The Uni High Parents' Discussion Board

Selections from Francis A. Boyle's Mein Kampf


Boyle, Francis
176
03-02-2005 05:10 PM ET (US)

Hi. Does anyone know of female UNI students who have withdrawn their applications from Harvard in order to protest the sexist comments by Harvard's president larry summers that women are dumber than men? A female Boston Globe Reporter would like to speak with them. Please contact me if relevant. thanks. fab.

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Samuel Beshers
177
03-03-2005 09:33 AM ET (US)

In Larry Summers' address, he NEVER said that women are dumber than men, and he was very careful to make his remarks not sexist: all he did was to rhetorically ask about the possible cause(s) of the big differences in numbers of women and men in tenured science and math faculty. It's an important question to ask.If someone was going to withdraw her Harvard application I hope she would do it in response to something that actually happened, not in response to an unjustified knee-jerk characterization.The transcript is here
http://www.president.harvard.edu/speeches/2005/nber.html

Mr. Boyle, you appear to have perpetrated a falsehood.

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Boyle, Francis
178
03-03-2005 09:38 AM ET (US)

I read the comments. he said that women are dumber than men when it comes to math, science, engineering, etc. you parse it however you want. summers is a sexist. fab.

Francis A. Boyle
Law Building
504 E. Pennsylvania Ave.
Champaign, IL 61820 USA
217-333-7954 (voice)
217-244-1478 (fax)
fboyle@law.uiuc.edu
(personal comments only)

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Phyllis Croisant
181
03-03-2005 06:05 PM ET (US)

Francis,Concerning the comments by the Harvard president: I would hope that you could make a better argument than just calling him, and anyone who supports him, names. You have taken his comments out-of-context. There is in fact significant research supporting his comments. It's a shame that he had to back pedal and apologize in the interest of "political correctness." You can pretend all you want that there are no differences between the genders, but the research literature (and every mother who tried to give her children gender-nuetral toys) will tell you other-wise. That's not to say that there aren't outstanding female mathematicians or scientists, or that there aren't outstanding men in the humanities. But generally, women and men approach problems differently.PTC

¿

Boyle, Francis
182
03-03-2005 06:49 PM ET (US)
Summers is a sexist, a racist and an ignoramus. I make no apologies. fab.

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Jeff Sands
185
03-04-2005 10:17 AM ET (US)

I would respectfully suggest to Professor Boyle that his comments about Dr. Summers are at best tangential and at worst innappropriate relative to the purpose of this message board. When I come to this site to learn of other parents' thoughts about our kids and matters directly pertinent to their work at Uni, I really don't appreciate having to read political commentary. With a virtually infinite variety of alternative venues available to you for the expression of your views on the world, I find it intrusive and annoying that I have to scroll through these kinds of postings in order to find if, for example, there are cool plans afoot for spring break. Trivial, I know, and not of universal import, but that's why I come here.Let's please stick to academic calendars, athletic events, extracurricular activities, summer jobs, college searches, and similar topics which -- if you can imagine -- are the raison d'etre of the site.

!

fab
219
10-03-2005 10:03 AM ET (US)

-----Original Message-----
From: Boyle, Francis
Sent: Monday, October 03, 2005 8:44 AM
To: 'Chancellor Richard Herman'
Subject: FW: MASSMAIL - A Message to the Campus Community
Those MTD bus drivers are completely reckless on campus. they have almost run over me repeatedly just walking out on my lunch break. Last year when they killed another one of our students I called the Director over there, Costello, left a message on his voice mail, complained, and said they all needed retraining. He never bothered to return my call. Are you going to stand around and let them kill another one of our students? I have been talking to students about organizing an anti-MTD rally on campus. My oldest son is a freshman here--something I am proud about. As a parent I am not going to stand around and let these reckless MTD bus drivers kill my child or the children of others.fab.
Francis A. BoyleLaw Building
504 E. Pennsylvania Ave.
Champaign, IL 61820
USA
217-333-7954 (voice)217-244-1478
(fax)fboyle@law.uiuc.edu(personal comments only)
-----Original Message-----
From: Chancellor Richard Herman
Sent: Monday, October 03, 2005 1:13 AM
To: All Faculty & All Academic Professionals & All Civil Service Staff & All Undergrad Students & All Grad Students
Subject: MASSMAIL - A Message to the Campus Community

To Members of the Campus Community:

Sarah Channick represented everything that is good about our student body; she was smart, energetic, involved, and filled with hope for a bright future. Her tragic death last week left us shocked and sad and searching for answers. How could this happen? Who is responsible? What can we do to prevent this from happening again?

It is the sad truth that we live in an environment where each of us must rush from place to place--often while trying to do several things at once. That reality combined with the fact that vehicles and pedestrians must move side-by-side on the crowded and busy streets on campus creates an ever dangerous situation. That means everyone--drivers and pedestrians-- must use constant care and caution.

Nothing is more important than the safety of our students. As we grieve for Sarah and her family and friends, we must also work together to do a better job of protecting everyone on campus. The university and the MTD already have launched an investigation into traffic and pedestrian safety that also will involve campus residents and workers.

I will do everything within my power to make the campus safer, but I will need your help to ensure that tragedy does not strike again.

Very truly yours,
Richard Herman
Chancellor
This mailing approved by:
The Office of the Chancellor

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Boyle, Francis
223
10-03-2005 11:04 AM ET (US)

Sarah Emily Channick, freshman in LAS, died Thursday evening resulting from a collision with an MTD bus, which was on the 22 Illini route, at the intersection of Sixth Street and Chalmers Street.

Eyewitnesses said Channick, a Deerfield, Ill., native, was trying to cross the street on foot. The intersection, a four-way stop, is marked with two faded white crosswalk lines. "I was a block away, and I saw the bus turning left onto Sixth," said Meghan Fitzgerald, sophomore in ACES. "I saw the bus stop and a bunch of commotion. Legs were hanging out from under the bus, and it was nauseating."

------------------------

This latest student was crossing in the crosswalk. She had the right of way. The Bus was turning left so in any event had to yield. A clearcut case of manslaughter. I am sure the Police, the MTD, the Coroner's Office and the DA's office will cover this up as they did last year to that other student killed in a cross-walk--blackletter manslaughter, as I have taught to my students in Criminal Law. It is obvious that the MTD, the University of Illinois, the Champaign and Urbana Police, the Coroner's Office and the DA's office are not going to do anything to protect our children from such reckless MTD bus drivers. It is up to us parents to act to protect our children at UNI and the U of I. Nobody else is going to do it for us.

Francis A. Boyle
Professor of Law

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Beckee Bachman
224
10-03-2005 11:09 AM ET (US)

Your quotation left out the part that said she was on a cell phone, among other things. I know this intersection well. This is one of the places that students jump out in front of moving buses turning onto sixth almost every day. If the bus is in the process of turning onto sixth, and is moving, does a student thereafter entering the cross walk then immediately garner right of way? Is the bus to slam on its brakes in mid-turn and stop in order to allow the pedestrian, who entered the crosswalk AFTER the commencement of turning of the bus, to cross? At what point does the bus have right of way, then?

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Boyle, Francis
221
10-03-2005 10:48 AM ET (US)

the student killed last year by the MTD bus was walking in the cross-walk and thus had the right of way. This was manslaughter at least. Nevertheless, the Coroner ruled it was an accident--a cover-up. The MTD, the Coroner's office and the DA's office did nothing. Two students have been killed by reckless MTD drivers during the past year alone . If you are not going to stand up for the safety of our children on this campus, I will and I ask other parents to join me. If we do not protect our children from reckless MTD bus drivers, no one else will.

fab

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Boyle, Francis
225
10-03-2005 11:11 AM ET (US)

pedestrians in a crosswalk have the right of way against vehicles. Both cases were manslaughter pure and simple. If you do not want to protect our children from reckless MTD bus drivers, then I ask other UNI parents to join me in doing so.

Francis A. Boyle
Professor of Law

Francis A. Boyle
Law Building
504 E. Pennsylvania Ave.
Champaign, IL 61820 USA
217-333-7954 (voice)
217-244-1478 (fax)
fboyle@law.uiuc.edu(personal comments only)

#%$

Boyle, Francis
228
10-03-2005 11:27 AM ET (US)
1. pedestrians in crosswalks always have the right of way against vehicles. 2. Vehicles turning left must yield in any event.There were 2 moving violations here that led to a death. Hence, this is a clearcut case of manslaughter--as was the killing of a student by an MTD bus in a crosswalk last year. If we do not act to protect our UNI and UofI children, then obviously no one else will. the U of I, MTD, the Police, the Coroner's office and the DA's office are not going to do anything about this--they are all in it together. So we parents must act to protect our children from reckless MTD bus drivers on campus.

Francis A. Boyle
Professor of Law

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Adelaide, Aime
229
10-03-2005 11:40 AM ET (US)

As administrator of this discussion space I would like to jump in here. I'm sure everyone will agree that a tragedy has happened on our campus and a young person's life has ended all too soon.

In the coming weeks and months there will be opportunities to provide comments to campus and MTD officials as they investigate the traffic situation on campus. At this point, it seems most useful to direct our feedback to those officials who can act in the matter rather than holding a debate among ourselves.

If anyone would like to continue to debate the subject of campus pedestrain safety in more detail, I urge them to either begin a direct and private email conversation, or to begin a free, special-topic discussion board around the issue. Free discussion spaces are available to anyone with internet access at: www.quicktopic.com. You would of course be welcome to publicize the link on our Uni parents website.

Adelaide Aime
Site Administrator

$%&

Boyle, Francis
230
10-03-2005 11:45 AM ET (US)

I already complained personally to MTD Director Costello last year when one of his buses killed one of our students on campus--a clearcut case of manslaughter. He did not even bother to return my call. Obviously, MTD is not going to do anything about this unless we parents get organized and pressure MTD to stop killing our children at UNI and the U of I.

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T. Maher
231
10-03-2005 11:50 AM ET (US)

Whether the bus driver or the student was at fault cannot be known, even though in accidents involving moving vehicles and pedestrians, the driver is almost always assumed to be at fault. Regardless, the Uni parent discussion board does not seem to me to be the proper forum for this discussion.

That would not be the case, however, if the question was whether it would be appropriate or worthwhile for the school to re-educate our children about keeping their wits about them whenever they cross a street and to look both ways before doing so. Certainly, it is always a parent's responsibility to remind their children--even teenagers--of this fundamental wisdom, especially after incidents like this. I suggest that this is the proper course of action for keeping our children safe from bus drivers or any other driver. But discussions on this site as to whether the bus driver was reckless and is guilty of homicide? No.

I hope my message will be the last on this subject.

¡¿?

Boyle, Francis
232
10-03-2005 12:03 PM ET (US)

clearly the news media reports on both killings during the past year indicate that the MTD drivers were at fault--and criminally so. They both should have been indicted for manslaughter. And if we cannot use this list to protect our UNI and UI children from being killed by reckless MTD bus drivers, then I do not know what the purpose of this list is.

Francis A. Boyle
Professor of Law

+@¡

Boyle, Francis
234
10-03-2005 07:56 PM ET (US)

it was not just a shame, it was criminal. and we parents need to do something to protect our UNI and UI students from being killed by another reckless MTD bus driver. I would encourage you all to go over to see the shrine built to this young girl by her fellow students at the corner of Sixth and Chalmers. A beautiful young life criminally snuffed out by a reckless MTD bus driver and bus system. That was 2 of them in the past year. Whose child will be next? fab.

<<< Boyle, Francis
237
10-04-2005 09:05 AM ET (US)

what I am suggesting here is that the problem will not be solved by lecturing our children. we are dealing with a completely reckless Bus company and drivers who have criminally killed 2 children during the past year. Those are the people we as parents need to go after. Of course we have always lectured our children about how to cross streets. We are not the problem. The MTD is. fab

>+< Boyle, Francis
238
10-04-2005 09:25 AM ET (US)
9-3. Involuntary Manslaughter and Reckless Homicide.
(a) A person who unintentionally kills an individual without lawful justification commits involuntary manslaughter if his acts whether lawful or unlawful which cause the death are such as are likely to cause death or great bodily harm to some individual, and he performs them recklessly, except in cases in which the cause of the death consists of the driving of a motor vehicle or operating a snowmobile, all-terrain vehicle, or watercraft, in which case the person commits reckless homicide.

Notice that Illinois has a special statute for death by motor vehicle analogized to involuntary manslaughter, which is called reckless homicide. In the case of Sarah Chinnick, the MTD bus driver (1) failed to yield to a pedestrian in a cross-walk who had the right of way; and (2) failed to yield on a left hand turn. Two moving violations, which is enough to constitute the crime of reckless homicide. The same analysis applies to the UI student killed by an MTD bus driver a year ago--that student was again crossing in a crosswalk and had the right of way against any vehicle. MTD bus drivers are criminals pure and simple, and the MTD Directors know it and cover it up and refuse to do anything about it. And the local authorities will do nothing about the MTD because they do not want a lawsuit. And the UI Administration never rocks any boats when it comes to local authorities. hence it is up to us parents to get organized in order to protect our UNI and UI children. We can lecture them all we want about how to correctly cross the street. But our lectures will not protect them from a gang of criminal bus drivers and a criminal bus company. I would recommend that we organize an anti-MTD rally on the Quad. Invite all the local news media and also the Chicago news media. We need to get Chicago parents involved too. The MTD will not change unless we strongly pressure them to do so. Remember that last year when I called the MTD Director Costello and was directed to his voice mail and left a message to this effect on it, he did not even bother to return my call. The MTD does not care about our UNI and UI Children. We must care and we must act. No one else is going to do this for us. fab


Boyle, Francis
239
10-04-2005 09:29 AM ET (US)

d) Sentence:

(1) Involuntary manslaughter is a Class 3 felony.

(2) Reckless homicide is a Class 3 felony.

fab

°°°

Boyle, Francis
241
10-04-2005 10:54 AM ET (US)

"[F]or a Class 3 felony, the sentence shall be not less than 2 years and not more than 5 years." 730 ILCS 5/5-8-1(a)(6).

"[T]he parole or mandatory supervised release term shall be . . . for a Class 3 felony or a Class 4 felony, 1 year." 730 ILCS 5/5-8-1(d)(3).

The Police should have ticketed, arrested and charged both MTD bus drivers. Then the Coroner should have found wrongful deaths in both cases. Then the States Attorney's Office should have prosecuted both bus drivers for reckless homicide. Of course none of this was done--they are all in bed together these local "officials." So again, since they are obviously not going to act to protect our UNI and UI children from criminal MTD bus drivers and a criminal MTD bus system, we must act to protect our children ourselves. Otherwise, within the next year, some other UNI or UI student will be crossing in a crosswalk with the right of away in accordance with all the lectures we as parents have given to him or her and will still be killed by a reckless MTD bus driver and a reckless MTD bus system. As the MTD, the Police, the Coroner and the States Attorneys Office see it, that is just an acceptable part of doing business around here. I for one do not see it that way, and I suggest that we band together and organize to stop them from killing yet more of our UNI or UI children.

fab

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Boyle, Francis
242
10-04-2005 10:58 AM ET (US)

My UNI student walks all over this campus for one event or another. So taking care of the crossing near UNI is not really going to solve the problem. The problem is a criminal and reckless MTD system. We must take care of them. They have already perpetrated the felony of reckless homicide on 2 UI students on campus during the past year. How long before the MTD strikes and kills again? all of our children anywhere on this campus are at risk. fab

#$¡

Boyle, Francis
243
10-04-2005 12:26 PM ET (US)

there is a front page story in today's Daily Illini. The police issued a ticket to the bus driver--a clearcut case of reckless homicide, a felony. I doubt very seriously that prosecution will happen. And notice the comments by the MTD person--truly disgusting. Blaming the students instead of their criminal and reckless bus drivers. This student was crossing in a crosswalk and had the right of away. She was killed by a criminally reckless MTD bus driver, as happened to another UI student less than one year ago. It is clear from these MTD Statements that they are not going to do anything about their criminally reckless bus drivers and bus company. It is up to us parents to protect our UNI and UI children from these criminal MTD bus drivers and the criminal MTD bus company. fab

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Boyle, Francis
245
10-04-2005 06:45 PM ET (US)

"Tom Costello, assistant director of the mass transit district, said anyone who is a parent has to be deeply affected by such an accident.

"This is a tragedy for the family, it's a tragedy for us and it's a tragedy for the university," Costello said. "No one wants to deal with this even once."

The district is conducting an investigation into the accident, but has not yet talked to the bus operator, who was hospitalized, Costello said. MTD and university officials will continue to look for ways to improve safety, he said.

Costello said the MTD and university have had education campaigns to try to make bus operators and students aware of safety issues.

"There's been an increase in all kinds of accidents," Costello said. "There are more people on campus than ever before."

Fifteen years ago, the big traffic safety issue involved heavy bicycle use around campus, Costello said. Now, the problem is large groups of pedestrians who have portable stereos or cellphones distracting them. "Are there things we can be doing? What do we do? That's the big challenge ahead," Costello said."

This is all baloney by Costello. Last year when the previous student was recklessly killed by an MTD bus driver while crossing in a crosswalk and with the right of way, I called his office, asked to speak with him, was given his voice mail and left a very stiff message that every driver needed to be retrained immediately, with my phone number. He never bothered to return my call. And notice that he is blaming the students despite the fact that his reckless bus drivers perpetrated reckless homicides on completely law-abiding students twice in the past year. MTD is not going to deal with this problem until we force them to. Obviously, their game-plan is denial. they are afraid of getting sued and/or prosecuted for what they have done in the past. And the Police, The Coroner and the States Attorneys Office are not going to do anything either. all these local officials are in bed with each other. The University of Illinois is already blaming the students--for what? Crossing the streets in the crosswalks with the right of way--exactly what we parents have told them to do repeatedly since they were old enough to walk. We parents need to act and get organized in order to protect our UNI and UI students walking around this campus from reckless and criminal MTD bus drivers working for a reckless and criminal MTD bus company who could not care less about our UNI and UI children. otherwise, another UI or UNI student will be subjected to yet another felonious reckless homicide by yet another criminal and reckless MTD bus driver. It is only a matter of time. How much time do you have to protect your UNI/UI children from the MTD?
fab

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Boyle, Francis
246
10-05-2005 09:38 AM ET (US)
there is a front page story in today's DI on the student vigil for Sarah. In addition, there is a strong Editorial by the DI stating that it is not the fault of the students that MTD bus drivers are reckless and that more needs to be done to rectify the situation. I think we UNI/UI parents should join in and help protect our children from reckless and criminal MTD bus drivers working for a reckless and criminal MTD bus company which , as the DI editorial correctly points out, is trying to blame the students instead of themselves, and ditto for the University. Are we UNI/UI parents going to side with the MTD or with our own children? Once again, they need our help. fab