Hot Buttons: Talk show topics

REBUILDING THE WTC

An organization representing the families of the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center is expressing concern about the rapid pace to rebuild on the site where the twin towers once stood.

In a statement, Jennie Farrell, chairman of Give Your Voice and one of the leaders of the WTC Victims' Family Committee, said news reports about the debate on what to build at the site ignores "the active efforts still in progress to recover the remains of human beings that remain buried under the rubble. ... The recovery effort is very much still in progress and many of the victims' family members remain hopeful that the remains of their loved ones will be returned to them."

Farrell notes that Sept. 11 was just five months ago and the nation is still in mourning. "Funerals and memorial services are still being scheduled," she said. "Newspapers are still publishing obituaries, and profiles of those who died. Countless loved ones are hoping and praying that they, too, will be able to have funerals for their lost family members. It can cause great pain to hear about 'ground being broken by a certain time' when the recovery effort is still ongoing."

Farrell said whatever is planned at the site must include "suitable Memorial elements to those who gave their lives on that tragic day."

-- How much time do you think should pass before rebuilding begins at the WTC site?

(Web site: giveyourvoice.com)

STUDENTS GRADING STUDENTS

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously Tuesday that the common teacher practice of allowing students to grade other students' papers and tests does not violate federal law.

The decision involved a case out of Oklahoma, in which a lower court had ruled the practice was banned by the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act. But in the majority opinion Tuesday, Justice Anthony Kennedy said the practice was really none of the federal government's business.

The case comes out of Oklahoma's Owasso School District, where some teachers use "students to grade homework papers and week tests by having the students exchange papers and score one another's work as the teacher goes over the answers aloud in class," according to a petition from the school district.

One mother of three students disagreed with the practice. Kristja Falvo's 10-year-old son, Philip Pletan, was a special education student being "mainstreamed" into the regular classroom. "Philip was subjected to humiliation, ridicule and loss of privacy" because of the student grading, Falvo's lawyers said in her brief to the high court.

After complaining for two years without results, she filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of Philip, her two daughters and all other students in the same situation. Falvo cited the federal law and the privacy guarantees inherent in the 14th Amendment.

A federal judge sided with the school district but the appeals court ruled that papers and tests graded in the classroom were "education records" under the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act. The school district then asked the Supreme Court for review.

-- Do you agree with the high court decision? Why or why not?

DOG MAUL TRIAL OPENS

A San Francisco couple charged in the death of a neighbor who was mauled by a huge dog in their care went on trial Tuesday.

Marjorie Knoeller, 46, and her husband Robert Noel, 60, face charges of involuntary manslaughter in the Jan. 26, 2001, attack on Diane Whipple by one of their two Presa Canario dogs in the hallway of their apartment in the city's upscale Pacific Heights district. Knoeller also faces a second-degree murder charge.

The trial -- which was moved to Los Angeles because of extensive publicity in San Francisco -- opened with defense attorney Nedra Ruiz rejecting the prosecution's contention that Knoeller neither tried to stop the attack nor did she call 911.

Ruiz contended Knoeller frantically did her best to pull the powerful dog, named Bane, off her helpless 105-pound neighbor after he yanked her off her feet as he charged after Whipple. And she said Knoeller didn't have time to call for help because she was busy trying to stop Bane's rampage and get her other dog, Hera, back into her apartment.

But San Francisco Assistant District Attorney James Hammer told the jurors that after the attack, Knoeller retreated to her apartment and didn't even try to get help for the fatally injured Whipple.

It was Knoeller's alleged failure to react to the attack that led to the murder charge against her. Her husband, Noel, was not home at the time and was not charged with murder.

The prosecution contends the dogs involved in the attack belonged to a pair of maximum-security prison inmates who were running a business breeding fighting dogs from their cell. Noel and Knoeller are both attorneys and met the inmates through their work handling prisoner rights cases. Their attorneys have denied that the dogs, which both weighed more than 100 pounds, were bred to be vicious, but Hammer told the jurors that other neighbors would testify that they were scared to death of the animals.

The trial is expected to last as long as eight weeks. If convicted, Noel would face four years and prison while his wife would face as much as 15 years.

-- What do you think should happen in this case, and why? Are there certain breeds of dogs that municipalities should not allow residents to have? If "yes," which dog breeds would you ban?