Wednesday September 22, 2010 year: 130 No. 122 the student voice of
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OSU ‘should have caught it’
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Exclusive interview
The Lantern sports editor speaks with OSU athletic director Gene Smith about Big Ten expansion, compliance issues in college athletics and more.
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Some told police March shooting was preventable; university officials disagree COLLIN BINKLEY Editor-in-chief binkley.44@osu.edu The clues were there, but Ohio State officials missed the signs leading up to a campus shooting in March that left two dead and one injured, according to interviews with university employees conducted during the police investigation. OSU Police released notes from those interviews Tuesday, along with details of the March 9 shooting. Early that morning, 51-year-old maintenance worker Nate Brown arrived halfway through his night shift armed with two handguns. He killed his supervisor, Larry Wallington, 48, and injured another boss, Henry Butler, 60, before killing himself in a Tuttle Park Place maintenance building. Brown had learned weeks before that he was going to be fired for poor job performance, and handwritten notes found at his house suggest that he planned the killing. One of the gunman’s colleagues, Rene Austin, told police in an interview a week after the shootings that Brown and Wallington constantly were in conflict at work and that Wallington singled Brown out for work violations most workers committed.
“Management should have caught it before it got that far,” he told police in the interview. University officials, though, said the signs weren’t so clear. “Anyone would wish in hindsight that this tragedy could have been prevented, but there was really not evidence that it could have been,” said Mary Lynn Readey, associate vice president for Facilities Operations and Development. The university has programs to investigate and remove employees who could be violent, but Readey said those mechanisms “simply did not get triggered.” A background check never turned up that Brown had spent time in prison for receiving stolen property. Still, others made similar observations about the fighting between Brown and his boss. Mark Fair, a former supervisor, told police that Wallington would leave work to move his car if Brown parked next to it, fearing that Brown would slash his tires. He told police that the dispute reflected a broader “us versus them” conflict between workers and their bosses. Some OSU employees said Brown’s bosses bungled the firing process. Jane Tucker, a human resources worker who was in the room during the shooting, was concerned by allegations that Wallington told Brown to quit or else he would be
fired, police notes state. She said those types of comments are unusual and inappropriate. Tucker also told police that she had recommended Brown be transferred from his job as a maintenance worker into an easier custodial position. That never happened, but interview notes suggest a supervisor would have backed that plan if she had known about it. The police report, which marks the end of a six-month investigation, describes the shootings in vivid detail. Deputy Chief of OSU Police Richard Morman said police set out primarily to determine why Brown shot his bosses. He said there is evidence that Brown was motivated by his struggles at work but that authorities might never be certain about what drove him to violence. “I don’t think we were absolutely able to determine why,” he said. Just before the shootings, Tasha Bozeman, who worked in the cubicle next to Wallington, had been dozing off at her desk during her lunch break when she heard the first shot at 3:30 a.m. She turned around and saw Brown standing in a trench coat behind Wallington, saying nothing but repeatedly firing at his boss. None of those rounds struck
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Brutus can’t break silence about bobcat brawl Rick Schanz Campus editor schanz.5@osu.edu
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Columbus hip-hop artist Tero “Camu Tao” Smith
A crowd gathered at Skully’s on Aug. 16 to celebrate the release of ‘King of Hearts,’ Camu Tao’s debut solo album. Smith passed away before the release at the age of 30.
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Brutus won’t break the silence. But it is not his decision. OSU won’t let Brutus Buckeye talk about the premeditated attack perpetrated by Ohio University’s Rufus on Saturday. Despite repeated attempts by The Lantern in the last two days, the student who donned the Brutus uniform during last week’s game declined to speak directly about the event. “I appreciate your interest but I have now been told by administration that it is university policy for me not to comment on situations which are beyond my control,” Sean Stazen wrote in an e-mail to The Lantern Tuesday evening. “I thank you for your understanding and willingness to be fair and honest and to portray Ohio State in a positive light.” On the other hand, Brandon Hanning, also known as Rufus the Bobcat, is proud of the assault, which he said he planned for two years. It has been covered extensively by national media outlets, including ESPN. What jump-started Hanning’s plans was when “I watched a video of the Oregon Duck beating up another mascot and I thought it would be pretty funny if Rufus beat up Brutus,” he said. Although Stazen would not comment directly, his Facebook account told more of the story. After thwarting Rufus’ initial attempt to take him down near the 50-yard line, Brutus continued toward the north end zone, where, Stazen said on Facebook, “I throw him to the ground, his head pops off (most embarrassing thing that can happen to a mascot) then I walk to the endzone before he jumps on my back and starts punching me where I jump and land on his/my back and break the hold despite a few more pathetically weak punches......That’s what happens when a boy messes with a man.” After the brief skirmish, an OU staff member escorted Rufus off the field. But the image of Rufus lying in the end zone with Brutus standing beside him remains on Stazen’s Facebook page, which is now private. Under the photo, Stazen, a fourth-year in communication, wrote a message that reads something like a motivational poster found in some business offices, “Failure: When your life-long dream just doesn’t quite happen...” Needless-to-say, the OU administration was not pleased with Hanning’s actions. In a statement, OU assistant athletic director for media relations Jason
TYLER JOSWICK / Lantern asst. photo editor
Brutus Buckeye suffered two assaults from Ohio University’s Rufus the Bobcat before OSU’s game against Ohio on Saturday. The student under the Buckeye has been sworn to silence about the attack.
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Gov. Strickland: Kasich is anti-student Molly Gray Managing editor for design gray.557@osu.edu Gov. Ted Strickland wants to make one thing clear to college students throughout the state of Ohio: He is the candidate in support of education. “One of the first things I did after I became governor was ask all the university presidents to join me in Columbus,” Strickland said during a conference call with college media Tuesday morning. “And I said to them in that meeting, ‘I am not your enemy, I am your friend.’” His argument didn’t stop there. During his opening remarks and each subsequent question, Strickland dedicated a significant amount of his response time to criticizing his opponent, former Ohio Republican Congressman John Kasich. Strickland described Kasich, who is leading in a recent Rasmussen poll by 6 points, as being “anti-student.” Rob Nichols, press secretary for the KasichTaylor for Ohio campaign, said Strickland “has no record on which he can run, so he spends all his time smearing John.” Strickland said that for seven years, Kasich charged Ohio State $1,000 an hour to lecture to students. “It is the height of arrogance for him to have done this,” Strickland said, commenting on Kasich’s bid for professors to take on more classes in an effort to keep education affordable. “I think there is a very clear choice between John Kasich and me
when students begin to vote this fall.” Nichols said the amount payable to Kasich for lectures was a contract agreed on by the university that covered far more than the lectures Kasich hosted on campus. It also included trips to Washington and other engagements in support of the Ted Strickland program. “This was a program that was set aside by a foundation; this wasn’t tuition money, this wasn’t taxpayer money. It was a program developed by Ohio State,” Nichols said. Another hot topic in this year’s election race has been the creation, or lack thereof, of jobs in Ohio. Ohio’s unemployment rate was 10.1 percent in August, according to a press release from the Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services. The national unemployment rate was 9.6 percent. Dodging a question about the loss of job’s during his tenure, Strickland went straight to speaking about Kasich for several minutes, saying he must hate Ohio because he was quoted by The Cincinnati Enquirer as saying that if you wanted to meet a successful, young Ohio entrepreneur, you had to go to Naples, Fla. Kasich “has compared Ohio negatively to
Indiana, boasting that Indiana has done so much better than Ohio under the leadership of Gov. Mitch Daniels,” Strickland said. “But the fact of the matter is that Ohio’s unemployment rate and Indiana’s unemployment rate is exactly the same.” Nichols said the John Kasich only reason Kasich’s statements held true was because Strickland has driven those entrepreneurs out of Ohio with his “oppressive taxes and a terrible business climate.” Kasich plans to help college students by “creating jobs for them, something this governor has failed to do — 400,000 jobs have disappeared under this governor’s watch. He has no plan or understanding of how to build an economy that has jobs waiting for you all when you graduate from school,” Nichols said. “John’s goal is to create jobs, rebuild Ohio’s economy from the ashes to which this governor has burned it down,” Nichols said. “It starts with creating a business-friendly environment. We need to lower taxes, fix our broken workers compensation system and reduce regulations and frivolous lawsuits.”
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