ST9302-CS001027OPINION
__Citizena' Advocate' October 27, ~,000 · 2
Another View_
Treat Yourself to the Haunted Road
I would like to recommend the perfect Halloween treat for your family
entertainment. You won~ have to leave your car. Believe it or not, people who are
· ' d in Ccouell have a great sense of humor. They decided to
rebudding a ro~ -- . ....... a.~ instead of an haunted home-
participate in the Halloween sixnt oY comuu,~--~--
an haunted road! To ~ind the road, start on Denton Tap at Sandy Lake, going east
on Sandy Lake toward Can-ollton. You must be going east to expenence the
haunted road. you should also go at night. .
decorations on the road are onglat orang~ a~m o,~.. slanted, sideways,
they are everywhere, in every sort of shape and condition-
upside down, like a train wreck that has already occurred. It is really scary.
You will soon travel up an elevated stretch of the haunted road with a very,
wa , Imrely big enough for your car. ~There's nothing to compare_
very,n~o., w .rosd ~. Y: .~_:_- .o,. ~., a ni~htm~. Xhe narrow road dr~ on-
to this nde at ~ :~tate rmr. *~ = '~" .... ~'-
· atfi tangles. That, sthetr/ckofthe~v, at'-thescareoffalling°ff
on each s!de gh ...:- , _:_..~ .... t., yon exnerience real danger on the
into the ptts below.' t ms was acss~pr-" ,,' ,"-'- ~ ~-
haunted highway. Drive?. mu. st re, f~n f__r~_~!_~o~n~g~tt~d~vdo~rngw~o~w?'to
While driving on this elevate0 gangpt~,,~, ...... -
experience the spooky Halloween sounds. Surely, ghosts and goblins are hiding
under the road and behind the concrete blocks, scaring us with their noises. Even
the wind is howling.
Well, the drive ends soon enough (for us), and most of us probably won't want
to go twice. -But after Halloween, the haunted road will he gone, and we will get
a nice, new road. So go now !
Polls Attempt tO Quantify Us
, driven bv polls. CBS, ABC, CNN, NBC, ESPN, USA
We are a country - --'- ant to know what you think about
Toda , Gallup--you name thc .grpu...p, th_e_y_ w .....a. ,,~,~lls on every imaginable
Y · t there ar~ thousands ... r---
er ng and anything. .
· ' zarre!
For example, tnere 1s me o~a:i r~, -,
· · ' . can even express opiniom about the players, mann?rs and
~amesot-tllelNewxonttvw~u-,-T..~.'-~_.--- ! -__ ___r~.~,~,,thood And, lemlnlsts
~-rial Killer Info Poll is for you. yes, mere s even ~w t,.~ t~
have their own poll on-line, too. quest for prediction a little too far. A poll
However, sometimes we can carry the
nt of a toilet seat is an example. It seems the "Toilet_Seat
for the vro r placeme .... : ..... , ,,,, down after use. In an
· ~"~ ' 'n uan,t' ~erence, ~o, .-.-. u~ ~. ..... .
Ddemma p~_! ta tr~...g.~_q.t~_ _u~,y, .,~,oo,hat result~ are not sctent, fic and s~mply
reflec~ the collective optmon ~x everyone who
· thousands of other polls, can be found on-line at
ladonshi . No aut)ject ts. too ~,~,~ ~."'_7_5 · 'ust that n x uamt
sret~stics ~ste~poll even has a search engine tO help with finding j gn
of e;~ ido~at~on.
Also, there ia one more poll observation that needs to he addressed. Right now
we're all being told by the media who we favor for President on November 7. Have any
our reference for a candidate by such a poll?
u been called to express y P - e're all hein told how
ofyo , tedl ,w g
· wan onewhohas. Yct,~pea Y Is
Interestingly, Idontkno_ Y ,,,-,, · toconductm ownpoll _ale)out. poi ·
, ao, t vedecided Y .
pleasesend ourrespome_tomv~m~-,-_~,'_~ . - es. I've been contacted oy
itical 'nion poll. (B) No, I persona-y,-, · · . d
a Poi .°ix -- ,~, m-- don't know where these olxmons come from (D) I
someone WhO was. ~./ ~.-,-,. I.{ ........ '-~- .,,Olin-, calls.
rather r~eiv¢ telemar, k. e. ting .so~).c.L_mu_..°~, c~~l~e or at least their poll, speak~ -
I awaK your cncaces. ~t u~ ,,,- ,,, ,,,-. r-.--r-¢,
CHS Arson Investigation Continues
IS-Year-Old Girl Charged with Setting Fires
by Jane Moore
Police, firefightera and
Coppell 1SD continue to inves-
tigate five fires set at Coppell
High School last Friday morn-
ing.
Law enfow, ement efficlals
tonka 15-)~r-old girl intocu~-
tody following the fires, which
were set in v;/rious locations
throughout the building be-
tween 9:30 and 10 a.m. Otto-
her 19. According to Fire Mar-
sbal Travis Crump, two of the
fires were set in trash cans
three in girls' restrooms.
Cmmpsaidhis dep~mem
to the stadium, where they waited
for two hours as fire Fersonnel
from Coppell, Lewisville and Irv-
ing ~earched for other possible
fires.
"Since we'd already found
five fires, we went ~oom to toonl
to room,' he said.
Students had just returned
from a first-period fire drill and
were settling into second period
when the alarms went off again.
Manyfirst thonght thealarms were
a mistake.
Beth access roads to the High
School were b~ockaded by police
during the incident. The block-
ades, combined with the presence
pened. The City issued a press
release regarding the incident at
II a.m.
Various CHS student ac-
counts indicate some of the fires
were set inside ceiling tiles. One
student said she noticed a smoky
smell and saw a burned area on
the ceiling of the girls' hathmom
next to the new lecture hall by the
cafeteria.
Crump declined to confirm
that account, but did say all the
bathroom fires were set in the
same manner. None of the fires
were burning by the time officials
arrived on the scene.
"Ail the fires had managed
.~,.,,,,.,,m~iv~l a ~ll. indi~alin~ lls~*~ ~: .
was a smell of smoke in the and a hovering Channel S te~evi-
building, sion helicopter, set an ominous
"By the time the first eh- tonedespltereassusaueesfrompo-
glue arrived, the alarms were licethatstndentswe~safe. Acall
sounding," he said. to Channel 5 finally revealed a
Stodents were evacuated few details about what had hap-
CISD to Ask Residents to
Prioritize, Budget Cut Looms
By Jane Moore District's budget in the black.
School Bom'cl members on
Parents and students in Monday adopted a "Public
Coppell ISD are accustomed ~o Awareness/Input" process tofind
having the best of everything, out where residents' priorities lie
but they may soon have tode- beforetheyheglnwbatcouldhea
cide what they are willing to painful budget process for the
give up in order to keep the see BUDOET onpage 24
The gld, a sophomore.
identified as a suspect alter offi-
cials interviewed several people.
"We had some information
that there was a student that had
see ~Om on I~ge 24
City Annou. nces
Road Closure
The Ci~yhaxammmeed cio-
Lake Rond imenectton due to
traffic on Sandy Lake will
ba b'TsotecL Entry and exit to
M~x~c]n~blrd will ne4 he allc~qM
thmush mld-Dacember.
HEADING INTO HALLOWEEN ·
p~o_ ro by (?iao McGinrd$
"deez, i hMethls Po~t OakTmumatk=Syndromel" (928
Creek Cro#lng) See more photo~ on page 10.
Ballots Reflect 36 Races,
Many Residents Voting Early
By Jane Moore vote, Coppell for the first time
has facilities for casting those
With less than two weeks ballots early. Move than I
left until Election Day, it's time people had already taken ndvan-
to look at who else is on the tageofthafwhenpollsclosedon
ballot beside presidential candi- Tuesday. Officials said in
dates and a local City Council Coppeli 335 people voted on
seat. And when you are ready aa see EI~.OTION on page 24
Lightning: An OVerlooked but Real Safety Threat?
By Jean Murph with 210deaths. 42of them dur- "A strike can kill you in- coupled with their high in-
Morgan Wells "never knew
what hit him. As he regained
consciousness, he heard his kids
screaming, 'Daddy's dead, daddy's
dead.'" Wells lived to tell about
being struck by lightning on a
boat outing with his children,
Many victims are not so lucky.
Lightning kills an average of
100 persons every year in the
United States and injures anther
250. The year 1963 was a hlgh,
lng the month of July·
Texas ranked second in the
nation in lighming-related deaths
from 1959 through 199~. the last
year statistics were available.
During that period, Texas re-
corded 169 deaths and several
hundred injuries.
According to numerous
sourcas, lightning is the greatest
danger during a storm, causing
more deaths per year than torna-
does and hurri~ues combined,
stantly, but worse. (it) can cook
you inside out,' reported
Weatherwise magazine in a 199~
article. "Chasing Tomadcos."
Storm photographers descdhed
the impact of being struck by
lightning,
"ff yon're in the rain, you're
too close," warned Warren
Faidley, a photographer who
narrowly missed a direct strike.
Because North Texans are
in a high lightning strike zone,
volvement in outdoor activi-
ties, they may he at risk. What
do we know about lightning
and how can we protect our-
selves.'?
What We Know
Ancient societies believed
bolts of lightning from the sky
were retribution from angry
gods. In 1752. Benjamin
Franklin discovered a more sci-
entific explanation. Wilh a
see I.l~ll'Y~l~ on pare 2