Thursday, April 10, 2014
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Volume 50, Number 51
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SISD employee attacks Azle cops Man wrecks city vehicle, injures 2 APD officers at police station BY CARLA NOAH STUTSMAN mischief and assault charges. A now-former employee of the Springtown Independent School Dis- Just another night For Azle police offi cers Eric Scheid trict is held in the Tarrant County jail and Alex Kuenzle, it was just another after he waged an atshift change. tack on the Azle Police Until all hell broke Department Saturday loose. night, April 5. Kuenzle was unloadA police vehicle ing his gear from the owned by the city was patrol unit he had drivdamaged and two offi en on the evening shift, cers were injured in the which had just ended. wake of the attack. Near him, Scheid, Robert Rubin Garza who had just started III, 26, of the La Junta his shift, was placing area, was charged with his gear into the unit he driving while intoxiwould be driving. cated, a B misdemeanThe offi cers heard a or; criminal mischief sudden, loud boom and $1,500-20,000, a state jail felony; and three Robert Rubin Garza III ran around the corner of the building to see counts of assault on a a green 1997 Ford Escort that had public servant. Garza is held in lieu of $2,500 bond backed into the department’s unit 119, for the DWI charge; however, he is a Tahoe typically driven by the Corpoconfi ned without bond for the criminal ral on each shift.
The Azle Police Department’s Unit 119 suffered substantial damage when a suspect intentionally backed his car into it at the station Saturday night, April 5. Photo by Carla Noah Stutsman Damage was obvious. Garza was behind the wheel of the Escort, attempting to restart the engine. When Kuenzle and Scheid approached the driver and told him to get out of the vehicle, he told them “No, I’m leaving.”
When he realized his car was not The fight is on going to start, Garza got out of the car, Offi cer Scheid pulled out his Tazer looked at the offi cers and said, “I did and Garza lunged at him, so Scheid that on purpose.” deployed the device. Then Garza walked toward the ofCorporal Zach Hatton, public inforfi cers, who ordered him to stop and get PLEASE SEE MAN, PAGE 4A. on the ground. He refused.
New AD settling in SISD bad weather waivers approved Hulett says kids have already ‘bought in’ to his concepts
5 days won’t have to be made up
BY NATALIE GENTRY The Springtown Independent BY MARK K. CAMPBELL School District (SISD) received conNew athletic director/head football coach Brian Hulett watched some SHS fi rmation on March 26 from the Texas Education Agency (TEA) that the disathletes competing at the district track meet at Porcupine Stadium April 9. trict’s requests for inclement weather He had already met with plenty of them before. Hulett offi cially started in Springtown March 17 but actually arrived a few waivers have been approved. SISD requested waivers for fi ve of days earlier than that. PLEASE SEE ATHLETIC, PAGE 5A. the seven bad weather days that were missed this winter due to ice and snow. Waivers were not requested for two of the canceled school days because of weather days that were built into the SISD 2013-2014 calendar. Classes that were canceled on December 6 will be made up on April 18. Classes that were canceled on December 9 will be made up on May 19.
While salaried employees for the school district fall under the umbrella of the waivers, there was still the question of what to do about hourly employees who were forced to miss work because the schools were closed. SISD Superintendent Mike Kelley said that the school board chose to wait to make a decision about the hourly employees until notice had been received about the waivers. “The board acknowledged that the decisions to close were made with the best interests of students and staff, and were due to circumstances completely beyond our control,” Kelley said. “Our board determined that, ‘in order to enhance employee morale and
support the retention of employees,’ it was appropriate to forgive/excuse the absences of our employees. “The board also acknowledged that our employees frequently go well above and beyond what is required of them, and that the consideration given in this instance was an effort to demonstrate support for them,” he continued. As of now there are no plans to add more bad weather days to the school calendar. “This was a very unusual year,” Kelley said. “If this year’s weather becomes the norm, I think we will almost certainly see accommodations become a part of future calendars.”
A spiritual journey worth witnessing Vet heads mission trips back to Vietnam BY NATALIE GENTRY In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. Matthew 5:16 Heeding the call Rupert Harrell of Springtown can’t remember a time when he wasn’t called to preach. He began preaching at the early age of 15 in his home state of North Carolina and served as the president of the youth group at his church. Then in 1969, Harrell said God spoke to his heart and told him to join the military. So he volunteered for the U.S. Army and was sent to serve with Company A, 158th Assault Helicopter Battalion, 101st Airborne Division in Vietnam. While there Harrell received his credentials to minister and obtained permission to lead Bible studies for his fellow soldiers. He has continued to minister to soldiers and veterans alike since his return to the United States.
Rupert Harrell (right) and Randall Sheridan, pastor at the Assembly of God in North Richland Hills, discuss the installation of playground equipment at the orphanage.
of hope and faith can help. “My fi rst trip back was in 1996 with Dave Roever and General Robbie Risner.” Harrell said. “It wasn’t so much that I wanted to go back to Vietnam, but that these men were going and I have such respect for them that I wanted to go.” Journeying back Harrell began escorting Vietnam No one will deny that combat New head football coach/athletic director Brian Hulett said he is changes a person, but Harrell believes veterans back to the country in 1998, not bound to any specifi c system when it comes to fi elding football that giving vets a chance to experience making two to three trips a year. “We’ve found [the experience] teams. Photo by Mark K. Campbell Vietnam not as a war-zone, but a place
Photo courtesy of Rupert Harrell Ministries
helps with a lot of veterans with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD),” Harrell said. “Some of them have said they didn’t have to take their medication anymore once they got back.” To date he has taken over 1,800 vets on these trips and says the majority have found a sense of peace after the journey. “I had a Marine who went over and PLEASE SEE VETERAN, PAGE 3A.
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