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Staying out of harm's way

AHS program delivers important message to female students

Hilary Caryl Russell, Staff writer

April 8, 2004

It’s a seminar every school-age girl should attend and it’s a course that public and private schools nationwide should be required to teach.

Every two minutes a female in the United States will fall victim assault and every year more than 260,000 individuals report it.

But that’s not the end of the story.

The Apex High School PTA sponsored a personal safety seminar March 31 for female students and their parents. More than 200 people showed up for the free program.

Department of Justice statistics estimate that 5 million girls 12 years-old and over are the victim of a violent crime, including sexual assault.

Eighty-four percent of victims will know their attacker and 57 percent of victims have dated them.

Women aren’t always the victims either. Boys and men can be victims, which often increases the risk that many more rapes going unreported.

Rape is not a crime of the heart nor is it about sex. It’s about power and control.

Apex High’s PTA President Julie Stangler, who organized the seminar, said she thought, based on crimes that have been reported in her hometown and surrounding areas, it was important to reinforce the facts about crime in our society and give students some tools to thwart the possibility of being a victim.

“Hearing about recent events in town and reading the statistics were staggering,” she said. “Looking at the girls in high school every day made me want to give them every weapon we could to arm them with as much information and protection as possible.”

The weapons of choice at the program included basic defense moves that anyone can perform to fight back against a perpetrator.

“Just a little pressure on a spot in the neck area, can redirect a person’s thought process,” explained Sgt. Jacques Gilbert, the school’s resource officer.

In fact, Gilbert explained, there are several areas on the body including the teeth, nose, groin area and elbow, which can be targeted using specific techniques to immobilize a perpetrator long enough to get away.

Sgt. Wayne D. English, a patrol officer for the Apex Police Department who will be taking over Gilbert’s duties as AHS school resource officer next year, was also in attendance. He acted as both the attacker and the victim in a variety of scenarios with Gilbert.

Hearing about rape and sexual assault in ‘what if’ terms isn’t always as effective as hearing about the crime from an actual victim.

That’s why three college age women were invited to the seminar to give a behind-the-scenes dialogue about what can happen at those after-hours parties that often take place during the college years.

N.C. State students Ann Hooper and Amanda Ross and University of North graduate Desiree Downs spoke about their experiences as young women on college campuses.

Hooper shared her that she had been a victim of an assault and had taken, unbeknownst to her, a date rape drug, a.k.a. predatory drugs.

“I thought this could never happen to me,” she said.

“But my senior year of my high school I was a wrong. Someone put a date rape drug in my drink and it was a guy I knew,” she said.

Hooper said she learned the hard way that date rape drugs are often slipped into drinks because they are odorless, colorless, and tasteless.

They take effect in the body within five to 10 minutes and are virtually undetectable.

The most common types of predatory drugs are also known as Rohypnol (a.k.a. GHB or roofies), Ecstasy and Ketamine Hydrochloride or Special K.

Gamma Hydroxybutyrate in low doses produces a feeling of euphoria and loss of inhibition. GHB slows the heart rate and can result in death, according to the website www.projectghb.org.

Ecstasy, according to www.ecstacyabuse.net, produces positives feelings towards others and reduces or eliminates feelings of insecurity, self-consciousness and anxiety.

Special K is a powerful drug used as an animal tranquilizer by veterinarians in pet surgery that produces hallucinations and a lost sense of time and identity.

All three of these drugs are widely used on the club scene typically at raves (all night dance parties), but the drugs are easy to acquire and can be purchased on the internet as are the recipes to cook up the drugs at home on the stove you use to make dinner every night.

Fifteen-year-old Clarissa Shephard said her parents talked her into attending the seminar and that she didn’t give much thought to date rape drugs or about being assault. But hearing stories from the college girls and seeing different ways to fight off an attacker made her glad she attended.

“It was a lot better than I expected and I know not to walk alone and to stay with friends,” said Shephard. “But I still don’t worry too much about this stuff.”

Downs, Ross and Hooper said they were grateful to be able to speak to the group, however each worried that the message they hoped to convey to their audience may not be taken to heart.

“I think until you know someone it happens too, it’s hard to believe it,” said Downs.

Ross agreed adding that the information they provided that night wouldn’t be useful until they were in an uncomfortable situation.

“I think this will hit home when they are on campus alone or have some guy hitting on them and they don’t want to hurt his feelings,” she said,

Hooper said she thought that until a crime hits home, it’s hard to subscribe to the belief that it doesn’t just happen to other people.

“As much as I want to believe they’ll remember all of this, it’ll probably take a personal experience for them to realize this is reality.”





K2 Fitness opens in town

Hilary Caryl Russell, Staff Writer

April 8, 2004

For newlyweds Kevin and Kim Shackleford, the owners of K2 Fitness in Apex, their story begins in reverse - business boomed before love bloomed.

And the name K2, which stands for Kevin and Kim, followed suit and came later.

The new fitness center, located at 908 W. Williams St., combines health, fitness, style, nutrition, relaxation and luxury into one, providing residents a one-stop-shop that is close to home and convenient.

The Shacklefords, who also own K2 Fitness in Clayton, said they conducted a lot of market research before they decided to open a second location and Apex seemed like a perfect fit.

“We really liked the area and it’s growing very quickly and we didn’t see any other facility like K2 so we came here,” said Kim.

“A lot of people who work in Raleigh but live in this area wanted a nice facility,” said Kevin. “And we wanted to provide a state of the art fitness center within a family atmosphere,” added Kim.

A little more than three years ago Kim was the head trainer at Planet Health and Fitness (now K2 Fitness in Clayton) where she met Kevin, who owned the facility.

Working together for three years led them to the decision to go into business together and build the Apex facility.

But it wasn’t until after they had signed on the dotted line, which sealed the business part of their relationship, that the two began dating.

Spending so much time together building a new facility from the ground up must have given both of their hearts a different kind of workout because the two were married this past November.

The actual fitness center offers select, raised and plate loaded workout equipment, treadmills, bikes, a cardio theater and just about every kind of workout class ranging from hip-hop dance to Pilates.

Personal trainers are on hand to help give people that extra motivation.

Fitness apparel is also available for sale and designed to outfit a variety of workout scenarios.

There is also the option to not workout, pretend you’ve been whisked away to the tropics for an afternoon and hit the center’s in-house tanning salon.

There is also a daycare center for parents who want to bring their little ones with them.

A workout in the cardio-theater gives members a visual distraction and with eight televisions installed in the room.

For a relaxing cool down or just to catch a breath, head over to the smoothie bar and sidle up to K2’s resident mascot Cargo, Kim and Kevin’s adorable 1.5 pound Chihuahua who is on hand to give members a good dose of puppy eyes that could translate into that little extra push needed when there are only 10 sit ups left to go.

Owned and operated independently but located within the facility is Natural Marvels Day Spa, Milham Family Chiropractic, Avante Physical Therapy, and National Discount Nutrition.

The reason behind the inclusion of the additional services is K2 Fitness was designed with the average person in mind who may not have time to go to hit the gym, then the spa if they need to drive to a different location.

“These (services) all relate to one another and this is a health and wellness building so they all work together,” said Kim.
 

CNHI to sell Apex Herald


April 8, 2004

Community Newspaper Holdings, Inc. (CNHI), a privately owned operator of daily and non-daily newspapers and specialty publications throughout the United States, is selling its newspapers in 22 cities to Heartland Publications, LLC, a privately owned publishing company based in Ponte Vedra Beach, FL.

Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

The Apex Herald, Fuquay-Varina Independent and Garner News are included in the transaction along with the free weeklies Holly Springs Sun and Cleveland Post.

Heartland is also acquiring CNHI’s newspapers in Thomaston, GA; Harlan, Hazard, Leitchfield, Middlesboro, Prestonburg and Russellville, KY; Clinton, Elizabethtown, and Lumberton, NC; Gallipolis, Pomeroy and Portsmouth, OH; Altus, Durant and Frederick, OK; Lafayette and Tazewell, TN and Point Pleasant, WV.

“It’s always a tough decision to sell newspapers in the communities we operate in, and this was certainly the case with these newspapers,” said CNHI President and CEO Mike Reed. “We are fortunate that these papers, while no longer strategic to CNHI, fit nicely with Heartland’s plans.

“I am certain that the great people at these locations will work with the Heartland team to provide even better products and service to their communities in the future.”

“These newspapers have a long, successful tradition of serving their communities, and we plan to continue that tradition,” said James M. McGinnis, President and CEO of Heartland Publishing. “Our primary focus will be to serve our readers with the highest quality community newspapers possible.”

In addition to McGinnis, investors in Heartland are Wachovia Capital Partners and The Wicks Group of Companies. Wachovia Capital Partners, based in Charlotte, NC, is the principal investing arm of Wachovia Corporation and has invested more than $2.5 billion since 1998. The Wicks Group of Companies is a New York based private equity firm focused on selected segments of the communications, information and media industries.

Upon completion of the planned sale, CNHI will operate 87 daily newspapers with almost 950,000 daily circulation as well as 49 non-daily and 155 specialty publications in 20 states.

While Heartland is a new company, formed to acquire these newspapers, McGinnis has more than 30 years experience in the newspaper industry, having owned or managed over 80 community newspapers and shopper publications in 22 states. “We are delighted to launch Heartland with such a strong platform of fine community newspapers, and look forward to growing the company with additional strategic acquisitions,” he said.

 

AHS grad completes first documentary

Hilary Caryl Russell, Staff writer

April 8, 2004

Apex resident and burgeoning filmmaker Lauryn Colatuno has her eyes on Hollywood.

And while a front row seat at the Academy Awards might not be right around the corner, the 1999 Apex High graduate is certainly headed in the right direction.

The 22-year-old Colatuno, a recent University of North Carolina at Wilmington graduate, completed a 22-minute documentary in December alongside her two classmates, Ewart Devissar (editor and cinematographer) and Alex Lepp (researcher).

It premiered this past weekend at the independent filmmakers Cucalorus Film Festival in Wilmington

“The Wilmington Ten: A Story Retold,” examines the lives of 10 men and women who were arrested and convicted of arson for setting fire to a local grocery store in 1971.

The film chronicles the events by researching existing racial tensions that perhaps led to the convictions and how the 10 teenagers were decidedly marked as guilty of the crime.

Interviews with family members of the convicted, as well as local reporters who said they had information about the trial which led to the convictions and the judge who handed down the sentencing, left the filmmakers, according to Colatuno, with their own questions about what really happened

“I didn’t have a clue about the Wilmington Ten until one of my friend’s mentioned it to me and that he knew one of the guys who was part of the Wilmington Ten,” said Colatuno.

Colatuno’s friend told her that the gentleman he knew of had a rough life, he drank often, hadn’t been able to hold down a job and had heard that it all stemmed from this incident that he was convicted of years earlier.

“So I thought it was interesting that with Wilmington being a small town and if I hadn’t heard about the Wilmington Ten, I wondered how many other people hadn’t heard of it either,” she said.

Tensions between the white and black communities in 1971, said Colatuno, while on the surface appeared to be diffused, were in fact heating up.

“It was interesting that racial tensions dated back to 1898 and then after Martin Luther King Jr. was killed in 1968, segregation went into effect in schools there and then the fire happened in 1971, so it all tied in together,” said Colatuno.

In researching the events that led up to the fire and then arrests, Colatuno said there was much more to the Wilmington Ten’s story than she initally thought.

“Before the fire, restraining orders had been (issued) to get the “troublemakers” out of the high schools and it turned out that it had been the superintendent of New Hanover County Schools, even though he was very well liked in the community,” she said.

“The restraining orders caused a lot of stress and tension in the community and the kids ended up boycotting the schools and instead attended school in a local church where a man named Ben Chavis taught them.”

As time went on, and her team continued to conduct interviews, Colatuno said she discovered that perhaps what appeared to be fact on the surface wasn’t necessarily the truth.

“When we went into this, I wanted it to be about proving their innocence but a lot of them wouldn’t even talk to us,” said Colatuno.

“And the white reporters we spoke to were the one’s who made us think that maybe we were wrong and that they were guilty. The reporters told us that they had witnessed seeing children in the church (issuing threats) but in piecing it together it never made sense.”

Colatuno said it became clear that the convictions were a result of angry finger pointing rather than solid evidence as her team began uncovering conflicting information.

“Even though the judge said he thought he was right to convict them and that he had enough evidence to prove them guilty, but he’d never specify what that evidence was but he did say he felt bad for them,” she said.

“We found later that they had been set up to clear the racial tensions in the town.”

Colatuno said each of the convicted spent at least six years in prison, though they were later pardoned by former Governor Jim Hunt.

“But by then, with a few exceptions, they weren’t able to hold down a job or even get a good job. Some still live there and some have passed away,” she said.

Hoping to move to California in the near future, Colatuno said having worked on the “Wilmington Ten” has influenced her to seriously consider pursuing documentary filmmaking as a specialty.

“It’s all about the research and finding a mystery within a story and then putting it together on film,” she said.

“And it never turns out the way you think it will, which is why I love filmmaking.”
 

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