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Monday, Nov. 12, 2012
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Students shocked, disgusted after education professor charged with child porn By Catey Traylor University editor
ChuCk MillEr/Staff photogRapheR
TOP: Mount Pleasant resident Patrick Debus holds his two-year-old niece Delaney Hamers Sunday afternoon after finishing the Challenge Multiple Sclerosis bike ride in the parking lot of O’Kelly’s Sports Bar and Grill, 2000 S. Mission St. Debus, along with other riders, participated in the Challenge MS 12,000 mile bike ride from Mount Pleasant, S.C. to Mount Pleasant, MI to help raise money for multiple sclerosis. LEFT: Mount Pleasant resident and local business owner John Hunter speaks to new participants before finishing the last seven miles to Mount Pleasant in the Challenge MS bike ride Sunday afternoon at Little Salt River Park in Shepherd. RIGHT: Grand Rapids senior Dan Dewitt sits on his hand cycle Sunday afternoon at Little Salt River Park in Shepherd.
Challenge MS
Ryan Fitzmaurice Staff Reporter
Residents gathered in the parking lot of O’Kelly’s Sports Bar and Grille, 2000 S. Mission St., waiting for the bikers to finally cross the finish line. They were waiting for about 150 riders who had
By Annie Harrison Senior Reporter
Mount Pleasant resident Chuck O’Kelly, grandfather of Mount Pleasant resident and local business owner John Hunter, sits with members of the Challenge MS bike team Sunday afternoon in the parking lot of O’Kelly’s Sports Bar and Grill, 2000 S. Mission St. O’Kelly suffers from multiple sclerosis and The Morey Foundation donated $50 per rider who participated in the last seven miles of the challenge raising more than $20,000 toward research for the disease.
gathered together for the Challenge MS, a seven-mile bike ride from Shepherd to O’Kelly’s to raise money for multiple sclerosis treatment. The seven miles was only the last part of a much larger trek, a bike ride over the Ap-
palachian Mountains, starting nine days ago in Mount Pleasant, S.C., and ending in town. The Morey Foundation donated $50 for every rider who participated. John Hunter, who organized the
A MERRILL| 2
Graduate student union contract expires in June
Mount Pleasant bicyclists raise more than $20,000 for multiple sclerosis Mount Pleasant residents Mary Lou Patrick and Jim Patrick waited eagerly for a group of bikers to arrive in Mount Pleasant Sunday afternoon. “It’s for moral support,” Jim Patrick said. “Moral support can sometimes mean more than financial support. We’re just here to cheer the bikers on.”
William Lord Merrill always taught his students to cite their sources and maintain academic integrity, said Ashley Tocco, a former student of Merrill’s. “And look what he was doing, behind all our backs. It disgusts me,” said Tocco, a Macomb senior who took EDU290: Technology in Education with Merrill last year. “He, as a professor of future educators, should know better than that. In fact, all professors at (CMU) should know better than that. I honestly can’t think of any other emotions besides disgust, shock and horror.” Merrill, 58, was suspended by CMU and banned from campus Monday after an IT employee servicing his computer discovered photos and video containing sexually abusive activity. According to a previous Central Michigan Life story, Merrill’s Internet was shut off due to excessive use. The Mount Pleasant native was charged in Isabella County Trial Court Thursday with one count of possession of sexually abusive material, one count of distributing or promoting sexually abusive material, two counts of using a computer to commit a crime and a misdemeanor charge of
possessing a switchblade. Police found three videos of child sexually abusive activity on his CMU comWilliam Lord Merrill puter and several CDs with images at his house. One CD had more than 10,000 images, police said. Merrill taught two undergraduate and two graduatelevel courses this semester, all of which have been taken over by other professors. Hudsonville junior Courtney McGregor is currently enrolled in the honors section of EDU 290 with Merrill and said he was always enthusiastic and passionate in class. “He is always very prepared for class, enthusiastic about the subject, and always extremely easy to contact with any questions — he is always willing to help,” she said. “Honestly, I am quite surprised by these charges. As educators, we are held to rather high standards, and Dr. Merrill has personally discussed this in classes. “In our class, much of what we cover is how to use technology safely within education, discussing specific things we need to avoid especially with the Internet — making the charges even more ironic.”
12,000 mile event which he dubbed ‘Challenge MS,’ said the group broke their $20,000 goal and was looking at a total of $25,000 to $30,000.
A BIKERS | 2
Executive Director of Faculty Personnel Services Matt Serra said that it is too soon to say which issues will be negotiated with the graduate student union next year. As reported Oct. 31 by Central Michigan Life, GSU President Michelle Campbell said CMU’s union is the only graduate student union without health insurance in Michigan. She said the GSU is confident that CMU will realize healthcare is a basic human right. “The discussion of issues related to bargaining is premature at this time. The current contract with the Graduate Student Union expires on June 30, 2013,” Serra said. “The university will seek CMU Board of Trustees authority to bargain with the GSU at its February 2013 meeting. Once authority is granted, both sides will meet to discuss issues that will be negotiated.” CMU’s GSU was recog-
nized in 2009, and the threeyear contract from 2010-13 expires next summer. The bargaining agreement states that CMU will provide a wellness allowance of $200 during academic year 2010-11 and $175 during academic years 2011-12 and 2012-13 for full-time graduate assistants. Half-time graduate assistants do not exceed an average of 10 hours per week, and full-time graduate assistants do not exceed an average of 20 hours per week. The specific number of hours may vary according to the needs determined by the employing unit. Full-time graduate assistants are working the maximum number of hours allowed to graduate assistants for on-campus employment, and they may not have additional on-campus employment while classes are in session during their term of employment without written consent of the dean of the College of Graduate Studies. A UNION | 2
Arraignment for John Douglas White postponed for psychiatric exams By Shelby Miller Senior Reporter
Pastor and ex-convict John Douglas White’s fate will not be determined until after a psychiatric exam takes place regarding the murder of 24-year-old Rebekah Gay. Court administrator Lance Dexter told the Associated Press that White’s scheduled hearing in Isabella County on Nov. 8 was postponed while he undergoes a competency evaluation to determine his mental state, as recommended by Isabella County
Prosecutor Risa Scully. Isabella County Sheriff Leo Mioduszewski said delays in these types of cases are typical. “In this country, you can’t be charged criminally if you don’t know what you did was wrong,” he said. “It’s not unusual at all.” Until the examination takes place, White, 55, will continue to be held at the Isabella County Jail, Mioduszewski said. He will be arraigned once the psychiatric evaluation is determined. On Oct. 31, White allegedly
murdered Gay in her home, 3303 S. Coldwater Road, in Broomfield Valley Mobile Home Park, where John Douglas White the two were neighbors, police said. White reportedly bludgeoned Gay’s head with a rubber mallet and strangled her with a plastic zip-tie. After spending the following morning interviewing Gay’s friends and family,
NOVEMBER 2012
Native American
Heritage Month
police said they approached White and found blood in his mobile home and a piece of Gay’s jewelry with blood on it in the bed of his pickup truck. White confessed to the murder, blaming it on a twoweek sexual fantasy he had to kill Gay and have sex with her dead body. White told police the murder was fueled by pornographic videos and said he did not remember carrying out his fantasy because he drank four or five beers before going to Gay’s home, police say.
Gay’s body was found Nov. 1 in a stand of pine trees off Coldwater Road, and the mallet and bloody towels used were discovered off Pickard Road near Woodruff Road. Gay’s cell phone was found in a dumpster in her and White’s mobile home park. White was arraigned the same day in Isabella County Trial Court on charges of open murder and first-degree, pre-mediated murder and ordered jail time without bond. White was engaged to
Gay’s mother and regularly watched Gay’s three-year-old son while she was at work. After murdering Gay, Mioduszewski said White returned to her home to help her son get ready for Halloween and dropped him off at his father’s home. White has convictions for manslaughter in Kalamazoo County and attacking a young woman in Calhoun County but was released from jail in 2007, the AP reported.
KEYNOTE SPEAKER:
Levi Horn
Tuesday, November 20th 7pm in Plachta Auditorium
FREE & OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
metro@cm-life.com