Students in blackface in two states prompt walkout
Blackface is causing outrage in Maryland and Illinois, where 1,000 students walked out of class to protest offensive images posted on social media by classmates.
The walkout Tuesday at Homewood-Flossmoor High School outside Chicago took place days after four unidentified male students posted a photo and video of themselves on social media wearing blackface while going through a fast-food drive-through window, WLS-TV reports.
Most students involved in the protest returned to class after a few minutes, but several dozen stayed outside to voice their disapproval of the response by school administrators, the station reports.
“The administration is honestly making it to be not a big thing and it really is,” student Karina Duncan said.
Another student, Kaila Chambliss, said she was pleased by the “big turnout” but wants school officials to respond appropriately to the controversy.
“I’m very happy with the results because this something that systematically is happening in America now and we need to see a change take place,” Chambliss told the station.
District officials, meanwhile, said in a letter to parents that administrators met with the students and their families Sunday, but did not indicate what disciplinary measures — if any — were taken.
“However, we can share that the social media postings that were seen and heard were not representative of the high expectations we have for all students that attend our school,” the statement read. “This type of behavior is contrary to our expectations, is being addressed quickly and appropriately and will not be tolerated.”
Students were allowed to take part in the walkout or stay inside, district officials said in a separate statement Tuesday.
Nearly 600 miles away, politicians in Maryland said they were troubled by two ninth-graders at Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda who posted an image of themselves in blackface on social media over the weekend, the Baltimore Sun reports.
“It is unfortunate for us to be in 2019 and these types of incidents are still happening,” Montgomery County Council President Nancy Navarro told the newspaper. “In light of this, it is imperative that we continue our work to engage in education and outreach to sensitize our residents on the harmful effects of racism on the residents of our communities.”
A Montgomery County police spokesman said an officer at the nationally ranked public school characterized the incident as a “bias-related incident” and the student’s actions were determined not to be criminal.
Byron Johns of the Montgomery County branch of the NAACP said the incident was indeed offensive, but has become “more normalized” amid rising political and racial tensions throughout the country.
“It’s part of the ether now,” Johns told the Baltimore Sun.
via: https://nypost.com/2019/05/01/students-in-blackface-in-two-states-prompt-walkout-unrest/
Photo Credit: LOGAN CYRUS/AFP/Getty Images
FL Toddler attacked by dog while mother Cassie Anthony was on drugs
PANAMA CITY BEACH, Fla. – A Florida woman is facing charges of neglect after police said her toddler was attacked by the family dog, WMBB reported.
According to Panama City Beach police Cassie Anthony left her one-year-old alone for just under an hour Tuesday. During that time, Anthony’s pit bull attacked the little girl, leaving her with a facial injury that required immediate surgery.
Anthony was reportedly under the influence of illicit drugs at the time of the attack, according to a police report.
She was charged with neglect of a child with great bodily injuries.
via: https://pix11.com/2019/05/01/police-toddler-attacked-by-dog-while-mother-was-on-drugs/
Photo Credit: pix11.com, mypanhandle.com
Study: Teen suicide rate spiked in month after ’13 Reasons Why’s’ release
Article via Aol
A new study found that an increase in suicide rates among U.S. boys age 10-17 in April 2017 correlates with the release of Netflix’s “13 Reasons Why” in 2017. The show depicts a teenage girl’s suicide following the recovery of a box of cassette tapes she left behind detailing the 13 reasons why she decided to kill herself.
The study was published Monday in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and funded by the National Institute of Health. It found that 195 more suicides than expected occurred in the nine months after the March 31, 2017, release. And in the month of April, 2017, more suicides occurred than in any April of the previous nine years. Although the show focuses on the suicide of a teenage girl, teenage boys represent the only demographic with a significant spike in suicide rates. Suicides among teenage boys jumped 28.9% in the month following the release.
The show’s depiction of teen suicide has caused controversy since its release.
The Nation Association of School Psychologists issued a warning statement: “We do not recommend that vulnerable youth, especially those who have any degree of suicidal ideation, watch this series. Its powerful storytelling may lead impressionable viewers to romanticize the choices made by the characters and/or develop revenge fantasies. They may easily identify with the experiences portrayed and recognize both the intentional and unintentional effects on the central character.”
The study does not claim a causal relationship between watching the show and committing suicide. It does, however, control for seasonal and other factors that could influence suicide rates. The study concludes that the show is associated with a surge in teen suicide and cautions children and adolescents from viewing the series.
Netflix said in a statement Tuesday, “This is a critically important topic and we have worked hard to ensure that we handle this sensitive issue responsibly.”
“The results of this study should raise awareness that young people are particularly vulnerable to the media,” study co-author Lisa Horowitz, a staff scientist at the National Institute of Mental Health, said in a statement. “All disciplines, including the media, need to take good care to be constructive and thoughtful about topics that intersect with public health crises.”
Two seasons of “13 Reasons Why” are currently available for streaming. Season 3 is slated to come to Netflix later this year.
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Should a minor offense ruin a life? No, says ex-superintendent who defecated near H.S. track
A former superintendent is suing police for releasing his mug shot, saying it fueled “sophomoric, inaccurate and damaging” news coverage.
Article via NBCNews
A former New Jersey schools superintendent who pleaded guilty to defecating at a high school track and field complex near his home is suing police for releasing his mug shot to news outlets, alleging it fueled inaccurate coverage that has permanently and irreparably altered his life.
In a lawsuit filed Tuesday in federal court in New Jersey, Thomas Tramaglini says the Holmdel Township Police Department violated his constitutional rights by its “unlawful taking and subsequent leaking” of the picture after he was issued summonses last year. The lawsuit names the police department, township, police chief and some police staff.
“The booking photograph should have never been taken, to say nothing of the fact that it was immediately thereafter unlawfully released into the public domain, fueling sophomoric, inaccurate, and damaging ‘new stories’ about Plaintiff,” the lawsuit states.
The release of mug shots is “expressly prohibited under” state law for low-level, noncriminal offenses, such as those Tramaglini faced, his attorney, Matthew Adams, told NBC News.
Tramaglini’s life has been ruined as a result of the dissemination of the photo, his lawyer said.
He resigned as superintendent of the Kenilworth school district in the northern part of the state after a 20-year career in public education. The mug shot, in particular, was cited by the Kenilworth Board of Education as a reason for parting ways with him, according to the lawsuit.
“Tramaglini will never achieve the level of compensation, benefits and retirement pension income that he would have otherwise if the unlawfully taken photographs of him had not been released into the media to satisfy the prurient interests” of some police and others, the lawsuit says.
Tramaglini told NBC News he has obtained some limited work outside the education field, but is underemployed and struggling to get back to where his career was before the release of his mug shot.
He was charged with lewdness, littering and defecating in public in May after police said he repeatedly defecated on the Holmdel High School track. He pleaded guilty in October to relieving himself in public in a single instance due to a medical emergency, and he paid a $500 fine.
He also submitted to the court and prosecutor’s office proof of a medical condition known as runner’s diarrhea that often affects distance runners and that is brought on from acute blood flow during exercise.
Tramaglini is seeking unspecified monetary damages, as well as attorney’s fees.
In February, Tramaglini asked New Jersey’s attorney general to investigate whether police acted unlawfully when they took his mug shot and released it to the media.
David Schwartz, an attorney representing the Holmdel Township Police Department, did not immediately return a request for comment Wednesday but told NBC News in February that the township “does not comment on matters of pending or threatened litigation, or to such letters as the Tramaglini letter of February 25, 2019.”
Two HIV Cases Linked to Spa That Gave Trendy ‘Vampire Facials’
Article via Gizmodo
The so-called vampire facials that have been touted by celebrities
for ostensible rejuvenation benefits have been linked to two cases of
HIV in New Mexico, according to health officials.
The New Mexico Department of Health first warned that clients of the since-closed VIP Spa in Albuquerque should be tested for possible blood-borne infections—including HIV, hepatitis B, and hepatitis C—last fall after an inspection found the spa’s practices could have put some clients at risk.
On Monday, the NMDOH said that “laboratory testing on specimens from the two clients indicates recent infection with the same HIV virus, increasing the likelihood that the two HIV infections may have resulted from a procedure at the VIP Spa.”
Officials urged anyone who had a procedure involving a needle injection at VIP Spa between May and September of last year to undergo free testing for the viruses. Free testing sites include the South Valley Health Commons and Casa de Salud Family Medical Office, both located in Albuquerque.
“While over 100 VIP Spa clients have already been tested, NMDOH is reaching out to ensure that testing and counseling services are available for individuals who received injection related services at the VIP Spa,” NMDOH Cabinet Secretary Kathy Kunkel said in a statement.
Dr. Barbara Sturm of Molecular Cosmetics has been credited as a member of the team that developed the trend. (Her brand sells a $1,400 blood cream.) The procedure has been championed by Gwyneth Paltrow’s controversial lifestyle brand Goop,
which describes a blood facial as a process in which “healing factors
from a patient’s own blood are re-injected into skin, rejuvenating it in
much the way PRP treatments help heal joints and injuries in
orthopedics and sports medicine.”
The vampire or blood facial, as it’s sometimes called, has won clients in celebrities from Kim Kardashian (who later claimed she regretted it) to Victoria Beckham. Kardashian, who wrote in a blog post last year that she was not able to take painkillers before her own procedure because she learned she was pregnant, described it as “the most painful thing ever.”
NMDOH this week urged anyone seeking cosmetic procedures involving needles to make sure that they’re being done by a licensed medical professional.
NASA was sold faulty aluminum in 19-year scam
The space agency linked it to two mission failures.
Article via CNET
NASA found that the 2011 Glory mission failed due to faulty aluminum. NASA
NASA on Tuesday revealed that a pair of failed missions were caused by a 19-year aluminum scam.
The space agency previously said the 2009 Orbiting Carbon Observatory and 2011 Glory missions malfunctioned when the protective nose cones on the Taurus XL rockets failed to separate on command.
However, a joint investigation involving NASA and the Justice Department revealed that the problem was caused by aluminum extrusion maker Sapa Profiles, which falsified critical tests over 19 years.
Employees at the company’s Portland, Oregon, facilities tweaked failing tests so materials appeared to pass from 1996 to 2015, according to the Justice Department.
“They then provided the false test results to hundreds of customers across the country, all to increase corporate profits and obtain production-based bonuses,” wrote G. Zachary Terwilliger, US attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.
Sapa, which has since changed its name to Hydro Extrusion Portland, agreed to pay $46 million to the US government and other commercial customers — which doesn’t even come close to the $700 million NASA lost as a result of Taurus XL failures. The company is also excluded from contracting with the federal government.
“It is critical that we are able to trust our industry to produce, test and certify materials in accordance with the standards we require. In this case, our trust was severely violated,” said Jim Norman, NASA’s director for launch services, in a release.
PlayStation Plus offers Overcooked, Edith Finch in May
Article via Polygon
PlayStation Plus subscribers will get access to two PlayStation 4 games as part of the service in May: Overcooked and What Remains of Edith Finch.
Ghost Town Games’ Overcooked is a frantic, multiplayer kitchen sim in which teams of cooks grab ingredients, cook ’em up, and serve them to impatient diners. It’s a great way to test friendships, as well as a rollicking good time. Ghost Town released a sequel in 2018, which made it to Polygon’s best local multiplayer games list.
Giant Sparrow’s What Remains of Edith Finch is an anthology narrative adventure game in which players explore the family home of the eponymous Edith Finch and uncover the stories behind the people who died there. It was one of our favorite games of 2017 and can be enjoyed in a single weekend.
April’s PlayStation Plus games — Conan Exiles and The Surge — are available to download through Tuesday, May 7, when next month’s games go live.
Burger King Takes a Shot at McDonald’s Happy Meals With a Dark Ad and Sad Teens
Boxed meals like the Pissed Meal, Salty Meal and DGAF Meal are a clear shot at McDonald’s Happy Meal.
Article via Entrepreneur
Burger King is taking another jab at McDonald’s.
On Wednesday, the fast-food chain debuted a series of “Real Meals,” a clear counter to McDonald’s iconic Happy Meals. The moods of these boxed meals include the Pissed Meal, Blue Meal, Salty Meal, YAAAS Meal and DGAF Meal.
The Real Meals boxes — which include the Whopper meal or a Whopper, fries, and a drink — are available at a handful of locations in Austin, Seattle, Miami, Los Angeles and New York City starting Wednesday.
While the Real Meal rollout is limited, it is part of a wider campaign by the chain to promote mental health, with Burger King releasing an atypical commercial of sorts on the subject.
“Not everybody wakes up happy,” a young man says in the starting seconds of the video. “Sometimes you feel sad, scared, crappy. All I ask is that you let me feel my way.”
The video goes on to show a teenage girl discovering the word “skank” carved into her locker, an angry woman yelling that she just told her boss “to go f— himself,” and a young man despairing over student loans. Other people featured in the video are dealing with being ghosted and being judged as a young mother.
The video closes with the words: “No one is happy all the time. And that’s OK.” Images of the different Real Meals then flash on the screen.
Watch the video here:
Burger King partnered with the nonprofit Mental Health America to launch the Real Meal campaign.
“A natural extension of encouraging people to ‘be their way’ is encouraging them to ‘feel their way,'” Burger King said in a press release. “With the pervasive nature of social media, there is so much pressure to appear happy and perfect. With Real Meals, the Burger King brand celebrates being yourself and feeling however you want to feel.”
An amputee says he was left ‘crawling across the floor’ after airline security confiscated his scooter batteries
Article via CNN
(CNN) – A Canadian amputee is petitioning to have his case heard by the Canadian Human Rights Commission after officials at a Calgary airport confiscated the batteries needed to power his portable scooter, according to CNN affiliate CBC. Stearn Hodge lost his left arm and right leg in a workplace accident in 1984 and uses a scooter powered by lithium batteries to get around. He can wear a prosthetic leg, but not for long because of the risk of infection, according to the outlet.
In 2017, Hodge was traveling to Tulsa, Oklahoma, with his wife for their 43rd wedding anniversary when a security agent at the Calgary International Airport and a representative from United Airlines told him it was unsafe to fly with his scooter’s $2,000 battery and its spare.
Hodge was prepared and presented documents he’d printed from the International Air Transport Association (IATA), that said that while there is a risk of fire hazard with Lithium-ion batteries, the association’s global standards make exceptions for the medical devices of travelers with disabilities if the airlines gives prior approval, the outlet reported. He had that approval, he told CBC.
But Hodge told the network that no one would listen to him or read the documents.
“I still remember the CATSA agent saying, ‘Well, you could get a wheelchair.’ How’s a one-armed guy going to run a wheelchair?” Hodge told the outlet. “How am I going to go down a ramp and brake with one hand? But that shouldn’t even have to come up.”
The Canadian Air Transit Security Authority declined to comment, citing pending litigation.
When Hodge asked a United Airlines representative to confirm for security that he had gotten permission to bring the batteries on board, CBC reported, the agent sided with security.
Airline: Experience ‘falls far short of our own high standard’
“We are looking into the allegations, and because of the pending litigation, we are unable to provide further comment,” Andrea Hiller, a spokeswoman for United Airlines, told CNN. “That said, the experience described falls far short of our own high standard of caring for our customers. We are proud of the many steps we have taken over the past few years to exhibit more care for our customers and we are proud to operate an airline that doesn’t just include people with disabilities but welcomes them as customers.”
Without the batteries to power his scooter, Hodge told CBC he spent much of his three-week vacation confined to his bed and was left to crawl when he needed to get around.
“An anniversary is supposed to be all about remembering how you fell in love … and keeping that magic alive,” he said, according to the network. “And those things were denied. I’m crawling across the floor and it is pathetic.”
On May 9, Hodge’s lawyer, John Burns, will ask a Federal Court judge to compel the Canadian Human Rights Commission to review the case.The matter was previously presented to the commission, but last September it was was referred to the Canadian Transportation Authority, which has no power to award general damages, according to CBC.The Canadian Human Rights Act allows for up to $20,000 in damages for each count of pain and suffering, and up to another $20,000 if the discrimination is “willful or reckless,” CBC reported.”
People with disabilities should be taken seriously. You don’t take away somebody’s legs and then describe it as an inconvenience. No, this is an injury,” Burns told CBC.
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Chvrches increase security at gigs after receiving rape and death threats from Chris Brown and Tyga fans
Article via NME
“We have to have the police at our shows now. If that’s what I deserve for saying mainstream music should be more morally conscious, then so be it.”
Chvrches‘ singer Lauren Mayberry has revealed that the band now require a police presence at their shows after receiving rape and death threats from supporters of Chris Brown and Tyga.
Last week, the Scottish electro-pop trio said that they were “upset, confused and disappointed” at Marshmello’s decision to work with Chris Brown and Tyga – having worked with the EDM star themselves on recent single ‘Here With Me‘.
“We are really upset, confused and disappointed by Marshmello’s choice to work with Tyga and Chris Brown,” said the band on social media. “We like and respect Mello as a person but working with people who are predators and abusers enables, excuses and ultimately tacitly endorses that behavior. That is not something we can or will stand behind.”
Brown then fired back at the band, calling them a “bunch of losers” on Instagram.
“These are the type of people I wish walked in front of a speeding bus full of mental patients,” he wrote. “Keep grovelling over you own insecurities and hatred. IM BLACK AND PROUD. AND I KNOW ITS HURTS THAT U GUYS ARE STRUGGLING WIT LIFE OR PEACE SO U ARE FORCED TO SEE MY SUCCESS. You aren’t even #2 (REMEMBER 2nd place only means YOU LOST FIRST! TA-TA. GOODDAY PEASANTS.”
Having shared images of abusive messages that she has since received, Mayberry has now said that the band have had to increase security at their shows as a result of the threats.
“I am not staying in my own home when we finish tour because the threats we have received have reached such a scale,” wrote Mayberry on Twitter in response to a journalist. “We have to have the police at our shows now. If that’s what I deserve for saying mainstream music should be more morally conscious, then so be it.”
She continued: “And again, it is not you who is having to have police presence at shows and advance security in their actual own real life outside of a band persona.”
Mayberry has highlighted some of the shocking abuse that the band have received with screen grabs of messages:
In February 2009, Chris Brown was found guilty of felony assault after attacking Rihanna on their way to the Grammy Awards Ceremony. Earlier this year, he denied allegations of rape at a hotel in Paris, later filing a defamation suit against the accuser before many believed he was selling merchandise that appeared to mock the alleged victim.
Tyga was sued for sexual assault by a woman who appeared in his 2012 for ‘Make It Nasty’. Replying to the band’s original post, Tyga wrote: “Where [sic] all God’s children. Everyone makes mistakes no ones perfect. Let’s Keep the energy positive.”