Teacher didn’t mean to offend by having kids to act like slaves and making whipping, cracking noises, school says
TOMS RIVER — The teacher who taught a lesson on slavery that involved students pretending to be slaves did not intend to offend his students with the lesson, according to a school district investigation.
The Asbury Park Press and News 12 New Jersey had reported on the incident, citing a social media post by a student who claimed Toms River Intermediate East history teacher Lawrence Cuneo made “whipping” and “cracking noises” during the lesson, had students lay on the floor to recreate the experience of being on a slave ship, and kicked students during the lesson a week ago.
Cuneo, who is also the mayor of Pine Beach, said in an email to New Jersey 101.5 the intent of the lesson was to demonstrate how “degrading and despicable the institution of slavery was in our history.”
In a statement, Toms River Regional School District spokesman Michael Kenny said the district’s investigation determined it was not Cuneo’s intent to offend students but to make an “appalling but nevertheless real facet of our nation’s history more fully resonate with students.”
Kenny said that district leaders, curriculum directors and teachers, including Cuneo, are “working together to revisit the delivery of instruction to ensure it meets the needs, and accounts for the sensitivities, of all students.”
Kenny would not discuss Cuneo’s status with the district citing personnel matters as being confidential. He has taught in the district for 18 years, according to public records.
Cuneo did not immediately return a message on Thursday evening.
When asked earlier to give his own description of the lesson, Cuneo referred to a story in the Toms River Patch with students discussing the class. Students and parents told Patch that the description of the activity posted on social media was inaccurate. They said the lesson was discussed beforehand and participation was voluntary.
Lisa Nuernberg told Patch her daughter was in the class, and said no one was kicked by Cuneo and the exercise did not promote racism.
Madison Chiappetta, told Patch she had Cuneo last year when the lesson was presented and said “in no way shape or form was it poking fun at slavery or depicting it positively.”
via: https://nj1015.com/teacher-didnt-mean-to-offend-having-kids-act-like-slaves-school-says/
Photo Credit: nj1015.com
NJ woman who fractured teen’s skull in hit-run gets no prison or jail time
A Point Pleasant woman who almost killed a teenage girl two summers ago in a hit-and-run crash will not be going to either prison or county jail after taking a plea deal.
Brittany Keifer, 27, was sentenced Friday to three years of probation with 50 hours of community service. She also will lose her driver’s license for a year and will pay a $2,500 fine.
Prosecutors had urged Superior Court Judge Wendel E. Daniels to sentence Keifer to a year in county jail — a sentence that supporters of the seriously injured girl still believed was too lenient.
At about 10:30 p.m. on Aug. 9, 2018, Kiefer ran over a 14-year-old girl who was riding her bicycle on Route 88 in Point Pleasant.
Authorities said the girl landed on the windshield of Kiefer’s BMW, which Kiefer continued to drive for several yards before the girl rolled off the car. Instead of stopping to help the girl or call an ambulance, Kiefer drove away and called 29-year-old Kyle Ramos to pick her up a few blocks away and help her hide her car.
The Seaside Heights man attempted to have Kiefer’s car repaired but turned himself into police the next day. He has pleaded guilty to hindering apprehension and awaits sentencing.
The girl — Emma-Mae Gnolfo — spent weeks at hospitals to receive treatment for a concussion, brain bleeding and a fractured skull.
A petition circulated before the sentencing urged the judge to hand down a harsher sentence.
“They deserve the maximum sentence and not just probation like they think they deserve,” the Change.org petition with more than 3,000 signatures says. “Let’s show them that it’s not okay to leave a child to die on the side of the road in a pool of her own blood. These two need to be made an example of and show that something like this will not just be a slap on the wrist.”
Keifer had been charged with fourth-degree assault by auto and third-degree leaving the scene of an accident with serious bodily injury, crimes that don’t necessarily result in prison sentences for first-time offenders. She pleaded guilty to the third-degree crime as well as leaving the scene of an accident, which is considered a motor vehicle violation.
via: https://nj1015.com/nj-woman-who-fractured-teens-skull-in-hit-run-gets-no-prison-or-jail-time/
Photo Credit: nj1015.com
Substitute teacher accused of giving kids ‘lap dances’ at elementary school
HALETHORPE, Md. (WBFF) – In Baltimore County, a substitute teacher is accused of giving kids “lap dances,” and more.
Baltimore County school officials say a fourth-grade substitute teacher at Halethorpe Elementary School has been removed from class over “inappropriate behavior.”
Laura Glover, whose 10-year-old daughter was in that classroom, told Fox45 the teacher “grabbed my daughter under her armpits..lined up other kids, told them to point to their breasts. She even kissed other kids [on the face],” said Glover.
Officer Jennifer Peach, a spokesperson with Baltimore County Police, says they are investigating the matter.
“A parent did file a police report alleging child abuse,” said Peach. “But so far, no criminal charges have been filed.”
Brandon Oland, Baltimore County Public Schools spokesman, said the allegations came from students Tuesday, which is the day the incident allegedly occurred.
Oland said the woman in question has been removed from the system’s pool of substitute teachers.
“We simply will not tolerate any inappropriate behavior by staff, and an investigation is ongoing. We are still gathering information on the teacher in question, but we can say these are the first allegations we know of against this individual,” said Oland.
Glover noted: “It was like she was playing with their heads, trying to get them to say different things that were inappropriate.”
Photo Credit: local12.com
Kansas man offering $25,000 to anyone who can help him find long-term girlfriend
PRAIRIE VILLAGE, Kan. (WDAF) – Find “Jeff G.” a girlfriend and he’ll pay you $25,000.
That sounds like a lot of money until you start talking with Jeff Gebhart about the value of love and happiness.
“If this pays off, this could be the best value ever,” Gebhart told WDAF.
The 47-year-old Prairie Village man, who’s never been married, said he tried online dating after his last breakup, but it wasn’t for him.
Then he and a group of friends got to talking about how much time they invest each year swiping right and money to find out they should have swiped left.
“I saw the definition of insanity is doing the same thing again and again and expecting different results, so I knew I couldn’t go back to online dating,” Gebhart said.
So he formed focus groups and worked with friends for six months building a website based on a simple premise.
“There’s a lot of really good girls out there not dating,” he said.
The promise of a payout has grabbed headlines since datejeffg.com launched over the weekend — even landing him in People magazine. But the site is really based on matching personality analytics to Jeff G. through an extensive survey.
“I’m excited for now. I’m excited for next year, and I want to feel a connection with somebody on that level also,” Gebhart said.
Women who nominate themselves — so far that’s about 60 percent of the applicants — won’t be eligible for the money but are considered. But Gebhart is getting plenty of recommendations from people with friends they think would be perfect for him and his dog Gunner.
“I’d like to nominate a good friend, former boss and somebody who quite possibly loves dogs more than you,” one potential matchmaker wrote to Gebhart.
He said he’s been overwhelmed by the responses and instant notoriety but hopes it ultimately leads to him finding the woman of his dreams.
That woman would be “somebody who’s independent and driven, somebody who’s a little bit goofy because I’m a little bit goofy,” according to Gebhart.
Gebhart is taking steps to make sure people aren’t in it just for the money. Payments would be made over five years annually starting the first year after he and any potential girlfriend make it “official.”
He also says he’d donate $25,000 to a no-kill dog shelter if things work out.
via: https://fox2now.com/2020/02/13/kansas-man-offering-25000-to-anyone-who-can-help-him-find-a-long-term-girlfriend-tmw/
Photo Credit: kmov.com
Zoo will name a rat after your ex, feed it to a snake on Valentine’s Day
Meredith) – If you want sweet revenge instead of chocolates for Valentine’s Day, check out this special offer.
The San Antonio Zoo in Texas said it will name a rat after your ex and feed it to a snake on Feb. 14. The zoo is charging $25 for this service, but there’s a cheaper alternative that’s just as spiteful.
For only $5, you can name a cockroach after your ex, and the zoo will feed it to a bird or another animal.
Even if you (or your exes) don’t live in Texas, you can still participate in this “feeding frenzy” because the zoo will be live-streaming the event on Facebook.
You must submit the first name of your ex on the zoo’s website by Feb. 13.
To submit a name or learn more about the event, click here. You may also visit the zoo’s official Facebook page here.
Photo Credit: kmov.com
They met on a dating app. Then he robbed a bank on their first date and forced her to be the getaway driver
(CNN) — And you thought your worst first date story was bad.
A Massachusetts woman became an unexpected getaway driver after a man she met on a dating app robbed a bank on their first date.
Christopher Castillo, the unnamed woman’s would-be Robin Hood, plead guilty this week to armed robbery and three counts of assault and battery on a police officer — all committed on their first date on December 5, 2016 — according to the Bristol County District Attorney’s Office.
Castillo was sentenced to three years in state prison for the robbery, plus two years in the Bristol County House of Corrections for violently struggling against and spitting on police who tried to subdue him, according to the district attorney’s office.
The woman wasn’t charged — the “worst date ever” story was enough punishment.
How her worst first date began
It all started, the woman told police, when she picked up Castillo from his parents’ home in Chepachet, Rhode Island, and drove him 30 minutes east toward North Attleboro, Massachusetts. She said he drank wine in the passenger seat of her Nissan Maxima (which is also illegal, but he wasn’t charged for that one).
The two had never met in person before that fateful day in 2016, she told police. So why would she think anything was wrong when he told her to pull over as they approached a bank?
He got out of her car and left her there alone for a few minutes. Then, suddenly, he came running back, sweating with sunglasses, a hat, a gun and $1,000 cash in hand, the woman said.
“F**king go,” he told her.
She “panicked,” she told police, so she did as she was told.Customer demands require complex solutions.Explore new business models based on integrated partner ecosystems that infuse financial services throughout customers’ daily lives.Ad By IBMSee More
Her date told bank teller he was ‘really hurting’
The district attorney’s office fills in the blanks on what happened while he was inside the bank.
Castillo walked into the Bristol County Savings Bank branch in North Attleboro and showed a bank teller a gun. He demanded $1,000 and said he needed it badly — he was “really hurting,” he told the teller.
The teller handed him the money, then he ran back out to his date’s Maxima and ordered her to step on it.
His accidental accomplice obeyed at first, but once she spotted flashing sirens from North Attleboro Police cruisers on their tail, she immediately pulled over and walked away from the car.
Castillo stayed inside and ducked from police.
Police pulled Castillo out of his hapless date’s car as he “violently struggled,” spit on them and told them his gun wasn’t loaded, according to the district attorney’s office.
After he was subdued and handcuffed, police searched the car and found a .44 caliber handgun — an antique belonging to Castillo’s stepfather — and the hat and sunglasses that matched the description of what the robber was wearing.
Oh, and that $1,000 — police found that in Castillo’s wallet.
Years after the date from hell, Castillo ended up sentenced to five years of incarceration. His date got off without a charge — and probably with a healthy skepticism toward online dating.
Photo Credit: kmov.com/From Bristol County Savings Bank
New bill could make it legal for unmarried people to have sex in Virginia
Virginia is for lovers — the married kind. According to state code, it’s illegal for unmarried people to have consensual sex.
Sure, it’s not widely enforced — but Virginia Democrats say it’s time to scratch the relic of a law for good.
After potentially hundreds of years on the books, the Virginia House of Delegates repealed the “crime of fornication” last week.
In the Virginia Code, fornication — consensual sex with an unmarried person — isn’t legal. Guilty parties could pay a $250 fine.
Delegate Mark Levine, who introduced the legislation to repeal it, said that the law fuels Virginians’ confusion and distrust in the law: If unmarried sex is illegal, then what else is?
“We should not have laws that make most of the population into criminals,” he said. “Times are very different now than they were in the 17th and 18th centuries.”
The Virginia Senate must pass the bill for it to proceed.
The law was deemed unconstitutional 15 years ago. It’s still on the books
It’s been a twisted journey through bureaucracy to get the bill this far. The Virginia Supreme Court struck down the law in 2005, declaring it an “unconstitutional government intrusion” into Virginians’ personal lives.
But it remained in the Code of Virginia.
Del. Mark Sickles attempted to strike “fornication” from the Code of Virginia in 2014, but it died in committee.
Levine tried to repeal it twice: First in 2018, again in 2020. This is the closest it’s come to being struck.
Levine said fornication was still being charged as a crime as recently as five years ago, when prosecutors wanted to “pile on” the charges to people accused of sex crimes. It’s also been used as a plea, he said, though it’s fairly uncommon.
“It also leads to contempt for the law when so many Virginians have already committed this ‘crime,’” he said.
Fornication is still illegal in other states
Virginia’s not alone.
“Fornication” is still considered a crime in Idaho. Any unmarried person found guilty of having sex with another unmarried person can be fined up to $300, imprisoned for up to six months or both.
North Carolina’s statute on fornication is a bit more vague: An unmarried man and woman “lewdly and lasciviously” sharing a bed or cohabiting could be sentenced to six days in jail and pay a $1,000 fine.
It’s on the books in Mississippi, too: If a man and woman are found guilty of fornication, they could pay up to $500 each and spend up to six months in county jail.
Some states abolished fornication laws quite recently: In 2018, Massachusetts repealed its fornication crime statute, and Utah did the same the following year.
via: https://fox2now.com/2020/02/11/new-bill-could-make-it-legal-for-unmarried-people-to-have-sex-in-virginia/
Photo Credit: fox2now.com
School security guard fired for using excessive force on kindergartener “’He threw me into the wall mommy.'”
CANTON, Ohio (WJW)- An elementary school security guard was terminated after using excessive force on a kindergarten student. Now, the little girl’s parents want him charged with assault.
“I don’t want to ever see that happen again anybody else’s daughter,” Quan Wilkins said.
Six-year-old Kaeyona Wilkins, who usually loves school, suddenly began throwing up on the way home in her mother’s truck, and then said the words Keshia Wilkins said she will never forget.
“She said, ‘My stomach still hurts.’ I said ‘What do you mean it still hurts?’ And she said, ‘The man hurt me,'” Keshia said. “’He threw me into the wall mommy.'”
Immediatel,y Quan left work and the couple took their daughter to Aultman Hospital, where doctors confirmed the little girl’s injuries were consistent with her story.
“Her arms were red. She had bruising on her arms and her abdomen was sore,” Keshia said. “He grabbed her like a sack of potatoes.”
According to a disciplinary letter released to WJW by the Canton City School District, an adult male member of the safety and security team, “admitted picking up and carrying the student.” He claimed he was trying to stop her from running out of the building.
But the kindergartner’s mom said she would never run outside. She had been in timeout in the cafeteria and was trying to go to the gymnasium for recess with her friends. Regardless, the parents said nothing justifies that level of aggression.
Half a dozen employees witnessed the incident and are documented saying that the guard was “yelling and rough-handling” Kaeyona. They reported seeing the 6-year-old “scared and shaking” with red marks on her body afterward.
“The nurse even had to evaluate her,” Keshia said.
The director of safety and security with Canton schools stated the guard’s actions violated proper procedures and guidelines, and went directly against his training.
After reviewing all of the information, Canton City School District business manager Tad Ellsworth charged the guard with “malfeasance of duty and use of excessive force” and terminated him.
The Wilkins want him also criminally charged with assault and Canton police are investigating.
“I feel charges need to be pressed,” Quan said. “This is my daughter at the end of the day who is going to speak for her?”
New technology may prevent McDonald’s ice cream machines from breaking down
It seems like when you’re really craving a McFlurry or a milkshake, McDonald’s ice cream machine is down.
It’s inconvenient—maybe even a little heartbreaking—but there may be a solution!
According to Business Insider, McDonald’s teamed up with a company called Kytch that developed new technology to help employees manage the machines.
The device can be added to existing machines to provide workers with important information about a breakdown. The device can correct minor malfunctions and make sure automated cleaning cycles run as scheduled.
The company first introduced the devices in May.
According to Business Insider, several locations across multiple franchises are using the device. McDonald’s isn’t pushing locations to use it, however, the website reported.
The website reported that some Burger King restaurants have also implemented the measure.
Photo Credit: fox2now.com
KFC-themed Crocs come with two attachable charms that smell like fried chicken
(CNN) — It was only a matter of time.
Crocs, the footwear company and frequent collaborator with unusual artists and brands, has joined forces with KFC, the fast food company that does the same (fire log, anyone?), for a perfect match.
The two brands teamed up to create the KFC X Crocs Bucket Clog, a limited edition shoe covered in a fried chicken print.
“Combining the unmistakable look of our world-famous fried chicken and signature KFC bucket, with the unparalleled comfort and style of Crocs, these shoes are what fried chicken footwear dreams are made of,” KFC CMO Andrea Zahumensky said in a news release.
Crocs CMO Terence Reilly added they were “thrilled with this ‘bucket list’ partnership with Kentucky Fried Chicken that will bring fans an unbelievably fun and fashionable take on our classic clog.”Build a dynamic banking and financial enterprise.Transform operations, operating models and enterprise architecture to become more agile and efficient, allowing you get to market faster.Ad By IBMSee More
The uniquely designed shoe has the iconic KFC red-striped bucket on the base of the Croc and comes with two attachable charms that could easily be mistaken for the real deal — they look and smell like fried chicken.
Yes, right there on the shoe.
The Crocs will be available in unisex sizes this spring. The chicken smell could very well linger into the heat of summer.
All can be yours for $59.99.
Photo Credit: Crocs