25 years ago: Task force to study need for second high school

From the Lawrence Daily Journal-World for Jan. 29, 1988:

  • A 19-member task force had been formed to study results from the School Community Relations Council survey, which had included a question on solutions to secondary school overcrowding. It was speculated that the group might decide to recommend a second high school for Lawrence or an addition onto the current building. Respondents to the SCR Council survey were about evenly divided on the question.
  • Computer experts in the U.S. were warning parents that personal computers might expose children to “animated nudes, sex-filled bulletin boards and files filled with dirty jokes.” Some materials were available from floppy disks, which one law enforcement official warned could be sent from one computer to another. “You can actually reproduce a picture on the computer,” said Robert Showers, executive director of the Justice Department’s National Obscenity Enforcement Unit. “I think law enforcement is just beginning to get the intelligence information on the use of computers [in pornography].” Devin Woods, who ran the “Affection Connection” computer bulletin board near Los Angeles, added that a lot of people met through the service. “I’ve got a long-distance love affair going between Chatsworth, Calif., and Melbourne, Fla, with two people who’ve never met each other,” Woods marveled.