Reuters reports, "a 14-year-old student opened fire on faculty and students Friday morning at the alternative school he attended [in Monroe, Louisiana], authorities said. The large-calibre handgun misfired after four shots and no one was injured, authorities said. The boy was disarmed and arrested after two police officers rushed him, said Kelly McGee, spokeswoman for the Monroe School District."
14 Year Old Teen Opens Fire In Louisiana School - No One Hurt
4-20-1
MONROE, Louisiana (Reuters) - On the second anniversary of the nation's worst school shootings at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, a 14-year-old student opened fire on faculty and students Friday morning at the alternative school he attended, authorities said.
The large-calibre handgun misfired after four shots and no one was injured, authorities said.
The boy was disarmed and arrested after two police officers rushed him, said Kelly McGee, spokeswoman for the Monroe School District.
Each student at the Sherrouse Alternative School, set up for children who have been removed from regular classroom because of behaviour problems, is checked in each morning by faculty members and Principal Charles Rohner and subjected to metal detector, McGee said.
"Charles heard a click and looked up and six feet away was a gun pointed at him," she said. "He grabbed kids and the four teachers out there and herded them through the auditorium and away from the boy. He and a teacher held the door closed as the boy fired into it."
"They didn't hear anything else so they started out as the boy came into the auditorium through another door and fired again," McGee said. "Then two police officers arrived and he hid behind some boxes. They could hear the gun clicking but it didn't fire. One of them said, 'I don't want to have to kill this kid' and they rushed him. He didn't fight it."
"We were lucky. This could have been so very serious," she said.
At Columbine, 18-year-old Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, 17, stormed their school, killing 13 people and injuring 20 others before committing suicide.
In Monroe, a passing school bus driver spotted the trouble at 7:20 a.m. CDT (8:20 a.m. EDT)(1220 GMT) and police arrived within two minutes, Chief Joe Stewart said. The two officers who arrested the boy completed specialised training in rapid deployment and crisis management on Thursday, he said. "It's kind of ironic, but everybody -- our people and the school people -- did exactly what they were supposed to do."
Stewart said federal officials will try to trace the background on the .380 magnum gun the boy was carrying to deter mine where he got it. The youth was being interviewed by authorities to determine his motive and intended targets, he said.
Psychologists have been called to the school to help students and faculty, McGee said.
She said the boy was sent to the school in October 2000 after being involved with marijuana, was discharged in March and readmitted this week. The reason he was sent back was not immediately known.
Posted on Monday, April 23 @ 20:26:37 EDT
Jeremy Laurence (UK Independent) reports, "The US government has ordered 40 million doses of smallpox vaccine from a British company in a sign of the growing alarm that terrorists could unleash lethal viruses in future battles against Western states. The astonishing size of the contract worth $343m (£200m) highlights the fears on both sides of the Atlantic about the threat of biological terrorism. If a virus such as smallpox was released, the speed of modern communications could spread the infection all over the world in days."
US on alert for smallpox terror attack
by Jeremy Laurence
health editor
22 April 2001
The US government has ordered 40 million doses of smallpox vaccine from a British company in a sign of the growing alarm that terrorists could unleash lethal viruses in future battles against Western states.
The astonishing size of the contract worth $343m (£200m) highlights the fears on both sides of the Atlantic about the threat of biological terrorism. If a virus such as smallpox was released, the speed of modern communications could spread the infection all over the world in days.
In the UK, the health department warned all NHS hospitals last year to prepare for a criminal or terrorist attack on their local populations involving biological weapons. Police teams trained by scientists from Porton Down, the government research centre on biological and chemical warfare, have been formed to take the lead role in the event of an attack.
The British Medical Association said that advances in technology meant biological weapons were now easier to manufacture than chemical ones, increasing the risk that they could be used in an attack.
Over the past 40 years there have been 121 incidents around the world involving the use of biological agents. The use of sarin nerve gas in an attack by a Japanese terrorist organisation six years ago, in which 12 people were killed and 5,000 injured, focused world attention on the threat. The US last year set aside $1.4bn (£940m) for protection against chemical or biological attacks.
The latest contract for smallpox vaccine is against a disease that no longer exists and the world must hope it will never encounter again. It was eradicated from the planet in 1980 and only two research institutions one in the US and one in Russia still retain stocks of the virus.
The threat of a smallpox attack is highlighted in the preview edition of Infectious Diseases, a new journal published by The Lancet. Donald Henderson of the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health said: "A large stockpile of vaccine is a very high priority because smallpox has a 30 per cent fatality rate. There is no vaccine production capacity anywhere in the world and we now have a very susceptible population."
The vaccine ordered by the US government is being manufactured by a US subsidiary of the Cambridge-based UK biotechnology company Acambis, formerly known as Peptide Therapeutics. Delivery to the US government's Center for Disease Control in Atlanta is due to start from mid-2004.
A spokeswoman said: "At the moment we are going through the process of developing and licensing the vaccine, but under the contract we have the right to sell it to anyone who wants it. When the time comes we will be marketing it to other governments, including the UK. It certainly would be a logical step for them to take."
The likelihood of a chemical or biological attack in the UK is seen as low by the Department of Health, but the results could be devastating. Working parties have been set up to consider the threat and exercises have been run in parts of the country. Lists of the most likely agents to be used have been drawn up, together with advice on how many people they might kill or injure, and strategies for treating the victims.
In the US, fear of biological terrorism has become as unnerving as the threat itself. President Clinton's declaration in 1998 that he expected a biological or chemical attack within the next five years has fuelled alarm and provided fertile ground for hoaxers.
Ben Fenton (UK Telegraph) reports, "A PERUVIAN air force jet that shot down a light aircraft carrying American missionaries, killing a woman and her seven-month-old daughter, was directed on to its target by a US intelligence aircraft that mistook it for a cocaine smuggler, Washington officials said yesterday."
US admits role in missionary deaths
By Ben Fenton
A PERUVIAN air force jet that shot down a light aircraft carrying American missionaries, killing a woman and her seven-month-old daughter, was directed on to its target by a US intelligence aircraft that mistook it for a cocaine smuggler, Washington officials said yesterday.
The bodies of Roni Bowers, 35, and her adopted daughter, Charity, were brought back to America last night. Their deaths have caused acute embarrassment in Washington, drawing attention to its role in the war against drugs in South America.
The American embassy in Lima said last night that flights aimed at intercepting cocaine-smuggling planes were being stopped until an investigation was completed. Suspicion was growing that the specially equipped Cessna Citation jet was being operated by private contractors on behalf of the CIA.
The White House was forced to admit America's role in the shooting down of the missionary plane over the Peruvian Amazon jungle last Friday morning after Jim Bowers, the dead woman's husband, who survived the flight, told his family that a second aircraft had been involved in the attack.
An administration official said the American plane was involved only in identifying the plane as suspicious, which it did because no flight plan was filed for a journey through an area often used by drug runners. But it was the Peruvian air force that decided to fire on the missionaries, he added.
The Cessna 185 was piloted by Kevin Donaldson, a member of a missionary group called the Association of Baptists for World Evangelism. He was flying Mr and Mrs Bowers, their six-year-old son, Cory, and Charity on a trip from the Brazilian border to the city of Iquitos, 620 miles north-east of Lima.
American officials in Washington and Lima said that after the American surveillance plane directed the A-37B jet to the missionaries' flight, the Peruvian pilot followed agreed procedures involving a series of warnings, which the light aircraft did not heed.
The Peruvian air force said the plane was shot down after a warning burst was fired. But Mr Bowers, from Muskegon, Michigan, told his family later that no warning was given and that the fighter made two separate passes at them.
His brother Phil said: "It happened very fast. The planes flew by first, did some swooping, and then came in from behind and started shooting. At some point, one of the bullets had gone through Roni's heart, right into the baby's head, from behind. They died instantly."
Mr and Mrs Bowers had been working in Peru since 1993 and lived on a house boat on the Amazon. Hank Scheltema, who works at the charity's headquarters in Pennsylvania, said Mr Bowers had told him that the fighter killed his wife and daughter on the first pass and then, coming back again, hit Mr Donaldson in the legs and caused the plane to catch fire.
The pilot was able to bring the Cessna 185, which was equipped with pontoons, down on the Amazon, but the aircraft turned on its back and began to sink. Mr Bowers was able to get his wife and children out of the plane as Mr Donaldson extricated himself. They kept afloat for 45 minutes until villagers reached them in dugout canoes. Phil Bowers said his brother had reported that at least one and possibly as many as three fighters had strafed them in the river.
President Bush said he was "saddened" by the deaths. "Our role, like in other missions, was to provide information as to tail numbers," he said. "Our role is to help identify planes that fail to file flight plans. We weep for the families whose lives have been affected." The Peruvian Prime Minister "expressed his sympathies" to Mr Bush, the White House said last night.
Javier Perez de Cuellar, at an official dinner at the Summit of the Americas, "approached the President and expressed his sympathies about the loss of life and said he would do all he could for the families", said a spokesman for Mr Bush.
The American government has been involved in flying back-up missions to help Peru and Colombia intercept drug runners since the early Nineties. The Peruvian air force is poorly equipped for such operations and the fighter pilot involved last Friday did not even have an air-to-air radar set in his plane.
The surveillance aircraft was piloted by an American civilian contractor under the command of the US embassy in Lima. It was not clear which agency in Washington was controlling the operation, causing suspicion to fall on the CIA.
James Allan (UK Telegraph) reports, "An American missionary and her seven-month-old daughter were killed by the same bullet when a Peruvian military plane shot down their light aircraft over the Amazon jungle, in the mistaken belief that it was carrying drugs.
Peru air force shoots down missionaries
By James Allan
AN American missionary and her seven-month-old daughter were killed by the same bullet when a Peruvian military plane shot down their light aircraft over the Amazon jungle, in the mistaken belief that it was carrying drugs.
The Peruvian defence ministry yesterday expressed "deep regret" for the incident, saying that the air force pilot had confused the Christian missionaries' aircraft "with a plane of narcotics traffickers" and opened fire on it with machine-guns.
The Association of Baptists for World Evangelism, based in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, identified the victims as Veronica Bowers, 35, and her daughter, Charity. The baby was sitting on her knee when a bullet struck Mrs Bowers in the back and passed through her, killing them both. Her husband, Jim, 35, and six-year-old son, Cory, were uninjured.
The pilot, Kevin Donaldson, a veteran missionary, temporarily lost control of the sea-plane when another bullet broke his leg, but he managed to bring it under control and land the aircraft on an Amazon waterway. The plane caught fire and flipped over.
The Rev E C Haskell, the administrative executive for the Baptists' Association, said the three survivors sat on pontoons for about 45 minutes before being rescued by some Peruvians in a dugout canoe. He said the aircraft was registered, clearly marked and had filed a flight plan.
He said: "Everything was legal about the flight. He [the pilot] said an air force interceptor approached the plane and began to fire on them. There was no radio contact with the air force plane."
Between 1994 and 1997, Peru shot down about 25 suspected drug aircraft en route to Colombian cocaine refineries from coca-growing areas in Peru's Amazon region. The actions were the result of the former president Alberto Fujimori's tough anti-narcotics policies aimed at reducing trafficking in coca leaf, the raw material used to make cocaine.
The missionaries were returning from Leticia in Brazil, where they had picked up a Peruvian residency visa for the baby. Another Peruvian air force plane took Jim Bowers, his son, and his dead wife and daughter, back to Iquitos, the capital of Amazonas province. The pilot was taken to a local clinic for treatment.
Mr and Mrs Bowers from Muskegon, Michigan, had worked as missionaries in the Amazon region of Peru for almost 10 years. An American State Department official in Washington said embassy officials were on the way to the crash scene.
The Associated Press reports, "The longer young children spend in day care away from their mothers the more likely they are to be overly aggressive by the time they reached kindergarten, according to the largest study of child care and development ever conducted."
Study: Child aggression linked to hours in day care
April 19, 2001
Web posted at: 10:19 AM EDT (1419 GMT)
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The longer young children spend in day care away from their mothers the more likely they are to be overly aggressive by the time they reached kindergarten, according to the largest study of child care and development ever conducted.
The basic results of the 10-year, 10-city federally financed study were outlined Wednesday at a briefing.
Principal researcher Jay Belsky of Birkbeck College in London was presenting the findings in more detail Thursday in Minneapolis, Minnesota, at a meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development.
"There is a constant dose-response relationship between time in care and problem behavior, especially those involving aggression and behavior," Belsky told reporters Wednesday.
Belsky, a research psychologist who worked at Penn State University until two years ago, added that children who spend more than 30 hours a week in child care "scored higher on items like `gets in lots of fights,' `cruelty,' `explosive behavior,' as well as `talking too much,' `argues a lot,' and `demands a lot of attention.'
"If more time in all sorts of (child care) arrangements is predicting disconcerting outcomes, then if you want to reduce the probability of those outcomes, you reduce the time in care," said Belsky. "Extend parental leave and part-time work."
However, Sarah Friedman of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, which financed the study, said the federal agency "is not willing to get into policy recommendations."
One of the lead scientists on the study with Belsky, she said, "The easy solution is to cut the number of hours but that may have implications for the family that may not be beneficial for the development of the children in terms of economics."
The study followed more than 1,364 children in a variety of settings, from care with relatives and nannies to preschool and large day care centers. Its conclusions are based on ratings of the children by their mothers, those caring for them and kindergarten teachers.
The average time in day care for all those studied was 26 hours per week.
Researchers found that 17 percent of the children who were in care for more than 30 hours per week were regarded by teachers, mothers and caregivers as being aggressive toward other children. That compared with 6 percent for the group of children in child care for less than 10 hours a week.
Copyright 2001 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Slashdot is reporting, "Last week Sean, a 16-year-old computer geek and gamer who has never been in serious trouble, was thrown out of a Texas school and ordered into "alternative education" for responding to a year's worth of bullying and harassment, some verbal, some physical. His crime was to fantasize out loud about revenge. He got as much due process as Chinese dissidents get. His father, a Slashdot reader and graphic designer, has pulled his son out of the system and into home schooling. He asks for help and advice. This is a story about life in America's schools these days for people who are "different," who live at the mercy of jerks and cover-your-butt administrators."
Last week, Sean Sheeley -- computer geek, gamer, and high-school junior in the McKinney Independent School District north of Dallas -- was confronted by a group of students in one of his classes. They'd been tormenting Sheeley for much of the school year, he says. He'd been jabbed, ridiculed, baited, had disks stoken from his computer.
Sheely's father Patrick, a graphic designer, says the incident unfolded this way: one of the kids in his class came up to Sean while others were taunting him and said aloud with others present, "One of these days, he's going to bring a gun to school and shoot us."
Patrick Sheeley, a Slashdot regular, says that "my son, being a little sarcastic, took out a small case that he carries his keys in and pretended to be loading a gun. The same student then said, 'Look, he's loading his gun.'
At some point, says Patrick, one of the other students joined in with some additional comments, further upsetting Sean, who then responded:
"If this had been a real gun,you'd be dead now." One of the kids turned him in.
Sean was called into the principal's office where he got suspended for three days and sent home. School officials then notified his parents that Sean was being removed from the high school and sent to an alternative school for kids with learning and other problems. He was no longer fit for mainstream education, the school had decided.
The decision was "unappealable" to school administrators, Patrick was told. He could appeal to the school district, but not until May, when the school year was virtually over. None of the other students involved have been disciplined, nor, to the Sheeleys' knowledge, even questioned. Patrick says officials told him that the school has a statement from a single student who overheard the remark and reported it.
Sean says that he'd like to forget the whole day, but here's what he remembers:
"There was much of the usual taunting, mocking my intelligence, mocking things I hold interest in, etc. Then one of them said, 'You know, one of these days he's going to bring a gun to school and kill us all.' And that is, so to speak, what knocked over the first domino. I also remember one of them trying to take the computer disks out of my backpack... the same person who went through my backpack accused me of being gay."
Sean said he'd prefer the high school to an alternative school. Othwerwise, he says, "why would I want to go back to a school that lies, breaks state laws, and gets rid of bright students who finally snap, merely to 'make the school feel safer' All the school is doing is satisfying a few parents' false sense of insecurity, brought on by the intense media attention to the recent school shootings, by giving them a false sense of security, at the expense of students like myself. The ONLY reason I'd want to go back is to see my few friends again, and I can keep in contact with them without going to school."
Sean's comment was foolish, his father says, especially in the post-Columbine environment where candid speech about schools is dangerous. And he isn't averse to some milder form of punishment.
I wonder if Sean deserves anything more than a useful speech on sensible responses to morons. Perhaps he should be called into an office and told that one of an individual's noblest callings is to make fools reveal themselves. There appear to be mitigating circumstances, to say the least, and Sean was defending himself, reflexively and verbally, if not wisely. Patrick is surprised by the profoundly anti-democratic, Banana Republic policies that govern public schools in America, where there is no Constitution, protected speech, or due process for citizens under 18. Thousands of kids like Sean won't be the least bit surprised.
In fact, school officials across the country may be chasing the wrong kids out of school. The U.S. Center for Disease Control (CDC) reports that more than 2,000 school age children 19 or younger take their lives each year in the United States, many citing depression, social cruelty and bullying and other forms of harassment. That means that many more kids harm themselves as the result of social cruelty than harm other kids.
"I just don't know what to do," says Patrick, who can't afford a lawyer, and who wants to protect his kid. Sheeley is aware that this kind of record could have implications for Sean down the line. "...I would appreciate any suggestions as to what recourse we may have, or where we might find some help."
In the meantime, he and his wife have pulled Sean out of the district rather than submit to his being shunted to an altenative school. The Sheeleys are home-schooling him, an increasingly popular alternative for individualistic kids facing creative suffociation or social isolation and persecution in larger schools. "What's the lesson for him" his father asks. "This wasn't a fair process. The kids who provoked him were not disciplined equally, or at all. It could have been me," Patrick says, of the incident. "I felt the same way when I was in school. I probably even said the same thing." It could have been lot of people.
Even though administrators have deemed Sean too dangerous to stay in high school -- perhaps he triggered one of their dangerous-kid-profiles -- the junior has never been in trouble of any sort, his father says, inside or out of school: never been arrested, disciplined, suspended, or even involved in a fight.
I called the school district to ask if there was any comment. A secretary in the administrators' office asked me if I was kidding. "No," she said. We don't have any. And what is a Slashdot"
Sean provides a nearly classic example of kids in the middle of an increasingly insane social situation. We know this story. Sean and his father are both self-professed computer geeks. Sean has a few friends who are into computers and gaming, and who generally feel isolated and excluded at school. Sean finds many of his classes boring, although he has met academic requirements, and spends most of his time in his creative other life, building computers, programming, networking, writing games, especially RPG's.
His experience shows that a culture of harassment remains tolerated in many educational institutions; where kids can be taunted and bullied at will, sometimes into retaliatory statements or actions.
Patrick Sheeley has some decisions to make and could use some help. Should he try to get Sean back into school or walk away Should he take legal action to force due process (Many Slashdot community members are familiar with home schooling, judging from my e-mail). He would appreciate hearing from lawyers with expertise in cases like this. He's contacted the ACLU, but isn't sure whether it can or will represent Sean. He knows that irrational policies and the post-Columbine hysteria are all closing in on his kid, and he wants to do something about it.
The ad, appearing in the April 15 issue of The New Yorker and the April 16 issue of The New York Times Magazine, features a large photo of a cell phone, with the headline: "Now equipped with 3-way calling. You, whoever you're dialing, and the government."
New ACLU Advertisement Highlights Massive U.S. Government Electronic Surveillance
NEW YORK--From using a cell phone to sending e-mail over the Internet, Americans' right to information privacy is in peril, the American Civil Liberties Union said today in its latest national advertisement.
The ad, appearing in the April 15 issue of The New Yorker and the April 16 issue of The New York Times Magazine, features a large photo of a cell phone, with the headline: "Now equipped with 3-way calling. You, whoever you're dialing, and the government."
The statement, the ACLU said, is no exaggeration. Through surveillance programs with ominous names like "Echelon" and "Carnivore," government agencies are violating the Fourth Amendment, which was adopted for the express purpose of protecting Americans from unwarranted government surveillance.
"The same technological advances that have brought enormous benefits to humankind also make us more vulnerable than ever before to unwarranted government snooping," said Barry Steinhardt, Associate Director of the American Civil Liberties Union. "Through this advertisement, the ACLU hopes to increase awareness of the privacy threat and mobilize our lawmakers into action."
The advertisement urges readers to visit a special ACLU website [www.aclu.org/privacyrights] to learn more about these invasions of privacy rights and to send a free fax message urging their Members of Congress to stop the use of Carnivore and to hold hearings on the secretive Echelon program.
According to the ACLU ad, five nations (the U.S., England, Canada, Australia and New Zealand) are members of a spy network -- dubbed Echelon -- that aims to intercept virtually all forms of electronic communications. Its purpose: worldwide surveillance, not just of other intelligence agencies, but of civilians.
Meanwhile, through the FBI's Internet wiretap system, dubbed "Carnivore," U.S. Internet service providers are forced to attached a black box directly to their networks -- a powerful computer through which much of their customers' communications may flow.
"Congress must cage Carnivore and determine if the Echelon program is as sweeping and intrusive as has been reported," said Gregory T. Nojeim, Associate Director of the ACLU's Washington National Office. "Congress must ensure that our government does not intercept Americans' conversations without a court order. That is why the ACLU has called upon Congress to embark on a national legislative program to shore up the information privacy rights of this and future generations."
The creative minds behind the ad series, DeVito/Verdi Advertising, also developed last year's ACLU advertising series, which included messages on racial profiling, juvenile justice and the death penalty.
The ACLU advertising campaign will be featured on the organization's website, www.aclu.org, with links to relevant documents and news about each issue. The next advertisement, on the subject of asset forfeiture -- police seizure of innocent people's private property -- is scheduled to run in the April 29 issue of The New York Times Magazine and in the May 7 issue of The New Yorker.
The ACLU is a nationwide, non-partisan organization dedicated to defending and preserving the Bill of Rights for all individuals through litigation, legislation and public education.
Headquartered in New York City, the ACLU has 53 staffed affiliates that cover every state, more than 300 chapters nationwide, and a legislative office in Washington, DC. The bulk of the annual $40 million budget is raised by contributions from members -- 275,000 strong -- and gifts and grants from other individuals and foundations.
'Esclarmonde' writes, "Independence Hall in Philadelphia, one of the most important symbols of American freedom and sovereignty, has been placed under the United Nations jurisdiction as a "World Heritage Area." It's one of at least 17 historic sites in the U.S. now controlled -- to one extent or another -- by the U.N. Others include the Statue of Liberty, Yellowstone National Park, Everglades National Park, Yosemite National Park, the Grand Canyon and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park."
Dave Duffy (Backwoods Home Magazine) writes, "When our federal government caused the deaths of 76 people at Waco, Texas, April 19, 1993, exactly two years before McVeigh struck, the Internet was aflood with heated chatter about how horrible and unjust our government was. And when the government acquitted its agents of all wrongdoing, and convicted the surviving Branch Davidians of minor offenses but sentenced them to 30 and 40-year prison terms anyway, there was Internet outrage once more. [..] Now that McVeigh is about to be executed on closed-circuit TV in the first federal execution in 38 years, there is relative silence on the Internet. Very little e-mail, very little discussion pro or con. Why is that We can't quite put our finger on it, can we, or we dare not express the horror in our heart at the coming moment, and the implications for freedom in this country."
Something Unsaid About Timothy McVeigh's Execution
By Dave Duffy
12 APR 2001
There's something unsaid about the coming Timothy McVeigh
execution, scheduled for May 16. Many of us can feel it but are afraid to express it for fear of being labeled a Timothy McVeigh sympathizer, or for fear of being charged with condoning the murder of 168 innocent people, including 19 children, even for fear of being targeted by our government as terrorists ourselves.
What is unsaid can be inferred from the absence of Internet e-mail or newspaper snail mail condemning McVeigh. In fact, it is the absence of much discussion at all about him. Sure, mass media reporters talk about him, and our government does, but ordinary people don't.
When our federal government caused the deaths of 76 people at
Waco, Texas, April 19, 1993, exactly two years before McVeigh struck, the Internet and local newspapers were aflood with heated chatter about how horrible and unjust our government was. And when the government acquitted its agents of all wrongdoing, and convicted the surviving Branch Davidians of minor offenses but sentenced them to 30 and 40-year prison terms anyway, there was outrage once more. You could not download your e-mail, surf the web, or read your local newspaper without being inundated with the outrage.
Now that McVeigh is about to be executed on closed-circuit TV in the first federal execution in 38 years, there is relative silence from ordinary people, both on the Internet and in the local newspaper. Very little e-mail or letters to the editor, very little discussion pro or con. Why is that We can't quite put our finger on it, can we, or we dare not express the horror in our heart at the coming moment, and the implications for freedom in this country.
Let's review what many of us feel:
-- We accept the fact that Timothy McVeigh is a murderer and we
sympathize with the victims' families. But we also understand that our government's agents killed 76 people at Waco, including 19 children, many of whom died agonizing deaths vomiting their stomachs out from the CS gas grenades lobbed into the building. We sympathize with those victims' families also.
-- We accept the fact that Timothy McVeigh should pay with his life, but we cannot accept the fact that our government's agents got off scott free for Waco, and some were even promoted in its aftermath.
-- We cannot accept the fact that the mainstream media remembers the victims of Oklahoma City, but is silent about the victims of Waco. You'd think no one died at Waco, or that there were no dead children there, or that there is no connection between the two events.
-- We are outraged by the fact that McVeigh shows no remorse for the deaths of the 19 children at the Murrah Building, but we are also outraged that our government shows no remorse for the deaths of the 19 children at Waco.
-- And no, we do not buy the government and mass media line that the Waco victims chose their end by their lack of cooperation with the FBI agents, BATF agents, and the tanks that besieged their home. They were nutty members of a religious cult So what! Since when is that a crime
Our government created McVeigh by its actions at Waco, just as it
creates terrorists around the world by its "police" actions in various parts of the globe. Is it any wonder that one of these created terrorists, one among the millions of people who were outraged by Waco, felt unable to gain justice through the normal legal channels, and sought revenge by trying to get at the BATF agents housed on an upper floor of the Murrah Building
Blowing up the Murrah Building was a horrible act by McVeigh, for
sure, but that is what terrorists do. Look around the world at what the Arabs have done in Israel, or what they did here in the U.S., in New York, in 1993, at the World Trade Center. We view them as criminals, but they view themselves as justice-seeking terrorists.
Terrorism is a terrible thing, whether it's committed deliberately by a government against its citizens, or by an individual who strikes out in a blind rage.
When the anniversary of Waco and the Murrah Building arrive April 19, I will mourn all the victims, both those of our government and those of Timothy McVeigh. And when May 16 arrives, and Timothy McVeigh is executed, I will be saddened that his will be the only justice delivered that day.
May 16 will be a major turning point for America. We will all get to see the double standard in action, in all its horrific nakedness: the lone terrorist dies, while the government terrorists go free. We will be rid of McVeigh, but we will understand that far more powerful terrorists still lurk among us.
Dave Duffy is publisher of Backwoods Home Magazine,
POB 712,
Gold Beach, OR 97444,
1-,
http://www.backwoodshome.com
ABC news reports, "A bunch of Oregon high school seniors posed for pictures at a local playground, wearing their Seaside High School cheerleader uniforms. Then, some of the girls began revealing what they were wearing and what they were not wearing underneath."
Nothing to Cheer About
Nude Cheerleader Photos Rock Oregon High School
April 12 It started out as a joke.
A bunch of Oregon high school seniors posed for pictures at a local playground, wearing their Seaside High School cheerleader uniforms. Then, some of the girls began revealing what they were wearing and what they were not wearing underneath.
"They were in their cheerleading outfits, lifting them up in front of the camera," said Seaside student Jessica Hauge. "Some of them, they had no shirts on."
Bawdy Fun, or Kiddie Porn Felony
"The girls that took it, they thought it was funny," said former student Natalie Goodman. "They took it for the school since they were seniors ... and they thought it would be something fun to do."
School officials don't think it's very funny and some of the girls may not be allowed to graduate this year. Police were not amused when the photos began appearing on the Internet, and say someone could be charged with a felony: the distribution of child porn. Some of the images, officials say, were very explicit.
It is believed that a male student, a sophomore, used a digital camera to take the pictures. Somehow and this is where the police are very interested in finding out what happened those digital photos made it onto the Internet.
Investigators warned that anyone who distributes the photos is committing a felony in Oregon.
Police: This Is a Big Deal
"Some people may not think that it was a big deal, but it is a big deal," said Oregon State Police Lt. Gregg Hastings. Hastings said distributing sexually explicit photos of children in person or online is a crime.
"That's where you start approaching a felony here in our state," he said.
Seaside High School officials refused to discuss the case, but the girls in question are believed to be still attending school.
But some of their classmates hope they will be punished.
Wrong and Gross and Stupid
"It's just going back to our school and making us look bad, and making us kids look slutty and stuff," said Seaside junior Crystal Cleveland.
"What they did was wrong, and gross and stupid," agreed former student Matt Castrape.
Police have questioned several people adults and minors but no arrests have been made.
ABCNEWS affiliate KATU in Portland, Ore., contributed to this report.
I am very glad to have this time to send a message to you. We are celebrating a time in our history which is both filled with joy and sadness. I am very glad that our Hindu brothers have given us this opportunity to share these feelings with you because we know many of you are having the same troubles.
We Hopi believe that the human race has passed through three different worlds and life ways since the beginning. At the end of each prior world, human life has been purified or punished by the Great Spirit "Massauu" due mainly to corruption, greed and turning away from the Great Spirit's teachings. The last great destruction was the flood which destroyed all but a few faithful ones who asked and received a permission from the Great Spirit to live with Him in this new land. The Great Spirit said, "It is up to you, if you are willing to live my poor, humble and simple life way. It is hard but if you agree to live according to my teachings and instructions, if you never lose faith in the life I shall give you, you may come and live with me." The Hopi and all who were saved from the great flood made a sacred covenant with the Great Spirit at that time.
We Hopi made an oath that we will never turn away from Him. For us the Creators laws never change or break down. To the Hopi the Great Spirit is all powerful. He appeared to the first people as a man and talked with them in the beginning of this creation world. He taught us how to live, to worship, where to go and what food to carry, gave us seeds to plant and harvest. He gave us a set of sacred stone tablets into which He breathed all teachings in order to safeguard his land and life. In these stone tablets were made, instructions and prophecies and warnings. This was done with the help of a Spider woman and Her two grandsons. They were wise and powerful helpers of the Great Spirit.
Before the Great Spirit went into hiding, He and Spider woman put before the leaders of the different groups of people many colors and sized of corn for them to choose their food in this world. The Hopi was the last to pick and then choose their food in this world. The Hopi then choose the smallest ear of corn. Then Massauu said, "You have shown me you are wise and humble for this reason you will be called Hopi (people of peace) and I will place in your authority all land and life to guard, protect and hold trust for Me until I return to you in later days for I am the First and the Last."
This is why when a Hopi is ordained into the higher religious order, the earth and all living things are placed upon his hands. He becomes a parent to all life on earth. He is entitled to advise and correct his children in whatever peaceful way he can. So we can never give up knowing that our message of peace will reach our children. Then it is together with the other spiritual leaders the destiny of our future children is placed.
We are instructed to hold this world in balance within the land and the many universes with special prayers and ritual which continue to this day.
It was to the Spider woman's two grandsons the sacred stone tablets were given. These two brothers were then instructed to carry them to a place the Great Spirit had instructed them. The older brother was to go immediately to the East, to the rising sun and upon reaching his destination was instructed to immediately start to look for his younger brother who shall remain in the land of the Great Spirit. The Older brothers mission when he returned was to help his younger brother (Hopi) bring about peace, brotherhood and everlasting life on his return.
Hopi, the younger brother, was instructed to cover all land and mark it well with footprints and sacred markings to claim this land for the Creator and peace on earth. We established our ceremonials and sacred shrines to hold this world in balance in accordance with our first promise to the Creator. This is how our migration story goes, until we meet the Creator at Old Oribe (place that solidifies) over 1000 years ago. It was at that meeting when he gave to us these prophecies to give to you now at this closing of the Fourth World of destruction and the beginning of the Fifth World of peace. He gave us many prophecies to pass on to you and all have come to pass. This is how we know the timing is now to reveal the last warnings and instructions to mankind.
We were told to settle permanently here in Hopi land where we met the Great Spirit and wait for Older Brother who went east to return to us. When he returns to this land he will place his stone tablets side by side to show all the world that they are our true brothers. When the road in the sky has been fulfilled and when the inventing of something, in Hopi means, gourd of ashes, a gourd that when drops upon the earth will boil everything within a large space and nothing will grow for a very long time. When the leaders turned to evil ways instead of the Great Spirit we were told there would be many ways this life may be destroyed. If human kind does not heed our prophecy and return to ones original spiritual instructions. We were told of three helpers who were commissioned by the Great Spirit to help Hopi bring about the peaceful life on earth would appear to help us and we should not change our homes, our ceremonials, our hair, because the true helpers might not recognize us as the true Hopi. So we have been waiting all these years.
It is known that our True White Brother, when he comes, will be all powerful and will wear a red cap or red cloak. He will be large in population, belong to no religion but his very own. He will bring with him the sacred stone tablets. With him there will be two great ones both very wise and powerful. One will have a symbol or sign of swastika which represents purity and is Female, a producer of life. The third one or the second one of the two helpers to our True White Brother will have a sign of a symbol of the sun. He, too, will be many people and very wise and powerful. We have in our sacred Kachina ceremonies a gourd rattle which is still in use today with these symbols of these powerful helpers of our True Brother.
It is also prophesied that if these three fail to fulfill their mission then the one from the west will come like a big storm. He will be many, in numbers and unmerciful. When he comes he will cover the land like the red ants and over take this land in one day. If the three helpers chosen by the Creator fulfill their sacred mission and even if there are only one, two or three of the true Hopi remaining holding fast to the last ancient teaching and instructions the Great Spirit, Massauu will appear before all and our world will be saved.
The three will lay our a new life plan which leads to everlasting life and peace. The earth will become new as it was from the beginning. Flowers will bloom again, wild games will return to barren lands and there will be abundance of food for all. Those who are saved will share everything equally and they all will recognize Great Spirit and speak one language.
We are now faced with great problems, not only here but throughout the land. Ancient cultures are being annihilated. Our people's lands are being taken from them, leaving them no place to call their own. Why is this happening
It is happening because many have given up or manipulated their original spiritual teachings. The way of life which the Great Spirit has given to all its people of the world, whatever your original instructions are not being honored. It is because of this great sickness-called greed, which infects every land and country that simple people are losing what they have kept for thousands of years.
Now we are at the very end of our trail. Many people no longer recognize the true path of the Great Spirit. They have, in fact, no respect for the Great Spirit or for our precious Mother Earth, who gives us all life.
We are instructed in our ancient prophecy that this would occur. We were told that someone would try to go up to the moon: that they would bring something back from the moon; and that after that, nature would show signs of losing its balance. Now we see that coming about. All over the world there are now many signs that nature is no longer in balance. Floods, drought, earthquakes, and great storms are occurring and causing much suffering. We do not want this to occur in our country and we pray to the Great Spirit to save us from such things. But there are now signs that this very same thing might happen very soon on our own land.
Now we must look upon each other as brothers and sisters. There is no more time for divisions between people. Today I call upon all of us, from right here at home, Hotevilla, where we to are guilty of gossiping and causing divisions even among our own families; out to the entire world where thievery, war and lying goes on every day. These divisions will not be our salvation. Wars only bring more wars never peace.
Only by joining together in a Spiritual Peace with love in our hearts for one another, love in our hearts for the Great Spirit and Mother Earth, shall we be saved from the terrible Purification Day which is just ahead.
There are many of you in this world who are honest people. We know you spiritually for we are the "Men's Society Grandfathers" who have been charged to pray for you and all life on earth never forgetting anything or any one in our ceremonials. Our prayer is to have a good happy life, plenty of soft gentle rain for abundant crops. We pray for balance on earth to live in peace and leave a beautiful world to the children yet to come. We know you have good hearts but good hearts are not enough to help us out with these great problems. In the past some of you have tried to help us Hopis, and we will always be thankful for you efforts. But now we need your help in the worst way. We want the people of the world to know the truth of our situation.
This land which people call the Land of the Freedom celebrates many days reminding people of the world of these things. Yet in well over 200 years the original Americans have not seen a free day. We are suffering the final insult. Our people are now losing the one thing which give life and meaning of life -- our ceremonial land, which is being taken away from us. Hotevilla is the last holy consecrated, undisturbed traditional Native American sacred shrine to the Creator. As the prophecy says, this sacred shrine must keep its spiritual pathways open. This village is the spiritual vortex for the Hopi to guide the many awakening Native Americans and other true hearts home to their own unique culture. Hotevilla was established by the last remaining spiritual elders to maintain peace and balance on this continent from the tip of South America up to Alaska. Many of our friends say Hotevilla is a sacred shrine, a national and world treasure and must be preserved. We need your help.
Where is the freedom which you all fight for and sacrifice your children for Is it only the Indian people who have lost or are all Americans losing the very thing which you original came here to find We don't share the freedom of the press because what gets into the papers is what the government wants people to believe, not what is really happening. We have no freedom of speech, because we are persecuted by our own people for speaking our beliefs.
We are at the final stages now and there is a last force that is about to take away our remaining homeland.
We are still being denied many things including the rite to be Hopis and to make our living in accordance with our religious teachings. The Hopi leaders have warned leaders in the White House and the leaders in the Glass House but they do not listen. So as our prophecy says then it must be up to the people with good pure hearts that will not be afraid to help us to fulfill our destiny in peace for this world. We now stand at a cross road whether to lead ourselves in everlasting life or total destruction. We believe that human beings spiritual power through prayer is so strong it decides life on earth.
So many people have come to Hopiland to meet with us. Some of you we have met on your lands. Many times people have asked how they can help us. Now I hope and pray that your help will come. If you have a way to spread the truth, through the newspapers, radio, books, thought meeting with powerful people, tell the truth! Tell them what you know to be true. Tell them what you have seen here; what you have heard us say; what you have seen with your own eyes. In this way, if we do fall, let it be said that we tried, right up to the end, to hold fast to the path of peace as we were originally instructed to do by the Great Spirit. Should you really succeed, we will all realize our mistakes of the past and return to the true path - - living in harmony as brothers and sisters, sharing our mother, the earth with all other living creatures. In this way we could bring about a new world. A world which would be led by the great Spirit and our mother will provide plenty and happiness for all.
God bless you, each one of you and know our prayers for peace meet yours as the sun rises and sets.
May the Great Spirit guide you safely into the path of love, peace, freedom and God on this Earth Mother.
May the holy ancestors of love and light keep you safe in your land and homes.
Pray for God to give you something important to do in this great work which lies ahead of us all to bring peace on earth. We the Hopi still hold the sacred stone tablets and now await the coming of our True White Brother and others seriously ready to work for the Creator's peace on earth.
Be well, my children, and think good thoughts of peace and togetherness. Peace for all life on earth and peace with one another in our homes, families and countries. We are not so different in the Creator's eyes. The same great Father Sun shines his love on each of us daily just as Mother Earth prepares the sustenance for our table, do they not We are one after all.
Chief Dan Evehema, (105) Spiritual leader, Eldest Elder Greeswood /
Roadrunner Clan Society Father / Snake Priest / Kachina Father.
From Hotevilla, Arizona, Hopi Sovereign Nation.
, "A Riverside County [California] high school teacher allegedly threatened her students with violence Tuesday when they wouldn't quiet down. "She said, 'If you all don't shut up, I'm going to get a gun, and I'm going to shoot all of you,'" a female senior, who preferred to remain anonymous, told CBS 2 News Wednesday. "She was frustrated because we wouldn't stop talking and do our work."
Students: Teacher Threatened To Shoot Us
Thursday March 22 11:22 AM EST
A Riverside County high school teacher allegedly threatened her students with violence Tuesday when they wouldn't quiet down.
More than 30 students from Paloma Valley High School in Menifee claim that English teacher Barbara Brown told them in a fit of anger that she would get a gun and shoot them if they continued to talk during class.
"She said, 'If you all don't shut up, I'm going to get a gun, and I'm going to shoot all of you,'" a female senior, who preferred to remain anonymous, told CBS 2 News Wednesday. "She was frustrated because we wouldn't stop talking and do our work."
After making the alleged statement, Brown apparently left the classroom for 10 minutes. Witnesses told CBS 2 News that when the English teacher returned, she was composed and in possession of a portable CD player.
"She put a CD in for us to listen to while we did our essay," the female senior said.
Several students decided to report events to school administrators, and each of Brown's students was asked to fill out a "declaration of incident."
Copies of witness statements were reviewed by CBS 2 News. They were all fairly consistent, alleging that Brown threatened to use a gun to restore order in the classroom.
"When she said that, everybody just got quiet and didn't say a word," the female witness said. "Everybody was kind of in shock that she would say something like that. We were just sitting there.
"We didn't take her seriously, seriously. But we were like, 'Okay' And we were quiet and did our work."
Brown, a credentialed teacher for at least six years, has been placed on suspension pending further investigation of the alleged incident.
Neither she nor her coworkers would talk to CBS 2 News. However, school district assistant superintendent Robert Erikson said that the students' allegations are being taken seriously.
"We are looking at it very carefully," he told CBS 2 News. "Our number one priority is still safety."
But a male member of Brown's English class told CBS 2 News that officials aren't treating the case with the same sobriety they would a student threat.
"I think people have under-reacted," he said. "If I made a statement like that, I would go to jail.
"You don't know what people are thinking with all of the high school shootings going on and everything."
Riverside County sheriff's investigators are also looking into the matter.
Christine Reid writes, "A 16-year-old [Broomfield, Colorado,] high school student may be charged with a felony after school officials found an unloaded BB gun in his car. [..] The BB gun was discovered shortly after 9 a.m. when the boy parked his car in a lot not designated for student parking, police reported. An adult monitor at the school told the student to report to the office and then searched his car without his permission, according to reports. She reported finding what she thought was a real handgun to police. It turned out to be an unloaded BB gun."
Student may face felony charge over unloaded BB gun
By CHRISTINE REID
Scripps Howard News Service
April 08, 2001
BROOMFIELD, Colo. - A 16-year-old high school student may be charged with a felony after school officials found an unloaded BB gun in his car.
The student, a sophomore at Legacy High School, was released to his parents after the gun was found Wednesday under the seat of his car parked at Legacy the school.
The BB gun was discovered shortly after 9 a.m. when the boy parked his car in a lot not designated for student parking, police reported. An adult monitor at the school told the student to report to the office and then searched his car without his permission, according to reports. She reported finding what she thought was a real handgun to police. It turned out to be an unloaded BB gun.
The student told authorities he used it to target shoot at cans and had forgotten it was in his car.
Prosecutors informed police the charge was a felony and the student must appear in juvenile court.
"It is a deadly weapon by definition," said Adams County District Attorney Bob Grant.
Punishments that could be levied against the student range from several years in a locked-down juvenile corrections facility to a deferred sentence with probation.
The school official who found the gun was within her legal limits to search the student's car without permission, said Susan Carlson, director of public affairs for Adams 12 Five Star Schools.
"Cars parked on school parking lots are treated as a locker in terms of search and seizure," she said.
District policy allows for that type of search when there is "reasonable suspicion" that something not allowed on school grounds is contained inside. Carlson was unsure what circumstances led the Legacy official to become suspicious.
The student also faces disciplinary action by school officials. According to Adams district policy the infraction is grounds for exclusion, which could mean either suspension or expulsion.
(Christine Reid is a reporter for the Broomfield Enterprise in Broomfield, Colo.)
Web site hosting for anybody: $10/month and up
Threatening letters to people who satirize you, hoping they won't know the law: $500
Reputation as giant corporation required to intimidate small publishers: $billions
Supreme court decisions protecting parody and satire from accusations of copyright and trademark infringement... Priceless
There are some rights money can't buy. For everything else, there's Mastercard's lawyers.
Date: Tue, 10 Apr 2001 08:30:01 -0700
From: Declan McCullagh
To:
Subject: FC: Humorless Mastercard lawyers threaten rec.humor.funny newsgroup
Date: Tue, 10 Apr 2001 08:22:19 -0600 (MDT)
From: David Butterfield
Subject: Mastercard vs. RHF
To:
Fom (Brad Templeton)
Newsgroups: rec.humor.funny
Subject: Mastercard threatens rec.humor.funny over satire
Date: Mon, 9 Apr 2001 19:30:00 PDT
Two years ago, rec.humor.funny published a sick satire of the Mastercard
"Priceless" ads (There are some things money can't buy, for everything
else there's Mastercard) based around the Columbine tragedy. I won't repeat
it here, since it was pretty sick and offensive, though you can find it
on the web site at:
http://www.netfunny.com/rhf/jokes/99/Apr/columbine.html
Today we received a "cease and desist" letter from Mastercard's lawyers
demanding that the parody be removed from our web site, falsely claiming
it violates their trademarks and copyrights, in spite of the well
established rules protecting satire and parody from such attacks.
The letter can be found at
http://www.netfunny.com/rhf/price.html
Here, however, is my response...
"One of the most spectacular events [at Western Winter Blast '96] was the Anvil Firing. Yes. Anvils. Small ones, 95 pounders. Shooting. Into the air. About 30 feet or so. The two gentlemen who were showing off explained that they were reviving an old tradition: back in the gold rush days, miners would test their powder by shooting anvils. It evolved into something of a competition. Maybe that was true, or perhaps the miners just needed to burn off some excess testosterone. Either way, here's what the revivalists did..."
Salon reports, "A fifth-grade girl at Cincinnati's Mount Airy School says at least 15 boys have been trading soda and cash for sex with at least five girls, according to WLWT Eyewitness News. Police and school officials are looking into the allegation, which claims the students -- some as young as 10 -- were sneaking into closets to do it."
Lunchtime quickies
A fifth-grade girl says her classmates trade soda and cash for sex.
By Chris Colin
April 10, 2001
A fifth-grade girl at Cincinnati's Mount Airy School says at least 15 boys have been trading soda and cash for sex with at least five girls, according to WLWT Eyewitness News. Police and school officials are looking into the allegation, which claims the students -- some as young as 10 -- were sneaking into closets to do it.
"Please understand we take this matter very seriously," wrote principal Judy Mayfield in a letter to parents on Friday. "As a result of the reporting of these alleged incidents, we have taken extra precautions to guard the safety of all students."
School-district attorney John Concannon told WLWT he doesn't know what to make of the charges: "If we thought there was absolutely no truth, we wouldn't even be looking into it. There may be, so we're checking, but we have not confirmed it with anyone as of now."
Jan Leslie, spokeswoman for the district's public affairs office, told Salon Monday that officials had questioned each of the students said to be involved. Nothing has corroborated the girl's story so far, she said.
"This is one that, frankly, got a little ahead of what's real," Leslie said of the allegation, which she called "pretty sensational." Still, she said, the investigation will continue.
What leaps out most from the allegations, perhaps, is the scale: Most of the class, the girl says, was involved. If these kids are remotely representative -- and maybe that's the last thing to deduce here -- what they supposedly did is even more astonishing. Because their ranks must include not just the sexually curious, but the shy, the geeky, the mousy, the athletic, the loud and the runny-nosed. Some must like Eminem, while others like horses, and others just like going home and eating dinner. For a majority of these children to put their differences aside for one common and presumably challenging goal, is bizarre and disturbing and probably radical.
Parents interviewed by the WLWT-TV crew at the school on Friday were skeptical. They stood outside and shook their heads.
"I don't believe my son ... is having sex at 11 years old," said one mother.
"I don't believe any of it," said another.
If you ask a question you don't want an answer to; expect an answer you do not want to hear./ Sometimes, we are not thinking about you. Live with it. / Do not ask us what we are thinking about unless you are prepared to discuss such topics as navel lint, the shotgun formation and paintball.
Date: Mon, 9 Apr 2001 14:28:55 -0700 (PDT)
From: Gregory Ade
To:
Subject: [etc] "Rules guys wish girls knew"
got sent this by a friend. It amused me, so I share.
RULES GUYS WISH GIRLS KNEW
Please note...these are not numbered ON PURPOSE!
If you think you are fat, you probably are. Do not ask us. We refuse to answer.
Birthdays, Valentines, and Anniversaries are not quests to see if we can find the perfect present yet again!
Learn to work the toilet seat. You're a big girl. If it's up, put it down.
If you ask a question you don't want an answer to; expect an answer you do not want to hear.
Sometimes, we are not thinking about you. Live with it.
Do not ask us what we are thinking about unless you are prepared to discuss such topics as navel lint, the shotgun formation and paintball.
Sunday sports. It's like the full moon or the changing of the tides. Let it be.
Shopping is not a sport, and no, we are never going to think of it that way.
When we have to go somewhere, absolutely anything you wear is fine. Really.
You have enough clothes. You have too many shoes.
Crying is blackmail.
Your ex-boyfriend/husband is an idiot.
Ask for what you want. Let us be clear on this one: Subtle hints do not work. Strong hints do not work. Obvious hints do not work. Just say it!
We don't remember dates. Mark birthdays and anniversaries on a calendar. Remind us frequently beforehand.
Most guys own three pairs of shoes - tops. What makes you think we'd be any good at choosing which pair, out of thirty, would look good with your dress
Yes and No are perfectly acceptable answers to almost every question.
Come to us with a problem only if you want help solving it. That's what we do.
Sympathy is what your girlfriends are for.
A headache that lasts for 17 months is a problem. See a doctor.
Foreign films are best left to foreigners.
Check your oil. Please.
Do not fake it. We would rather be ineffective than deceived.
Anything we said 6 months ago is inadmissible in an argument. In fact, all comments become null and void after 7 days.
If something we said can be interpreted two ways, and one of the ways makes you sad or angry, we meant the other one.
Let us ogle. It's genetic. It means nothing. Really!
You can either ask us to do something OR tell us how you want it done-not both. If you already know best how to do it, just do it yourself.
Whenever possible, please say whatever you have to say during commercials.
Christopher Columbus did not need directions, neither do we.
The relationship is never going to be like it was the first two months we were going out. Get over it. And quit whining to your girlfriends. Like THEIR relationships are SO MUCH better.
ALL men see in only 16 colors, like windows default settings. Peach, for example, is a fruit, not a color. Pumpkin is also a fruit. We have no idea what mauve is.
If it itches, it will be scratched. We do that.
We are not mind readers and we never will be. Our lack of mind-reading ability is not proof of how little we care about you.
If we ask what is wrong and you say "nothing," we will act like nothing's wrong. We know you are lying, but it is just not worth the hassle.
Debra Johnson reports, "A fourth-grader at Bunnell Elementary School (Florida) received a 10-day suspension for drawing a picture of himself shooting another pupil with a laser gun."
Bunnell fourth-grader suspended over gun drawing
By DEBRA JOHNSON ()
Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 14, 2001
BUNNELL (FLORIDA) - A fourth-grader at Bunnell Elementary School received a 10-day suspension for drawing a picture of himself shooting another pupil with a laser gun.
Flagler County School Superintendent Robert Williams confirmed Tuesday that the youngster was suspended Friday by Principal Kate Godbee. Williams would not identify the child.
A report from the Flagler County Sheriff's Office said the 9-year-old drew the picture and left it on his desk Thursday while he went to the restroom. Another pupil picked up the picture and took it to the teacher, Joann Hitz.
The report said Hitz "was so concerned with the content of the picture" she gave it to two other pupils to take to Godbee and Assistant Principal Phyllis Pearson. Godbee issued the suspension.
The pupil told school authorities he drew the picture because the child represented in the picture had been teasing him and calling him names.
The suspension began Friday and will mean the child will be out of school all this week, a four-day week; and all five days next week, which then leads into the March 26 Spring Break week for county schools. The boy will be eligible to return to school April 2.
Superintendent Williams defended the suspension Tuesday, saying it followed the district's "no tolerance" policy regarding student conduct and violence toward other students and teachers. That means action can be taken over any act deemed severe by the administration, according to the guidelines.
"We take a strong stance on that," he said.
For the 9-year old, the suspension means the youngster also missed this week's Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, or FCAT, which is one of the factors used to determine whether fourth-grade pupils will be promoted or retained. Williams said the pupil would be allowed to make up the missed test.
The superintendent added that the district is not focusing just on the suspension. "We are looking to find some help for the child," Williams said. "We are looking at some counseling. We are not taking this lightly."
Ken Fisher, father of the suspended fourth-grader, said Tuesday night that although he is disappointed, he understands the school's action.
"With all that's been going on in the schools everywhere - the shootings, I'm not surprised that the school (officials) would react this way," Fisher said.
His son was angry when he drew the picture, Fisher said, but he had no intention of carrying out any such act.
"You've got to know him. He's a good kid. He didn't understand (the suspension) at first, but now he knows he can't draw pictures like that," Fisher said.
He added that his son and the youngster in the picture are friends and play on the same soccer team.
"We don't have guns in our house and my son has not been around guns. He will go to some counseling, which he'll pass with flying colors and then he'll be back in school," Fisher said.
Al Martinez, the father of the child portrayed as the victim in the picture, said Tuesday he was disappointed with the 10-day suspension.
"They didn't seem to take things seriously. It was like it was a joke," Martinez said. "He should have gotten a little more than what he got when (he) threatened a person."
The Bunnell man said he was not aware that his son had reportedly been teasing the suspended fourth-grader.
"Nobody told me," he said, adding that he had not seen the picture drawn by his son's classmate.
Martinez said counseling for the suspended pupil would be acceptable to him and his family.
The suspension follows a pattern of consequences for schoolchildren throughout the country because of zero tolerance.
But Williams said he doesn't like to use the term.
"I think zero tolerance takes on different meanings for different people," Williams said.
However, another Sheriff's Office report last Friday said that a 15-year-old Flagler Palm Coast High School athlete on a team bus threatened to shoot another athlete on the bus. The report said no criminal charges were filed and the school was handling the case.
Williams said Tuesday he was unaware of the case and Principal Larry Hunsinger could not be reached for comment.
The Jersey Journal reports, "that on March 2, the students in teacher Debbie Noone's class gathered in a circle while the young girl performed oral sex on the boy and allowed at least two other boys to kiss and fondle her breasts, among other acts."
Parents of boy in school sex game plan to sue
By Journal staff
03/20/01
NORTH BERGEN - The parents of a 15-year-old boy who plan to sue the school system say their son was the victim when a female classmate performed oral sex on him as two other boys fondled the girl mere feet from the teacher.
"From the start, my son has maintained that he wasn't participating in the game, but that he was writing at his desk and he felt the girl come under his table," the boy's mother said. To preserve the boy's anonymity, neither his mother nor his father was identified during a conference call last week with their West New York attorney.
Fernando Jimenez, the attorney, advised the mother not to detail her son's reaction but rather discuss other aspects of the March 2 incident at North Bergen High School.
She said she feels the school's 10-day suspension of her son was excessive and heavy-handed, but she accepted it initially because she was still in shock over what happened.
"I've asked him, and he said that more has taken place. After the problem, more has come to light," the father said, although he could not be specific.
A spokesman for the school, Craig Schmalz, declined to comment.
The planned suit stems from reports that on March 2, the students in teacher Debbie Noone's class gathered in a circle while the young girl performed oral sex on the boy and allowed at least two other boys to kiss and fondle her breasts, among other acts. The class was composed of students from the HOPES program, an alternative education program designed for 14- and 15-year-old grammar school children who are not able to participate in the regular high school curriculum.
Noone, in her 30s, who officials have said was oblivious to what her students were doing, will not face criminal charges but has been reassigned to non-teaching duties. School officials are waiting to receive police reports before deciding whether to institute disciplinary measures.
Although he said he has not yet filed the preliminary notices with the township or the school system, Jimenez said the boy's family intends to sue. The mother - who learned of the incident five days after it took place - and her son were interviewed by school and police officials.
The parents said both mother and son signed statements they made to police but never received copies.
"They tell me it's not their policy to release statements because it's an ongoing investigation, which means I must now file a suit to get it through discovery," Jimenez said.
The family has lived in North Bergen for about 12 years and said they never expected anything like this to happen.
"I was called at work. It really had a bad affect on me. I felt lost . . . disoriented," said the mother. "When I asked what happened, he (the detective) said a group of students played a game where they had oral sex, and that's what really hit me."
© 2001 The Jersey Journal.
