BY CHRISTINE WOLFF,
DAVID ECK
and MIRIAM SMITH
The Cincinnati Enquirer
The juicy details of the Starr report, released on the Internet Friday afternoon, ranked in interest behind football games for many area teen-agers.
"I will look it up, but not tonight. We've got a game," said Dave Noll, 18, a Moeller High School student from Springfield Township. The group of guys hanging with him at Kenwood Towne Centre nodded agreement.
The subject of Monica and Bill waxed and waned in interest with local teens Friday, cropping up in some classrooms and shopping malls.
Post game, Dave said he would be interested in reading up on the president's problems.
"I am curious what the grand jury has to say," he said. "(President Clinton) spent billions of tax dollars holding in. He should have said something in January."
Dave's friend, David Momper, 16, a Moeller student from West Chester, said Mr. Clinton should resign.
"I think he's dirty and that's that. He should let it out, say, "I lied and I had intent to lie,' and he should resign," David said. "He has wasted money and ridiculed his supporters."
The Internet information will let readers "see what this guy did," said Tom Nix, 17, another Moeller student from West Chester. "I just want to know the things he hasn't said yet," Tom said. "He's never been my favorite, but until recently, I had some shred of respect for him. Until now."
Football and spending money on clothes held more interest than catching up on the president's woes for Ali Keyser, 15, a Mount Notre Dame student from Montgomery.
"If he's guilty, he's guilty -- I don't care," she said. "I'm sick of hearing about it. If he's a good president and does things right, I don't care about his personal life."
Some teachers were using the scandal in class.
At Mason High School, teacher Peg Elfers always opens up the first five minutes of her government classes for student talk. Friday, every class wanted to talk about the Clinton scandal and the possibility of impeachment, she said.
Mrs. Elfers has refrained from explicitly discussing the affair between Clinton and former White House intern Monica Lewinsky, but that doesn't mean students don't plan on doing their own research.
"I did have two Web sites (addresses) on our board today. I thought I noticed several of them copying them down," Mrs. Elfers said. "I encourage them to be inquisitive and aware of the events around them. If there's something that gets their attention about how our government works, then I'm glad at least they're paying attention to it."
Other Tristate teachers tried to focus on the crisis' educational aspects.
"If I don't, it can easily go up into sex," said Walnut Hills social studies teacher Angela Scott. "If I stay on the sex part, it'll go into something else, and I don't want to go there."
Emotions aside, teachers said if impeachment proceedings get under way, it would be a good educational resource.
"It's a real teaching opportunity for us and for schools, because it's something going on that doesn't happen very often," said Michael Hall, principal of Anderson High School. "We're pulling it together, too, and then we're going to watch and see what happens." This is living history, Barbara Stewart, a Walnut Hills teacher, tells her eighth-grade students.
"I wanted them to understand that what is happening right now is definitely a historical event," she said.
