INDEPENDENT SINCE 1880
The Corne¬ Daily Sun Vol. 136, No. 15
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2019
n
12 Pages – Free
ITHACA, NEW YORK
News
Arts
Sports
Weather
5 Years Cold
All Access Pass
Bulldogs Loss
Mostly Cloudy
MEChA de Cornell displayed posters of the 43 Mexican students still missing after disappearing five years ago. | Page 3
This year, Cornell Cinema introduced a $10 pass that will grant undergrads access to 150 showings each year. | Page 7
Despite entering halftime tied with Yale, the Red couldn't keep pace, falling 27-16 to the Ivy rival. | Page 12
HIGH: 70º LOW: 61º
Ithaca Judge Dismisses Charges Against Rose de Groat After six months of confusion, judge concludes that arresting police officers had ‘overreacted’ GIRISHA ARORA / SUN SENIOR EDITOR
Dismissed | After months of protests led by community activists, Rose de Groat, who was originally slated to stand trial for two felonies and misdemeanors this November, will no longer face charges. By MARYAM ZAFAR and GIRISHA ARORA Sun City Editor and Sun Senior Editor
Tompkins County Judge John C. Rowley dismissed charges against Ithaca resident Rose de Groat, cutting her indictment in a decision on Friday. The Ithaca Police Department officers “overreacted,” Rowley wrote, ending a case that brought national conversations around police conduct and racism to Ithaca. His decision cited discrepancies in the officers’ testimony
and body camera footage from the April arrest during which police say that de Groat punched an officer and scratched another on his face as they tried to detain her and another resident, Cadji Ferguson. The judge also posited that de Groat would not have needed to get involved at all if police had acted differently. “In the Court’s view, Ms. DeGroat reacted instinctively to protect Mr. Ferguson in this fast moving and bewildering situation,” Crowley wrote in his decision. “If not for the regrettable actions of the police, she likely would not have
intervened.” An internal investigation of the officers’ conduct concluded that the police officers had not breached policy, Police Chief Dennis Nayor said in July. De Groat and Ferguson’s futures remained in limbo for much longer. Court documents filed by de Groat’s attorney, Edward Kopko, and District Attorney Matthew Van Houten show that since April, charges have slid back and forth. De Groat See DISMISSED page 4
37th Annual Apple Festival ‘Accidental Activist’ Parkland Survivors Draws Thousands to Commons Call to ‘Enact Change’
By CAITLYN WYMAN Sun Contributor
Crowds of people gathered in the Ithaca Commons this weekend for Tompkins County’s Apple Harvest Festival, an annual celebration of New York’s apple growers and cider makers. Entering its 37th year, the three-day festival has been a long-standing tradition that marks the beginning of fall and highlights local small businesses. From Friday to Sunday afternoon, area college students and locals enjoyed the wide variety of music, carnival games, tastings and seasonal treats offered to attendees. Over 20 local farmers had stalls centered on the Commons and surrounding streets, selling products and ingredients sourced from Ithaca’s hinterlands, notably
PHOTOS BY MICHAEL SUGUITAN / SUN SENIOR EDITOR
including at least five apple donut vendors — long one of the festival’s crowd favorites. The festival typically receives over 120 vendors and 30,000 visitors throughout its three days of operation. Beyond Upstate New York’s apples, food vendors also featured international cuisines, such as Greek gyros, West Indian dishes, and Himilayan food from Tibetan Momo. Ximena Sanchez ’22 said she “looks forward to it every year,” explaining that “this is my fifth year going” and provides a chance “to support local businesses and local growers.” Families stopped to listen to live See APPLES music as local page 4 bands such as Raquel & the
By ANGELA LI Sun Staff Writer
David Hogg and Samantha Fuentes — young activists and survivors of the February 2018 Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida — recounted the lessons they learned spearheading a movement that has made waves in politics and the media in a talk to Cornell students on September 28. Fuentes called herself an “accidental activist,” someone who once was a “bystander, uneducated, uninterested, and more than anything, numb” to social problems, such as gun violence. But after the deadly shooting, during which Fuentes was shot in the legs and “riddled with shrapnel,” she became “absorbed” into activism to “influence other survivors of gun violence to share their stories in order to enact change for
the better.” Hogg similarly said that his journey to high-profile activist was an accidental twist of tragic fate. In first grade, when Hogg struggled with learning to read due to dyslexia and “possibly ADD,” he was plagued
HOGG
by insecurity and “felt like a broken toy.” When Hogg was 15, he and his family moved to Florida. There, Hogg overcame his childhood insecurities and found a “passion for speech and debate” — where debate topics on universal background checks served as an introduction to gun See PARKLAND page 4