Kansas teen with Down syndrome says Sheels wouldn’t let her ride Ferris wheel with friends because of disability
OVERLAND PARK, Kan. – A Johnson County teen says she was discriminated against, labeled as disabled and denied an opportunity at the Scheels in Overland Park.
Her mother said the popular sporting good store has no written policy to prevent it from happening again.
Eighteen-year-old Kathryn Embry has Down syndrome, but she has no problem keeping up with the girls on the Blue Valley North soccer team.
“I really like them being on my team because they’re amazing,” she said.
“She’s our manager, and she keeps the team in line,” her longtime friend Emily Kramer said.
Kramer and another friend, Morgan McGruder, were the first to go to bat for Kathryn after a class field trip to Scheels last week.
“It made me really upset because I know that Kathryn is an amazing girl,” McGruder said.
The girls teamed up with Kathryn to record a video of what she said happened on the class trip.
“Kathryn’s mom said the school could not do anything, so that just made me really angry,” Kramer said.
“I tried to go on the Ferris wheel with my buddy, but they said I can’t because I have disabilities,” Kathryn said.
Students said the class is half made up of kids with special learning needs and half peer students who work with them. They said they usually ride the Ferris wheel in pairs.
That night, Kathryn’s parents got Scheels on the phone.
“The store manager at the time said he hadn’t heard about the incident, but he could confirm they had a policy that everybody needs to be able to understand and follow the rules,” her mother Karen Embry said.
Karen’s issue is that no one ever asked Kathryn if she understood, and the staff that day didn’t cite that rule. Karen said they told the group something different.
“They said everybody with disabilities in the group, you need to have a person who’s an adult chaperone,” she said.
Karen never got a copy of any written policy from the company, and WDAF couldn’t find one when researching Scheels online.
“The thing is, Kathryn has Down Syndrome, so you can look at her and see that she has a disability,” Karen said. “But it says nothing about what her capabilities are. She can read the rules. She can follow the rules.”
“Just because someone might look different than someone else you shouldn’t assume their capabilities. Kathryn can do anything we can do,” McGruder said.
The group understands Scheels may have safety concerns, but her friends take issue with the inconsistency.
“I’ve been on the Scheels trip before. They’ve let other students with disabilities ride with peer tutors,” Kramer said. “They told her she couldn’t even ride with a peer, with another student, which is just outrageous.”
Kathryn did get to ride that day. But they only let her on with an adult chaperone even though she’s 18.
Ultimately, her supporters said it’s not about the ride.
“It’s more than just the Ferris wheel,” Kramer said. “It’s the fact that they looked at her and discriminated against her because of how she looked. She is our good luck charm, so we had to help fight back for her.”
“We’re not here about a boycott and [to] shut down a business that’s been very generous in our community,” Kathryn’s family said. “We’re about educating — not just the community at large, but business — about how even if it’s unintentional, it’s still illegal and it’s still wrong because it perpetuates stereotypes and it hurts a population, especially who are hitting this young adult stage.”
Karen said they’d appreciate an apology and a change of policy.
As of Tuesday evening, Scheels had not responded to WDAF’s phone calls and messages.
The Blue Valley School District said in a written statement:
“We are proud that Blue Valley employees have the best interests of our students at heart. The physical and emotional well-being of our students is always a top priority. We appreciate the efforts of our community partners to keep our kids safe through equitable practices.”
‘Shell on’ challenge is the latest dangerous Snapchat trend among teens
Teens are daring each other to eat plastic packaging, cardboard boxes and fruit peels — and posting videos of themselves doing it to Snapchat — in a bizarre new social media trend called “shell on.”
While not as dangerous as the potentially fatal “Tide Pod challenge” which involved eating laundry detergent pods, doctors still advise against eating anything that isn’t food.
“Organic material like fruit peels are typically not dangerous. Zest is often used in recipes (lemon zest) which is the shavings of the rind,” Chicago-area physician Max Plitt told The Post. “Eating plastic, on the other hand, can be dangerous. BPA has been suggested to influence hormones. Chemicals in PVC like vinyl chloride have been linked to cancers.”
A recent video posted to Snapchat shows Liam Hamm, a sophomore at McClintock High School in Tempe, Arizona, biting through a plastic bag filled with carrots.
“Ya’ll eat your lunch with or without the shell,” reads a caption along with the video of Hamm tearing through plastic packaging with his teeth.
Hamm told the Arizona Republic he’s seen scores of other teens posting “shell on” videos on Snapchat, including one in which a teen bites into a lemon and accidentally shoots lemon juice into their eye.
“It just looks funny because it’s not really a shell, but people are calling things shells. I guess that is what’s funny about it,” Hamm said.
Hamm said he didn’t know where the trend originated, but that he’s happy it’s not Tide Pods.
“It’s the Tide Pod challenge minus the fact that it’s not dangerous,” he said.
While the trend appears mostly on Snapchat, several people blasted the teens in the videos on Twitter.
“I wondered why Boomers judged GenZ until I saw a thread about the ‘shell on challenge.’ After 12 videos of high schoolers eating bananas with the peel on… I can finally say I relate to the Boomers,” tweeted Devin Spinks.
“Idk about this ‘shell on challenge’ but I’ve been eating the entire apple, core and all, for years,” wrote KG.
via: https://nypost.com/2019/04/17/shell-on-challenge-is-the-latest-dangerous-snapchat-trend-among-teens/
Teen girl has fake fingernails ripped off in suspected hate crime
A British teen girl was left bleeding from her fingers following an alleged hate crime attack by a group of girls who called her “the n-word” and ripped off her acrylic nails.
The 13-year-old said she and some mixed-race pals were taunted by a group of older white girls who “jumped” her and the others on Sunday.
“My daughter suffered serious injuries — basically she was wearing acrylic nails and they were all ripped off in the attack,” mother Lindsay Dunn told The Sun. “She was left bleeding badly.”
Dunn criticized staff at the Funderworld theme park in Bristol, Southern England.
“They didn’t take their names when they’ve witnessed a child bleeding and injured, so they knew it was serious. They didn’t call the police to detain the attackers.
“They were all shaking and distraught, but it was just ‘get them off site, brush it under the carpet’.”
The violence reportedly erupted on a ride when Dunn’s daughter and friends began singing to music and the other group of girls told them to be quiet.
“When they got off the ride, this group followed them off and began calling them the n-word, and giving them racist abuse,” Dunn said.
“The initial part of this incident was racially motivated, and that rings alarm bells with me.
“My daughter and her friends were upset and angry at this and argued back, and then the group of older girls jumped them, and started attacking them.
Police confirmed they were investigating the alleged race hate crime and appealed for witnesses to come forward.
But a spokesperson for Funderworld played down claims the attack was racially motivated, telling The Sun: “The alleged assailants were, in fact, a mixed group who comprised of both BME (black and minority ethnic) and white people.”
via: https://nypost.com/2019/04/17/teen-girl-has-fake-fingernails-ripped-off-in-suspected-hate-crime/
Photo credit: James Beck Photography
Mom allegedly had sex with both her daughters’ teen boyfriends
A California mom may serve time after she had sex with both of her own daughters’ boyfriends — who were each high school freshmen when she stole them away from the girls, officials said.
Coral Lytle, of Tulare, pleaded guilty in March to 21 sex-related charges including unlawful sexual intercourse, oral copulation and contacting a minor for sex, news station KFSN reported.
But a disagreement over the 41-year-old mom’s sentencing Monday has caused a delay in the case and could now allow her to withdraw the plea, according to KFSN.
Lytle was accused of having sex on multiple occasions with the two Redwood High School students between September and October 2017.
Prosecutors said the mom provided alcohol and cigars to the underage boys, and would drive from her home to them for the raunchy rendezvous.
“The crimes in this case committed by the defendant involved great cruelty and callousness especially considering the defendant took advantage of a position of trust to molest two boys who she met when they (were in) teenage dating relationships with the defendant’s daughters,” prosecutors wrote in recent filings.
Authorities were initially notified when one of teen boys reported the “inappropriate relationship” with Lytle.
“[The victim] stated this was the last time he had sex with [Lytle] because he felt bad shaking [Lytle’s] husband’s hand knowing what he was doing with [Lytle],” prosecutors said.
Lytle appeared in court Monday, where the initial plea agreements collapsed as multiple judges disagreed over her sentence.
A judge indicated at a hearing in early March that she would likely be sentenced to three years in prison, but then a different judge who oversaw her enter the plea last month said he would offer her one year in county jail with a suspended six-year sentence.
Then a third judge said Monday he didn’t believe the sentence was appropriate and set another hearing for the following week.
The new hearing will enable the mom to withdraw her plea, prosecutors said.
via: https://nypost.com/2019/04/17/mom-allegedly-had-sex-with-both-her-daughters-teen-boyfriends/
Texas woman says meth shards in her purse are ‘healing crystals’
DICKINSON, Texas — A woman told police the shards of meth in her purse were actually her “healing crystals,” according to KTRK.
Police in Friendswood pulled over Cactus Calderas for not signaling a lane change.
Police said Calderas consented to a vehicle search during which officers found meth, butane lights and a small pipe in her purse, KTRK reports.
The woman allegedly told police that the crystals were not meth but instead “healing crystals.”
She is now charged with possession of a controlled substance.
via: https://pix11.com/2019/04/17/police-texas-woman-says-meth-shards-in-her-purse-are-healing-crystals/
Phoenix couple accused of forcing day laborer to have sex at gunpoint
PHOENIX (3TV/CBS5) — A Phoenix couple is accused of picking up a day laborer at Home Depot, then forcing him to have sex at gunpoint.
According to court documents, on April 8, 39-year-old Brenda Acuna-Aguero picked up the male day laborer at the Home Depot at 75th Avenue and McDowell Road, telling him that she and her husband needed to move some items in their house.
But when they got to Acuna-Aguero’s home, court documents say she began “to talk sexual to him and stated that it was her fantasy to have sex with a laborer and that she wanted to have sex with him.”
When the victim refused, Acuna-Aguero’s husband, 45-year-old Jorge Murrieta-Valenzuela, came into the room holding a black rifle.
Police say Murrieta-Valenzuela placed the barrel of his gun on the victim’s chest and told him to have sex with his wife, or he’d shoot him.
The victim told police he was forced to have sex with Acuna-Aguero as Murrieta-Valenzuela took pictures and filmed on a cell phone.
Documents state that after the victim was forced to have sex with Acuna-Aguero, her husband took the victim’s Mexican Visa and Sonoran driver’s license so the couple would have all his information and his Mexican address. They also made the victim show them all the contacts in his phone, and contact the victim’s wife so they could confirm it was her.
The couple kept the victim’s documents, and told him to come back the next day around 9 a.m. or they would send the pictures of him having sex, telling him they’d bring him Viagra.
But shortly after dropping the victim off back at Home Depot, Murrieta-Valenzuela messaged the victim on WhatsApp telling him that he needed to go back to their house.
After the victim didn’t respond, Murrieta-Valenzuela told him that he would send the victim’s wife the pictures of him having sex if he didn’t come back to the house within 10 minutes to have sex with Acuna-Aguero again.
The victim was contacted shortly after by his wife in Mexico, saying that she’d received pictures of him having sex with a woman.
After the victim was unable to get his Visa and license back from the couple, he contacted police.
Phoenix police got a search warrant for the couple’s house, and took them both into custody.
Acuna-Aguero first told police she’d had consensual sex with the victim, but eventually admitted that she’d known her husband would come in and allegedly hold him at gunpoint, saying it was only to scare the victim.
She also said that she knew the sexual encounter would be filmed and photographed without the victim’s consent.
After looking through the suspect’s phones, police found that the couple had participated in a similar incident in March, but police were unable to identify the victim in that case.
Murrieta-Valenzuela admitted to police that he’d held the victim at gunpoint and recorded him having sex with his wife, saying it was a “sexual fantasy scenario.” He said he’d done this four other times with other random men.
The two suspects are now facing felony charges of sexual assault, aggravated assault, and unlawful recording of a person.
Fake teacher showed up at Arizona child’s home to take her to school
PHOENIX (3TV/CBS 5) – A Phoenix elementary school is reminding parents that it does not send teachers or staffers to pick up students.
The principal of Westwood Elementary School sent a letter to parents Monday in response to an unusual incident one family experienced Monday morning.
According to Theresa Killingsworth’s letter, a man posing as a Westwood teacher knocked on the door of the family’s home and told them he was there to take their daughter to school.
“The person was described as a tall, chubby, brown-skinned Hispanic male with a beard, wearing glasses, and speaking Spanish,” Killingsworth wrote.
Killingsworth said teachers are not tasked with escorting kids to school. She also explained that administers might occasionally visit a student’s home, but it’s always a planned visit, and the administrator will show identification.
“If someone comes to your house unannounced and offers to take your child to school, please do not send your child with this person,” she wrote. “Again, our staff will not come to students’ homes and offer to take them to school.”
Her advice, should a parent encounter such a situation, is to get some information from the individual, including his or her name, and then call the Phoenix Police Department at 602-262-6151.
The warning is clear: “[D]o not allow your child(ren) to leave the house with someone you do not know,” Killingsworth said.
If you have any questions about the school’s policies and procedures, particularly about home visits, please call the school at 602-242-2442.
Killingsworth sent home another letter Tuesday after “a suspicious man tried to lure a neighborhood girl into his vehicle this morning on the way to school.
The principal provided a description of the person — an Asian man in his 30s driving a white truck with the word “Royal” on the back — as well as safety suggestions for parents and children.
The letter was similar to one she sent home after another luring incident on March 27.
The suspect in that case is a man with brown skin and black hair. He was wearing black gloves with red palms and driving a two-door tan car with a black grill
Part of the Alhambra Elementary School District, Westwood Elementary is a K-4 school with an enrollment of roughly 900.
65-year-old Florida woman chases off 300-pound, half-naked man with softball bat – “I grabbed my bat and braced myself”
A 65-year-old Florida woman used a softball bat to chase away a 300-pound half-naked man who she said was trying to break into her car.
Clarese Gainey told WGFL the suspected burglar was “lucky she only had a bat.”
Early Sunday morning, Gainey said she heard a noise outside her apartment. She looked out the window and saw a large man wearing only his boxers pulling on her car’s door handle.
Little did he know, Gainey used to play softball in high school and still knows how to swing a bat.
“I took that bat and hit him upside the head and said ‘PIYAH!’ and he said ‘OWW!’” Gainey told WGFL.
Police later identified the man as Antonio Mosely, who is 5 foot 6 and weighs 300 pounds.
Police said after Gainey hit him with her bat, Mosely ran to a nearby mobile home park, still wearing nothing but boxers.
A K-9 unit tracked Mosely down and found him inside a mobile home, according to police. Police also said Mosely was in possession of cocaine.
Gainey later positively identified Mosely as her attacker, and police told her he “had a big knot on his head,” Gainey said.
Mosely is charged with burglary and drug possession. He was booked into the Alachua County Jail.
“He better be glad I didn’t have a gun,” Gainey told WGFL.
Carl’s Jr. to become first major fast-food chain to sell a cannabis-infused burger
Carl’s Jr. is testing out a cannabis burger to stay at the forefront of the CBD trend.
The chain said on Wednesday that it will sell the Rocky Mountain High: CheeseBurger Delight burger at one location in Denver, Colorado for just one day (April 20th, of course). The burger features a sauce infused with CBD, or cannabidiol, a non-psychoactive hemp derivative.
Though the promotion is limited, it’s not a stunt. The burger chain is using the test to determine whether a CBD burger belongs on its permanent menu, said Patty Trevino, senior vice president of brand marketing for Carl’s Jr.
“It is something that feels right for the brand,” she told CNN Business. “We are all about innovation.”
Food, beverage and other consumer goods companies have been trying to figure out how to capitalize on growing interest in ingredients like CBD. Consumers are increasingly seeking products that offer an extra something, like increased energy or better gut health. CBD may fit the bill: Some studies suggest the CBD can help treat inflammation, pain, anxiety and seizures. Carl’s Jr. isn’t promoting any possible functional benefits of CBD, Trevino said.
Carl’s Jr. is hoping to please their customers, whom Trevino said tend to be interested in new trends. It’s also chasing “future Carl’s Jr. customers that are younger,” said Trevino. “They are more open to different flavors of products,” as well as benefits trendy ingredients may offer.
The chain first decided to explore CBD in January, after introducing a product based on another trend. Earlier this year, the chain announced a plant-based alternative to its signature burger in partnership with Beyond Meat.
“I was sitting down with our head chef Owen Klein, and we were talking about trends,” Trevino said. After the Beyond Meat launch, they came up with a wish list that included a CBD product. “We looked at ourselves and said, you know what, let’s try.”
CBD is an attractive new ingredient for companies, but they have to act carefully because regulation around use of the ingredient is ill-defined. Hemp was legalized nationally last year as part of the Farm Bill, but the Food & Drug Administration still hasn’t decided how to regulate CBD products. In a March interview with Brookings Institution, former FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb said it could take several years before the agency fully legalizes CBD for use in food products and dietary supplements.
Starting small, in a market where cannabis regulation is “really strong,” will allow Carl’s Jr. to figure out how to move forward. Testing CBD could give the company an edge over competitors, because most of its locations are in Western states, where recreational cannabis is legal.
Because Carl’s Jr. decided to test in just one location on one day, it was able to bring a product to customers very quickly. The chain partnered with Bluebird Botanicals, a Colorado-based company that sells CBD oil and capsules, for the test.
Photo Courtesy of Carl’s Jr.
Diamond Bar Church Volunteer Charged After Allegedly Having Sexual Relationship With Parishioner and Molesting Her Sister
A Diamond Bar Church volunteer faces multiple charges after allegedly having a sexual relationship with a parishioner and molesting her sister, officials announced Tuesday.
Chin Lee Chook, aka Desmond Chook, 55, faces two counts each of oral copulation of a person under 18, sexual penetration of a person under 18 and distributing or showing pornography to a minor. He was also charged with one count of unlawful sexual intercourse and one misdemeanor count of child molesting, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, who investigated the allegations, previously identified the suspect as Chee Lim Chook.
The alleged incidents occurred between November 2016 and November 2018 at River of Life Community Church, where Chook was a volunteer, officials said. The victim was 16 when the alleged sexual conduct began.
The victim alleged Chook would have sex with her at the church, located at 20430 Yellow Brick Road, and also gave her pornography to watch.
Chook also allegedly molested the victim’s sister between February 2018 and February 2019. The sister’s age was not disclosed.
Chook was arrested at his Rosemead home on March 4 and is scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday. He faces a maximum sentence of seven years in prison.
Sheriff’s detectives who investigated the allegations believe Chook could have additional victims.
Anyone with information on the case can contact the sheriff’s Special Victims Bureau tip line at 877-710-5273 or by email at [email protected]. Anonymous tips may be submitted via 800-222-8477 or LACrimeStoppers.org.