‘You’re a terrorist’: Notes found in 10-year-old Muslim schoolgirl’s cubby prompt investigation
FRAMINGHAM, Mass. – A 10-year-old Muslim girl found two threatening handwritten notes in her cubby in an elementary school west of Boston, and police are investigating the notes as a hate crime.
The first note came on Friday. Scrawled in pencil was: “You’re a terrorist.”
On Tuesday, the student found a second threatening note: “I will kill you.”
Neither the fifth-grader who received the notes nor the other students at the school are thought to be in imminent danger, Framingham School District Superintendent Robert Tremblay said in a news conference on Wednesday. “Safety is our priority,” he said.
In addition to the police investigation, the school district is conducting a separate internal investigation, Tremblay said.
The girl’s family requested her name not be published to preserve her privacy.
After the fifth-grader gave the first note to her teacher on Friday, the school didn’t immediately involve the police, hoping a student would come forward, according to Principal Elizabeth Simon.
The school emailed parents asking for any information they might have regarding the incident, but when the second note appeared on Tuesday, the police were involved.
The targeted girl is still going to school every day, said her uncle, Jamaal Siddiqui.
“All she said is she wants to be as normal as possible. She doesn’t want to be treated differently,” Siddiqui said.
The family has been an involved part of the Framingham community for decades, and he and his family members all attended Framingham School District schools, Siddiqui said.
“I’ve been through racism. My wife has been through racism. As adults we know how to cope with it,” Siddiqui said.
“But for our niece, she doesn’t know why she’s being targeted.”
Simon said this was the first discriminatory incident at the school. “We have not had something that was such a targeted, hateful message. … My staff is devastated.”
Tremblay said Wednesday that a bigger conversation around hate should be had around the state.
“This is a pervasive problem [that] we need to take a stand on and address,” he said.
“When you think about a child who’s in fifth grade,” said Tremblay. “That kind of hate, you know, where does that come from? It’s not an innate feeling that a child would have. And the concern that we have is, how is this a teachable opportunity for our classrooms?”
In an effort to bring students together, all fifth-grade students wrote nice notes to the student victim and the school is holding talks with each class to process the events, school officials said.
Man tries to trade cannabis for a car, ends up in jail
ALBANY, Ore. — Marijuana is legal in Oregon, but you can’t barter it for a car.
Police in Albany, Oregon, said Tuesday a car dealer posted a Mazda SUV for sale on an online marketplace on Friday. A man contacted the dealer and offered to trade cannabis for the car.
Matthew Franks, 38, of Independence, Oregon, showed up at a parking-lot rendezvous site that evening, expecting to meet the car seller.
Instead, police were waiting for him.
Police spokesman Brad Liles says Franks was arrested and put into the Linn County Jail. Liles says police seized 5.4 pounds of marijuana, less than the agreed-upon amount.
It wasn’t immediately clear if Franks had an attorney.
Though marijuana is legal in Oregon, sales are regulated and those in the business must be licensed.
via: https://nypost.com/2018/11/14/man-tries-to-trade-cannabis-for-a-car-ends-up-in-jail/
Hotel owner with sex dungeon tried to buy girl for ‘slave training’
A Connecticut hotel owner who had a “sex dungeon” hidden at his business was arrested after he attempted to buy a preteen girl for “slave training” and “limitless sex” for two days, police said.
Simon Hessler was arrested Tuesday after investigators set up a sting to nab the 46-year-old man during a child prostitution and human trafficking investigation. Hessler was caught attempting to purchase a 12-year-old girl for two days in exchange for $500, the Hartford Courant reported.
The preteen girl, however, was a “very petite narcotics officer from East Hartford.”
Police began investigating Hessler in October after they discovered he sought photos of young Mexican girls for a “casting couch interview,” the newspaper reported, citing the arrest warrant. In conversations with Connecticut State Police Det. Samantha McCord, Hessler revealed he had a dungeon he used to train slaves. The alleged sex dungeon was “an elaborate sado-masochism room with multiple beds with whips and chains and handcuffs on the wall.” It also included a metal cage with a padlock.
Hessler shared with the detective several photos of the dungeon, which was located in Hessler’s business, New England Hospitality Management.
The hotel owner eventually asked McCord to bring him a “DCF/foster kid” so he could train her in his “slave quarters” and have sex with her, the police report stated. He allegedly asked for the girl to be dropped off at a trailer parked in the Manchester hotel parking lot where she would be left handcuffed with a black hood and on the floor.
Hessler was arrested once he pulled up to the trailer. Police also recovered 11 flash drives from Hessler’s house after they contacted his wife, who asked if her husband had “done something with underage girls.”
Hessler was arrested and faces several charges, including attempted felony to patronize a prostitute and second-degree attempted sex assault.
He is being held on $1 million bail and expected back in court on Dec. 12.
73-year-old FL woman was worried about the meth she was smoking, so she took it to her doctor
POLK COUNTY, Fla. – An elderly woman is accused of taking her methamphetamine to the doctor for testing after she became concerned about the drug’s effect on her.
Barbara Lee Ray, 73, of Polk County, Fla., asked her doctor to test the meth because she was worried it was doing harm, the Miami Herald reported.
Ray had been using the drug for about a month, but it remains uncertain where she got it or why she was smoking it, according to the paper.
Deputies said she went to Complete Care Family Medicine Associates on Nov. 5 to test the product, which came back positive for meth.
Ray was booked into the Polk County jail on two counts of possession of methamphetamine and two counts of possession of drug paraphernalia.
She was released two days after visiting the doctor.
Caregiver who left 4-year-old girl to die in hot car fined just $25
A Pennsylvania caregiver who left a 4-year-old child to die in a hot car two years ago was fined just $25.
After deliberating for three hours last Friday, jurors acquitted Brittany Borgess, 30, of Williamsport, of the most serious charges against her, the AP reported.
Borgess, who prosecutors said left family friend Samaria Motyka in an SUV with the windows closed for over six hours in July 2016, was acquitted of involuntary manslaughter, child endangerment and reckless endangerment.
Lycoming County Senior Judge Dudley Anderson found Borgess guilty of the summary charge of leaving a child unattended in a car. She fined her $25.
Upon hearing the verdict, several of the victim’s family and friends exploded with rage and were escorted from the courtroom for screaming profanities, Penn Live reported.
Defense attorney Peter Campana called Borgess’ actions on the day of the child’s death an “autopilot mistake.”
On the day of the tragedy, Borgess dropped her 2-year-old son, Isaac, off at his daycare. Instead of dropping family friend Samaria off at her daycare, Borgess drove straight to work, leaving the girl strapped to a booster seat in the back of the car. Williamsport temperatures hit 97 degrees that day, and Borgess parked the sweltering car in an area with no shade.
Six and a half hours later, Samaria was found unresponsive on the floor of the car with her head on the front passenger seat. She managed to get out of her booster seat, police said. Samaria’s internal temperature reached 110 degrees, according to an evaluation at Williamsport Regional Medical Center.
Campana argued Borgess was sleep deprived and stressed because she was about to get married and that she “didn’t want this to happen.”
Friends of the victim’s family started a GoFundMe page after her death. It raised $820 of its $1,000 goal.
via: https://nypost.com/2018/11/13/caregiver-who-left-4-year-old-girl-to-die-in-hot-car-fined-just-25/
Teacher suspended after student wore KKK outfit in class for presentation
A teacher in Missouri has been suspended after a student dressed up as a member of the Ku Klux Klan as part of a history class presentation, district officials said.
A ninth-grader at Poplar Bluff High School dressed as a member of the KKK on Friday as students in an American history class made presentations pertaining to amendments to the US Constitution. The student in question, wearing a white robe and hood, was part of a group assigned to the 15th Amendment — guaranteeing voting rights regardless of race or color, KFVS reports.
District officials have since suspended the teacher as an investigation continues, but they don’t believe the student was acting with intent to offend or discriminate against other students, according to the station.
“There’s no context for this,” Poplar Bluff School District Superintendent Scott Dill told KFVS. “There’s no point at which anyone in our public school system is going to say that this is OK. It is very obvious that this can’t happen in any setting anywhere, and so we will do our best to ensure that we do what we do best, which is education.”
District officials will now take steps to ensure teachers are providing “age-appropriate historical context” on key topics in a responsible manner.
“And we will make sure that our students, our teachers and our community understand the context, understand what is acceptable and what will never be acceptable,” Dill continued.
A letter of apology was sent by the unidentified teacher and read to students early Monday, KFVS reports.
“I made a mistake on Friday during our skit assignment,” the teacher wrote. “I let a student wear an inappropriate costume that was unacceptable and hurt many people’s feelings. As the professional in the room, I should have known better. I am sorry.”
The teacher’s apology continued: “I am so sorry for making this mistake, and I hope that you can forgive me and we can work through this together. I understand that healing and forgiveness take time, and I am absolutely okay with that.”
It wasn’t long before a photograph of the teen dressed as a Klansman soon began circulating on social media Friday. A former student who graduated from the school last year shared a Facebook post depicting the student but she had not been in the classroom at the time, the Springfield News-Leader reports.
“I’ve never ever heard of a history teacher who said it was okay to use a KKK costume for a project,” graduate Brianna Anthony told the newspaper. “Because when people walk into that classroom and see that uniform, that’s automatically a red flag.”
Costumes weren’t a part of history classes during her time at Poplar Bluff, Anthony said.
“We just got in group projects and did, like, reports,” she told the newspaper. “We used costumes in English, going over stories.”
via: https://nypost.com/2018/11/13/teacher-suspended-after-student-wore-kkk-outfit-in-class/
Health department poured bleach on food meant for the homeless
Missouri health department officials admitted to pouring bleach on food meant for homeless people earlier this month, claiming the volunteers preparing and serving food didn’t have permits.
On Nov. 5, Kansas City health department employees dumped vats of chili and soup as well as sandwiches in bags and soaked them in bleach to stop homeless people from eating the food — which they deemed a potential health threat.
“E. coli or salmonella or listeria can grow in the food,” director of health for Kansas City, Rex Archer, told Fox 32.
“And then you give that to homeless people who are more vulnerable, they will end up in the ER and even die from that exposure.”
But members of Free Hot Soup, the organization feeding the homeless, told KCTV that homeless people were undeterred by the bleach and ate the food anyway because they thought it would “clean out their systems.” The group said that if the health inspectors were truly concerned about the health of the homeless, they wouldn’t have left the bags of food out for them to sift through.
The organization claimed the health department’s crackdown was actually to keep homeless people from gathering in public parks
“They don’t like the quality of people we are attracting. They don’t like looking at them,” Nellie Ann McCool with Free Hot Soup told KCTV.
The health department denied that allegation, according to an article published by the Kansas City Star this week.
Members of Free Hot Soup argued that they are merely “friends of the homeless,” and said if people don’t need a permit to host a potluck dinner for friends, neither should they.
“This is scaring all of us,” one of the group’s organizer’s, Tara McGaw, told the Kansas City Star on Nov. 5. “We’re not an establishment. We’re not a not-for-profit. We’re just friends trying to help people on the side.”
Kansas City Mayor Sly James sided with the health department after the story came to light.
Phony social media accounts posing as Powerball winner promise to give money to new followers
DES MOINES, Iowa – If you’ve recently followed Lerynne West on Facebook or Twitter with the hopes of getting a piece of her recent Powerball winnings, that likely isn’t going to happen. The lottery winner from Iowa is not handing out her winnings to strangers despite what some social media users are claiming.
According to Wixted and Company, the group handling Lerynne West’s media requests, several accounts on Facebook and Twitter have been reported after users have claimed to be West.
The grandmother claimed her $344 million Powerball jackpot prize earlier this month. Soon after claiming her winnings, fake accounts on Facebook and Twitter have appeared, promising that new followers will get a $100,000 piece of her winnings. There are many profiles on each platform claiming to be West.
After winning half of the $687 Million Powerball jackpot in early November, West launched a foundation that will help others and organizations in need, but not giving away money to new Twitter followers.
A Black Security Guard Was Killed By Police As He Tried To Stop A Shooting
A black security guard was shot dead by a police officer as he held down a suspect in a shooting at the bar where he worked.
Jemel Roberson, 26, was working early Sunday at Manny’s Blue Room ― a bar in the predominantly black Chicago suburb of Robbins, Illinois ― when a patron who was part of a drunken group that had been kicked out returned with a gun at 4 a.m. and opened fire, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. Several people were shot.
Roberson, who was armed at the time, grabbed one of the men, held him down and waited for police, according to witnesses.
“He had somebody on the ground with his knee in back, with his gun in his back like, ‘Don’t move,’” Adam Harris told WGN-TV.
But witnesses said Roberson became the victim as soon as police arrived. A responding officer with the Midlothian Police Department immediately shot Roberson, who later died at a hospital.
Harris said the officer shot an innocent man and that people on the scene tried to warn police that Roberson was a security guard.
“Everybody was screaming out, ‘Security!’ He was a security guard … and they still did their job, and saw a black man with a gun, and basically killed him,” Harris said.
Midlothian Police Chief Dan Delaney confirmed the shooting, telling reporters, “A Midlothian officer encountered a subject with a gun and was involved in an officer-involved shooting.” The department said the Illinois State Police Public Integrity Task Force would investigate the shooting in order to “ensure transparency and maintain public trust.”
Roberson was known as a musician at local churches who had dreams of becoming a police officer, people who knew him told ABC-7 and WGN-TV.
“How in the world does the security guard get shot by police?” asked Walter Turner, the pastor at New Spiritual Light Baptist Church, where Roberson played the organ. “A young man that was literally doing his job and now he’s gone.”
Calls to the Illinois State Police and Midlothian Police Department weren’t immediately returned. The Cook County Sheriff’s office is reportedly investigating the initial shooting.
From August 2016 to May of this year, at least 378 black Americans had been killed by police, and more than 3,357 people have been fatally shot by officers since 2015, HuffPost reported in May.
Robin Thicke and girlfriend lose home to California fires
Robin Thicke and girlfriend April Love Geary have lost their Malibu home as a result of the California wildfires. Taking to Instagram on Saturday, Geary, 23, posted a photo of what remains to be their front gate.
“Our house is gone,” the model shared to her story.
Both Geary and Thicke, 41, who are expecting their second child together, have been keeping fans up to date as fires continue to ravage California. On Friday, the singer revealed he and his family had been ordered to evacuate.
“Family is safe! Praying for everyone out here!” Thicke shared on social media.
“I’m so sad but so thankful that we all made it out safe,” Geary penned. “Praying for everyone in Malibu, our city is up in flames ?.”
Geary and Thicke are among a number of celebrities who have been affected by the wildfires, including Kim Kardashian, Martin Sheen and Caitlyn Jenner. As of Saturday, the death toll had risen to 25.
A rep for Thicke didn’t immediately return our request for comment.