SC students earn record amount in scholarships
South Carolina’s high school seniors graduated with a record amount of scholarship money, The State reported.
These students are going off to college with more than $1.15 billion in awards, and $313 million of that went to Midlands students.
The state total is nearly $400,000 higher than it was in 2008 and comes only a year after South Carolina students received more than $1 billion for the first time. The totals came from voluntary surveys distributed to the state’s more than 80 public school districts. Only Barnwell School District 45 did not participate.
Students in Lexington Richland School District 5 took home the bulk of that money, with $125,714,806. Richland County’s two school districts followed closely behind, with students from Richland County School District 2 receiving $85,477,311 in scholarships and students from Richland County School District 1 receiving $52,690,348.
Lexington County School District 4, which serves Gaston and Swansea, took home the least amount of scholarship money, with $643,200.
South Carolina Education Lottery scholarships accounted for 31 percent of all awards reported by state school districts that categorized the awards. USC offers high merit-based scholarships to in-state students like the Carolina Stamps and Carolina scholarships, as well as scholarships for students who are the first in their family to go to college.
— Amanda Coyne, Editor-in-Chief
DHEC commends director amid criticisms
The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) gave its director a vote of confidence in her handling of a tuberculosis investigation in Greenwood County, The State reported.
More than 53 schoolchildren tested positive for tuberculosis in Greenwood more than two months after DHEC learned of the threat. The Department of Health and Environmental Control Board commended DHEC director Catherine Templeton for “her transparent and professional handling” of the outbreak in Ninety Six, where a school worker was found to have tuberculosis while working at a school.
DHEC found that a janitor likely had tuberculosis in early March, but did not tell parents or test students until the end of May. The janitor was told not to return to work at the school while he had the disease.
Templeton was appointed by the board in 2012, and the board is chosen by Gov. Nikki Haley. Some state senators have criticized Haley for the agency’s handling of the outbreak. Templeton was questioned by senators at a legislative hearing last week, but some, including Richland County Democrat Joel Lourie, have been critical of her since the beginning of her term.
Templeton did not participate in the board’s conference call that concluded in her commendation, but said she appreciated the support.
— Amanda Coyne, Editor-in-Chief
240-bed homeless shelter opening after complaints
A full-time homeless shelter will open in Columbia on Sept. 15 in order to lessen the population’s presence downtown, The State reported.
Business owners in the Main Street area including Mast General Store had previously expressed concern about the homeless population. Columbia business owners and residents have told the Columbia City Council that the homeless are bad for business and upset homeowners and office workers.
The shelter, open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, will be open until March 30, 2014. Nine police officers will patrol the Main Street business district, which spans 36 blocks, and one will be stationed outside the shelter. Homeless who refuse services at the shelter may face charges of loitering, public urination and other public nuisance violations.
The shelter will have 240 beds and offer meals and transportation to job placement service and doctor’s appointments. It was approved as part of city Councilman Cameron Runyan’s plan to curb homelessness in the city. It was criticized when first publicly discussed in early August; groups who provide food to the homeless in public areas like Finlay Park were especially vocal, The State reported. Residents of the neighborhoods in which free food is distributed have said they find trash, excrement and homeless campsites near their homes.
— Amanda Coyne, Editor-in-Chief
Miss SC Teen USA takes second at national pageant
It was another almost-win for South Carolina.
Miss South Carolina Teen USA Tori Sizemore was named first runner-up in the Miss Teen USA pageant Aug. 10 in the Bahamas. Cassidy Wolf, Miss California Teen USA, won the national title.
Sizemore is the third beauty queen from South Carolina to finish as a finalist in a national pageant this year and the second first runner-up. Her “sister queen” Megan Pinckney, Miss South Carolina USA and a fourth-year retailing student, was chosen for the top five at Miss USA and ended up as fifth runner-up, or sixth place, after an America’s Choice contestant, Miss Texas USA, brought the total finalists to six.
Ali Rogers, Miss South Carolina 2012, was first runner-up to Miss America in the January pageant. That crown has been passed on to law student Brooke Mosteller, who will compete for Miss America in September. Rogers has said she is confident Mosteller could come home with the title of Miss America.
Miss America’s Outstanding Teen, the “little sister” title to Miss America, is currently held by Piedmont, S.C. native Rachel Wyatt, who will crown her successor Saturday. Miss South Carolina Teen Brook Sill is competing for the title in Orlando, Fla.
— Amanda Coyne, Editor-in-Chief
Grant takes plea bargain in SC teen’s murder
Freddie Grant pleaded guilty to killing Columbia teen Gabbiee Swainson, whose body was found near railroad tracks in Elgin nearly a year after she disappeared, WIS reported.
The Elgin man accepted a plea deal that would allow his daughter to be released from jail and have charges of being an accessory to a felony dropped. Grant was sentenced to two concurrent 30-year terms for the kidnapping and killing of Swainson. Grant gave up his right to appeal the case in his plea deal as well.
During the hearing in which Grant pleaded guilty, details of the case were made public for the first time. Swainson was kidnapped around 3:45 a.m. on Aug. 18, 2012, while her mother was at work. She struggled with Grant, who entered her home late at night, but he overpowered her, picked her up and brought her back to his home in Elgin. Swainson was bound with duct tape on her face and hands and she suffocated.
Grant was flown to South Carolina from a Kentucky federal prison where he is serving an 18-year sentence on federal ammunition charges when he said he’d show authorities where Swainson’s body was.
— Amanda Coyne, Editor-in-Chief
Sumter man convicted of arson, killing children
A 53-year-old Sumter man was convicted of two counts of murder and two counts of first-degree arson in a March 2012 apartment fire that killed two children, the Sumter Item reported. Aalyiah Jackson, 10, and her brother Robert, 11, died in the fire.
Timothy D. Dingle received two concurrent life sentences and two concurrent 30-year sentences. More than 10 witnesses were presented to the jury to show that Dingle had intentionally started three separate fires in Elizabeth Young’s Sumter apartment on March 27, 2012. Young’s oldest children, Anastasia and Trymaine Young, as well as other witnesses testified that Dingle repeatedly threatened her the day before the fire.
Dingle was angry that Young had resisted moving herself and her young children in with him and he had a habit of drinking early in the day, witnesses said.
Aalyiah and Robert Jackson were in the apartment when it was set on fire. Elizabeth, Anastasia and Trymaine Young were out of the house for about 30 or 45 minutes before they heard sirens and saw firetrucks heading towards their apartment. Aalyiah and Robert Jackson were taken from the apartment alive, but died four days later in separate hospitals.
— Amanda Coyne, Editor-in-Chief