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@kentwired KentWired.com WEDNESDAY, MAY 3, 2017
KSU football player
Threat of rain moves May 4 Commemoration to ballroom
for fights life
Rachel Duthie Student Life Reporter Kent State’s 47th annual May 4 Commemoration is relocating to the Student Center Ballroom Thursday due to inclement weather, according to May 4 Task Force President Brandon Mallon. Board members made the decision Tuesday afternoon as weather reports indicate there will be a high chance of rain during the event. “(We are not taking a chance) because I don’t think there is much chance involved,” Mallon said. “There has nearly been a 100 percent chance for rain on (May 4) for over a week now. We just don’t want anyone to get rained on. It shouldn’t alter the schedule for the event at all.” The ceremony, which is typically held outside near the Victory Bell, is a yearly gathering of the university community to remember those who were lost and injured during the May 4, 1970 shootings. It will still take place between noon and 2 p.m. with keynote speaker Lecia Brooks, the outreach director of the Southern Poverty Law Center. Other events are scheduled to take place on Wednesday and Thursday, including an early premiere of a May 4-centered episode of CNN’s new series “Soundtracks: Songs that Defined History” in the Kiva on Wednesday at 9 p.m. The May 4 Visitors Center will reopen this week as Taylor Hall continues renovations, hosting special hours Monday through Friday.
Then-Kent State freshman wide receiver Antwan Dixon runs for a 47-yard touchdown on the Flashes’ opening drive of the Kent State vs Marshall University game on Sept. 26, 2015. Kent State lost in double overtime, 36-29. Clint Datchuk / The Kent Stater
Scott Lendak Sports Reporter When Shemariah Dixon prepared to leave for work on a warm June day in 2013, she turned to her son Antwan Dixon. “Move your car for me,” she asked, “so I can get out.” When she followed him outside moments later, Antwan lay slumped over the hood of his car. “What’s wrong?” she asked. He didn’t answer. Shemariah rushed him to a walk-in clinic, which immediately sent him to a hospital. It was the first of many hospital visits for Antwan, a star high-school athlete who went on to play his freshman year at Kent State before that illness changed his life. Today, he is at home in Fort Myers, Florida,
recovering from a bone marrow transplant. “When they officially told us Antwan had aplastic anemia, we were actually excited,” Shemariah said. “My dad had just died from leukemia. I thought this couldn’t be any worse. Then the doctor told us that it was.” Aplastic anemia is a rare blood disorder in which the body doesn’t create new blood cells. There are 1,069 deaths per year caused by aplastic anemia, and Shemariah was worried that her son could be another statistic. “I didn’t know what to think,” Shemariah said. “I never worried about the sports aspect of his condition. I worried about how it would affect him as a human. I was more concerned if this disease would take my son’s life.” Doctors prescribed medication for Antwan to let him resume high school, including an athletic career which led him to a scholarship at Kent
rduthie@kent.edu
State, where he was the fastest player on the team and led the Flashes in receiving yards in 2015. “We knew that it wouldn’t go away, but Antwan was happy, and we hoped the medication would continue to work for him,” Shemariah said. But during spring practice in 2015, he started to struggle. “He’s always the hardest working kid in practice, so it was tough to see him panting and running out of breath so easily,” sophomore running back Will Matthews, a close friend, said. The medication had stopped working, and Antwan never made it back for his second season. “He told us that he would have to go home and deal with his condition,” Matthews said. “Once it finally kicked in that he wouldn’t be here for the school year, it was really hard.”
Samaria Rice delivers the keynote speech during the May 4 Commemoration Ceremony on Wednesday, May 4, 2016. Nate Manley / The Kent Stater
SEE ANTWAN / PAGE 6
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The
STRUGGLE A Project on Mental Health
Warren takes on the topic of mental health
Mental health services run deficit despite taxpayers’ growing share
Lydia Taylor Assigning Editor Editor's note: Once a month, editors and producers from The Kent Stater and TV2 interview Kent State President Beverly Warren about important issues to the university. The following is a Q&A of our latest conversation surrounding mental health. Some changes have been made for clarity.
Andrew Keiper Senior Reporter
KW: Why is student mental health so important here at Kent State? President Beverly Warren said coming to college can be stressful on students, especially if they are experiencing their own sense of independence for the first time or don’t quite have the support system they once had in high school. “Our concern is to make sure we are attending to some of the mental health issues and support more counselors, more early alerts, more opportunity for students to be aware of what resources do you have to really navigate the stress of your life,” Warren said. “I think it’s a crisis and a concern for all of us in higher (education).” KW: Roughly when did Kent State start expanding programs within Psychological Services? Warren said the expansion came from her vision of making Kent State one of the healthiest campuses. In her State of the University Address in 2015, she asked the audience, “What would it look like if we were the healthiest campus in America?” “It became one of our top priorities and so as we were looking at how we would deploy funding to support a ‘Kent State of Wellness’, which is what we are calling it,” Warren said. “Mental health is just as important as physical health, and we want to make sure we are supporting that as
Over the past decade, taxpayers across Summit County have shouldered an increasing share of mental health funding while state dollars have sharply declined. Summit’s Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health Board (ADM) has seen its overall budget decrease by nearly $20 million since 2006 — despite a growing demand for its services due to the opioid epidemic ravaging the county. In 2006, an ADM Budget Review showed taxpayers supported 35 percent of ADM’s budget. By 2015, that number had grown to 78 percent. The opioid epidemic — and the demand of services that it necessitates — has forced the Summit County ADM Board to operate at an unsustainable deficit spending plan, according to Jerry Craig, executive director of the agency. The finances are tricky, but the state has pulled
Kent State President Beverly Warren talks to members of Kent State Student Media at the TV2 Studio in Franklin Hall on Wednesday, April 19, 2017. Nate Manley / The Kent Stater
much as we can in an ongoing basis.” Warren also said the university is working on expanding in other areas, such as hiring a number of psychological service counselors — whether they are physicians or mental health counselors — and implementing a hotline to increase responsiveness. “One of the things that I hear quite frequently form students is that they call for an appointment and it might be two weeks or three weeks or longer to get the appointment and that’s just not satisfactory,” Warren said. “We are deploying now our resources to hire and we’re going to be advertising for those new positions.” Warren said there will be a revamping of structure to make sure there will be a separate wing within University Health Services dedicated to mental health.
SEE WARREN / PAGE 6
10-year history of levy vs non-levy revenue for Summit County Social Services $90,000,000 $80,000,000 $70,000,000 $60,000,000 $50,000,000 $40,000,000 $30,000,000 $20,000,000 $10,000,000 $0 2006
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Total Levy Revenue
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Non-Levy Revenue
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Levy Revenue
Graphic by Addie Gall
much of its direct funding of county ADM Boards with the expansion of Medicaid. “I know the state is working hard to assist local government from, I guess, more of a technical perspective than a resource perspective,” said Lori Pesci, an official with Summit County’s Division of Public Safety. “I don’t necessarily know that we’ve
seen an increase in financial or other types of resources that have come to Summit County.” Addiction is certainly at the forefront of public health concerns in the state; however, it’s only one of many focuses for the local ADM Board.
SEE HEALTH / PAGE 6