> School Uses Backstreet Boys to 'Torture' Students
>
> TORONTO (Reuters) - Backstreet Boys' music and other pop songs are being
> used by University of Toronto campus police to ''torture'' students into
> ending a sit-in in the president's office.
This practice is trending upward...
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/ dave /
WILLIMANTIC, Conn. (AP) -- Students committing minor infractions at Eastern Connecticut State University now face punishment by Puccini. A group of offenders next month will be force-fed a taste of ``Tosca.''
Kirk Peters, associate dean of student affairs, created a policy that sends students to an opera or a symphony, rather than slap them with citations or fines.
Peters said Monday his colleagues initially questioned the Alternative Restitution Program when it began in the fall.
``Now they are sold on it,'' Peters said. ``It's something the (students) don't want to do, so I feel it is a penalty. But I feel they are getting something out of it.''
So far, about 50 students have been ordered to attend classical music performances for minor offenses including violating a campus ban on alcohol.
Next month, Peters plans to bring the next batch of troublemakers to see ``Tosca,'' Giacomo Puccini's tragic opera about love and betrayal.
DETROIT, March 22 (UPI) - Some teens might consider the sentence cruel and unusual punishment.
A Detroit teen Tuesday was sentenced to listen to the compact disc, "Wayne Newton Greatest Hits," three times in a jury room at the courthouse in Troy, Mich. Justin Rushford, 18, had been convicted of blasting rap music from a truck radio. The truck happened to be next to police car.
The unusual sentence turned Rushford into a minor celebrity of the 15-minute variety, attracting a horde of local media to the courthouse to record the two-hour sentence.
He appeared on CBS-TV's Early Show Wednesday morning.
The sentence was imposed by District Judge Michael Martone, who has handed down other noteworthy sentences, including making drunken drivers watch autopsies.
"This young man shouldn't beimposing his music on others," Martone told the Detroit Free Press. Rushford could have been sentenced to 90 days in jail and up to $1,000 in fines for violating the town's noise pollution ordinance.
Martone said he "meant no disrespect" by choosing the music of Las Vegas legend, crooner Wayne Newton - whose best known hit "Danke Schoen" was recorded in 1963. Other selections included on the CD are "Red Roses for a Blue Lady," "Daddy, Don't You Walk So Fast," "I'll Be With You in Apple Blossom Time," "More" and "Hello, Dolly!"
Rushford was apologetic after two hours of listening to Newton.
"It makes me think about other people's styles of music," he told the Free Press. "I probably wouldn't appreciate it if some old man drove past me blasting this music."