with the Letterman show tourism humor limited to Florida Ellenberg said he was told to collect information on places from all 50 states HT Aldhizer executive director of the UDT-SEAL Museum said he aware of interest in the US Navy museum but talked to people with the show They Do from The Learning Channel which is interested in doing a piece on the Frogmen wanted me to do all the research and I told them I really have the Aldizer said This the first time the Navy museum drew interest from television shows or educational programs Aldizer said he gets calls all the time from Public Broadcasting Service to the Discovery Channel Gayla Barwick tourism director of St Lucie County said she sent the Late Show a UDT-SEAL Museum brochure earlier this month with hopes that Letterman will grace St Lucie County with a joke Barwick said she can picture crew poking fun at the Frogmen with people walking onto his stage with goggles and flippers do a play on this I she said Other areas in the Sunshine State the piqued the interest of staff included: Snake-A-Torium in Panama City Beach Tradgey in the US History Museum in St Augustine the World's Smallest Post Office in Ochopee the Shuffleboard Hall of Fame in St Petersburg and Spongeorama in Tarpon Springs FORT PIERCE A North Hutchinson Island tourist attraction may get a nod from the legendary late-night king David Letterman An assistant with the Late Show with David Letterman contacted the Florida Tourism Industry Marketing Corporation last month for information on "unusually named attractions and The UDT-SEAL Museum in Fort Pierce made list of 32 tourist spots in Florida The property on North Hutchinson Island was a Navy training ground for the Underwater Demolition Team (UDT) or which started 1943 The two-acre site is now a museum and memorial to the unique that single purpose is a museum for what we call he ST LUCIE COUNTY -More than a dozen people with AIDS testified before state and regional health officials that the care Treasure Coast Community AIDS Network provides them is more important than the non-profit group's sloppy bookkeeping (TCCAN) fed me They clothed me They put a roof over my head And they told me 1 was worth something and I have to lay down and said Diane Welles who is HIV-positive and has received care from TCCAN Welles and other AIDS patients showed up Monday at a three-hour meeting at the St Lucie County Health Department in an attempt to convince oversight agency not to take away funds that pay for the case management Local patients with AIDS or HIV spent more than an hour talking about how TCCAN is improving its services TCCAN clients directed questions and comments at the four members from state and regional health agencies who conducted standing-room-only meeting More than 50 people listened to TCCAN clients give emotional testaments to the ability "If it wasn't for TCCAN I be here today" said Steve Marino who was diagnosed HIV-positive in 1983 they (TCCAN) go down everybody with HIV will go down" said Jasmine Lopez The Community AIDS Network which serves AIDS patients in Martin St Lucie Indian River and Okeechobee counties falls under the Treasure Coast Health management umbrella The regional health council administers federal dollars to TCCAN and is worried about management of funds "If TCCAN were as fiscally responsible as they were with case management we be here said Barbara Jacobowitz a member of the Treasure Coast Health Council dealing with federal dollars there are accountabilities that are TCCAN could lose up to a third of its $1 million budget because the group is being penalized for a late audit The regional health council is conducting an audit of TCCAN which is expected to be completed this week Jacobowitz said She said the audit will have to be completed before the Treasure Coast Health Council decides what to do with share of federal grant money The Treasure Coast Health Council and the Treasure Coast AIDS Consortium heard from 13 agencies offering to provide case management in place of TCCAN The groups based from Melbourne to West Palm Beach were bidding for $180000 in funds from the Ryan White Program The $700000 federal fund is dedi able For 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