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The Calvert flap of their cells. In the midst of all this, Turman blamed the riot on Justice’s order. Marcia Veges, one of the few people around with professional training in handling disturbed kids, was sent home. Attorney General John Hill arrived to confer with Gatesville Superintendent Dwain Place. What can I do to help? inquired Hill. I dunno, what should I do? responded Place. Hill called Justice, who told him the order said what the order said. It was there in plain English. Place kept saying he didn’t know what to do, didn’t know what he could do. Some of the staff kept saying the order prevented them from stopping the riot. Now six kids face felony charges as a result of the riot the staff could not or would not stop. Turman said it just goes to show you what will happen. The F.B.I. is investigating. Justice Department lawyers are investigating. Dolph Briscoe said it was all due to a misunderstanding. And on Sept. 21 both Turman and Kneebone resigned. Pat Ayres of San Antonio, a new appointee to the TYC board, nominated Forrest Smith of Dallas for chairman. Smith seconded his own nomination. That finished Kneebone as chairman and he then quit the board. Turman had resigned at the start of the meeting, apparently aware that a new chairman was about to be elected. “You have to have a board that will stand behind you,” he explained. He called his position untenable and said the long suit before Justice had “taken the very heart out of me and other TYC staffers who have worked tirelessly and courageously for years to upgrade TYC.” In fairness to Turman, several Gatesville staff members who are interested in reform believe that he never received reports of incidents of brutality there. Justice’s order specifically mentions the suppression and falsification of reports of brutality. You will all be ecstatic to learn that the Texas Rangers are now investigating the alleged incidents. You can make up your own joke about that. So far there have been several resignations but no indictments. The acting executive director of TYC is Ron Jackson, 33, superintendent of the Brownwood Home for Girls, which is widely recognized as the most progressive of the TYC institutions. Some of the staff at Gatesville have great hopes for the new team of Forrest Smith and Ron Jackson. Others would still like to off Judge Justice. Gatesville has been through riots and investigations and resignations before. In fact, after past investigations some of the same old folks have been hired back. After the newspaper headlines die away, it seems pretty easy to slip into the same old ways. But this time there’s new leadership at the top and there is Judge Justice to hold a bottom line against brutality. This is the best chance Gatesville has had to reform itself since the TYC was founded. But it’s still only a chance. M.I. Austin Right now State Comptroller Robert Calvert is the most unpopular executive office holder since Jerry Sadler, the Austin strangler, choked a state representative and a radio reporter for trying to enter his office \(Obs., Both Calvert and Land Commissioner Sadler came to power during a period when a state agency was more like a personal fiefdom than a public office. Sadler was severely rebuked by the Legislature \(on a of office in favor of a younger, more progressive opponent \(one Robert Landis Johnson is now threatening to have Calvert impeached unless he starts complying with the equal-rights statutes. And the 81-year-old commissioner is also being challenged by a younger, more progressive It all started last March when Representative Johnson filed a class action complaint charging the office of the comptroller with restricting employment opportunities for women. The Equal Employment Opportunities Commission investigated and found the office was indeed discriminatory. In an angry response to the EEOC report, the comptroller managed to put both feet in his mouth by slurring women and blacks at the same time. Speaking of Ms. Johnson, he said “that nigger woman” had been trying to give him hell for a long time. Calvert’s views on Ms. Johnson first were revealed in a Houston Post article by Felton West. West’s original story contained the “nigger” quote but someone in Houston excised it. The edited article said, “Calvert also accused black State Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-Dallas, of ‘trying to give me hell’ by making the discrimination complaints to the EEOC because he ignored her suggestion to hire blacks and Mexican Americans.” The following day, Mike Cox of the Austin American quoted Calvert as saying the charges were made by “a nigger woman” who “doesn’t know what she’s talking about.” A number of papers and at least one television station then used the statement, attributing it to the American. The item got so hot that when the Post subsequently printed an article concerning a letter Calvert wrote to the EEOC it had to backtrack and use the offensive quotation it originally had cut. Calvert just couldn’t seem to stay out of trouble that week. In an interview with Janice Tomlin of The Daily Texan, Calvert is reported as saying, “We have as many women as men in our office filling positions from clerks to programmers. The Texan continued: “Calvert explained there were no female tax compliance officers because the job involves traveling from town to town, examining books and licenses and collecting sales tax. ” ‘A woman would be out of place. Why, we wouldn’t be about to send her down to Houston to one of those nigger or Mexican neighborhoods,’ he said. ‘Even if she thought she could handle the job,’ Calvert continued, ‘we know better than she does.’ ” ‘We’ve hired quite a few young ladies here, and they make pretty good typists. They’re very capable in clerical, secretarial and accounting positions,’ he added.’ ” The story probably lost Calvert about 30,000 potential votes on the UT campus. Johnson and Rep. Paul Ragsdale, also of Dallas, held a press conference to protest the comptroller’s views. They gave him impeached. Gov. Dolph Briscoe got into the act with a typically equivocal statement. The governor said forthrightly that he “deplores all slurring and intemperate racial remarks” and then added that he didn’t know whether Calvert actually had said what the press said he said. Lt. Gov. Bill Hobby warned all state agency heads that their budget requests may not be honored if they don’t stop discriminating. He said, “Simple human decency and doing the right thing demand that we take pretty drastic action to bring our state government not only in compliance with the law but with what I consider to be human decency and dignity.” And House Speaker Price Daniel, Jr., chimed in that the budget writer “can lean pretty hard” on agencies that don’t provide equal employment opportunities. There has been speculation that Calvert might retire this year so that Briscoe could appoint his replacement before the next general election, but Calvert denies press reports stating that he has been approached by the governor’s office. “Why,” he says, “by February I might want to run again.” Asked by the Texan whether he thinks Bob Bullock could win the election, Calvert said, “Lord, I hope not. He’s too radical.” Bullock, a former secretary of state for Preston Smith, had equally sympathetic words for Calvert. To wit: “It appears the present comptroller is determined to lead his department even further back into the dark ages.” Calvert was looking so vulnerable that other folks were rumored to be considering making the race. At press time, former Rep. Don Cavness of Austin was saying he was “interested.” K.N. October 5, 19 73 5