[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 62 (Monday, May 3, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E829-E830]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     TRIBUTE TO JUSTIN BLAKE HORNE

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                             HON. JIM KOLBE

                               of arizona

                    in the house of representatives

                          Monday, May 3, 1999

  Mr. KOLBE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to one of 
Arizona's finest young people,

[[Page E830]]

sixth-grader Justin Blake Horne of Booth-Fickett Math/Science Magnet 
School in Tucson. We all too often complain that today's young people 
don't care about their communities or their schools. I think the 
following articles from The Arizona Daily Star and The Tucson Citizen 
show just how committed to others in their community some of our young 
people truly are.

              [From the Arizona Daily Star, Mar. 19, 1999]

             Kodak Likes Tucson Kid's Crime Deterrent Idea

                         (By Sarah Tully Tapia)

       Sixth-grader Justin Blake Horne knew exactly how to push 
     the buttons of Kodak's CEO.
       The 12-year-old invoked company tradition in asking George 
     Fisher to bankroll his idea: Give school monitors cameras so 
     they can take pictures of suspicious activity such as last 
     fall's string of attempted child abductions in Tucson-area 
     schools.
       ``I have heard it said, `A picture is worth a thousand 
     words,' '' Justin wrote to Fisher, chief executive officer of 
     the Eastman Kodak Co. ``Of course, my idea would be totally 
     experimental, however, where would Kodak be if George Eastman 
     did not undertake to perform experiments.''
       Fisher accepted the challenge, donating 50 cameras and 
     sending Justin a handwritten note. ``Your idea seems 
     interesting and we are always experimenting with new 
     thoughts,'' Fisher wrote, adding that he wants progress 
     reports.
       Yesterday, Justin delivered 10 cameras to Kellond 
     Elementary School. He plans to give 10 each to four more 
     schools, including his own, Booth-Fickett Magnet School.
       In his letter, Justin explains that in one of the attempted 
     kidnappings, a monitor spotted someone approaching a child, 
     but the man drove off before the monitor could get a good 
     look at the man, car or license plate.
       If Kodak donated cameras--worth $15 to $17 each--monitors 
     could snap pictures of the vehicles and suspects for 
     evidence, Justin wrote.
       At Kellond, Justin gave Principal Marcia Baab explicit 
     instructions for his ``deterrent program,'' saying the 
     cameras must be used only for security purposes and must be 
     turned in to the police immediately. He plans to write 
     instructions for all the schools.
       ``He'd got it so organized, I can't even mess up,'' Baab 
     said.
       The school had four instances of suspicious behavior in the 
     fall, but no one could provide police a good description of 
     the perpetrator.
       The school resource officer said the cameras could help.
       ``It's good to see someone else being pro-active besides 
     us,'' said Officer Judy Augustine.
       Justin said he hopes the mere presence of cameras will keep 
     criminals away from the schools.
       ``I actually am not expecting pictures. It's kind of odd,'' 
     Justin said. If it works, he said he's like to see the 
     program go national.
       This isn't the first time Justin has taken such an 
     initiative.
       In second grade, he wrote to a stapler company for parts to 
     repair his teacher's broken stapler, which she was going to 
     throw out. They sent him parts, staples and other goodies.
       At Booth-Fickett, he arranged for police to bring a 
     helicopter to the school. He convinced Iceoplex to donate 130 
     passes for students with improved grades and behavior.
       A science whiz, Justin is already planning to put these 
     activities on his application for MIT.
       Justin's latest endeavor is attracting a lot of attention, 
     including an interview on a Denver radio station and a 
     planned visit from Congressman Jim Kolbe. Justin's ready for 
     the spotlight to dim, as his classmates have ribbed him a 
     bit.
       But he has no intention of stopping.
       ``I want to help people and I don't want to be a slumball 
     in life,'' Justin said.


     
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                [From The Tucson Citizen, Mar. 1, 1999]

                 Can-Do Kid's Ideas Turn Into Solutions

                         (My Marty Bustamante)

       Many people write to their congressman when they want 
     something done.
       Not Justin Blake Horne, who even at 12 years old is 
     anything but like most people.
       When the sixth-grader at Booth-Fickett Math/Science Magnet 
     School identifies a problem, he goes right to the top in 
     seeking a solution.
       His most recent missive was addressed to George Fisher, 
     chief executive officer of Eastman Kodak Co.
       The problem: a rash of attempted abductions of Tucson 
     schoolchildren.
       His solution: 50 cameras for adult monitors to help catch 
     the creeps.
       ``Even though there are after-school monitors . . . on the 
     playground, the children are still in danger,'' Justin wrote 
     Fisher.
       ``In one incident the monitor saw a stranger approaching a 
     child and when he saw the monitor he ran quickly to his car 
     and drove off. The monitor saw both the abductor and his car, 
     however, she was unable to identify the individual, his 
     automobile or the license plate.''
       His letter continued: ``I have heard it said, `A picture is 
     worth a thousand words.' Of course, my idea would be totally 
     experimental, however, where would Kodak be if George Eastman 
     did not undertake .  . . experiments?''
       How could a big-time CEO turn down a request like that?
       It turns out he couldn't.
       Fisher, in a handwritten note to Justin, concurred that 
     ``we are always experimenting with new thoughts.''
       Fifty cameras soon followed the note, in which Fisher asked 
     that Justin give him a progress report on the idea.
       And Fisher offered a little advice: ``It would seem you 
     need to make it generally known that the monitors have 
     cameras to fend off potential troublemakers.''
       Indeed, the cameras--which will be in the hands of 50 
     monitors soon, according to Booth-Fickett Principal John 
     Michel--can also be used as a deterrent.
       Michel, along with Justin's parents, Michelle and Howard 
     Horne, is helping Justin make his plan work.
       Justin is trying to make arrangements to get the film 
     developed free, should a monitor catch a snapshot of a 
     potential abductor.
       Start-up of Justin's plan is being accelerated after a 
     teen-age girl walking home from school was raped a few weeks 
     ago and, in another case, some teen-age boys apparently tried 
     to abduct another girl near a school.
       Going right to the top to solve a problem is not new to 
     Justin.
       As a second-grader at Borton Magnet Primary, he found a 
     nearly brand-new, but broken, stapler in his teacher's 
     wastebasket.
       Outraged, he told his teacher she shouldn't be throwing 
     away Tucson Unified School District property.
       She assured him she had bought the $20-plus stapler with 
     her own money.
       Justin then persuaded her to give him a shot at fixing it.
       He wrote a letter to ``Mr. Stanley Bostitch,'' believing 
     the two last names on the stapler were the first and last 
     names of the owner.
       In his letter, he explained that the stapler needed for the 
     class-room was broken, but that his teacher did not have 
     money to again buy one out of her own pocket.
       He told ``Mr. Bostitch'' that he would attempt to fix it 
     himself if the company would just send him a replacement 
     spring.
       Justin received not only a spring--and safety glasses--for 
     the repair job but also two new staplers, a staple remover 
     and a box of 5,000 staples.
       He fixed the broken stapler, by the way.
       Granted, a broken stapler is hardly a life-or-death 
     situation. But Justin has been involved in those cases, too, 
     as a second-grader.
       During an escape drill from a portable classroom, which had 
     only one door, he noticed his teacher's aide could not get 
     out of the window as an escape alternative, as the limber 
     youngsters could.
       He came home shaking his head. ``Would you believe one of 
     my teachers got burned up today?'' he asked his parents.
       They asked him what he meant, and he explained.
       Portable classrooms are 2 feet off the ground. The windows 
     are 4 feet up the wall inside, making it a 6-foot drop.
       The teacher's aide helped students get out, but nobody was 
     there to help her.
       A videotape of the drill was shown to Principal Robert 
     Wortman, who called Robert O'Toole, TUSD director of fiscal 
     and operational support, for help with the problem.
       Justin's father said O'Toole explained he had $700,000 in 
     requests for repairs and $70,000 to spend.
       ``He said there was no way it could get done, at least for 
     now,'' the father recalled. Justin piped in:
       ``Have you seen what we're talking about?''
       ``Not really,'' O'Toole reportedly replied.
       ``Come out and I'll show you,'' Justin said.
       And so the young boy and O'Toole went out to the portable, 
     followed by Justin's father and the principal.
       ``You see, this is where we have to jump, and my teacher 
     couldn't get out. She would have gotten burned,'' Justin told 
     O'Toole.
       ``What if it was your mother. Would you want her to jump or 
     burn up?''
       O'Toole nodded in understanding, praising the boy.
       Give days later, the Hornes got a call from the principal.
       ``He said, `You won't believe this, but they're out here 
     installing (second) doors on all the portables,' '' Justin's 
     father recalled.
       And it wasn't just at Borton.
       TUSD installed additional doors--found in storage--for all 
     205 portable classrooms in the district.
       Over the following years, Justin also spearheaded an effort 
     to get the Tucson Police Department helicopter support group 
     and the SWAT team to visit Borton and Booth Fickett.
       In the fourth grade, he persuaded the president of Ice-O-
     Plex skating arena to donate 260 passes for Justin's program 
     to reward students who made individual improvements in their 
     classwork.
       Justin spread word of his program with fliers and 
     certificates printed from his home computer, which he built.
       ``You have to try,'' Justin said, summing up his philosophy 
     for getting things done. ``If you try, you probably will 
     succeed. It's better to try and get rejected than not to try 
     at all.''



     

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