The Chronicle T h e i n d e p e n d e n t d a i ly at D u k e U n i v e r s i t y
FRIDAY, MARCH 26, 2010
Law prof vies for NC teens’ rights in court by Ciaran O’Connor The chronicle
More than two years after her clients were suspended for fighting after school, Duke Law professor Jane Wettach was in North Carolina Supreme Court Monday arguing that the two high school girls were stripped of their constitutional right to an education. In January 2008, six teenage students in Beaufort, N.C. were suspended for the remainder of the school year from Southside High School for participating in a fistfight that subsequently made it onto YouTube. After also being denied access to Beaufort County’s alternative school for troubled youth, two of the suspended students— Viktoria King and Jessica Hardy—sued the school district in hopes of being allowed back to the classroom. Although King and Hardy were not allowed to return to school until the following year, their case has now made it to the highest court in the state. Wettach is asking the N.C. Supreme Court to set a standard barring fights that do not include weapons or injuries from causing students to sit idle for months. Of the six suspended students, only King plans to attend college next year, The New York Times reported last week. Wettach, who directs the Children’s Law Clinic at the Law School, said she based her argument on a 1997 school funding case, Leandro v. State. In that case, the state Supreme Court interpreted the State Constitution’s right to a public education to mean that the state must put forth a “compelling interest” in order to deprive a student of his or her right to attend school. “That was really the crux of our case,” Wettach said. “They didn’t provide a reason at all [for the suspensions].” The school district is arguing that the See suspension on page 4
ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTH YEAR, Issue 119
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A chance to be Elite DUKE vs SDSU
DUKE vs PURDUE
Unheralded Aztecs look to topple heavily favored Duke
Blue Devils face shorthanded Boilermakers in ’08 rematch
FRIDAY • 9:57 p.m. • CBS
SATURDAY • 2:00 p.m. • ESPN
by Jeff Scholl
by Matt Levenberg
THE CHRONICLE
THE CHRONICLE
San Diego State may be the only double-digit seed in the Sweet 16, but the Blue Devils know better than to take the Aztecs lightly after they cruised to their first NCAA regional appearance since the tournament expanded in 1994. No. 2 Duke (29-5) could have its hands full with a San Diego State squad riding an eight-game winning streak when it meets the No. 11 Aztecs in Memphis Saturday at 2 p.m. An NCAA Tournament berth was far from a given for San Diego State (23-10) after the team finished third in the Mountain West Conference during the regular season. But the Aztecs locked up an automatic bid by winning their conference tournament and picked the perfect time to play their best basketball of the season—becoming this year’s Cinderella story in the process. “The seedings mean just about nothing,” senior co-captain Joy Cheek said. “You can see a lot of parity in the games. [The Aztecs] could have done the same things they’re doing throughout the season had they played in the ACC or SEC.”
Duke entered this year’s NCAA Tournament with high hopes, and after surviving a wild opening weekend which saw the No. 1 overall seed Kansas lose a shocker to No. 9 Northern Iowa, the Blue Devils are flying high. Of the 16 teams remaining, only Duke, Kentucky and Syracuse won their first two games by at least 15 points each, and the Orange have since been eliminated as well. The Blue Devils (31-5) will look to extend that scoring streak and avoid the upset bug Friday night in Houston when they take on No. 4 Purdue (29-5). The teams last met Dec. 2, 2008 in West Lafayette for the ACC/Big Ten Challenge—a game that the Blue Devils won, 76-60. Duke’s victory was characterized by stellar defense, as the Boilermakers were limited to just 37.3 percent from the field. Robbie Hummel, a key contributor for Purdue, had a team-high 15 points and eight rebounds in that matchup. Hummel tore his ACL in February, though, and is sidelined for the rest of the year. The Boilermakers’ coaching staff looks back to these teams’ last matchup as a turning point for its program. “The game really helped us because our guys felt like they played hard before that, but after that game they know what playing hard really means,” head coach Matt Painter said.
See aztecs on page 12
See purdue on page 8
larsa al-omaishi AND melissa yeo/Chronicle file photo
Nobel laureate Amartya Sen will speak today from Staff Reports The Chronicle
Nobel prize-winning economist Amartya Sen will speak Friday at 4 p.m. in the Goodson Chapel on “The Uses and Abuses of Adam Smith.” Sen, Thomas W. Lamont University professor and professor of economics and philosophy at Harvard University, is the keynote speaker for a two-day series of events honoring Crauford Goodwin, James B. Duke professor of economics, for his 40 years at the helm of History of Political Economy—the scholarly journal was the first to be devoted to the history of econom-
Cavs come to Durham in ACC clash, Page 6
ics. Goodwin has been its only editor since its inception. Sen won the 1998 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his work in welfare economics—the study of how economic policies affect the well-being of communities. Born in present-day Bangladesh, Sen is known as the “Mother Teresa of Economics” for his work on the underlying economic principles of poverty, famine and gender inequality. His book “Collective Choice and Social Welfare” criticized the mainstream economic principles of the time that valued efficiency over economic equality and justice. He has spent most of his adult life in academia, with
professorships at Calcutta, Jadavpur University, Delhi School of Economics as well as renowned American universities like Cornell, Stanford, Berkeley and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Today’s event is sponsored by the Center for the History of Political Economy, Department of Economics, Office of the President, Office of the Provost, Duke University Press, the Trent Foundation, Divinity School, Office of International Affairs and the Johnson Lecture Fund. Nobel prize-winning economist Vernon Smith will also deliver a speech Saturday as part of the conference.
ONTHERECORD
“Being Duke, we have that target on our back.” —Senior Ned Crotty on getting opponents’ best shots every game. See story page 5
New ARC would regulate residential group sections, Page 3