40 years ago: Closing of Riverside, Grant schools under discussion

From the Lawrence Daily Journal-World for April 24, 1973:

  • Meetings of the Lawrence board of education, school administrators, and concerned parents were scheduled this week at Riverside School and Grant School to discuss the problems of declining student populations at both schools. Board president William Bradley said that parents were to be advised of possible solutions, including having students bused in from other areas or the closure of the schools.
  • A coroner’s jury this week absolved a Lawrence police officer of wrongdoing in the shooting death of Richard Cossaart earlier this month. The jury found that Lt. Eugene Williams had inflicted the wound that had killed Cossaart during the course of a burglary, but that the death was “justifiable.” Williams testified that he had arrived at the In Sight Club, 2205 Haskell Ave., after a burglar alarm there had been set off. While shouting at the burglar to come out without a gun, Williams had been shot in the hip by Cossaart’s “home-made .410 gauge pistol” and had then returned the shot with a 12-gauge “riot gun” loaded with buckshot.