Social media post shows 5 teachers holding up racial slur
O’FALLON, Mo. — The St. Charles County branch of the NAACP and several parents are calling for change after five teachers were pictured on social media holding up a racial slur.
“I’m angry, I’m hurt because I trust you with my child,” said one parent with a child in the Christian School District.
It started as a game of human Scrabble. The photo shows faculty from the Christian School District rearranging letters to form the word “coons”. Someone then posted it to social media, parents say it was even on the school district’s website.
“They were running around trying to spell raccoon, but they didn’t have the R and the A,” said Pastor Raymond Horry who has two children enrolled in the district. “I don’t believe it that five Caucasian teachers, not one of them knew that. Maybe one didn’t know it, maybe two didn’t know it, but all 5 didn’t know it?”
Pastor Horry has two sons enrolled in the O’Fallon, Missouri, private school. He, along with other parents, said they’re speechless at how a slur like this one could be used by educators.
“He absolutely told me, ‘Mom, I’m tired of it, do what you need to do because this is not fair and I’m tired of feeling like this,'” said one parent quoting her conversation with her teenage son.
But John Smith, a graduate of Christian High School and a current basketball coach stood behind the educators saying this was not who they are.
“This isn’t our school this was a mistake,” Smith said. “Everybody in the world makes mistakes, everybody in the world has faults and this is just a little fault that we’ve had. This is not our school. I truly believe that they did not know what they were posting.”
In a statement, the district said they are investigating and will take the appropriate disciplinary actions after their investigation is complete. they also added this.
“We recognize that this ill-informed action caused hurt and offense to many students and families in our school and in the wider community. We offer no excuse as to why this word was used. In a statement to families last night, we apologized for the incident and sought their forgiveness. We also ask that of anyone who has been impacted by this picture.”
“It’s a blanket statement, it’s the same thing we always have to forgive them for their transgressions because they don’t know how to handle racial issues,” said one parent.
5 On Your Side also spoke with the St. Charles County NAACP. The branch’s president said they will be reaching out to school leaders.
via: https://www.ksdk.com/article/news/education/christian-school-district-racial-slur-teachers/63-db0930eb-e38e-47a4-b647-df9eb4409021
Photo Credit: ksdk.com
Nine-year-old girl dies during exorcism
A 9-year-old girl was beaten to death with a cane during an exorcism in Sri Lanka, police said.
The girl’s mother and the woman she hired to drive an evil spirt out of the girl were arrested and appeared in court Monday, following the fatal ceremony over the weekend.
The victim’s mother believed the girl had been possessed by a demon, and took her to the home of the exorcist in Delgoda, according to officials.
During the ritual, the exorcist put oil on the girl and beat her repeatedly with a cane. She lost consciousness and died at the hospital, police said.
Police in the area are investigating whether the suspect, who is known for advertising demonic casting services, had abused anyone else.
via: https://nypost.com/2021/03/01/nine-year-old-girl-dies-during-exorcism/
Photo Credit: AP
Burglar busted thanks to Cheeto dust on her teeth
A woman was busted for a home invasion in Oklahoma — thanks in part to “Cheeto dust” found in her teeth, authorities allege.
Sharon Carr was arrested on a first-degree burglary charge after allegedly committed the dangerously cheesy act Friday at a home in Tulsa, police said.
Cops say they arrived at the home that night, where a mom of two young kids had called 911 to report that another lady had pried a screen off her window and gotten inside.
The snack-loving sneak had already fled — but cops say they found “a bag of Cheetos and a bottle of water on the floor near the open window.”
A few seconds later, however, Carr allegedly emerged from the shadows, police told news station KTUL.
The mom ID’d her as the invader — and the bust was further cemented when they found the incriminating orange snack-food residue still stuck in her teeth, the outlet reported.
Cops think she dropped the bag while making her escape.
“A good reminder that Cheeto dust can be pretty hard to get rid of,” Tusla police wrote on Facebook.
via: https://nypost.com/2021/03/01/burglar-busted-thanks-to-cheeto-dust-on-her-teeth-cops/
Photo Credit: Tulsa Police Department
Israeli man accused of raping girl, 13, in government-run quarantine hotel
A 21-year-old Israeli man allegedly raped and beat a 13-year-old girl while they were housed in a quarantine hotel operated by the state’s welfare system, according to reports.
“This is a despicable act,” the girl’s mother said during a virtual hearing Tuesday for the suspect, Yarin Sherf, the Times of Israel reported.
“With my legs trembling and a broken heart I ask to punish the cruel criminal. He has finished off the girl’s life with a cruel act,” she said, explaining that her daughter will “forever be scarred.”
“The criminal should not see the light of day, a beastly man who has no control of his urges,” the devastated mom continued.
Sherf admitted he had sex with the girl at the hotel in Jaffa, near Tel Aviv, but claims it was consensual and that she had told him she was 16.
He was accused of raping her twice in her room on two occasions, and also of beating and choking her, according to the news outlet.
Sherf’s attorney Nir David told reporters that an ongoing investigation will determine the issue of consent.
“Young girls today have consensual sex even at the ages of 13 and 14, and the cases do not come to the attention of the police,” David said in court, according to the Jerusalem Post.
But Judge Ohr Mamon quickly interjected: “Sex with 14-year-olds? There is a law, sir. Consider your words, sir.”
Sherf also was accused of trying to coax the girl into consuming drugs and alcohol with him, according to the outlet.
Police representative Yevgeny Kapilevich said investigators “have correspondence between the suspect and the minor.”
“From the conversations with her, we can learn that she did not want him to come, but he came and raped her violently,” Kapilevich said.
Sherf’s TikTok account also has been suspended due to “repeated violations of our community rules which included hurtful content against other users and women,” the company told the Times of Israel in a statement.
The video-sharing platform’s Israeli division told Channel 12 that the app has “zero tolerance against the distribution of harmful content on the platform.”
The hotel where the alleged crimes took place houses COVID-19 patients from state welfare dorms for young people unable to live at home.
Male and female guests are kept on separate floors and are forbidden from mingling, according to the outlet, which reported that the facility is equipped with surveillance cameras.
via: https://nypost.com/2021/03/02/israeli-man-accused-of-raping-girl-13-in-quarantine-hotel/
Photo Credit: facebook
California teacher makes anti-Asian gesture during Zoom class
A California high school teacher is under fire for making a “shocking” anti-Asian gesture during a Zoom class last week.
Nichole Burkett, a Spanish teacher and adviser for the class of 2022 at Sacramento’s Grant Union High School, is shown on video intentionally narrowing her eyes during an online class last week, according to local reports.
“If your eyes go up, you’re Chinese,” Burkett said, as she stretched her own eyes. “If they go down, they’re Japanese. If they’re just straight, you don’t know.”
“I should leave your class right now!” someone can be heard saying after Burkett finished.
In a statement issued to the Sacramento Bee, Twin Rivers United School District spokesperson Zenobia Gerald called the video “shocking” and “disappointing,” adding that the district has opened a probe.
“The video … does not represent the values held by Twin Rivers and the community,” Gerald added. “An investigation was immediately launched when we were notified about the video. Please know that Twin Rivers is committed to providing all students with a safe and civil learning environment in which all members of the school community are treated with dignity and respect. We do not tolerate any form of racism from any member of our school community.”
School principal Darris Hinson issued a similar statement to staff, according to the report.
Burkett declined to comment to the paper, but a response from an email address associated with her said: “I have been advised to not make any statements until my union representative gets back to me.”
Burkett’s staff biography on the school website indicates that she is the club adviser for Lao Xang Noy, and KPOP.
“I love teaching and supporting all students at Grant,” she wrote.
The incident comes amid a recent wave of assaults on Asian victims in California and other parts of the country.
via: https://nypost.com/2021/03/02/california-teacher-makes-anti-asian-gesture-during-zoom-class-video/
Photo Credit: twitter
Man stabbed to death by rooster after attaching knife to its leg
An Indian man was stabbed to death by his own rooster after he attached a 3-inch knife to its leg for an illegal cockfight, police said Sunday.
Thangulla Satish, 45, was stabbed in the groin last week when the bird he had just armed for the fight fluttered in panic, according to police in Lothunur village in Telangana state.
“Satish was hit by the rooster’s knife in his groin and started bleeding heavily,” police inspector B. Jeevan said Sunday, revealing that the victim died on his way to a local hospital.
Police are now looking for over a dozen other people involved in organizing the deadly cockfight, warning that they could face up to two years in prison if found guilty.
The rooster survived, with photos of it tied with a rope and pecking on grains at the police station went viral locally on social media.
“We may need to produce it before the court,” Jeevan said.
In the fights — banned in India in 1960 — two birds with a knife or blade attached fight until one either dies or flees.
Despite the nationwide ban, they remain common in the southern Indian states of Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, often under the watch of powerful, local politicians with big-money bets.
via: https://nypost.com/2021/02/28/indian-man-stabbed-to-death-by-rooster-after-attaching-knife-to-leg/
Photo Credit: nypost.com
Mom’s heartbreak after baby swallows battery, dies
Texas mother Trista Hamsmith lost her 17-month-old daughter, Reese, in December due to complications from swallowing a battery — and she’s doing her part to ensure the toddler did not die in vain.
“Kids are dying,” Hamsmith, 39, told the “Today” show. “We’ve got to do everything we can to get this information to parents and put pressure on the industry to make changes to protect the kids.”
Hamsmith, who lives in Lubbock, noticed that Reese, who was typically a lively character, began wheezing. She was also congested and lethargic, and a pediatrician said croup — an upper-airway infection that generally affects children — was the cause.
Not long after, Hamsmith noticed a button battery had gone missing from a remote control; later, at a local emergency room, doctors confirmed that Reese had swallowed it, and it burned a hole in her esophagus.
“This story needs to be told,” Hamsmith added. “It didn’t have to happen.”
Dr. Emily Durkin, the medical director of children’s surgery at Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital in Grand Rapids, Michigan — who did not treat Reese — told “Today” that swallowed batteries can cause serious harm if they lodge in the esophagus, which has two narrow ends.
“If you get a narrow, flat, pancake-like button battery that gets stuck at one of these natural narrowings, then the front wall of the esophagus collapses against the button battery and the back wall,” she said. “[This] completes that circuit, and the electric current actually flows through the esophageal tissues. And when that happens, it starts to kill the tissues at the burn.”
Reese had surgery in October, then returned home. But several days later, she returned to the emergency room after more complications arose.
“We found out that a fistula had been created, which is like a passageway,” Hamsmith said. “There was a hole burned through her trachea and through her esophagus. When that tunnel formed, it was allowing air to go where it didn’t need to be. Food and drinks also went where they didn’t need to go.”
From that point forward, Reese had a feeding tube and was sedated on a ventilator. She even needed another surgery, then had to receive CPR twice after falling into distress. That second time led to Reese’s death on Dec. 17, 2020.
Now, Hamsmith is calling for action, demanding manufacturers make safer batteries and Congress address it. She also hopes that manufacturers can make safer device covers, like having batter-storage compartments secured by screws, to add a layer of safety for children.
“We just need safer batteries,” she said.
via: https://nypost.com/2021/03/02/texas-mom-takes-action-after-babys-battery-swallow-death/
Photo Credit: Pray for Reese Hamsmith/Facebook
Family ejected from Frontier Airlines flight, passengers say due to 18 month old baby – about 15 cops responded to incident
Frontier Airlines said they cancelled a flight from Florida on Sunday after a “large group” of passengers refused to wear masks — but the family involved claims they were booted simply because of a maskless baby.
The fracas took place aboard flight 2878, which was set to depart Miami en route to LaGuardia Airport at 7 p.m. until the disagreement forced all passengers to deplane and reschedule a flight for the next morning.
“Multiple people, including several adults, were asked repeatedly to wear their masks and refused to do so,” the airline said in a statement Sunday night.
“Based on the continued refusal to comply with the federal mask mandate, refusal to disembark the aircraft and aggression towards the flight crew, local law enforcement was engaged.”
However, fellow passenger Hershey Greenbaum told The Post the child seemed to be the reason for the family’s removal.
“We were all on the plane when they [flight attendants] came on and saw the 18-month-old baby without a mask,” Greenbaum said.
In video footage of the incident, the father can be seen explaining that the child was under the age of two.
Greenbaum said other passengers came to the defense of the family and became “rowdy” when they were booted.
The parents told the attendants they would try to fit a covering on the baby, according to Greenbaum, but that not did not stop them from taking action.
“All the people on the plane were getting really mad and rowdy because, what are you going to do? It’s an 18-month old baby,” Greenbaum said.
“Most of them were saying ‘Don’t let them do this to you,’” Greenbaum said of the other passengers. “Most of the people were against it, Jewish or not Jewish, why are you picking on an 18-month-old kid?”
The company said: “To be clear, the issue did not stem from a child under the age of two.”
At least one passenger filmed part of the interaction, which was later posted to Twitter by the Orthodox Jewish Public Affairs Council.
Numerous passengers can be heard calling out the flight staff for what they believed to be an unjustified action.
“What are you accomplishing?” one person says.
“You’re gonna pay the consequences,” another passenger can be heard saying.
“This is Nazi Germany,” a third person shouts.
Greenbaum said about 15 police officers responded to the incident.
via: https://nypost.com/2021/03/01/frontier-airlines-claims-large-group-of-maskless-passengers-disrupted-flight/
Photo Credit: twitter
Arkansas school shooting: Student reportedly shot on first day of in-person learning
A student was shot and killed at an Arkansas middle school early Monday on the first day that full-time classes resumed after months of coronavirus lockdown restrictions.
The incident at the Watson Chapel Junior High School in Pine Bluff forced the district into a new emergency lockdown, with one student dead and a second youngster in police custody, KARK-TV reported.
The victim was rushed to Arkansas Children’s Hospital by helicopter in “very serious condition,”, according to KATV-TV.
Police later said the teen had died from his wounds.
Pine Bluff Police Chief Kelvin Sergeant called the incident an “isolated and targeted” attack involving two students enrolled at the school.
Speaking at an afternoon briefing, Sergeant said police arrived at the school around 10 a.m. and found the wounded student in a hallway near the school office.
The alleged shooter, also 15, was found by police K-9 officers hiding behind a house nearby, the chief said.
“We don’t have a definite motive right now as to why the incident occurred,” Sergeant said. “However, we do believe this was a targeted incident as opposed to a random incident.”
No additional details were available about the youngster in custody, but the chief said charges are pending.
“There has been a shooting at the Watson Chapel Junior High,” the school district said on Facebook. “ALL campuses are on lock down. The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department and Pine Bluff Police Department are on site to control the situation.”
“This was an isolated incident and all students are safe at this time,” the district said. “The parent of the student hurt has been notified so if you have not been notified by the school your student is safe and secure.”
“The police are not letting anyone in and out of the buildings,” the post said. “You will not be allowed to come get your student at this time.”
According to KATV, the lockdown had been lifted by noon.
No further details were immediately available.
via: https://nypost.com/2021/03/01/arkansas-school-shooting-at-least-one-student-reportedly-shot/
Photo Credit: Google