European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - May 3, 1990, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Thursday May 3, 1990 the stars and stripes a a a Page 7 a wave of student suicides hits High school in Arkansas Sheridan Ark. Apr a Sheridan High school student died of an apparent self inflicted gunshot wound tuesday one Day after two of his classmates took their own lives. The latest death was the fourth apparent suicide at the school in the past month. Police it. Lenard Lewis said Jerry Paul Mccool a 17-year-old Sophomore apparently killed himself at his Home in East end a Saline county Community eight Miles South of Little Rock on tuesday. The body of was found by his father Lewis said. The death if officially ruled a suicide would raise to seven the number of suicides in this Community of about 3,000, about 25 Miles South of Little Rock in the past six weeks. A 17-year-old High school student killed himself about a month ago and three other suicides have been committed in the county in the last six weeks the sheriffs department said. Mccool attended Sheridan High school and knew the two students who killed themselves monday. In mondays incidents one youth shot himself in front of a classroom of students and a second died of an apparent self inflicted gunshot at his Home about nine hours later. The two students who had at least one class together were Thomas Smith a 17-year-old Junior who shot himself in a history class monday after professing his love for a girl and Thomas m. Chidester 19, a senior who died of a single shot to the head with a .45-caliber weapon later in the Day. Police say Chidester May have been distraught Over Smiths suicide. Steve Brown assistant school superintendent said the victims had been friends. Chidester a left a Short note saying a i can to go on any longer a a said sheriff Cary Clark. Sheridan police chief David Hooks said Smith was pronounced dead about four hours after the 1 . Shooting. A Smith walked to the front of the class and told a girl a i love you a a Hooks said. A the pulled out a Small Caliper revolver that was in his pants under his shirt and shot one  the Bullet struck him in the forehead. Chidester lived with his grandmother Annie Mae fun Derburg. She said that when she went to bed about 9 ., the youth was watching television. Clark said the woman told him that she awoke Early in the morning and noticed the House lights were still on. She said she got up and found Chidester sprawled across his bed at an Odd Angle. She said she tried to Wake him and noticed blood around his head. Clark said Grant county Coroner Mike Angelo determined that the death happened Between 10 and 11 . Monday. Rhonda Damron 17, of Sheridan said she was the girl Smith was talking about when he went to the front of the fifth period american history class. A the said he wanted to say two things about his weekend a one he was in love with me and then he pulled the gun from the front of his pants and shot himself a she said. Damron said she and Smith had been classmates since sixth Grade and became a very very close friends a downcast David Robinson Sheridan schools superintendent leaving the High school on tuesday. Last year. A we would Tell each other everything. That was All it was a she said. Chidester and Smith were members of the schools Junior Reserve officers training corps the sheriff said. Chidester had left school a for a while to attend National guard training but returned to school in september and planned to enter the military after graduation Clark  lawmakers get school plan deadline by the Washington Post Austin Texas state District judge Scott Mccown tuesday gave Texas lawmakers another month to enact a plan equalizing financing for Rich and poor school districts. If the state fails to meet his deadline he said the court will impose its own plan. The ruling came As Republican gov. Bill Clements fulfilled his Promise to veto the state Legislatures $555 million school finance Reform Bill because it entailed a half cent sales tax increase. Clements said the legislature could devise a less expensive package funded by budget cuts and called the House and Senate Back for a third consecutive special session on the Issue that was to Start wednesday. The school financing Battle has been fought in Texas courts Tor 22 years since a suit by parents in the Edgewood Independent school District on san Antonious impoverished West Side. Last october the state supreme court ruled 9-0 that the system was unconstitutional because As much As $2,000 More per student was being spent in property Rich districts. The state was Given until tuesday to rectify the disparities. But Clements did not put the Issue to the legislature until late february and lawmakers needed two special sessions to propose the solution vetoed by Clements. Texas education chief William Kirby said he was pleased with Mccown s decision because it allowed the states school districts to finish the academic year without facing a potential funding shutdown. Most Texas schools begin summer vacation about june 1, the new court deadline. If lawmakers fail to resolve the Issue however Kirby said he was concerned that the court would impose a so called a Robin Hood plan where Money is taken directly from Rich districts and Given to poor  hand first lady Barbara Bush holds a 4-month-old baby that is infected with the aids virus during a visit on tuesday to a Nursery in Palm Beach Fla. She encouraged More Community support for youngsters suffering from the disease As she played grandmother smiling for a child a toy camera and frisking Over each baby. Calif mathematician sues for right to freeze his head before he Dies los Angeles apr a mathematician who filed a lawsuit so he can freeze his own head before he Dies from a brain tumor says the Odds of achieving immortality Arentt As bad As one might think. A we think that everyone should be immortal. The purpose of Medicine should be to bring about that immortality a Thomas Donaldson said in a Telephone interview from his Home in Sunnyvale a Community in californians Silicon Valley South of san Francisco. Donaldson 46, said he wants his head Quick Frozen while he is still alive using a process known As clinic suspension. He a betting that future scientists will discover a Way to cure the tumor and attach his head to a healthy body. In a lawsuit filed monday in Santa Barbara county Superior court Donaldson seeks to bar state and local officials from preventing his cryonic suspension before he is declared legally dead. Donaldson said the Choice to file the suit in Santa Barbara about 250 Miles South of his Home was arbitrary. A a it a a Nice area a he said. A a it a really a Case against the state of  cryonic suspension is a procedure in which All or part of the body is supposedly preserved in a deep freeze. Advocates of cryonics contend that waiting for Legal brain death lessens the chances of successful reawakening. To Date the procedure Only has been performed after a patient has died of natural causes. Donaldson said he wants to secure the right to have the procedure before the tumor significantly damages his brain. A i am dying and want to be cryonic ally suspended so that i might later be revived and continue to live a said Donaldson a member of the Alcor life Extension foundation based in Riverside. In California Legal death is defined As when a per son no longer shows signs of brain activity As recorded by an electroencephalography. Alcor gained National attention in 1987 when the head of an elderly woman was Frozen after she died at the lab. Authorities questioned whether her head was removed before she died. Donaldson says radiation treatment has not affected his tumor which was discovered in 1988. Court papers say that although the tumor is stable he has Only a 40 percent Chance of living until August of 1993. So he a filing suit now. Donaldson a senior mathematician at mind systems in Belmont Hasni to decided where if he succeeds to have his cryonic suspension done. But he says the Alcor lab. In Riverside about 55 Miles East of los Angeles would be a logical place for suspension and storage. In the procedure he would be anaesthetized while his body temperature is reduced. Alcor surgeons then would replace his blood with glycol and other chemicals to minimize tissue damage caused by freezing. Donaldson a head would be surgically removed at the end of the operation then sealed in a vacuum Container and maintained at minus 320 degrees fahrenheit. The operation would Cost him $35,000. A full body suspension costs about $100,000. Donaldson said he a been planning on cryonic suspension since before he joined Alcor in 1975. His wife Kathryn Woof is All for it. A a she a a cryonic is too a he said. Donaldson