A3 Cops share cup of joe with community
Friday, Oct. 6, 2017 VOLUME LXXXVI ISSUE XIV SINCE 1935 www.oswegonian.com
City of Oswego School District in need of student substitutes Cole Parzych Editor-in-Chief cparzych@oswegonian.com A shortage of substitute teachers within the Oswego City School District has prompted the school district to begin working closely with the Oswego State School of Education to boost the student teacher pool of qualified personnel. “Just yesterday I received this email that one building had five people out that they could not cover,” said Christine Walsh, education professor and Oswego State professional development school liaison. The Oswego City School District is the only district in Oswego County
that requires their substitutes to have a bachelor’s degree, district superintendent Dean Goewey said. “The shortage of subs is particularly difficult for us because we have a higher standard for our subs,” Goewey said. “I’ve been brainstorming over the last year of ways to find solutions to increase our availability of subs.” Goewey said he and the Board of Education decided the next course of action was for him to reach out to the school of education to begin recruitment. The school district is in search of junior and senior education majors to be screened, approved and put on the sub list. Walsh said the two schools have a
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Alex Sevchuk | The Oswegonian The Oswego High School has developed a working relationship with the Oswego State School of Education.
Distracted drivers caught by UP University Police seek to stop behind-the-wheel texting Jamie Aranoff Staff Writer news@oswegonian.com Every year, distracted driving kills over 3,000 people and injures almost 400,000. In an attempt to combat this epidemic, the Oswego State University Police has administered over 100 tickets for the use of electronic devices yearly since 2014. “Distracted driving is bad. Texting is worse,” said Assistant University Police Chief Kevin Velzy. There are three types of distraction while driving, Velzy said: manual, cognitive and visual. Texting and driving uses all three of these distractions, making it incredibly dangerous. According to University Police, the number of tickets issued for usage of a mobile phone or electronic devices while driving has increased tremendously from five tickets in 2008 to over 100 in 2017 with still three months remaining in the calendar year. Velzy correlates this increase with the distinct increase of cellphone and especially smartphone usage. Approximately 80 percent of the entire U.S. population owns a smartphone, according to the data from the U.S. Census and the Council of Interstate Testing Agencies. What is even more startling is how we as a society have lost the
ability to put down our mobile devices, Velzy said. “It’s becoming an addictive behavior where people hear that ‘ding’ on their phone and they can’t ignore it,” Velzy said. Cellphone usage is becoming so common in the driver’s seat that some laws have been changed to give enforcers access to cellphones post-crash. Sometimes it’s hard to prove, for instance, if you had a fatal accident,” Vel-
zy soad. “Now they’re changing the laws where law enforcement can actually go in and look at phone data, forensics and say ‘yeah the person was on their phone when the accident happened and that’s what caused the accident.” Even with the changing of laws and hefty ticket consequences, students are not refraining from distracted driving. Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed legislation
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Taylor Woods | The Oswegonian Distracted drivers on campus are being pulled over by University Police in a bid to make driving on campus safer.
Oswego State hosts Stride to Save Lives Counseling Services Center 5K held in rememberance of those who lost their lives to suicide offers screening for depression Jessica Wickham Copy Editor jwickham@oswegonian.com
The ring of a bell echoed across the quad by Hewitt Union at Oswego State 51 times on Saturday as it followed the names of loved ones lost to suicide. Head of Suicide Awareness Voices of Education CNY Jaime Leszczynski, an Oswego State alumna, and her committee of 10 women organized its 7th annual Stride to Save Lives 5K on Saturday. 800 attendees walked or ran 3.1 miles around Oswego State, remembered those who have died from suicide and spread awareness with the hopes to end the upward trend. SAVE CNY collaborated with the city of Oswego and other organizations around the Central New York area to further affect the community. Mayor Billy Barlow spoke at the event and read aloud a proclama-
As part of Depression Awareness Month, the Counseling Services Center held screenings and a student organization spread the word about important resources on Thursday. Some students said that though these resources are important, more needs to be done for students to know about this issue. Oct. 5 was annual National Depression Screening Day, and the Mary Walker Health Center participated by providing students with in-person and online depression screenings. The screenings, available any time online, provide a series of questions for students to answer about depression-like symptoms they may be experiencing. If the screening indicates they are at risk for depression, the site
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Kassadee Paulo Asst. News Editor kpaulo@oswegonian.com
Calendar...................... C2 Classifieds................... C6 Crossword................... C6 Contact Info................ A2 Laker Review.............. C1 News............................. A1 Opinion........................ B5 Sports........................... B1 Sudoku......................... C7
Taylor Woods| The Oswegonian Attendees walked a circut around the Oswego State campus in rememberance of those lost to suicide.
tion on behalf of the city of Oswego naming the day of the walk to be recognized as Suicide Prevention Awareness Day to emphasize the importance of SAVE’s event. “I, William J. Barlow Jr., mayor of the city of Oswego, New York, do hereby proclaim Saturday, Sept. 30, 2017, as Suicide
Prevention Awareness Day in Oswego, New York, and do encourage all citizens to work to prevent suicide and raise awareness and tolerance around all people affected by this tragedy,” Barlow said in the proclamation.
Sports LOW NUMBERS, BIG RESULTS
Opinion ZUCKERBERG’S MOTIVES
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Jake Piacenti | The Oswegonian
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Laker Review “CURB” BETTER THAN EVER
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then provides the student with related articles and contacts for counseling services on and off campus. “I think it’s helpful for people,” freshman Melanie Soesman said about the online screening process. “Some people may be scared to go in person.” In-person screenings were conducted at the Counseling Services Center in Mary Walker and consisted of a short, pen-and-paper screening tool. Counselors would follow up with students who took the in-person screenings, interpret their scores, and offer strategies and tools for managing symptoms of depressed mood or depression. Everything stays confidential. Referrals and grief counselors were offered to any students who wanted them, as is always available through the health center, according to
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Oswegonian.com PREVENT “OSWEGO PLAGUE”
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