The parents of a Kentuckiana seventh grade student say their young
daughter was suspended from school for doing exactly what she's been
taught to do for years - to just say no to drugs.
The girl did not bring the prescription drug to her Jeffersonville,
IN school, nor did she take it, but she admits that she touched it and
in Greater Clark County Schools that is drug possession.
Rachael Greer said it happened on Feb. 23 during fifth period gym
class at River Valley Middle School when a girl walked into the locker
room with a bag of pills.
"She was talking to another girl and me about them and she put one
in my hand and I was like, 'I don't want this,' so I put it back in the
bag and I went to gym class," said Rachael.
The pills were the prescription ADHD drug, Adderall. Patty Greer,
Rachael's mother, said she and her husband are proud of their daughter
for turning down drugs, just like she's been taught for years by DARE
(Drug Abuse Resistance Education) instructors at school.
Robert
Ferguson, who prosecutors say has a nearly 30-year record of
convictions for burglary and other offences, avoided a life sentence
under the state's controversial "three strikes" law after a psychological evaluation deemed him bipolar and unable to control his impulses to steal, the Sacramento Bee reported.
Prosecutor
Clinton Parish said Ferguson had spent 22 of the past 27 years behind
bars but had failed to show he could obey the law. A judge sentenced
him to seven years and eight months in prison, but he could be eligible
for parole in three years.
On Monday afternoon, a controversial Utah bill that charges pregnant
women and girls with murder for having miscarriages caused by
"intentional or knowing" acts, was signed into law by Gov. Gary Herbert.
Contrary to media reports last week, the "Criminal Homicide and AbortionAmendments" or HB12, which previously also applied to miscarriages
caused by "reckless" acts, was never "withdrawn" by its sponsor,
Republican Representative Carl Wimmer (who is crafting similar "model
legislation" for other states). After the governor expressed concern
over "possible unintended consequences," of the legislation as written,
Rep. Wimmer swiftly introduced a new version, titled "Criminal Homicide
and Abortion Revisions" (HB462), which omitted the word "reckless."
Gov. Herbert signed the new bill and vetoed the old one.
In a letter to legislative leaders on Monday, the governor wrote: "I
appreciate the willingness of Representative Wimmer to reevaluate the
impact of potential unintended consequences arising from the inclusion
of 'reckless' behavior in HB12. HB 462 is more consistent with the true
intent of the legislation and addresses those situations in which the
termination of a pregnancy is intentional and is not conducted at a
physician's direction."
An 18-year-old Tampa man was jailed Tuesday afternoon, charged with wearing a clown mask on a public road.
Deputies
say Matthew David Lopez, of 7003 Ponderosa Drive, was seen with two
other people walking south on N 58th Street, just north of E Fowler
Avenue. What caught a deputy's attention was Lopez's masked face with a
bright red-and-orange wig, according to an arrest affidavit.
The
deputy followed the group in an unmarked car as the group walked west
through a slightly wooded path behind several business offices.
A marked Temple Terrace police cruiser showed up soon after, and the group ran away before deputies could question them.
They were found near N 58th Street and E 122nd Avenue.
Lopez
was taken to the Hillsborough County Jail on charges of wearing a mask
or hood on a public road after the age of 16 and resisting arrest
without violence.
He was released on $750 bail.
Hillsborough
County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Debbie Carter said any disguise in
public is illegal. Even on Halloween, adults aren't allowed to enter
any businesses or stores with their faces covered.
On February 1, in Forest Hills, Queens, 12-year-old Alexa Gonzalez was
arrested after she was caught doodling on her desk. Profanity? Threats
against her teacher? No, the middle school student had written, with an
erasable marker, "I love my friends Abby and Faith," along with "Lex
was here. 2/1/10" and a smiley face, according to theNew York Daily News.
This, apparently, was a criminal act in the eyes of her teacher. She
called school security -- New York police officers -- who promptly
cuffed her and hauled her across the street, to the local precinct,
"I started crying, like, a lot," Alexa told the Daily News. "I made two little doodles. It could be easily erased. To put handcuffs on me is unnecessary."
Nevertheless, in addition to being handcuffed and held at the police
station, Alexa was also suspended and "assigned eight hours of
community service, a book report and an essay on what she learned from
the experience."
Alexa's suspension was eventually lifted. But she still missed three
days in school, days she spent "throwing up," according to her mother,
Moraima Tamacho.
United States military intelligence spied on Planned Parenthood and
other domestic groups as part of US security preparations for the 2002
winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, according to a recently declassified
military document obtained by a civil liberties group Thursday.
The document (PDF - page 98),
drafted by a Pentagon Deputy Inspector General whose name is redacted,
was included in more than 800 pages released to the Electronic Frontier
Foundation as part of a Freedom of Information Act Request. They
include reports from the Pentagon's Intelligence Oversight Board that
were submitted to the Defense Secretary from 2001 to 2007.
Referring
to an incident where military intelligence personnel distributed
information about FBI spying on the 2002 Olympics, the inspector
general's office tersely remarked that an "intelligence oversight
violation occurred."
"The document... contained US Persons data
in referring to an reporting on organizations (Planned Parenthood, the
white supremacist group National Alliance) and their involvement in
protests and literature distribution," the inspector's office wrote.
"Also noted was the report contained a large section labeled "GENERAL
CRIMINAL ACTIVITY." Collection and dissemination of US Persons
information by military intelligence assets is not allowed unless this
information constitutes "Foreign Intelligence."
ATE ON A BALMY Saturday night last June, six Fort Worth cops and two officers from the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission went looking for trouble. They had just raided two Hispanic bars in an industrial stretch of town and nine detainees now sat in the paddy wagon (pdf),
hands bound with plastic ties. The rest of the city's bars would soon
shut down. It seemed like the night was over, except for the paperwork.
Then Sergeant Richard Morris had an idea. "Hey," he said. "Let's go to
the Rainbow Lounge."
A half-dozen police cruisers, an unmarked sedan, and the prisoner
van slid to a stop in front of the Rainbow Lounge, Fort Worth's newest
gay club, at about 1:30 a.m. on June 28, 2009--40 years, almost down to the minute, after New York City police raided the Stonewall Inn
with billy clubs and bullhorns. Inside the bar, the officers fanned
out, grabbing and arresting six patrons for public intoxication. Benjamin Guttery,
a 24-year-old Army vet, says an officer told him to put down his drink,
then "bulldozed" him through the crowd to the paddy wagon but then let
him go. "I'm 6'8", 250 pounds, and I had just finished my second
drink," Guttery told a local reporter.
"I might have had enough to have a loose tongue, but not a loose walk
or anything like that." Another man alleges that he was slammed against
a wall, elbowed, and fell on the ground, landing him in intensive care
for a week with bleeding in his brain. He was charged with public
intoxication and assault.
Civil libertarians have gotten acclimated to a pattern with
the Obama administration of supportive rhetoric followed by equivocations,
symbolic measures or outright backtracking on campaign promises and supposed
first principles. Despite all that, however, in the area of torture, at least,
current thinking goes, the administration, though failing to adequately address
Bush administration crimes, HAS accomplished decisive and substantive change.
In a recent piece perennial civil liberties watchdog Nat
Hentoff warns that on the issue of torture as well, despite sweeping
pronouncements to the contrary, facts suggest the administration's real
accomplishments are far less than meets the eye.
Some of the increasing number of critics, from the left and the right, of
President Barack Obama's abuses of civil liberties and human rights make an
exception by praising his executive order in the first month of his term
banning torture as a form of interrogation on matters of national security.
There is credible reason, however, to dispute the credibility of that
presidential pledge.
"Torture's Loopholes" (New York Times, Jan. 20) is by Matthew Alexander, a
14-year veteran of the U.S. Air Force and Air Force Reserves. In 2006, he led
the U.S. interrogation team that tracked and found Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the
insatiable killer who commanded al-Qaida in Iraq and was then terminated by
coalition forces. Alexander went on to write a book that was not endorsed by
Dick Cheney: "How to Break a Terrorist: The U.S. Interrogators Who Used Brains,
Not Brutality, to Take Down the Deadliest Man in Iraq."
This is what Alexander, who describes himself as "an investigator turned
interrogator," has to say about Obama allegedly banning torture -- and the
accompanying decision last August by Attorney General Eric Holder to remove
responsibility for interrogating detainees to a new FBI-directed High-Value
Detainee Interrogation Group that will constrain itself to use only
"noncoercive" methods or those approved by the Army Field Manual.
Unequivocally, Alexander states: "If I were to return to one of the war
zones today...I would still be allowed to abuse prisoners." How come? In
August, Holder's task force on interrogation, commissioned by the president,
"recommended no changes" to the Army Field Manual, thereby retaining the
torture loopholes focused on now by the tracker of al-Zarqawi.
A middle school teacher in Montgomery County, Maryland, will have to
apologize to a 13-year-old student after yelling at her and having her
escorted out of class by school police when the student refused to
recite the Pledge of Allegiance.
According to
the ACLU of Maryland, a 13-year-old female student at Roberto Clemente
Middle School in Germantown refused to stand for the Pledge of
Allegiance on Jan. 27. The teacher reportedly ordered the girl out into
the hallway, where he threatened the girl with detention and then sent
her to the school counselor's office.
The next day, when the
student again refused to stand for the pledge, the teacher called
school officers to remove her from the classroom and take her to the
counselor's office once again.
"When the student's mother reached
out to an assistant principal for help in dealing with the teacher's
abusive and improper actions, the official said her daughter should
instead apologize for her 'defiance.' The student did apologize,
twice," the ACLU states.
The right to sit silently during the Pledge of Allegiance has been held up by the US Supreme Court, and is enshrined in Maryland state law and Mongtomery County Public Schools' own policies, reports the Washington Post.
Haley Shalansky's parents are furious with Parkway Elementary School in Port St. Lucie, Fl.
The six ( yes, 6 ) year old girl was handcuffed on Monday after a
temper tantrum and deemed such a threat by Tuesday that the school had
her committed to a mental facility!
Appropriate classroom behavior excludes tantrums, obviously, but how
necessary was it to handcuff a 6 year old and have her committed?
Florida girl handcuffed, committed by school.
Haley Shalansky, 6 years old, allegedly became upset when her
teacher asked her to "do something" and had a temper tantrum. The
tantrum escalated in the principal's office, becoming a full blown
hissy fit. The incident report from the Sheriff's Dept states that Haley "kicked the wall, went over to the desk and threw the calculator,
electric pencil sharpener, telephone, container of writing utensils and
other objects across the desk."
Haley was placed in handcuffs after police were called. She weighs a
mere 37 pounds, and her wrists are so tiny that both hands were put in
one handcuff.
But wait there's more.
This "Florida girl handcuffed, committed by school" was actually
committed to a mental institution on Tuesday! I guess calling Mom or Dad was too difficult a task for the brilliant employees of Parkway Elementary.
What an innovative way to deal with disruptive students! Such genius!
