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TUESDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2017
@thedailytexan | thedailytexan.com
Volume 118, Issue 54 CRIME
SPECIAL PROJECT
Uptick in violent crimes at UT shown by FBI data By Ashley Liu Senior News Reporter
gabriel lopez| daily texan staff
Cecilia Melchor has filed a claim under the city’s nondiscrimination ordinance against The Chuggin’ Monkey.
A ‘toothless’ ordinance
After being turned away from bar, transgender woman takes video evidence to city By Forrest Milburn Enterprise Reporter
Cecilia Melchor and her friend were searching for a good time as they spent a couple hours hopping from bar to bar on Sixth Street a few weeks ago. Eventually, the pair wound up at The Chuggin’ Monkey close to midnight. It was Melchor’s first time out on Dirty Sixth, but the night turned sour in less than 10 minutes. While her friend waited at the bar, Melchor, a transgender woman, was exiting the women’s restroom when the bouncer stopped to ask a question she’s never had to answer: “What sex are you?” “I was kind of taken aback,” said Melchor, a physics junior. “I couldn’t believe he would just
blatantly ask me that question.” After Melchor said the line of questioning was discriminatory and illegal, the bouncer told her to exit the bar because she was “causing a scene.” By this point, she had taken out her phone to record the exchange. She eventually left, her night ruined, and returned home exhausted and drained. Two weeks later, Melchor filed a claim under the city’s nondiscrimination ordinance, which protects Austin residents from being discriminated against in public accommodations, such as bars. Melchor said she hopes the city will see her video evidence and take her side, and she said her lawyer believes she has a good case.
The numbers, however, are not in her favor. Out of the 32 cases filed over the past five years, the city has never sided with a complainant and taken the accused party to court under its nondiscrimination or-
dinance, according to city data. The majority of claims ended with a finding of no discrimination by the accused party. The ordinance covers discrimination
TRANSGENDER page 3
Claims filed under Austin’s nondiscrimination Chart Title ordinance, past five years investigation pending
failure to cooperate with investigation no jurisdiction to investigate no finding of discrimination settled
withdrawn Source: City of Austin
The ordinance
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lee| daily texan staff 2 infographic 3 4 5 by sunnie 6
Violent crimes on UT’s campus more than doubled last year, according to newly released FBI data. FBI’s Uniform Crime Reporting shows a total of 13 violent crimes occurred on campus in 2016 in comparison to just six in 2015. These 13 violent crimes consist of one count of homicide, five counts of rape, three counts of robbery and four counts of aggravated assault. Non violent crimes decreased 15 percent from 2015, with 337 counts of property crimes — ten counts of burglary, 325 counts of larceny theft, two motor vehicle thefts and one count of arson. Burglary occurs when a structure is unlawfully entered with the intent to commit a crime, whereas larceny theft is the unauthorized possession of another’s belongings. UT Police Department Chief David Carter said the increase is not dramatically higher than previous years in terms of overall crime trends, but said he hopes UT’s violent crime rates will become even lower if possible. “I think it’s important for police chiefs to never be satisfied when there is even one victim of violent crime,” Carter said. “Our eyes are always looking at the path moving forward using the best practices and an active community engagement as well as a solid policing foundation.” Carter said, although there are issues within the greater Austin area, UT remains a relatively safe community. “This is a university that has grown in complexity and infrastructure,” Carter said. “We had the addition of a medical school and more sophisticated buildings. The police have to catch up to that and that takes time.” Petroleum engineering sophomore Mitchel Broten
FBI page 3 HEALTH
UT faculty collaborates to promote opioid monitoring In a critical move for the battle against prescription opioid abuse, Texas awarded the Center for Health Communication a $642,000 contract earlier this month to promote Texas’ Prescription Monitoring Program among drug prescribers. Only about one-third of drug prescribers in the state use the Texas PMP, according Michael Mackert, the principal investigator on the project. Over the course of two years, UT faculty members from the College of Pharmacy, School of Social Work, College of Communication and the Dell Medical School will collaborate to develop the best method for encouraging prescribers to use Texas’ monitoring program. By using the system, prescribers can look into a patient’s drug prescription history and see what drugs have been dispensed to them in the past. This is integral for detecting if the patient has been “doctor shopping,” or looking around for unscrupulous or unsuspecting health care providers who will write them a prescription for opioids they don’t actually need, said Mackert, director of the Center for Health Communication. “This PMP system is a public
By Chase Karacostas Senior News Reporter
Number of deaths from prescription opiods Nearly half of all deaths from overdose involve prescription opiods.
20,000 18,000 16,000 14,000 12,000 10,000 8,000 6,000 4,000 2,000 0 2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
Source: National Center for Health Statistics, CDC Wonder
infographic by sunnie lee| daily texan staff
health tool to help prescribers do better by their patients,” Mackert said. “Opioids by themselves are not bad. Opioids are good and can help treat real problems, so (the PMP) is about helping figure out how to get the right med to the right patient.” The 85th Texas Legislature passed a new requirement for pharmacies to report all controlled substances records to the
Texas PMP no later than one business day following the dispensing of the medication. This shrank the previous reporting period of seven days. Operation Naloxone — a UT initiative that promotes the use of life-saving opioid overdose drug naloxone — director Lucas Hill is also involved with the campaign to increase usage of the Texas PMP. Hill said national prescription
opioid overdose deaths soared from the 1990s until about 2010, when several drug abuse prevention developments decreased prescription opioid abuse but inadvertently increased heroin use. “Ultimately … we have (a) much worse crisis today,” Hill said. “The medical establishment definitely drove increased demand for heroin and fentanyl by getting people hooked on prescription opioids.”
From 2002 to 2011, the number of prescription opioid overdose deaths per year nearly doubled from approximately 9,500 to more than 17,000, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. Hill said the effects of prescription monitoring programs and crush-resistant OxyContin, which cannot be injected, can be seen as the number of deaths leveled off. Jessica Wagner, a co-principal investigator on the project, said she had heard lack of use may stem from the fact that most doctors have their own patient portal and that the Texas PMP is completely separate, making it more difficult to quickly access a patient’s history. “Doctors and prescribers are often very short on time,” Wagner said. “They don’t want patient care to suffer at the expense of using one of these systems.” One of the main goals of the Texas PMP is to help prescribers make better decisions for their patients, Wagner said, ensuring they are not unwittingly enabling substance abusers. “Opioid abuse prevention is something that’s on the nation’s mind right now,” Wagner said. “It’s exciting for us to get to contribute to that.”