PAGE ONE COMMENTARY Baseball Coach Ignored Grades-to-Play Policy

MENENDEZ SUSPENDED FROM
TEACHING JOB— BUT OFFICIALS
WILL NOT SAY WHY

SUPERINTENDENT BURKE:
THE LACK OF CONSISTENT
APPLICATION OF RULES AND
PROCEDURES WILL END WITH THE
ARRIVAL OF NEW KWHS PRINCIPAL
THERESA AXFORD

by Rhonda
Linseman-Saunders
Associate Editor

Key West High School
(KWHS) has just wrapped up
another school year, complete
with the athletic department
antics to which many, apparently
including outgoing principal
John Welsh, have grown
desensitized. Why else would
Welsh have allowed athletic/
academic policy changes that
blatantly put Key West High
School baseball above that little
“school” thingy they have to
keep running in order to continue
the baseball program?

Before this year’s varsity
baseball season began, coaches
of all KWHS sports were
required to do weekly grade
checks of each player on their
team. If an athlete had two or
more Fs, he or she was not allowed
to travel and play with
the team.

This was the policy
set by former Athletic Director
(AD) Judd Wise. Wise even
printed and checked the grades
himself. Seems like an excellent
way to remind athletes that they
are students first, and to make
academics their priority.

In the Case of the Cop Car That Ran Over Man in Crosswalk, City Still Won’t Admit Liability

by Dennis Reeves Cooper

Almost seven months
after a police car literally ran
over 65-year-old David Denton—
who was crossing the
street in a pedestrian crosswalk
with a green light—city officials
have still not admitted liability.
Meanwhile, Denton’s medical
bills now total almost $50,000
with more to come.

Last November 24, in
the early evening, Denton was
walking back to his White
Street apartment after doing
some shopping at a nearby
convenience store. At the intersection
of White and Southard,
he waited on the sidewalk for
the traffic light to turn green,
and then stepped off the curb
to cross Southard Street.

At the same time, Key West
Police Officer Nick Revoredo
was turning left off White Street
onto Southard. Denton had
almost reached the other side
of the street when Revoredo’s
patrol car struck him, knocked
him to the pavement and literally
ran over him, according to
Attorney Charles Milligan, who
is representing Denton.

Scofflaw Bicyclist Killed

The bicyclist who was killed last Friday afternoon
on North Roosevelt Boulevard was apparently a victim
of his own reckless driving. The investigation is still
ongoing, but Alyson Crean, the spokeswoman for the
Key West Police Department as well as the City of Key
West, said this week that Robert Dale Brower, 53, was
apparently riding his bicycle on the sidewalk, heading
west in the 3000 block of North Roosevelt. At a parking
lot driveway, Brower veered off the sidewalk and onto
the street— without bothering to check for oncoming
traffic— commonly called “failure to yield the right-ofway”
by police officers.

According to Crean, Brower peddled right into the side of a tractor trailer rig, also traveling west. The tractor
trailer won the contest. Brower was pronounced dead at the
scene. Brower lived in Kay West, listing general delivery as his
mailing address.

LETTERS: The best dogs come from SUFA!

Dear Editor:

I sure hope the County Commission won’t close the Big Pine Shelter and cut funding to Stand Up For Animals (SUFA). The best animals in the county come from the Marathon Shelter, because they have such great community participation and the animals are well socialized.

My last four dogs were from the Marathon Shelter, two of which are still alive and giving me great companionship.

SUFA has a big area to cover and they cover it better than anyone ever has. It would be criminal to defund them in favor of shelters which cover less territory and euthanize more animals and perform less spay-neuter.

To do so would be a disincentive to all county workers who perform above and beyond the call of duty.

Katha Sheehan
Key West
305-394-3542

LETTER FROM BAGHDAD: To Have and Have Nots

by Ken Davis

Day 478.

The hot days and cool
nights have disappeared, replaced
by hot nights and hotter
days. Every day is a trip into
the teens and lately the 120s.
The wind blows and it’s like
a hair dryer being pointed in
your face. Cigar smoking, the
favorite Baghdad pastime of
expats, has been relegated to
late night rooftops where a
slight breeze cools your sweat-soaked
clothes.

As I hit the final steps of
the stairs leading me to the top
of our seven-story bombed-out
office building, I expected to be
among friends and company
seeking a warm night with a
view. Instead I was welcomed
with the loud warning of “Fire
in the hole!”

I hit the slate roof top,
covered my head and waited
for the explosion to follow
shortly. Instead of a thunderous
boom, I heard “thwapappap,”
followed closely by some
snickering and muffled laugher.

RHONDA: Conchs Skirt Death

by Rhonda Linseman-Saunders

Oh, my god. I swear on my grandmother’s
grave, a lady just stumbled in here asking to sit down
because, she said, she had just fainted outside in the
heat. Don’t be alarmed, I’m not at home. I’m at the
Sippin’ Internet Cafe trying to get some work done
away from the kids while my mom’s in town.

And . . . the barista’s getting the sweaty lady
some water. She’s recovering now. Deep breaths. Head
on table. Sitting back up. Nobody panic. Everything’s
going to be fine.

She’s talking, now, about having stripper clothes
in her car and having to study for the real estate test.
I’m pretty sure it’s just heat stroke related delirium.
She is definitely not from around here. How do
I know that, you’re wondering? If you ever want to
discern the Conchs from the transplants and visitors,
just observe people outside on one of these Key West
summer days. The Conchs are the ones you’ll notice
putting on sweatshirts after 5 p.m. when the real-feel
temperature drops below 95 degrees.

O'BOYLE: Victim Disarmament Neither Logical Nor Ethical

by Hal O’Boyle

Originally printed in September of 2007. Nothing much has changed in Costa Rica, except it is now harder for the law abiding expat to obtain a gun here.

A recent letter to the Tico
Times, Costa Rica’s English-language weekly newspaper, using an
abundance of logical and ethical claptrap, urged the paper to decline
advertisements from gun shops. The writers, emigrants from the UK, were
understandably concerned about crime. They wrote with the certainty of
the righteous.

It’s the guns, the letter writers tell us, that cause Costa Rica’s
violence. Banning them is the only way to restore peace and brotherhood.
Similar reasoning would conclude that spoons cause obesity. And I can
only assume the writers were unaware of the soaring violent crime rates
that followed a ban on guns in their own country. Or, if they are aware
of them, perhaps they illogically conclude that victim disarmament and
increased crime are not related.

In the British émigrés’ simple world, illogical assumptions coupled
with well-intentioned self-righteousness secure the claim of moral
superiority over evil gun dealers, trigger-happy gun owners and the
unethical editors who broker business between the two. The letter
writers assume, in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary,
that mere possession of a firearm causes criminal behavior. If that were
true, places where firearms are most common would be hotbeds of gun
violence.

CRITTERS: Another Pig Story

by Jane Dawkins
Florida Keys SPCA

One afternoon, a couple of
months ago, the FKSPCA had
an unusual phone call: “I just
saw a pig in the mangroves and
I promise you, I’m not drunk!”

Indeed, there was a pig in the
mangroves and it took three
staff members a couple of hours
and all of their rescuing and
wrangling skills to capture this
wayward young porcine.

It was later learned that
she was being kept in very poor
conditions in a local subdivision
while she awaited her fate as a
roast pork dinner. The owner,
possibly fearing charges of
neglect, never came forward to
claim her and so “Hope” became
the third pig that the FKSPCA
has cared for at the shelter:

Candidate Forum Friday Afternoon

A Hometown! Political Action Committee (PAC) “Meet the
Candidates” rally is set for this evening, Friday, June 18, at the
Key West Tropical Forest and Botanical Garden, 5:30-7:30 p.m. The
garden is locatred at 5210 College Road on Stock Island. A social
period from 5:30-6 p.m. will be followed by brief presentations by
candidates for the county commission, school board, mosquito
control board, state representatives and county judges.
This is a timely event, since all candidates, to be on the
ballot, must qualify by noon today.

Show & Shine Car Show Sunday

The monthly meeting of the Florida Keys Southernmost
Car Club (FKSCC) is set for this Sunday, June 20, noon ‘til 4pm,
at Sugarloaf Lodge, MM17. This event is for the lovers of classic,
custom, and street rod automobiles of all years and makes. Fords,
Chevys, trucks, lowriders, and chrome loaded motorcycles. If
it cool and on wheels it will be here. Info: Dick Moody at (305)
942-1758.