1. By Mary Margaret Halford
mhalford@vicksburgpost.com
W
hen Jamie Creel
leaves his house
each morning for
work, he says goodbye to his
three children. Then, as he
walks through the doors of
Warren Central High School,
he greets about 1,300 other
kids he also considers to be
his own.
“I really care about every
student here,” said Creel,
the 41-year-old principal
of Warren Central. “I try
to listen to them, I have an
open-door policy to listen to
every issue they have if they
want to share it with me.”
As soon as he gets off work,
he picks up his two boys,
Chandler, 6, and Cooper, 5,
and his 3-year-old daughter,
Camille.
“It’s never a break, consid-
ering how young my kids
are,” Creel said.
“It’s like when you’re
coaching, you never stop,
you’re coaching the admin-
istration, the student body
and the faculty at all times,”
said Creel, a former base-
ball coach at rival Vicksburg
HIgh. “You’re trying to help
people along and be there to
lend an ear.”
Creel got his start in coach-
ing when he was 19 at Uni-
versity Christian School in
Flowood, and he’s been in
education ever since.
“I got into it and just
started to care about the kids
so much,” Creel said.
As a child, Creel lived with
his grandmother but had six
uncles he looked to as male
role models.
“I got to see the roads they
chose, and they pushed me
along to better myself,” Creel
said. “I could have gone the
wrong way numerous times,
but there’s been a male that’s
been influential throughout
my life.”
From there, Creel took it
upon himself to be a stable
figure in the lives of his chil-
dren and his students.
“So many kids like myself
come from split homes, you
try to understand that, you
try to be there for them,”
Creel said. “It’s important
to know the students and
where they come from,
what they’re about. It’s the
TOPIC • C1THE SOUTH • A6
BACKINTHESADDLEONTHERI$E
RanerismorethanahorsewomanJucocostsheadedskyward
• SUNDAY, JUNE 16, 2013 • $1.50 WWW.VICKSBURGPOST.COM EVERY DAY SINCE 1883
WEATHER
Today:
partly sunny, slight chance
of rain, highs in the
lower 90s
Tonight:
mostly cloudy, chance of
rain, lows in the lower 70s
Mississippi River:
40.8 feet
Rose: 0.3 foot
Flood stage: 43 feet
A7
DEATHS
• Florence Cockrell
• Nellie B. Osborne
• Sara Park Senter
• Sherrell Jean Wright
A7
TODAYINHISTORY
1567: Mary, Queen of
Scots, is imprisoned in
Lochleven Castle in Scot-
land. She escaped almost
a year later but ended up
imprisoned again.
1858: Accepting the Illi-
nois
Republican
Party’s
nomination
for the U.S.
Senate,
Abraham
Lincoln
says the
slavery
issue had
to be resolved, declaring,
“A house divided against
itself cannot stand.”
1903: Ford Motor Co. is
incorporated.
1959: Actor George
Reeves, TV’s “Superman,” is
found dead of an appar-
ently self-inflicted gunshot
wound in his Beverly Hills,
Calif., home. He was 45.
INDEX
Business............................... B7
Classifieds............................C7
Puzzles..................................C9
Dear Abby...........................C3
Editorial................................A4
CONTACTUS
Callus
Advertising ...601-636-4545
Classifieds...... 601-636-SELL
Circulation.....601-636-4545
News................601-636-4545
Emailus
See A2 for email addresses
ONLINE
www.vicksburgpost.com
VOLUME 131
NUMBER 167
3 SECTIONS
SPORTS
MSUWINS
CWSOPENER
Bulldogsadvance
toplayIndiana
Mondaynightat7
B1
Creel knows kids take priorityCreel knows kids take priority
‘FATHER’to hundreds
Warren Central High School principal Jamie
Creel and his wife, E.J., stand with their chil-
dren in front ofWarren Central High School.
The children are, from left, Chandler, 6,
Camille, 3, and Cooper, 5.
ELI BAYLIS•THE VICKSBURG POST
See Creel, Page A3.
VWSD
looking
tosolve
budget
shortfall
By Matt Stuart
mstuart@vicksburgpost.com
With two weeks left before
the state-mandated deadline
for the Vicksburg Warren
School District to adopt a
budget, three of five board
members have said they will
not support a tax increase to
make up for a potential $7.7
million deficit for the 2013-14
school year.
“We’re
going to
let Mr.
Oakes
advise
us and
then we
will make
the final
decision,”
Board
Presi-
dent Jim
Stirgus
Jr. said of
interim
Superin-
tendent
Donald
Oakes, whose term as
interim superintendent
began Friday as three-
year Superintendent Eliza-
beth Swinford’s resigna-
tion became effective. “I’m
going to leave that up to the
superintendent.”
“I do not support a tax
increase,” Stirgus said.
Vicksburg and Warren
County residents will be able
to have their voices heard
Thursday at a public hear-
ing on the 2013-14 budget,
an annual state requirement
as the board discusses the
budget and ad valorem tax
rates.
The budget hearing will be
at 5 p.m. Thursday at the cen-
tral office, 1500 Mission 66.
“I would try to do every-
thing possible before we do
Oakes, whose term as
Ifyougo
TheVicksburg
Warren School
District’s pub-
lic hearing on
the budget
for the 2013-
14 school year
will begin at 5
p.m.Thursday
at the district’s
headquarters,
1500 Mission
66.
State-mandateddeadline
forbudgetisJune30;
publicmeetingThursday
See Budget, Page A7.
ArkansaswomandiesinfieryI-20wreck
Abraham
Lincoln
SUBMITTED TO THE VICKSBURG POST
By Josh Edwards
jedwards@vicksburgpost.com
An Arkansas woman was killed in a fiery six-vehicle
pileup near Flowers Saturday that closed Interstate 20
for more than three hours.
Mississippi Highway Safety Patrol spokesman Odis
Easterling identified the woman as 49-year-old Barbara
Goff. She was pronounced dead at the crash site about
2 miles east of Flowers at 5:31 p.m. by Deputy Coroner
Ronald C. Regan.
The cause of death is pending an autopsy, Regan said.
“They don’t do autopsies on Sunday, so it will be
Monday before we know,” Regan said.
No charges have been filed and the wreck is still
under investigation, Easterling said.
Goff was a passenger in a Cadillac sports utility vehi-
cle driven by Craig E. Goff, 49, of Vilonia, Ark., said Mis-
sissippi Highway Safety Patrol trooper Timothy Fuller.
AutopsyplannedforMonday
Warren County volunteer firefighters extin-
guish a fire during a six-car pileup on Inter-
state 20 Saturday that claimed the life of an
Arkansas woman.See Wreck, Page A3.

2. The Vicksburg Post Sunday, June 16, 2013 A3
PollshowsmostmenaspiretobefathersBy The Associated Press
A recent Associated Press-
WE tv poll found more than
8 in 10 men said they have
always wanted to be fathers
or think they’d like to be one
someday.
Debates about the different
ways women approach moth-
erhood dominate news cover-
age about parenthood these
days, with fathers’ experi-
ences often left unexamined.
A look at what the poll
found on how men view
fatherhood, and the changes
it has brought for those who
have become dads:
Becoming a dad
About 8 in 10 fathers sur-
veyed said they always knew
they wanted to have chil-
dren, compared with about
7 in 10 mothers, and 69 per-
cent of dads called that long-
standing desire to have chil-
dren an important factor in
their decision to have kids.
Dads were more likely than
moms in the poll to say they
saw positive effects from
fatherhood on their love life
and career, and they are just
as likely as moms to say it
improved their overall hap-
piness, sense of accomplish-
ment and sense of purpose.
When weighing whether
to become a parent, moth-
ers and fathers placed simi-
lar levels of importance on
where they stood in their
career and the impact having
kids might have on their
social life, and like mothers,
saw having found the right
person to have a child with
and the joy of having chil-
dren as the most important
considerations.
Fatherly aspirations
Men who do not have chil-
dren were just as likely as
women without kids to say
they want them someday.
Among men under age 35,
91 percent are dads already
or say they think they
would like to have children
someday.
Men were more likely
than women to say the main
reason they’d like to become
fathers someday is to carry
on traditions or family his-
tory. According to the poll, 14
percent of men called that a
top reason compared with 4
percent of women. Women
place greater emphasis on
wanting to be a parent, to
care for and raise a child —
22 percent among women
who want children compared
with 2 percent among men.
Married, with kids
Three-quarters of dads
said they were married
when their first child was
born. Among those men
who aren’t married and who
would like to have children,
about one-quarter say they
would consider having or
adopting a child without
a partner, though 88 per-
cent within this group say
they do want to get married
someday.
Men are a bit more skepti-
cal than women that a single
mother can do as good a job
raising a child as two parents
can, and men are more likely
to say an increase in the
number of single mothers is
bad for society. Still, about
half of men in the survey
said the growing variety in
family arrangements these
days ultimately doesn’t make
much difference.
The AP-WE tv poll was con-
ducted May 15-23, 2013, using
KnowledgePanel, GfK’s prob-
ability-based online panel. It
involved online interviews
with 1,277 people age 18-49,
including interviews with
637 men. The survey has a
margin of sampling error of
plus or minus 3.8 percentage
points for all respondents; it
is larger for subgroups.
KnowledgePanel is con-
structed using traditional
telephone and mail sampling
methods to randomly recruit
respondents. People selected
who had no Internet access
were given it for free.
Creel
Continued from Page A1.
Wreck
Continued from Page A1.
only way we can get better
together.”
On this Father’s Day, Jona-
than Bedford, a 17-year-old
rising senior at Warren Cen-
tral and the son of Brenda
Smith and Willis Bedford,
said for him, Creel has been a
great role model.
“If I had a problem right
now I could call him and he
would do his best to fix it,”
Jonathan said. “We’re pretty
close, he’s never let me
down.”
Creel is preparing to enter
his second full year as prin-
cipal of Warren Central, and
his wife, E.J., resigned this
year after eight years as
basketball coach at Porters
Chapel Academy to focus
on having more time for her
family in the evenings. She’s
continued her work as a
dental assistant, but she and
her husband share a hands-
on role in their children’s
lives.
“We just do a little more
sharing of the responsibility
now. He was Mr. Mom there
for a long time, and to them,
time is what matters,” E.J.
Creel said of their children.
“He’s a great disciplinarian,
but he’ll get out in the yard
with them and play,” E.J.
Creel said. “He’s the fun one,
and they really care about
his opinion, even though
they’re little.”
E.J. Creel said she loves
seeing her husband in his
school environment.
“I’m really impressed with
how he deals with so many
kids,” she said. “There’s not
one time we’ve walked past
a student or teacher and
he’s not known their name.
He knows how to mentor
each kid individually, and he
knows his personnel.”
Clint Fuller, the 17-year-
old son of Dwayne and Lana
Fuller, agrees that Creel goes
out of his way to know his
students.
“Mr. Creel always greets
me in the hallway by name
and asks me how I’m doing,”
Clint said. “He’s very
involved in the student body
and shows respect for his
students by how he treats
them.”
For Jamie Creel, spending
time with his students and
his family is the most impor-
tant part of the relationships.
“Kids have to be the prior-
ity,” Creel said. “I just try
to make everyone feel that
whatever their problems are,
it’s bigger than what I’ve got
going on and just be there for
them.”
Firefightersadvancecontainmentonwildfire
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Fire
officials said crews have gained the
upper hand on the most destructive
wildfire in Colorado history and had
more than half the blaze contained by
late Saturday.
Incident commander Rich Harvey
said containment of the Black Forest
Fire was at 55 percent, up from 45 per-
cent earlier
Saturday.
The wild-
fire left behind
a grim landscape and El Paso County
Sheriff Terry Maketa said that in some
areas of the blaze’s path, it appeared as
if “a nuclear bomb went off.”
The fire that exploded Tuesday out-
side of Colorado Springs destroyed
nearly 500 homes and killed two
people who appeared ready to flee. It’s
unknown what sparked the blaze.
Army IDs Ranger
killed in mishap
ATLANTA — The U.S. Army Ranger
killed in an apparent parachuting
mishap was a 21-year-old veteran from
Massachusetts who recently returned
from Afghanistan, officials said
Saturday.
Pfc. Christopher P. Dona was found
dead Thursday with parachute cords
and canvas straps from a harness
wrapped around his neck after a train-
ing jump at Fort Stewart in southeast
Georgia. It was not immediately clear
what caused the fatality. Army authori-
ties are investigating.
An Army spokesman earlier said
Dona’s parachute seemed to work nor-
mally during the jump. When he landed,
wind filled the parachute’s canopy,
dragging Dona about 350 feet along the
ground. Dona was unconscious by the
time fellow soldiers reached him.
Dona served in the 1st Battalion of the
75th Ranger Regiment based at Hunter
Army Airfield in Savannah.
Indianapolis fire
forces evacuations
INDIANAPOLIS — A fire engulfed
a sprawling mixed-use building near
downtown Indianapolis filled with tires
and wooden pallets Saturday, produc-
ing a towering pillar of black smoke that
prompted the evacuation of a five-block
area surrounding the structure, authori-
ties said.
Capt. Rita Burris of the Indianapolis
Fire Department said about 100 fire-
fighters from six departments were bat-
tling the fire that was consuming the
two-story brick building about one mile
southwest of the city’s downtown.
Four injured in
ballpark accident
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Four people
have been injured in Knoxville after
a four-wheel-drive vehicle apparently
went out of control.
The driver, a 66-year-old man who was
helping organize a tournament, told
officers that the vehicle accelerated
immediately after being turned on and
hit two adults and two children. All four
were taken to area hospitals and did not
appear to have life-threatening injuries.
nation
BYTHE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The associated press
Smoke from a wildfire fire billows north of downtown Colorado Springs, Colo.
Craig Goff was taken by
helicopter to University Med-
ical Center in Jackson where
his condition was being eval-
uated late Saturday night.
The SUV was consumed by
flames, Fuller said.
“Both of them were
trapped, and the car was on
fire,” Fuller said.
Fuller, Warren County
Sgt. Ford Emery, volunteer
firefighters and witnesses
freed Craig Goff by push-
ing another vehicle from the
driver side door, and they
attempted to pull Barbara
Goff from the vehicle before
the flames became too hot to
touch the SUV.
“I was only able to get up to
the window once, and I could
see her face,” Emery said.
The wreck was caused
when traffic slowed suddenly
because of a minor wreck
and grass fires near Bovina,
Fuller said. A trolley car
being hauled by a truck was
dragging on the roadbed of
I-20 and the sparks it caused
ignited the grass, authori-
ties said.
The six-car pileup started
when a Ford Expedition
driven by Albert Harris,
no age available, of Jack-
son, rear-ended a Chevro-
let Malibu driven by Mar-
cella Young, 55, whose
address was not available.
The Malibu hit an Audi A4
driven by Rainer Schaefer,
38, of Charlotte, N.C. A Ford
Explorer driven by Sophia
Wren, 48, 1122 Cotton Wren
Road, Pattison, hit the Expe-
dition and the Goffs’ vehi-
cle ran into the back of the
Expedition, Fuller said. A
tractor-trailer rig driven by
Steve Howard, 43, of Chats-
worth, Ga., hit the back of the
Cadillac SUV causing it to
burst into flames before the
18-wheeler hit the Explorer
driven by Wren, Fuller said.
Wren and her passen-
ger, Early Wren, 49, also
of 1122 Cotton Wren Road,
were taken by ambulance to
River Region Medical Center
where they were treated and
released, a hospital spokes-
man said.
Howard was taken by
ambulance to University
Medical Center in Jackson,
Fuller said, but UMC had
no record of him, a hospital
spokesman said.
The conditions of the driv-
ers and other passengers
involved in the crash was
unknown Saturday.
The fatal wreck is the ninth
in Warren County this year.