January 16, 2018

THE STANDARD Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade. See page 5.

M I S S O U R I S TAT E U N I V E R S I T Y

VOLUME 111, ISSUE 15 | THE-STANDARD.ORG The Standard/The Standard Sports

TUESDAY, JANUARY 16, 2018

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@TheStandard_MSU/@Standard_Sports

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21 & UP

Nightclubs adjust to enforcement of city code, minors not allowed HANNA SUMPTER Senior Reporter @hannasumpter

Minors of Missouri State will no longer be able to dance the night away inside clubs throughout Springfield.

Zan, as of 2018, no longer allows people under 21 into the downtown nightclub.

General manager of the nightclub, Jonathan Strazzinski said Zan went through the age requirement adjustments after the city began enforcing a 12-yearold section of Springfield city code.

Section 10-3 A of Springfield’s city

Rape reported at AKL fraternity house CORTLYNN STARK News Editor @Cortlynn_Stark A rape was reported at the Alpha Kappa Lambda fraternity house on Monday, Dec. 18, according to the Daily Crime Log from Missouri State Safety and Transportation.

It happened at 10 p.m. and was reported 35 minutes later, according to the report.

It did not fulfill the requirements for a Clery Act incident alert to be sent out, despite it being close to campus on Cherry Street.

According to Safety and Transportation’s Safety and Crime Alerts policy statement on emergency notifications and timely warnings, an alert is sent out when a “significant emergency or dangerous situation is reported that poses an immediate, imminent or impeding threat to members of the University commu-

nity; or a crime or incident is reported that poses a threat to members of the University community.”

“Because they were known to one another, it was not a danger to the community,” Vice President for Marketing and Communications Suzanne Shaw said.

The victim was referred to the Title IX Office and MSU’s Counseling Center, Shaw said.

Shaw said the Springfield Police Department is investigating.

You can call 417-864-7233 in Springfield for information about resources and services about sexual assault.

You can call the Title IX Office at 417836-8506, in Carrington Hall 314 for assistance, the Counseling Center at 417-8365116, the dean of students or a residence hall staff member, according to resources provided by Safety and Transportation.

code gives guidelines for having minors on the premises of businesses throughout the city.

According to the code, minors are not allowed inside establishments which make 60 percent or more of their revenue from alcoholic beverages.

Each year the licensing department of the city analyzes gross receipts turned in by businesses to find out whether that business exceeds the 60 percent limit.

“This ordinance has been on the books since 2006,” said Lori Stubbeman, u See CLUBS, page 2

The Clery Act: Crime alerts, emergency notifications, timely warnings CHLOE SKAAR Senior Reporter @chloeskaar In 1990, the federal government sought transparency for students on college campuses regarding the different crimes, and crime policies, happening around them.

The Clery Act is still used today by universities nationwide and is the reason Missouri State students receive email and text warnings when crime happens on campus.

The act specifies four categories of crimes that the institution must include in its annual security report and in a daily crime log. The school is required to keep

the crime log public and accessible during business hours.

These four categories are known as “Clery crimes,” Tom Johnson, director of Safety and Transportation at MSU, said. The first category includes criminal offenses, according to the Clery Center’s website. Those offenses are homicide, sexual assault — ranging from fondling to rape — robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, motor vehicle theft and arson.

The other three categories are hate crimes; Violence Against Women Act offenses, including domestic and dating violence and stalking; and arrests for disciplinary action, u See CLERY, page 8

news

life

sports

Health center still under construction Page 2

The opioid crisis in Greene County Page 4

Recap of Bears’ basketball Page 6

2 THE-STANDARD.ORG

THE STANDARD

TUESDAY, JANUARY 16, 2018

Clif Smart on task force for higher education performance funding reform “If you push down on one side, the other side has to go up, or quality will suffer.” –Clif Smart

Courtesy of the Office of the President

CHLOE SKAAR Senior Reporter @chloeskaar Next year, higher education in Missouri will see a new way of receiving funds. Standards will be higher and institutions will need to measure up in six categories, determined by a task force of education officials throughout the state.

Universities used to pick the standards they were measured by.

Before the performance funding model reform, Missouri State University President Clif Smart said, the state would provide a “menu” of 12 to 15 measures and schools would choose which they felt should be applied to their institution. MSU was measured by five of them.

Zora Mulligan, Missouri’s commissioner of higher education, assembled a task force to overhaul this model after hearing concerns that the system was not rigorous enough to assess schools properly or address all the issues some

CLUBS Continued from page 1 the licensing supervisor. “It was actually an initiated petition voted on by the people at that time.”

Zan has been open since 2010, according to Strazzinski. He said in his five years of experience working at the nightclub he never recalled the nightclub adjusting the age requirement strictly to 21 years old or older.

“They haven’t enforced it ever, really,” Strazzinski said.

When Vintage, a local dancelounge, was contacted about the enforcement of the city code, The Standard received this response: “We currently are not making any comments over the requirements from the city at this moment.”

Roger Villines, agent and pro-

schools were facing. She said Smart was a leader on the task force.

“Clif was an extremely important voice in the conversation,” Mulligan said. “He understood very intuitively the importance of answering the questions that (were) being asked of us by the governor’s office.”

The task force — around a dozen individuals from higher education institutions across the state, the governor’s office and members of Missouri’s House and Senate staff — assembled a new performance funding model with six measures to apply to each school.

“There was a series of conversations of concerns about the existing model,” Mulligan said. “It didn’t address (all) the issues. …

We are also working with a new governor’s office that has their own set of priorities.”

The four-year model, under which MSU will operate, determines the school’s eligibility for funds by the completion of full time, four year students; the percent of students meeting or exceeding performance assessments; operating salaries; the percent of the school’s total budget spent on the core mission, in comparison to the percent of the budget spent on non-core mission; affordability and job placement of graduate students — including graduate school and the military — within six months of graduation.

“This task force worked really

hard to create six new funding measures,” Smart said. “They focus on efficiency, affordability and student success. … Three of the measures are new and three are from the old model.”

Smart also said the old funding model only applied to new money, and it didn’t apply to funding cuts.

So, every higher education institution in Missouri faced the same 9 percent cut last year, regardless of revenue and how they measured up.

Smart said he believes MSU will do fine under the new model.

“We are good on affordability, good on efficiency and good on student success,” Smart said. “The bigger thing for students to be aware of is, if the state funds us less and less each year, the only way to make that up is more students or higher tuition.”

On the flip side, Smart said, if the university sees more state funding, students may see less in tuition. He said that 98 percent of the money that funds MSU comes from one of two places: 34 percent comes from the state and 64 percent comes from tuition. The remaining two percent comes from other places, like donations.

“If you push down on one side, the other side has to go up, or quality will suffer,” Smart said.

Missouri’s Coordinating Board for Higher Education adopted the funding model in December of 2017, and, in fiscal year 2019, it will be instated.

moter of Midnight Rodeo, a Kansas City-area band, said he didn’t know anything about the situation.

“Most places we play at are and have always been 21-plus age requirement,” Villines said. “There are those places that serve food that will allow younger people in because of serving food, but overall we haven’t been impacted as of yet.”

Strazzinski said he hasn’t noticed a problem with attendance at the nightclub, but also said January is a historically low month in attendance.

He doesn’t recall having to turn minors away at the doors recently and attributes that to his efforts of letting everyone know about the change through social media.

“I’ve been very aggressive about advertising it all across social media especially since it is so cold,” Strazzinski said. “That’s the last thing I want to happen is a bunch of people coming out expecting to have a good

night and in the freezing weather and then we have to turn them away.”

Despite changing the age requirement, Strazzinski said he is moving on.

“Yes, we wish that all of those people would still be able to come back in, but we’re looking toward the future,” Strazzinski said. “Everyone downtown is 21 and up now, so that’s where our heads are at.”

Strazzinski also mentioned trying out some new things to help expand their customer base.

“We’ve got a few changes that we are going to slowly start doing,” Strazzinski said. “I’d rather it be a surprise.”

However, Strazzinski isn’t forgetting about all the minors no longer allowed in the night club.

“Once all the people that were 18,19, 20 years old, once they start to turn 21 it’s going to be awesome to see them be able to come back in again,” he said.

MEGAN BURKE/THE STANDARD

The new facility is set to be complete in March and will feature a women’s clinic as well as 34 exam rooms. It will cost around $13 million.

New health center construction ongoing, set to be finished in March MATT CAMPANELLI Staff Reporter @THE_MattyCamp After spending almost a year and a half in the first floor of the Monroe Apartments, New Health Center will open in its new facility on Tuesday, Mar. 13.

The move across the street to the first floor of the Monroe Apartments was made in the fall of 2016.

The original Taylor Health and Wellness building was demolished and construction began on the new health center in the same location.

Dr. Frederick Muegge, director of health and wellness services, said one constant through all of the changes is the quality of care the staff provides for its patients.

“The quality of the care from the medical staff has been excellent in the old Taylor, in the interim Taylor, and will continue to be excellent in the new Taylor (health center),” Muegge said.

The new facility will cost around $13 million, Muegge said.

Missouri State students voted in favor of a referendum passed by Student Government Association in the fall of 2015 that helped build the new facility.

Students are paying a $29 per-semester fee that will help maintain upkeep and facility improvements of the new building.

The new building will be a 39,000-square-foot facility that will offer a wide variety of services for students, staff and faculty, including 34 exam rooms.

“The increased space in the new university health center will allow our students more types of medical services to be offered in the future and more privacy with their medical care,” Muegge said.

The health center will have a pharmacy located on the first floor of the new facility with a drive-thru facing Bear Boulevard.

Randy Bass, a pharmacist at the health center, said the added drive-thru will help the pharmacy help better serve its customers because they won’t have to hunt for a parking spot on what can be a crowded campus.

“Hopefully what it will do is help employees who don’t live on campus get their prescriptions easier,” Bass said. “Parking is always kind of an issue.”

Bass said they also plan to expand on the front-end items they already offer. This means things such as overthe-counter medications.

The health center will also feature a women’s clinic on the third floor. The new facility will also bring existing services to a central location. The counseling center, currently located on the third floor of Carrington Hall, will be moved to the third floor of the new health center.

Muegge said the Taylor Health staff believe Missouri State students “are the best and deserve the best.”

“The new University Health and Wellness Center, its programs, and its staff will allow Missouri State University students to have the very best health and wellness care possible,” Muegge said.

THE STANDARD opinion 3 The thing about the new year: What’s next?

TUESDAY, JANUARY 16, 2018 | THE-STANDARD.ORG

KATIE HAYNES Columnist @journalistkatie We’ve all heard it before: “New year, new me.” This can be a great motivator for some people.

Having a clean slate is a great way to not only to reflect on the last year, but to make plans to better oneself.

Last year was crazy for sure. Trying to survive school while having three surgeries in one semester is enough to make anyone a little stressed out.

What made it even more difficult was the fact that I did not see any of it coming.

I never imagined I would be spending the night in a hospital connected to a machine to make sure nothing happened to me. I didn’t really think I could make it through the semester with the problems that had surfaced all at once.

I did it though, and that said a lot about myself. I had a strength that I didn’t even know I possessed.

That is what I really admired about

2017: everyone learned something about themselves. It didn’t really matter if it came from a positive or negative situation; it seemed everyone had learned something new about themselves.

It was a year that opened my eyes to see that life isn’t about being the best, it’s about being your best self.

With the new year here, that poses the question: what now?

Keep learning.

Keep hanging on to the strength you found in yourself. It’s amazing what trusting yourself can accomplish.

You know yourself better than anyone else, so this is the year for you to decide what happens next in your life.

Make that decision. Get that job. Be more outgoing. Experience what you were always too nervous to try.

The truth is, life doesn’t stop for anyone.

Life doesn’t slow down, come to a halt or even make it easy for anyone in the hardest of times.

Life is a giant, unknown, beautiful,

ugly thing that has to be the best gift that anyone is ever going to receive.

There is nothing to be scared of whenever you have trust in yourself to help guide you.

I will admit, these words are easier said than done. Maybe this is the year that you get help with the problems you’re having with yourself. Maybe this is the year that you escape from the firefight. Whatever your situation may be, this year is about learning something new.

The thing about the new year is that, yeah, it may be just another way to tell that Earth has gone around the sun another 365 days.

It may be just another way to start over with a goal.

But who cares? It’s something to take advantage of.

Reflection is necessary, but don’t let it consume you.

Take each day with ease. Trust yourself. You owe it not only to your own life, but to the world around you as well.

SABRINA MERRILL/THE STANDARD

Apple leads in consumer The journey friendliness when devices continues: a reach end of lives different take on JONATHAN PETESCH Columnist @thepeach1999

When your phone becomes a year old and begins to slow down or experience unexpected shutdowns, what do you think you need to fix the situation? Do you automatically assume you need a new device, or do you think an internal component can simply be replaced to make everything better?

YouTube creator Lewis Hilsenteger, better known by his channel name Unbox Therapy, ran a poll on his Twitter account where he asked users whether they think they need a new battery or new phone when their device begins to slow.

The results show an overwhelming majority of users believe they need a new phone, with 82 percent saying they need a new phone, while the other 18 percent believe they need a new battery. This shows that most users are not informed on what they need when their devices begin to get older.

In a statement released by Apple on Dec. 28, 2017, the company admitted to slowing older iPhones starting with iOS 10.2.1 in order to prevent unexpected shutdowns, due to battery degradation.

Apple stated, “iOS dynamically manages the maximum performance of some system components when needed to prevent a shutdown.”

Though not with an Apple device, I have experienced unexpected shutdowns on my Google Nexus 6P recently, which prompted me to finally upgrade to the Google Pixel 2 XL. I upgraded ,assuming my issue was with the device itself and could not be fixed by replacing any of the hardware, such as the

battery, but Apple claims otherwise.

In the same statement, Apple addresses consumer concerns by saying they have lowered the price of their battery replacement for iPhone 6, iPhone 6S, iPhone SE and iPhone 7 from $79 to $29. This price will remain available through December 2018. When the battery is replaced, performance returns to normal just as it was on day one.

Apple has also promised to include a feature in an upcoming iOS update to make battery health more transparent to users. They have not announced a release date for this update yet.

With smartphone design becoming so uniform regardless of manufacturer, it can be inferred that this fix would also work with other devices from other manufacturers. Nevertheless, it cannot be confirmed, as Apple is the only company which has become transparent about the issue.

In the future, I hope other manufacturers respond in similar ways to Apple, being more transparent with their customers, especially over their products.

If companies were more transparent about what we truly need to keep our devices running, it would save consumers hundreds of dollars every time our phones get older. $29 is a small price to pay compared to up to $1,000 for a new device.

That price difference is giant for college students like ourselves, as those savings can cover at least one or two semesters of textbooks, while still being able to stay connected and fairly up-to-date.

Maybe this will hurt revenues for some companies, but when they claim everything they do is for their customers, tactics such as these cannot be used, as non-transparency does not help the consumer in any way.

‘New year, new me’ ALI SPIES Columnist @AliceTheSpy

If you follow my column, it was probably easy to see that last semester was the hardest one I’ve ever had. Not only did my grades suffer, but my mental and physical health suffered as well.

Every day, I would come home from class and lay in bed either crying or napping. I felt like there was so much I needed to do and I just couldn’t force myself to do anything about it.

I was in a dark place, and it was somewhere I never want to be again.

Winter break came just in time. I needed to be home, away from Springfield and the stress of college. I spent most of this break reflecting on myself and my life. I found motivation that wasn’t there before. I felt myself finally getting somewhat excited for school and life again.

One of the best things about being home is getting to see my friends, who are like my second family.

No matter what time of day, I can text them and binge watch “Black Mirror” or just sit and chat for hours on end. They are my favorite people in the world and I wouldn’t be in such a good place now without them.

My goal for this upcoming semester is to focus more on myself and do things to better myself, even if I don’t want to do them.

I need to prioritize my work better and get things done before the last second. I need to

focus on my health more, both mentally and physically and try harder to focus on bettering it.

I want to start journaling and taking time away from technology to focus on myself. I spend almost all of my day looking at some kind of screen, and I don’t actually live life.

I want to leave my apartment more and spend time in nature. I usually just go from my apartment to class, and the occasional grocery store trip, so I’ve seen almost none of Springfield.

My friends go on beautiful hikes around the Springfield area, and one of my goals is to join them on one of their hikes.

This coming semester won’t be easy. I plan on challenging myself and getting back on track after last semester. Financially, this semester will be hard.

Finding a job, especially one that will work with my schedule, is turning out to be very difficult. If anyone knows any jobs hiring, let me know.

I am trying to take more credit hours to make up for the ones I lost last semester. This is going to be difficult, but I want to plan my time out to make sure I am spending time working outside of class and getting the most out of the academic part of college that I am paying so much for.

I am determined to have this semester be my comeback and to grow and improve as a person. It won’t be easy, and I will have a lot of setbacks, but I hope you all will continue to follow me on this crazy journey.

Editor Q&A of the week What is your goal for this semester?

“Sleep more.”

“Wake up on time.”

Alec McChesney, Editor in Chief

Cortlynn Stark, News Editor

“Save for a new professional camera and prepare for my threemonth trip to Africa in May.” Sarah Teague, Life Editor

“To make every day productive and become an even better multitasker.”

“Somehow graduate and actually have a plan for after.”

Emily Joshu, Managing Editor

The Standard Physical address: Clay Hall 744 E. Cherry St. Springfield, Missouri Postal address: 901 S. National Ave. Springfield, MO 65897 Newsroom: 417-836-5272 Advertising: 417-836-5524

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Editorial Policy The Standard is the official student-run newspaper of Missouri State University. Student editors and staff members are responsible for all content. The content is not subject to the approval of university officials, and the views expressed do not represent those of the university.

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4

THE STANDARD

life

TUESDAY, JANUARY 16, 2018 | THE-STANDARD.ORG

Shea Blasingim age 19

A man and his addiction

A young life is taken by the opioid crisis, while a former addict fights to find a solution

T

he Springfield Police Department responded to 94 overdose calls between January and June 2017. Out of those 94, seven died.

In that same period, the Special Investigations Section of the SPD seized 1,460.56 grams of heroin, according to Lisa Cox. Just 26.3 grams were seized throughout 2011.

“We had to deal with meth for so long, and now we have to deal with something potentially more dangerous to citizens,” Eric Reece, a lieutenant with the SPD, said. “It is just tough to know that it has gotten worse. Not that we’re not making a differ-

A story by HANNA FLANAGAN and HANNA SUMPTER ence, but we’re fighting meth and then the next day we’re dealing with people that are overdosing in their homes from heroin.”

These local statistics are a reflection of the national opioid epidemic. Heroin and other opioids — fentanyl, oxycodone, vicodin and morphine — are chemicals that “bind to receptors in your brain or body,” according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The effects are pain relief and a sense of well-being, which make opioids extremely addictive. According to the National Institute for Drug Abuse, over 90 Americans die

A national epidemic The opioid crisis spans coasts, counties, cultures and generations from opioid overdoses every day.

Tom Emery has worked with Cox Health since 2006 as an emergency room nurse. He now assumes the role of an injury prevention outreach educator. Emery recalled caring for many repeat visitors in the emergency room.

“We would see quite a few people with drug-seeking behavior coming in with vague symptoms, stories that didn’t pan out and … basically, they wanted narcotics,” Emery said.

“Unfortunately, sometimes drug addicts can also have health issues. So, you can’t just have a blanket policy of ‘No,

we don’t dispense when we suspect drug abuse.’ Drug addicts have bodies just like we do, and they do have pain issues.”

Overdose deaths in the U.S. have quadrupled since 1999, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Many addiction stories begin with the use of legal drugs prescribed by doctors.

But these drugs share the same addictive qualities as the illegal opioid heroin, so it doesn’t take long for patients to become dependent on them.

“Most addicts get to be heroin abusers through prescrip-

tion pill abuse,” Reece said.

“A lot of people we deal with have had a legitimate injury where they were prescribed painkillers and they get addicted to it and they eventually move to heroin because that’s cheaper to get.”

In 2014, almost 2 million Americans were addicted to prescription opioids, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“Sometimes people aren’t ready for you to be honest,” Emery said. “Just because I’m willing to tell them (about their addiction) doesn’t mean they’re willing to accept that.

You have to meet them where they are.”

A young life lost to the growing epidemic Amy Blasingim picks up the phone.

“Shea’s overdosed and it doesn’t look good.”

The first part of the sentence is familiar; the second is something Amy’s only envisioned hundreds of times but never heard before.

This is Shea Blasingim’s story. Amy, Shea’s mother, feels compelled to tell it.

The beginning Amy spent much of the past year and a half reflecting.

In hindsight, she can pinpoint the start of Shea’s drug use to his early teenage years.

Amy saw Shea’s childhood friends begin pouring their time into academics or extracurricular activities. At each fork in the road, his classmates chose to take one path or the other. But Shea chose nothing; he never found his niche.

“I don’t think he ever found where he fit in,” Amy said.

“This world of other kids who struggled with not finding their place turned to (drugs). I think it numbed his insecurities and frustrations.”

Shea’s parents became concerned when he was caught with a large quantity of marijuana on school grounds. Amy said he was stereotyped by teachers and peers after that incident, which further fueled his addiction.

Prescription pills It started, with marijuana — what Amy calls his “gateway drug.” But Shea craved a stronger high, and he found

what he was looking for in prescription pills. Although he never had an injury which required a legitimate prescription, Shea often bought pills from friends or stole them from home medicine cabinets.

“Addiction doesn’t discriminate. It can happen to anybody.”

-Amy Blasingim, Shea’s mother “It kind of opened up a path for him,” Amy said. “Unfortunately with his chemical makeup, it wasn’t going to work for him to just casually use things like (marijuana).”

Amy noticed behavioral changes and strange recurring situations as Shea dove deeper into addiction.

“There were so many little tricks I learned,” Amy said.

“New faces I had never seen before. A guy would come over and say he was dropping off his history book for Shea.

I thought that was so weird. I found out later there were drugs in the book.”

Amy and her husband made the decision to pull their son out of Glendale High School, hoping a change of scenery and a new peer group

would give him a real shot at sobriety. He transferred to Kickapoo High School and entered a treatment program at Burrell Behavioral Health.

Amy and her family also committed their weekends to group counseling sessions, but Shea struggled.

“I hoped he would get a fresh start and go in with a clean slate,” Amy said. “But it was the same scenario. Just different faces.”

After multiple failed attempts to get him sober, Shea’s family was desperate. Amy said they practically depleted their financial resources attempting to save their son.

Following high school graduation, Shea attended a faith-based rehabilitation center in Arkansas: Teen Challenge.

For 17 months, Shea stayed at the camp, and Amy said he did well. But following his release, he ignored his parent’s advice to stay in Arkansas.

Instead, he moved home and fell back into the same crowd he left behind almost two years earlier.

“It was within two months that I knew exactly what was going on,” Amy said. “The pattern was back.”

Heroin In the years after Teen Challenge, Shea was using heroin — a detail Amy couldn’t bear to admit yet.

“He had several overdoses where friends got him to the hospital, left him, dropped him

From a life of addiction, heartache … to a life promoting recovery, unity David Stoecker has survived three drug overdoses, a car crash, alcohol poisoning and a suicide attempt. But hitting rock bottom isn’t what marked the start of a new life for him almost nine years ago.

After a night out at the bar, Stoecker drunkenly drove home when he noticed a cop car pull out behind him. In that moment, the long-time addict and agnostic began negotiating with God.

“God, if you’re real, you’ll let me not get pulled over — I swear I’ll start going to church,” Stoecker said, repeating the words he could remember thinking that night.

“You let me not get pulled over, I’ll start going to church every Sunday and I’ll never drink again.

“I always say that by the time I turned onto my street, I was going to give up drinking, smoking cigarettes, cuss-

ing, premarital sex … And when I turned onto my street, (the police officer) kept going straight.”

Stoecker made it to his garage, avoiding a DWI charge. He said he turned off the car engine and passed out at the wheel. He slept there all night, as he had done many times throughout his 20 years of addiction. u This story continues on page 8.

off, ran — but knew he needed medical attention fast,” Amy said. “I still didn’t want to acknowledge or believe it was heroin. I still wanted to believe it was pills.”

A combination of poor living conditions and the heavy drug use deteriorated Shea’s physical health. He suffered from skin infections, and his thin face accentuated his sunken cheekbones.

“I look back on some pictures; he looked so cute,” Amy said. “He was so handsome, just beautiful. But his face — it was just skin on bones.”

Shea continued to ride the roller coaster of addiction, as his family tried their best to keep up.

“He’d do well for a little while, so my mom and I would get him set up in an apartment,” Amy said. “He’d get a job and be happy with his job. We would think ‘OK, we’re turning a corner here; But then he’d fall off the wagon and use and not show up for work.

“A lot of the best conversations we had in the last few years were when he was incarcerated,” Amy said. “He was so smart and had a good plan together ... and funny.

That would make me think ‘See, you can be clean if you want — you’re doing it!’”

Amy calls back on her way to the scene of the overdose, hoping for better news.

Photos submitted by Amy Blansingim

2015 Blansingim family Christmas. Shea is pictured in the middle here.

Instead, a police officer answers and tells her that Shea is dead.

It was a lethal injection of fentanyl, an opiate 50 times more potent than heroin, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.

A day after the overdose, Amy drove to where Shea had been staying to collect his belongings. When she walked in, she was shocked and saddened to see how poorly kept up the apartment was and to find the

addicts living in it strung out on drugs.

“It was just heartbreaking for me because I could picture that being Shea a few days before,” Amy said. “The boy that walked out with me was just crying. I think he was sad for Shea but also sad for his own life. I remember him looking up at the sky and just … tears.

“Addiction doesn’t discriminate,” Amy said. “It can happen to anybody.”

Male and female overdose deaths in the U.S. from certain prescription, illicit and other opioid drugs for users between ages 15-24 from 1999 to 2015: 3,000 2,000 1,000 0

1999

2007

2003 Male

2011

2015

Female

Graph compiled with information from the National Institute on Drug Abuse

TUESDAY, JANUARY 16, 2018

THE STANDARD

MLK Day Parade

THE-STANDARD.ORG 5

Springfield braves cold for 50th anniversary The people of Springfield marched through freezing temperatures, snow and wind to “stand up for justice,” this year’s parade theme, on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Jan. 15.

Monday’s march, organized by Springfield NAACP, comes 50 years after Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech.

The parade ended at the Gillioz Theatre in downtown Springfield where a lineup of speakers, performers and presentations introduced by Springfield NAACP president Cheryl Clay, awaited the shivering yet boisterous crowd.

Parade go-ers march through the streets of Springfield to honor Martin Luther King Jur. on his birthday, 50 years after his “I Have a Dream” speech. Photos taken by Nina Todea, Bill Sioholm and Bradley Balsters for The Standard.

TRUMBLE: A movie as explosive as the death star COLE TRUMBLE Critic @Cole_Tr If you have yet to see the latest film in the Star Wars series, I won’t spoil anything until I give the signal. Allow me to sum it up: It is really awesome! This movie is a great blend of the classic Star Wars of the ‘70s and ‘80s and modern movie-making techniques.

Writer and director Rian Johnson crafted an engaging plot with excellent cinematography and new special effects that really earned the movie its 2-hour and 35-minute run time.

While the plot construction was fantastic, Johnson seems to struggle with the spoken por-

tions of the script. At many points the dialogue is silly, unwarranted, or embarrassing. The script would be improved if Johnson had taken some suggestions from his editors. That being said, I do think Johnson carried the considerable weight of continuing a widely loved series skillfully and I consider “The Last Jedi” a success.

Here come the spoilers, you’ve been signaled.

I’m going to continue to praise Johnson, because, despite having the worst spelling of the name “Ryan” I’ve ever seen, he really had a lot on his plate with this movie as a director and especially as a writer. For this film, Johnson needed to build the plot of “The Force Awakens” and

trailblaze a new direction for the franchise (episode VII was mostly an assurance to fans that the franchise wouldn’t be butchered). He also needed to combine that with the tone and style of all the previous Star Wars movies. This isn’t the greatest movie ever made, but it was extremely well crafted for an expansion of the Star Wars universe.

The movie has a rocky start.

The audience is thrown into the movie without a lot of exposition that would have been nice given the time since episode VII. A lot of focus is given to Rey, played by Daisy Ridley, while she tries to convince Luke to help the Resistance and learn more about the Force and the

Weekly Crossword © 2018 King Features Syndicate

ACROSS 1 Nasty insect 5 Badly lit 8 Error 12 Chills and fever 13 Kreskin’s claim 14 Docket entry 15 In reverie 17 Anger 18 Dine 19 Sternward 20 Dissuade 21 Firmament 22 Stop -- dime 23 Augment 26 Firm 30 Needy 31 Hockey milieu 32 Concept 33 Get 35 Pry 36 Singer Winehouse 37 Droop 38 Cut corners 41 Huge 42 Greek cross 45 Actress Gilpin 46 “... twilight’s last --” 48 Privy to 49 Boxer 50 Pedestal occupant 51 Chinatown gang 52 Witness 53 Say it ain’t so DOWN 1 Test the waters 2 City of India 3 Fat 4 Pod denizen 5 Treat as a god 6 “-- It Romantic?”

7 Gasoline stat 8 Very conspicuous

9 Cafe au -10 Capri, e.g.

11 Equal 16 Shark variety 20 Modern-day evidence 21 Like some video on the Web 22 Praise in verse 23 Spring mo.

24 Buck’s mate 25 One of the Seven Dwarfs 26 High card 27 Commotion 28 Modern (Pref.)

29 Spigot 31 Wall climber 34 Mischievous one 35 Long story 37 Prolonged attack 38 Skewer 39 Gambling

game 40 Press agent?

41 Sad 42 Ocean motion 43 In due time 44 Homely

46 Navig. aid 47 Central

Jedi. I wasn’t expecting these scenes to hold tension well from what I had seen in episode VII, but they manage to keep the audience drawn in for the more intimate moments without cutting in too many cheap laugh lines.

Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of laugh lines — enough lines of forced humor to be off-putting. But they don’t ruin anything that is established by the dramatic scenes.

You know what did ruin scenes? Porgs. The puffin-like big-eyed animals of Luke’s lonely island were jarringly forced into the movie and were purely for merchandising. The porgs were bad — they should have been cut from the movie.

As far as problems that matter to the movie, we run into the the biggest problem of the film.

If you look at the original trilogy and even episodes one through three, the dialogue is

not fantastic. It’s archaic and more than a little corny. But, if it were to be modernized to the tastes of the modern movie-goer, it would lose that “long time ago” and “far far away” feel.

So, right off the bat, the dialogue begins with some roadblocks.

Even with those roadblocks considered, there is still some just ridiculous dialogue. For example, you have Finn and Rose’s interaction after rampaging through “planet vegas.”

These are two awkward goofs who need to find a codebreaker to help their entire movement not be killed in a fiery space explosion. Fast-forward and they’ve been captured, escape, destroy a ton of evil-rich-people stuff, and are about to be captured again and Finn says, “It was worth it though right? Just to hit them where it hurts?”

I think the f**k not.

All your friends are going to

die because you failed your mission. But, hey, at least you got to smash some rich people’s cars ... Am I right, fellas?

Overall, the writing was very strong (aside from the spoken lines) and the directing delivered an excellent story. The acting was on par for a big budget film, if not better, and it captured the magic of Star Wars and set the tone for the franchise as it continues.

There were a lot of moments where the movie pandered to cheap, focus-group-tested interest points, but these moments are either overshadowed, or backed up by story and action enough that they cannot stop this beast of a movie from hitting home. With a number of plot twists and tense scenes, the movie stays action-packed and, as always, was visually stunning.

8/10

sports THE STANDARD Alize Johnson, supporting cast, leading the Bears into Missouri Valley Conference play 6

TUESDAY, JANUARY 16, 2018 | THE-STANDARD.ORG

ALEC McCHESNEY Editor in Chief @Alec_McChesney For the first time all season, the Missouri State Bears (145, 4-2) started a contest playing zone on the defensive end, rather than guarding man-to-man.

“It was my decision,” head coach Paul Lusk said of going zone. “We had been working on man-to-man, but I just thought they are such a high-level, when they open it up and start driving. We didn’t want to get in foul trouble, and I thought it really bothered them.”

The decision, which Lusk is typically against, worked brilliantly, as the Bears defeated Indiana State (8-10, 3-3) 76-73.

“Great game,” Lusk said. “(Indiana State) played Purdue in a hurricane relief game and Purdue is one of the best teams in the country. Matt Painter called me afterwards and said, ‘if that team is No. 8 or 9 in your league, I don’t want to see your league ... so, outstanding win for us.”

After five minutes of play, defense reigned king as the teams combined to start 0-13 from the field and score only one point a piece.

As the game progressed, the offense didn’t.

At the 10-minute mark in the first half, Missouri State was shooting just 26 percent from the field while Indiana State checked in even lower at 14.3 percent.

In the first 10 minutes alone, Missouri State used multiple defensive looks to rattle the Indiana State offense into five turnovers and bad shots.

“Give credit where credit is due,” Indiana State head coach Greg Lansing said. “Paul (Lusk) is a very good coach and this is a very good team. ... I thought they came out and asserted the will from the start.”

On the offensive end, the Bears turned to senior forward Alize Johnson after struggling early. The double-double machine scored seven points in quick succession, while collecting seven rebounds and dishing a beautiful assist to junior forward Obediah Church for a bucket.

Just like that, Missouri State extended its lead to 16-6.

The issue for the Bears — in the first half and as of late — is how to score when Johnson isn’t on the court.

Johnson finished the first half with seven points, eight rebounds, two assists and a plus/minus of 14. But, when he went to the bench for a handful of minutes late in the first half, the Bears’ offense went stagnant and Indiana State began its comeback.

The Sycamores sparked an 8-2 run to trim the lead to 2217 with six minutes left in the first half, but Missouri State’s supporting cast pulled away from Indiana State.

Church, junior guard Ryan Kreklow and junior guard Jarred Dixon all pitched in on the offensive end in the first 20 minutes, scoring seven, six and nine points, respectively.

“This team has a lot of other good players, so we just stay ready for whenever a play is called for us or our name is called,” Dixon said. “We continue to work hard, because we know teams are going to be keyed in on (Alize Johnson) so we have to be ready.”

The Bears’ stingy and interchanging defense held the Sycamores to 33.3 percent shooting from the field, 30.8 percent shooting from deep and forced seven turnovers.

Kreklow’s six points came on two deep 3-pointers to end the half, and the Bears led 40-30 after 20 minutes of play.

Senior guard Ronnie Rousseau III attacks the basket against Indiana State.

KAITLYN STRATMAN/THE STANDARD

“(It felt) really good,” Kreklow said. “It’s been a while.

That’s one of the main things, it doesn’t matter if you go 0-12 or 11-12, you have to keep shooting the same shots. Coach has been on me a little bit for passing shots because I haven’t been hitting them and that just really helps my confidence.

The second half started the same way the first half did — with very little offense and lots of missed shots. Missouri State’s 10-point lead shriveled to six after a miniature 4-0 run by the Sycamores.

After scoring 10 points in the first eight minutes of the second half, the Bears’ looked extremely tentative on the offensive end.

Then, Johnson decided to put the game into his hands. He drilled two 3-pointers on back-to-back possessions to put Missouri State back up 10 points.

The senior finished the game with his seventh straight

Freshman Brice Calip looks for a jumper over here defender.

double-double and his 13th on the season, collecting 16 rebounds and scoring 21 points.

Even with Johnson excelling, Indiana State continued to make runs, cutting the Bears’ lead to 57-54 with 8:37 left in the game thanks to an 8-0 run. During the run, the Bears missed a couple 3-pointers and were held scoreless for over two minutes of play.

Senior guard J.T. Miller responded after a timeout with a tough drive and hard-nosed bucket to push the lead to five, but Indiana State sophomore Jordan Barnes answered with a jumper of his own.

The teams exchanged buckets, as Johnson drilled a stepback jumper, which was followed by a layup by sophomore Bronson Kessinger for Indiana State.

With the score 61-60, Miller attacked the basket and drew a foul. Following the media timeout, Miller drilled made one of two to give the Bears a 62-60 lead.

On the ensuing possession, Indiana State senior Demonte Ojinnaka drilled a 3-pointer to give the Sycamores their first lead of the game.

With the score tied, a minute later, Barnes drilled a 3-pointer from the corner to give the Sycamores a 68-65 lead — their biggest of the game.

“I thought we really grew, and we made some good decisions down the stretch,” Lusk said. “We didn’t panic, and I think guys grew.”

On back-to-back possessions, Ronnie Rousseau III and Dixon hit extremely difficult shots in the lane to give the Bears a 69-68 lead. “(We just) continued to try to execute,” Dixon said. “Coach — lately — has been talking about when adversity hits, you just have to keep going. They hit the big 3-pointer in the corner and luckily, we didn’t panic, stayed calm and made something happen.”

Johnson sank two big free throws under pressure to give the Bears a three-point cushion. Indiana State failed to score on the next possession and Rousseau and Johnson sealed the deal at the free throw line.

The Bears improved to 14-5, 4-2 with a 76-73 victory.

“It was very important, because we gave up two in a row so it felt good to get back on track with a win,” Dixon said.

“This league is real hard, so every game is tough. It felt good to come out with one after those two losses on the road.”

Up next for the Bears is another contest at JQH Arena when they host Valparaiso on Wednesday at 7 p.m.

It seems like forever ago when Missouri State traveled to Valparaiso and crushed the Crusaders 67-50 on their home court. Alas, it was just a little over two weeks ago, but both teams — the Bears and the Crusaders — are in a completely different place.

Since the game, Valparaiso has gone 2-2 in MVC play and are currently tied for eighth place in the league. Missouri State, too, has gone 2-2 since the New Years’ Eve contest, but the Bears sit tied for second in the MVC at 4-2.

Valparaiso will be without its second leading scorer Joe Burton, who was dismissed from the team over break. Instead, the Crusaders will lean on senior guard Tevonn Walker, who scores 15.9 points per game and shoots 40.7 percent from the field.

In the first meeting, the Bears’ defense dominated the game and limited Walker to just 11 points, and the Crusaders to just 50.

Freshman Ellie Ruffridge drives on her defender trying to make a layup.

KAITLYN STRATMAN/The Standard

Lady Bears on a roll BRENNER MOORE Sports Editor @Brennerm2

After a short trip to Illinois over the weekend, the Missouri State Lady Bears returned to Springfield with two more wins, putting them at second place in the Missouri Valley Conference.

The first matchup of the weekend, against the Illinois State Redbirds, started and ended as a defensive battle.

Senior Aubrey Buckley came alive this game scoring 15 points and corralling eight rebounds.

She also caused five turnovers, three off steals.

Other than Buckley’s performance, the Lady Bears didn’t have much brewing. The Redbirds defense is one of the best in the country and it showed this game.

That being said, the Lady Bears showed off some strong defensive prowess of their own this game. Another tough hurdle came from Illinois State’s lack of aggression.

The Lady Bears frankly didn’t have many chances to rebound or steal because there were very few chances in the first place.

“We had to go to our press there to get the

tempo up and get our energy up,” head coach Kellie Harper said on the post game radio. “They turned it over 20 times so we were able to stop them from getting the shots up.”

Missouri State commanded the game until the very end, when it looked like the Redbirds were staging a comeback.

But, in the end, the Lady Bears held on to win 56-50.

Game two of the weekend, against the Bradley University Braves, was a very different matchup for the Lady Bears.

The Braves came out of the gates firing, tearing up Missouri State’s defense. Instead of collapsing under the quick pressure applied, the Lady Bears responded with a strong offensive attack of their own.

Redshirt freshman Brice Calip helped lead the charge for the Lady Bears, scoring a career high of 16 points. “(Calip) was so strong, so solid,” Harper said.

“I thought she did a really nice job defensively and shot the ball and got some points for us.”

With an impressive 13 lead changes, this game looked like either team’s until the very end.

KAITLYN STRATMAN/The Standard

However, Bradley failed to keep up with Missouri State in the fourth quarter. After multiple late game free throws, the Lady Bears walked away with the 71-65 win.

“To battle back from where we were, I thought we did a great job,” Harper said.

After both of these wins, the Lady Bears now sit at 9-8 on the season and 5-1 in the Missouri Valley Conference. And honestly, after the tough early season the Lady Bears had, this isn’t a bad place for them to be.

Their only conference loss comes from an undefeated Drake team. Now, the Lady Bears will have to beat Drake if they want to clinch the conference, but it’s doable.

The game against Bradley could have been one of Missouri State’s best showings this season.

With four players reaching double digits and multiple players off the bench making impacts in the turnover and rebound categories, the Lady Bears are right where they need to be.

Looking on to their next couple of games, the Lady Bears don’t have to overcome much.

On Jan. 19 Missouri State hosts the Valparaiso University Crusaders, a team that is currently 2-6 when traveling. To further prove the Crusaders can’t play on the road, their only two road wins come from Eastern Illinois University (215) and Longwood University (3-12).

As far as stats go, Valparaiso and Missouri

State are nearly equal. The Crusaders grab more rebounds, but at the same time, the Lady Bears have put up strong rebound numbers in the last few matchups.

Missouri State will be relying on Valparaiso’s inability to travel to be a major handicap, but a 2-3 conference record with losses to Bradley, Drake and Northern Iowa should be comforting.

After the Crusaders, the Loyola Ramblers are next in line, coming to Springfield Jan. 21.

First and foremost, the Ramblers are 3-14 on the season and 1-5 in coference. While you shouldn’t need more convincing than that, you’re going to get it anyway.

The Ramblers cannot shoot a 3-pointer to save their lives. In fact, they know that fact so well, they barely even take 3-pointers.

The Loyola team high on the season is 94 3-pointers compared to Missouri State’s 106.

After that, no one else wants to shoot past the arc.

I know what you’re thinking, they must have a nasty two-point game, right?

Well, outside of 3-pointers, they are average.

Shooting 35.5 percent on the season, the Ramblers still pose a threat to lazy defenses.

The Lady Bears recent road wins, combined with two potential wins at home this weekend, could very well be the start of a strong tear through the conference.

TUESDAY, JANUARY 16, 2018

THE-STANDARD.ORG 07

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KAITLYN STRATMAN/The Standard

Christ the King — in the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in Springfield.

It was a full house that night,and has been ever since.

But Christ the King is only one of the reasons this tournament has evolved to the historic event, Keltner said.

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came the first year, and when they stepped off the plane I think they were ranked seventh in the country and they won the tournament, and from that point forward they have been a mainstay at the tournament,” You can find the ball from the first game — Glendale vs.

and Bass Pro Shops and sponsors for the extended effort to make it an experience these kids will remember for a lifetime.

Local kids playing against some of the best players in the country and doing so well.

And some of the best players in the nation experiencing a college-like scene.

This one in particular had storylines that made it easy to enjoy, too.

Winston Garland, former Missouri State hall of fame basketball player, watched his son, Brentwood Academy’s Darius Garland, score the fourth most points in Tournament of Champions history.

Local guards Monty Johal of Glendale and Quinn Nelson of Ozark took the crowd by storm, both having multiple 25-point games.

Wasatch Academy hitting the longest buzzer beater, from the opposite three point line, many of us have probably seen … to win the game.

But in the end, it comes back to the one factor that will always make this tournament a success : Springfield.

“It’s about the people of Springfield, ya know? You can’t go anywhere else in the country and experience this,” Joe Arbitello, head coach of Christ the King, said.

“It gets the guys ready for college, playing with the bright lights and even just when you are not in the gym how much attention you get and how you have to act the right way and how you are held to a higher standard. I think those are the important parts of this tournament.”

U

SI

Freshman Moussa Cisse of Christ the King High School throws down an emphatic jam in the TOC dunk contest.

The other?

The people who filled the arena and the atmosphere and basketball fans of Springfield.

The 2018 tournament, again, showed exactly that.

Here’ a tidbit from my Tournament of Champions blog to describe it: “The lights shut off in JQH as the big screen was the only light that illuminated the arena.

As this was happening, the PA announcer was telling the fans CBS Sports Network was about to broadcast live, to get out their phone flashlights to light up the arena and get loud … and it did.

Kentucky commit and Oak Hill senior forward Keldon Johnson was struck with a rush of emotion as the fans yelled that he jolted off the bench with his muscles clinched, slapping a teammates hand who was part of the tunnel waiting for the starting lineup.

He could feel it. The tournament was created for this.”

It was a connection of dots for me as I talked with coaches and players that all understand one of the largest high school basketball tournaments in the nation isn’t entirely about basketball.

It was about the experience for all.

A kid going far enough to have a high school basketball player sign an autograph on his forehead. Yes, this really happened.

The 25,000 plus fans who had enough knowledge and care to give standing ovations and cheer to those who deserved.

The referees for interpreting respectful play.

The event staff, hospitality,

RI

ER

From the eyes of one of the creators of the Tournament of Champions, former Glendale head coach – 1985-1999 – Mike Keltner, three things made the creation and stamina of the Tournament of Champions possible: “Bass Pro Shops, Christ the King and the great basketball fans of southwest Missouri.”

But first, how was it created?

The idea for a champions tournament started back in the ‘50s and ‘60s, but according to Keltner, it was very short lived.

At the time, the tournament brought the former ‘champions’ in Missouri to compete — however, this didn’t last as former champions might have lost seniors from the year before and it dissolved before anything was made of it.

Fast forward decades later and Bass Pro Shops reached out to Springfield Public Schools, saying they wanted to be a part of something with the school.

The athletic director at the time, Edsel Matthews, who went on to essentially create Drury Athletics, approved the idea of bringing back the idea of the old Tournament of Champions.

This time, the mission with Keltners help was to get more creative with the teams playing in it.

Fast forward to January 1985, on a 10 degree night with two inches of snow on the ground, the Bass Pro Tournament of Champions officially made its mark in game one.

Keltner, the Glendale head

coach who win it in ‘94 coached in the first game and said near 5,000 fans waited in a line outside of McDonald Arena in the arctic terrain to get tickets.

Why? To get their first look at a team from Queens, New York.

Christ the King.

What were they doing in Springfield?

Most fans had never seen some of the perennial powers of high school basketball. How did the Springfield Public Schools get a team from Queens, New York to come to McDonald Arena?

Keltner said it was the turning point of what made the tournament what it is today.

“I suggested to make this thing go; we needed to get national programs in, and I had worked some camps with coach Maurice Payne from Louisville and he was at Louisville Male High School. They were always nationally ranked and were a perennial Kentucky power, and I’d worked some camps with him, so I called coach Payne up.

“Well, the tournament was the same week as the L.I.T. – the Louisville Invitational Tournament – and he said we will be invited to that because he had a player named Winston Bennett (who went on to be an All-American at Kentucky), and he said we will get invited to that so we can not come to your tournament.

However, there is a really good program and really good people associated with it from Christ the King in Queens, New York.

“So he gave me the number.

I called the athletic director; I called the head coach. We got everything worked out. They

E

BLAINE WHEELER Staff Reporter @Blainewheeler21

TH

Sophomore Darrick Jones Jr. from Oak Hill Academy poses with the Tournament of Champions Dunk Contest trophy after being crowned the winner.

Tournament of Champions

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Addiction cont.

But when he woke up the next morning, he noticed a difference — he actually remembered the events of the night before and all the promises he made to God. That morning fell on Super Bowl Sunday. Stoecker planned on attending a watch-party, where he knew he would be tempted with alcohol. The all-too-familiar voice of his conscience told him to stay home. But Stoecker brushed off the advice and made his way to the party.

That car ride on Jan. 31, 2009 — one Stoecker vividly remembers — is still a part of his recovery story.

“The Rolling Stones came on the radio, and I can’t stand the Rolling Stones,” Stoecker said. “So I started flipping through trying to find some-

thing else and I came to a dead spot. I waited to see what was going to play.”

Lyrics to a Christian song

by Brandon Heath resounded through the car: “I wish you could see me now, I wish I could show you how I’m not who I was.”

In that moment, Stoecker said a voice he had never heard before, whom he attributes to God, said to him, “Go home, you got this.”

“I pulled over to the side of the road and bawled,” Stoecker said. “I turned around and drove home and I haven’t used since.”

Now, more than eight years sober, Stoecker said he lives in “long-term recovery” where he confronts addiction.

He said he believes in the theory that substance abuse contains three factors: 50 percent of the problem stems from a genetic disposition for

people don’t get sober. We need to keep people “ Dead alive long enough to get them in recovery.”

-David Stoecker, former addict and director of Better Life in Revovery addiction, 30 percent from the outside environment and 20 percent from mental health issues.

Stoecker’s addiction testimony combines all three.

“My first memory was being molested by a babysitter when I was probably 3,” Stoecker said. “My father had a drinking problem. My mom left my dad the first week of fifth grade and dropped us off at her parents’ house.”

Stoecker said he spent the next two years living with his grandparents.

“My grandpa was mean, angry and evil,” Stoecker said. “He was the kind of person that would beat me … and

A nation crippled by opioids In addition to the 94 overdose calls the Springfield Police Department responded to from January to June 2017, 99 were made in 2015, and 87 in 2016, seven fatal. So how can Greene County handle a national epi-

demic that is growing right in its backyard?

Drug monitoring programs are considered by the CDC to be “among the most promising state-level interventions to improve opioid prescribing, inform clinical

CLERY Continued from page 1 including liquor law violations, drug abuse and weapons law violations.

According to clerycenter.org, “When a crime covered by the Clery Act occurs, campus officials are required to evaluate if there is a serious or ongoing threat to the campus community to determine if a timely warning needs to be issued to all staff and students.

“In the event of an immediate, significant danger to the health or safety of the campus community (e.g. weather, disease outbreak), campus officials may issue an emergency notification. This notification can include the entire campus or be limited to a specific area deemed to be at risk.”

Johnson said this evaluation is made by a group of MSU officials,

TUESDAY, JANUARY 16, 2018

practice, and protect patients at risk.”

Springfield City Council and Greene County Commission have implemented their own Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs. These programs collect data

then keep me out of school for a week so that I could heal up.”

Memories of physical and sexual abuse haunted Stoecker until he found his solution: drugs. In seventh grade, he drank alcohol and smoked marijuana for the first time.

A few years later, Stoecker graduated to methamphetamine.

At age 22, Stoecker sustained injuries from a serious car wreck. He said doctors placed him on morphine, a highly addictive pain reliever.

From that point on, Stoecker’s two drugs of choice became morphine and methamphetamine.

from pharmacies to where he equips peomonitor the number of ple with the drug and controlled substances teaches them how to dispensed. administer it in the An immediate event of an overdose. solution to overdoses “Dead people don’t is Narcan, a drug that get sober,” Stoecker reverses the effects of said. “We need to keep an opioid overdose. people alive long Stoecker said he enough to get them in holds Narcan training recovery.” sessions within u For the expanded version, visit the community, www.the-standard.org.

including the safety and transportation department, the dean of students, a person from the communications department and a general council.

The Springfield Police Department often provides the crime report, Johnson said, but the ultimate decision on whether or not to notify the campus comes from the school.

There are two kinds of notifications required by the Clery Act. “There’s a difference between what we call a timely warning and an emergency notification,” Johnson said. “In an emergency notification, you might get a text. … It means that there is an active situation and if you don’t do something you could be hurt.

“A timely warning is more like, (a crime) happened, we received a report about it and here are some tips to keep yourself safe and whether there is a threat to campus as a whole.”

The text alerts, Johnson said, are sent out when information must be shared as quickly as possible, which

can potentially jeopardize accuracy.

In the cases when a timely warning must be issued, officials have a bit more time to organize and check the information, as it is usually reported to them. The idea behind a timely warning is to share what happened and provide tips for prevention.

In either case, a notification is required. But, Johnson said, MSU’s campus has seen a few circumstances when a notification isn’t required by the Clery Act, but campus received one anyway. These are the crime alerts.

“The crime alert is not a Clery Act (requirement),” Johnson said. “Those are issued when it doesn’t meet the Clery Act, but campus still thinks someone should know.”

Johnson said this was the case with the armed robberies near MSU throughout the fall semester of 2017.

Safety and Transportation was under no legal obligation to send out the alerts of any armed robbery, but, Johnson said, the department felt the

“It numbed me,” Stoecker said. “It helped me escape and I really liked being numb and escaping. I decided if I stayed that way, nothing could hurt me and I didn’t have to think about my past.”

When he initially committed to sobriety on that Super Bowl Sunday, Stoecker said he “got really busy” by making recovery a huge part of his life. He attended as many meetings as he could, he ended friendships with people who used, and he got involved in the community.

Today, Stoecker is a husband and a father. He also has a bachelor’s and master’s degree from Missouri State,

and is the director of an organization called Better Life in Recovery. This local nonprofit is dedicated to spreading awareness and providing education on substance abuse and mental health issues.

Stoecker said Better Life in Recovery also organizes social events, like bowling, karaoke and community service opportunities for people in recovery.

“To me, it’s about making people necessary to their communities and showing people how amazing their life can be in recovery,” Stoeker said. “I would say recovery is my job, my hobby and kind of my life.”

If you or someone you know needs help: •Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s National Helpline: 1-800-662HELP (4357) • Missouri State Counseling Center Carrington Hall, Room 311 Office hours: Monday - Friday, 8:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Phone: 417-836-5116

threat to students was serious enough for high alert.

The department also decides when there is not a threat to students.

On Dec. 18, 2017, a rape was reported at the Alpha Kappa Lambda fraternity house. Campus was not notified because the incident wasn’t deemed a threat to anyone else — but the report was available to the public through the school’s daily crime log.

Johnson said the department did get feedback from students.

“As far as the sexual assault … yes, it was a Clery crime and, yes, it happened on campus,” Johnson said.

“But, quite honestly, there was no reason (to notify) because there wasn’t a threat. … If we know who the perpetrator is, we can litigate that threat.”

Johnson said the bottom line is that the department chooses not to release a notification for every crime so students will understand, when they do receive a notice, to be on high alert or take action, if necessary.

“We analyzed the situation and reviewed it,” Johnson said. “We don’t want to put out notice just to put a notice out. Then people get to a point that they don’t pay much attention. ...

If we know the perpetrator and are talking to them, we will not put one out.”

University policy statement on safety and crime alerts: “In compliance with the Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA) of 2008, and the Jeanne Clery Act, 20 U.S.C. 1092(f) as amended, the purpose of this policy is to ensure procedures are set forth by which the university will provide emergency notification or timely warning to the university community in the event that a significant emergency or dangerous situation is reported that poses an immediate, imminent, or impeding threat to members of the university community; or a crime or incident is reported that poses a threat to members of the University community.”