The Sun and News

Your Hometown Newspaper Serving Middleville and Caledonia Areas

No. 38/September 17, 2022 Published by J-Ad Graphics, Inc. • 1351 N. M-43 Highway, Hastings, MI 49058 144th year

IN THIS ISSUE...IN THIS ISSUE...

• Yankee Springs committee
  recommends no changes to
  recycling service


• Crews already break ground on
  Caledonia splash pad project


• Election workers in Thornapple
  Twp. see pay increase


• Caledonia football earns its
  second shut out of the season


• Caledonia teams win titles, TK
  girls get a trophy at Coach B Invite

MSP: Three people killed in

Bowne Township car crash

James Gemmell
Contributing Writer
Michigan State Police say
three people were killed in a
two-car crash Monday after-
noon in Kent County’s
Bowne Township.
It happened around 12:
p.m. on Alden Nash Avenue
(M-50) at 92nd Street, the site
of a two-way stop and a con-

sistently busy intersection.

MSP Sixth District posted on

Twitter, a confirmed with The

Sun and News , that a 79-year-

old woman from Waldron

(Hillsdale County) drove south-

bound on Alden Nash into the

path of a car that was heading

east. Troopers said a 55-year-

old woman from Freeport, who

was in the backseat, was

declared dead at the scene.

An AeroMed helicopter

was summoned to the scene

and airlifted two people to a

hospital. MSP said the driver

of the southbound vehicle

later died, as did another pas-

senger, the driver’s 82-year-

old husband.

Police said the driver of

the eastbound vehicle suf-

fered minor injuries, and the

intersection was closed for a

few hours.

The investigation contin-

ues into the crash.

“Out of respect for the

families, we’re not releasing

the names of the victims,”

MSP Lt. Michell Robinson

said in a phone interview

Tuesday.

Hearing for suspect

in Caledonia

Township cold case

killing delayed

James Gemmell

Contributing Writer

A preliminary hearing

for the man accused of kill-

ing a pregnant Gaines

Township woman and

dumping her body in a

Caledonia Township ditch

in 1996 won’t take place

until next month.

Kent County 63rd

District Court said

Monday’s hearing for

Garry Artman, 64, has been

rescheduled for Oct. 7 at

8:30 a.m. in Judge Sara

Smolenski’s courtroom.

His defense attorney

requested the hearing be

postponed so he can have

more time to review hun-

dreds of pages of police

reports on the case.

“We had no objection to

(the delay), given the large

amount of material the

defense needed to go

through,” Kent County

Prosecuting Attorney Chris

Becker said in a phone

interview.

Artman is accused of

raping and strangling

29-year-old Sharon Kay

Hammack of Gaines

Charter Township and

leaving her body alongside

76th Street between

Patterson and Kraft ave-

nues in Caledonia

Township in October 1996.

The court clerk said the

long-haul truck driver is

charged with three counts:

Homicide – open murder;

Homicide – murder, a

first-degree felony; and

Criminal Sexual Conduct –

first-degree, weapon used.

Hammack was the moth-

er of two children. Police

say she had been stabbed in

the head during the assault.

Artman, of Columbia

County, Fla., was arrested

on Aug. 16 during a traffic

stop while in a commercial

vehicle by the Mississippi

State Highway Patrol.

Information provided by

the Kent County Sheriff’s

Office helped police in

TK parents weigh in after district removes

book from eighth grade reading unit

Greg Chandler
Staff Writer
Some Middleville-area
residents are unhappy with
Thornapple Kellogg Schools
officials over the removal of
a book from an eighth grade
English unit at the district’s
middle school.
More than 40 residents
signed a letter objecting to
the district’s removal of “The
House on Mango Street,” a
1984 book by Mexican-
American author Sandra
Cisneros, from a reading unit
a week after classes began
last month. The book is a
coming-of-age story of a
young Latino girl growing up
in Chicago and addresses
such issues as poverty, rac-
ism, identity and society.
However, objections were
raised by some district par-
ents over the book’s content,

most notably a two-page pas-

sage that describes an assault

on Esperanza, the book’s

main character.

“Political theater should

not be allowed to drive cur-

ricular choices,” resident

Rebecca Hoskins read from

the letter at Monday’s TK

Board of Education meeting.

“Educational professionals

should make those choices as

they are expected to use

research and evidence from

the field to inform those

decisions. Politics should not

impact education. We want

our students to form their

own beliefs based on expo-

sure to the experiences of

diverse groups of people.”

Hoskins called any depic-

tions of the passage being

sexually graphic “an over

dramatization.”

“The way the selection is

written, the reader can draw

their own conclusions about

what transpired. Was it a

non-consensual kiss or some-

thing more? Only the reader

can make that determina-

tion,” Hoskins said, again

quoting from the letter.

An opt-out permission slip

was sent home to parents

who had objections to the

book, and six families asked

to opt out of the book study,

Hoskins said.

TK Superintendent Craig

McCarthy said that the opt-

out permission slip that went

out on Aug. 30 did not

include sexual and racial

content in the book descrip-

tion.

“We felt the description

was less than transparent and

might appear that the district

had a hidden agenda,”

McCarthy said. “At the same

time, we also learned that

there were several families

that were opting out of the

reading and subsequent

assignments. Faced with a

short window of time before

students would start to read

the novel, we had to act.

“Working with the eighth

grade teachers, the decision

was made to switch to a dif-

ferent book, which also was

part of the same board-ap-

proved curriculum, and also

met the language that was in

the permission form sent to

parents.”

“The House on Mango

Street” was replaced by “The

Outsiders,” the 1967 novel

by S.E. Hinton that describes

the life of a 14-year-old boy

caught in a conflict between

rival gangs in Tulsa, Okla.

Thornapple Kellogg Schools parent Cheri Bruinsma
speaks out in support of teachers and their ability to
choose appropriate reading material for their students
at Monday’s Board of Education meeting. (Photo by
Greg Chandler)

Thornapple Kellogg Schools Superintendent Craig

McCarthy explains the decision to remove the novel

“The House on Mango Street” from a middle school

reading unit at Monday’s Board of Education meeting.

(Photo by Greg Chandler)

See BOOK, page 6

Michigan State Police DNA Supervisor Joel

Schultze speaks to reporters at an August news

conference after Garry Artman’s arrest was

announced. (Photo by James Gemmell)

See HEARING, page 3