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Here are the stories for this week’s Pennsylvania Member Exchange package. If you have any questions, contact the Philadelphia bureau at 215-561-1133.
For use anytime:
EXCHANGE-EDITORIAL RDP
Editorials from around Pennsylvania.
For Saturday, March 25, 2016:
EXCHANGE-FIRST RESPONDERS-SUICIDE
PITTSBURGH — Paramedic George Redner III started to grow angry and distant after he failed to revive a 2-year-old who had drowned. But not even his parents saw how deeply his work affected him until he took his life seven years later. “My son was a classic case of ‘I’m never going to tell anybody; if I tell them, they’ll think I’m weak,'” said Redner’s mother, Jacqui Redner, 48, of Levittown, outside Philadelphia. Like many first responders dedicated to saving lives, Redner, who was 27, never talked about his struggles, she said. Her son, who went by “Georgie,” threw himself in front of an Amtrak Acela train the morning of Aug. 1, 2015, at a station near the family’s home. Suicides among first responders, often driven by emotional strain in a culture that long has discouraged showing weakness, are too common, according to organizations that track the deaths. Wes Venteicher, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
EXCHANGE-REINVENTING SCHOOL
KINZERS — Kate Stoltzfus wishes she could steal time. Anything to help in the Pequea Valley teacher’s dash to get 19 ninth-graders up to speed in basic algebra for a looming, high-stakes state test. At the bell, with her fifth-period students filing into the bright, but windowless room, Stoltzfus took charge of this latest 52-minute chance to cram such concepts as linear equations and negative components into teenage craniums. Stoltzfus put the class through a brief paper-and-pencil review and then directed, “Laptops up.” Each student opened a personal MacBook Air, a gateway to whiz-bang education software and a symbol of how tiny, off-the-beaten-path Pequea Valley School District has embraced a culture of reinventing school. The way pupils are taught, take tests, even how long they spend in school — it’s all open to disruption under Pequea Valley’s version of personalized learning. Jeff Hawkes, LNP newspapers.
EXCHANGE-COLD WAR SOCIETY
WARMINSTER — History buffs have had hundreds of years to perfect their knowledge of the Revolutionary War and its many local connections, but that isn’t so for research on the Cold War. While no living researcher has been able to interview a soldier in the Continental Army, the Southeastern Pennsylvania Cold War Historical Society gathers firsthand accounts from those who served in the mid-20th century period of undeclared conflict that pitted East against West for world domination. During the tense era, secretive defense research took place at local bases such as the Naval Air Development Center (later the Naval Air Warfare Center) in Warminster. Many technological advances were born or nurtured at the site, such as flame-retardant fabric and global positioning systems. Gwen Shrift, The (Doylestown) Intelligencer.
EXCHANGE-FEMALE POLICE OFFICERS
WASHINGTON, Pa. — The driver pulls off to the side of the road after catching a glimpse of the red and blue flashing lights in the rearview mirror. As the officer approaches, the driver turns and says, “Sorry, sir,” only to have to apologize after realizing a female officer made the traffic stop. It is no longer unusual to find a woman’s name on the roster of police departments in Washington County, in what is a male-dominated profession. The women here who carry a badge are among the growing number of females who are police officers. FBI statistics for 2013 show in communities with a population of fewer than 10,000, female officers make up about 21 percent of the police force. A study by the Bureau of Justice had the percentage of female officers ranging from about six to eight percent, depending on the size of the force. Kathie Warco, The (Washington) Observer-Reporter.
EXCHANGE-SISTERS MEET AFTER HALF-CENTURY
CHAMBERSBURG — Karen Stum’s parents died with a secret. Charles and Lavinia Stiffler raised three children together, two boys and Karen, and Charles also had a daughter from his first marriage. None of the Stiffler children knew there was another daughter, born last and given up for adoption as a newborn. Karen was just 5 years old then, her brothers even younger. Last month, 55 years after her sister was given up, Karen finally met Vicki Kleiner. Karen, who now lives in Chambersburg, and Vicki, a New Jersey native, met at a park in Annville in February, trying to put the pieces of their common bond together. Vicky Taylor, The (Chambersburg) Public Opinion.