Say What? Items in the News

We have all seen or heard them... the stories just too strange... and yet true.

Post them here.

And I have the PERFECT one to start us all off....

Man arrested for making coffee in own home while naked‎!
"A man in Northern Virginia is standing up for his right to make coffee in his kitchen naked"
Gotta love the people in Virginia. She cuts through HIS front yard, looks in HIS window and he gets arrested!!! :crazy:

I like this link because it has the story in text AND a video news cast.
http://www.wtopnews.com/?sid=1790464&nid=25

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Originally Posted by rockzmom

We have all seen or heard them... the stories just too strange... and yet true.

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I once saw my female neighbor (older, not attractive :cry: ) nude in the kitchen. Guess I should have reported it...no wait, this is Amerika, I would have been arrested as a peeping Tom!

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Originally Posted by sperk

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Originally Posted by rockzmom

We have all seen or heard them... the stories just too strange... and yet true.

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I once saw my female neighbor (older, not attractive :cry: ) nude in the kitchen. Guess I should have reported it...no wait, this is Amerika, I would have been arrested as a peeping Tom!

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Ahh Sperk, maybe you are on to something... maybe he wasn't "attractive" enough and that's why she called the cops! If he had been... well who knows?? :spiteful:

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Originally Posted by rockzmom

Man arrested for making coffee in own home while naked‎!
"A man in Northern Virginia is standing up for his right to make coffee in his kitchen naked"

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We discussed this one today. It appear even in the russian press :D

So here is the next one I saw that I could not believe...

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http://cbs2chicago.com/local/Robeson...2.1251642.html

Oct 15, 2009
Why Did 1 In 7 Girls Get Pregnant At Robeson High?
Officials Say A Mix Of Factors Are To Blame, As They Try To Help The Young Women

It is a Chicago public school full of energy and spirit. It has about 800 girls, and 115 of them have something in common – something you might find disturbing. All those young ladies are moms or moms-to-be at Paul Robeson High School. It's not a school for young mothers, it's a neighborhood school. And all of the pregnancies have happened, despite prevention talk.

If you want to know why, the people closest to the situation say there's no simple explanation.

Chicago Public Schools says it does not track the overall number of teen moms in the district. But Robeson Principal Gerald Morrow knows the count at his school in Englewood: 115 young ladies who are either expecting or already have had children.

To put it in perspective, their school pictures would fill roughly six pages of their high school year book.

Why is it happening at Robeson?

"It can be a lot of things that are happening in the home or not happening in the home, if you will," Morrow said. Absentee fathers are another factor, he said.

LaDonna Denson and two other Robeson students say parents not talking to teens and, in some cases, the pursuit of public assistance also factor into the pregnancies. None of them thought they'd be moms at such a young age.

They said they have support at home. But not all girls do, they said. In fact, some girls get thrown out of the home.

Not on Morrow's turf. "We're not looking at them like 'Ooh you made a mistake,'" he said. "We're looking at how we can get them to the next phase, how can we still get them thinking about graduation?"

So there's help in a teen parent program. And coming soon, right across from Robeson, developers are turning a one-time crack house into a day care for student use. "We have to provide some type of environment for them and some form of support for them," Van Vincent, CEO of VLV Development, said.

It's all made an impression.

"Just cause you have a baby, that doesn't mean your life is over," one student said.

One thing they might not know about their principal: His mom had him when she was 15. That's why accepting the problem -- and working through it -- is so important to him.

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:arrow: :?: So, is this teen pregnancy thing (maybe on a smaller scale) a problem in other countries???

:?: Do they teach sex education in schools in other countries? In our county (school district), they start in 5th grade or about 10/11 years old. A parent CAN request that their child be pulled out of the lessons.

So this is another school than the one with the supposed pregnancy pact? Is the teen pregnancy rate as high in the rest of the US? I mean, not 1 in 7 of course, but higher than average (although I wouldn't know what average is).

Here in Belgium I think it's not such a big issue. When I was in high school, I think maybe only a couple of girls got pregnant. We get sex ed as of the 6th grade. And I don't think parents can keep their kids out of those classes. They are part of our biology classes and later on of our religion classes too (to learn a healthy approach towards relationships).

I'm really interested in hearing from other members of the board. This could turn into an interesting discussion.

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Originally Posted by devochka

So this is another school than the one with the supposed pregnancy pact?

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Yes, this is different then the school with the girls who had an "agreement" to get pregnant. When I had lunch with my older daughter today and mentioned to her that I had posted this her first question was "How many are from the same boy?"

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Originally Posted by devochka

When I was in high school, I think maybe only a couple of girls got pregnant.

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Same here. There was one my junior year and one my senior year (or at least that is all I knew of as I skipped my senior year).

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Originally Posted by devochka

Is the teen pregnancy rate as high in the rest of the US? I mean, not 1 in 7 of course, but higher than average (although I wouldn't know what average is).

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Good question! I am not certain and I don't know if the "average" changes depending upon the area of the country. Say a big city like Chicago or small town rural areas.

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Originally Posted by devochka

They are part of our biology classes and later on of our religion classes too (to learn a healthy approach towards relationships).

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Interesting! Now did you attend a public school or private school?

As my girls attend public school, religion can't be taught and that is also why parents can opt their kids out of the program. As that class also covers birth control and as that is a religious choice, parents have the right to pull them out. There was a BIG battle here in our county over a video that showed the children how to correctly place a ummm protective device shall I say on a certain part of the male. Their was NO actual male parts being shown! Yet the idea of kids being informed that they had choices INSTEAD of abstinence was the problem.

Also the issue of teaching that "families" can be made up of not just a male and a female as in "Why does Susie have two moms?" was a hot topic in that curriculum.

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Originally Posted by rockzmom

So here is the next one I saw that I could not believe...

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http://cbs2chicago.com/local/Robeson...2.1251642.html

Oct 15, 2009
Why Did 1 In 7 Girls Get Pregnant At Robeson High?
Officials Say A Mix Of Factors Are To Blame, As They Try To Help The Young Women

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soundz like a black thang.

I can not say a lot about the last thread but I think this is not normal. :sad:

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Originally Posted by rockzmom

Interesting! Now did you attend a public school or private school?

As my girls attend public school, religion can't be taught and that is also why parents can opt their kids out of the program. As that class also covers birth control and as that is a religious choice, parents have the right to pull them out. There was a BIG battle here in our county over a video that showed the children how to correctly place a ummm protective device shall I say on a certain part of the male. Their was NO actual male parts being shown! Yet the idea of kids being informed that they had choices INSTEAD of abstinence was the problem.

Also the issue of teaching that "families" can be made up of not just a male and a female as in "Why does Susie have two moms?" was a hot topic in that curriculum.

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Just to check if I understand the difference correctly: public schools in the US are government-funded and private schools aren't, right? Can private schools choose what they want to teach or do they still have to adhere to a set curriculum to which they can add stuff?

So religion is never taught in public schools? Is sex-ed a subject on itself or is it part of biology class? Students don't have to take exams about the subject matter? Can't the school argue that birth control is related to biology? I mean, they could teach the kids what it is and the effect it has on the body (I'm talking about the pill of course) and remain neutral about using or not using it. That way the students know what it is, what it does and they can choose for themselves.


In Belgium, we have two main types of schools (I'll talk about the exceptions later). We do have the governement-funded schools and than there are Catholic schools. But the Catholic schools are still partly government-funded.

So back to the two main types of schools. In Catholic schools, obviously, religion is taught. Children in Belgium go to Catholic schools not because they (or their parents) are very religious, but mostly because those schools are sometimes considered better than the government-funded schools. I went to Catholic schools all my life (except for college) and there were also for example Muslim students. We praid in class (depended on the teacher) and went to mass once a month (in primary school), there was a cross in every classroom and of course religion was taught. But not in a "Christianity and Catholicism is the only way and believing in evolution is a sin"-kind of way. In primary school we learned mostly about Christianity. In high school we learned also about other world religions, and more about how we could be better persons and about a healthy approach to relationships (as I said). So sometimes it was more like an ethics course. Despite being a Catholic school, we were never told homosexuality is wrong or that we shouldn't use birth control.

Now the government-funded schools offer a choice to students as to what kind of class they want to attend. They sometimes offer religion (Christianity, Islam) and than there is a sort of ethics course. There is a word for it in Dutch but I wouldn't know how to translate it. I never had the class but I would guess it basically is the kind of class we had in high school about ethics and how we can all live together.

Now for the exceptions which I don't think are government-funded. There are schools like Steiner and Freinet. Than there are jewish (Chassidic) schools. I recently heard about a school for Protestant pupils. Unlike the Catholic schools, they are very focused on religion. They also only teach creationism. And there have been talks about opening a school for Muslims. In the beginning of the school year there was a heated debate about Muslim girls wearing the hijab to school so all of a sudden imams were talking about opening schools just for Muslim girls where they could wear the hijab.

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Originally Posted by sperk

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Originally Posted by rockzmom

So here is the next one I saw that I could not believe...

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http://cbs2chicago.com/local/Robeson...2.1251642.html

Oct 15, 2009
Why Did 1 In 7 Girls Get Pregnant At Robeson High?
Officials Say A Mix Of Factors Are To Blame, As They Try To Help The Young Women

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soundz like a black thang.

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I would agree!

This is not representative of US as a whole.

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Originally Posted by devochka

Just to check if I understand the difference correctly: public schools in the US are government-funded and private schools aren't, right?

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Basically, Yes.

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Originally Posted by devochka

Can private schools choose what they want to teach or do they still have to adhere to a set curriculum to which they can add stuff?

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Each state has their own set of graduation requirements. So for Maryland, were I live, you need to have the following classes in order to graduate High School:

• English 4 credits (and pass High School Assessment Exam)[/*:m:1uowv5rl]
• Mathematics 4 credits (1 credit algebra, 1 credit geometry & pass High School Assessment Exam for Algebra)[/*:m:1uowv5rl]
• Science 3 credits (1 biology credit and 2 that include a laboratory & High School Assessment Exam for Biology) [/*:m:1uowv5rl]
• Social Studies 3 credits (1 U.S. History credit; 1 World History credit; and 1 National, State, and Local Government credit & High School Assessment Exam for Gorvernment) [/*:m:1uowv5rl]
• Health Education 0.5 credit [/*:m:1uowv5rl]
• Physical Education 0.5 credit [/*:m:1uowv5rl]
• Fine Arts 1 credit (Selected courses in art, dance, drama/theater, and music)[/*:m:1uowv5rl]
• Technology Education 1 credit[/*:m:1uowv5rl]
• Foreign Language 2 credits[/*:m:1uowv5rl]
• 2.5 credits in elective courses [/*:m:1uowv5rl]
• AND service learning hours or community service (in our area it is 75 hours)[/*:m:1uowv5rl]

Now as long as the student has taken these core classes, the school can then offer other classes (electives) or teach in the style they see fit.

Example: the school my daughters attend is a performing and visual arts school. All of the classes are taught with the arts in mind. So instead of doing maybe your usual boring book report, they might write a new ending to the book, create a play from that new ending, research the style of music and wardrobe from that time period and actually produce the play. That would cover their English, Social Studies & Art or Music classes all for this one project as they would work with all of those teachers on the same project. Or do a mock trial of Caesar in full costume, again, coordinating with different teachers and across different subjects.

So private schools and public schools have a lot a room to teach what they would like as long as they get the main core stuff out of the way and keep the "test scores" up and the parents happy.

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Originally Posted by devochka

So religion is never taught in public schools?

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I would not say NEVER. I remember last year in 7th grade old daughter had "ONE" lesson that covered different religions in her Social Studies (or as it used to be called "history") class.
But pretty much, the answer for where we live, is no. Now in private schools, that would be a yes.

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Originally Posted by devochka

Is sex-ed a subject on itself or is it part of biology class? Students don't have to take exams about the subject matter? Can't the school argue that birth control is related to biology? I mean, they could teach the kids what it is and the effect it has on the body (I'm talking about the pill of course) and remain neutral about using or not using it. That way the students know what it is, what it does and they can choose for themselves.

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Health Education is a seperate class. It is taught as a semester or 1/4 of a semester class. It goes into taking care of the body as a whole. Eating right, physical fitness as to how it is important, sleeping well, and then of course all the information about sex-ed. Each year prior to the courses starting they allow parents to come in and see the course materials and speak to the instructors. Ask questions and such. I always thought that in the beginning they should have the classes gender seperated and with gender like teachers. I know my girls did not like having the boys in the class and they had male teachers the first couple of years. It just made them all feel weirded out. Later on, they could then merge the classes back to co-ed.
I looked online at the course information for 10th grade Biology and it seems to focus much more on plants and cells than humans! It seems there might be "some" wiggle room in the course for chats about humans and evolution.

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Originally Posted by devochka

So back to the two main types of schools. In Catholic schools, obviously, religion is taught. Children in Belgium go to Catholic schools not because they (or their parents) are very religious, but mostly because those schools are sometimes considered better than the government-funded schools...

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The area I live in is rather "odd" as Montgomery County is a very good school district and people move here just so their children can attend school. So then the richer people don't want to have their children go to school with the "lower class" people. So they have their kids go to private school. We have sooooo many private schools around here... take your pick! Here are just a couple

http://www.dswashington.org/ The German School
http://www.rochambeau.org/ Lycée Rochambeau
http://www.cesjds.org/ Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School
http://www.stoneridge.org/ Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart (Catholic & for girls ONLY)
http://www.sidwell.edu/ Sidwell Friends School (Quaker and where the President's daughters attend)
http://www.britishschool.org/washington The British School

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Originally Posted by devochka

Than there are jewish (Chassidic) schools. I recently heard about a school for Protestant pupils. Unlike the Catholic schools, they are very focused on religion. They also only teach creationism. And there have been talks about opening a school for Muslims. In the beginning of the school year there was a heated debate about Muslim girls wearing the hijab to school so all of a sudden imams were talking about opening schools just for Muslim girls where they could wear the hijab.

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As you can see from above, we have a number of school where the religion is very focused. About the hijab... that is the only head covering ALLOWED in "our" public schools. No other hats or scarfs.

Maybe we can get some of you IT folks to fix this for us (they want 6 years to upgrade)?? It took me FOREVER to go what normally takes 10 minutes yesterday!!!

And I don't care what they say, the computer system for the traffic lights AND for Metro BOTH crashing at the same time... hummm... sounds like a conspiracy to me. Or maybe the Russians did it! :spiteful: Oh, if you thought you would try to get off the surface roads and take the Beltway.... nope a car fire BOTH yesterday AND another one TODAY!

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Humming along with technology, until it's not
Computer meltdown creates traffic-light chaos in Montgomery

By Ashley Halsey III
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, November 5, 2009

In the backdrop of so much of 21st-century life, computers are an unseen hand that guides the day in ways we rarely know about. Until they crash.

Wednesday provided one such rude awakening for commuters in Montgomery County.

A computer meltdown disrupted the choreography of 750 traffic lights, turning the morning and evening commutes into endless seas of red brake lights, causing thousands of drivers to arrive at work grumpy and late, and getting them home more frustrated and even later.

Montgomery County officials said they will offer free bus rides all day Thursday, a decision made Wednesday night, even as county technicians worked feverishly to resurrect the faulty machine in time for the morning rush.

"In case these efforts are not successful, we want to help provide commuters another option" by providing free access to Ride On buses, County Executive Isiah Leggett said in a statement.

On Wednesday, commuters who thought they would slip around the chaos by detouring from their usual routes only found more problems. The tangles of traffic rippled from Veirs Mill Road to Rockville Pike to Old Georgetown Road to Interstate 270 and the spur.


"At this time, the problem has not been fixed," Tim Firestine, a county administrator, said Wednesday as the last, late commuters inched toward home.

Some of the worst of it radiated from an epicenter at Four Corners, as the heavily trafficked intersection of University Boulevard and Colesville Road in Silver Spring is known.

And at dawn and dusk, cars backed up like a row of toppled dominoes once they reached the balky traffic signals on Connecticut Avenue.

That a single computer failure can plunge an entire sector of the region into near gridlock underscored how fragile and overloaded the second-most congested urban area in the country has become.

Before Wednesday, few Montgomery commuters knew, and even fewer probably cared, that a big computer in Rockville and a team of engineers working with it regulate the flow of traffic throughout the county.

"Traffic normally is so congested, and I don't think people realize how much the signals control the flow until something like this happens," said county spokeswoman Esther Bowring.

The system, which she described as "unique" in the Washington region, is based on a Jimmy Carter-era computer that sends signals to traffic lights all over the county. On weekday mornings, it tells them to stay green longer for people headed to work. And in the evenings, it tells them to stay green longer for people headed home.

It also makes them all work together -- green-green-green -- to promote the flow of traffic. That happens automatically, and then the engineers use data from hundreds of traffic cameras and a county airplane to tweak the system. When there is an accident, breakdown or water main break, they use the computer to adjust signal times further and ease the congestion around the problem.

It's great when it works, a disaster when it fails.

The first inkling that something was wrong came shortly after midnight, and as computer technicians were rushing to handle it, the computer crashed completely about 3 a.m. Wednesday.

All of the traffic lights kept working, but they no longer knew what time it was. When they were supposed to switch to morning rush mode, from 7 to 7:30, they kept rocking along at a rhythm better suited to Sunday morning.

By then, county workers had been racing from one major intersection to the next, adjusting each light by hand. But it was too late. Although a flick of a switch could fix one light's timing, only the computer had the power to synchronize a series of traffic lights.

Drivers' frustration was shared by the computer technicians in Rockville, who had isolated the problem by lunchtime but couldn't figure out how to fix it, Bowring said.

"They know where the problem is, but they just don't know what it is," she said. "The server seems to be sending the signal, but the conduit is not transferring the information to the signal lights."

The afternoon commute began badly when an unrelated fatal crash on the inner loop of the Capital Beltway ended with a vehicle in flames on the side of the road.

Bowring said the computer that went belly up Wednesday was being phased out. The county is in the second year of a six-year program that will bring in more modern and reliable equipment.

The malfunction of the Montgomery computers in Rockville happened about the same time as, and a couple dozen miles away from, a power failure at Metro's headquarters that muddled the morning commute for bus and rail riders.

"I called them first thing when I heard about it," Bowring said, "and asked if there could be any possible connection. They said: 'No. There's no conspiracy out there.' "

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Cat fighting gets ugly during BYU vs. New Mexico women's soccer match!
1,825,680 views just since November 5th!!!

I love the comment about if women's soccer was more like this.... Americans would watch it! Just in case you don't know... this is College level soccer....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNmPybFK2_o

Pirates beware! :evil: Microsoft bans 1 million Xbox Live players

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http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/11/12/cnet ... index.html

It's oh-so enticing: you find a copy of a brand new game like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 on a pirate site and the temptation to download it is too strong.

Well, that temptation may have cost up to 1 million users of Microsoft's Xbox Live the ability to use that service.......

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Even though I worked for a gaming company for what 5 years or so... ya know... I still don't play online games. :oops:

(Deleted. L.)
Sorry, Rockzmom. I think it's too gross to keep here.

KITE SURFERS AWESOME JUMP over Worthing Pier, East Sussex

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T_v2yLEWato

Russian Vodka Warehouse destroyed by Forklift-2009

A classic!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MRpCrykrKQ

So how many times has something like this happened to you and you wished you were a cop and could just scare the living daylights out of the people who did it??? But pulling out a gun and not saying you're a cop?? Ummmm not too bright. :fool"

Note to DDT, don't bring a gun to a massive snowball fight in DC!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RhossH1bm4

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/b...-u/#more-40369

And here is footage of the snowball fight... they are actually really respectful of the traffic as most of them stop while the light changes and then they start up again when the traffic light changes again!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTx2w0WjYIk

This is funny:
A priest tells the congregation that it's OK to shoplift in the recession:

His argument is that supermarkets are rather immoral and ungodly kinds of businesses and that God would love the poor people more than shareholders of the supermarkets who would be the ones losing out...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...-shoplift.html

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Originally Posted by Church of England Minister

'My advice, as a Christian priest, is to shoplift,' he told his stunned congregation at St Lawrence and St Hilda in York.

'I do not offer such advice because I think that stealing is a good thing, or because I think it is harmless, for it is neither.

'I would ask that they do not steal from small family businesses, but from large national businesses, knowing that the costs are ultimately passed on to the rest of us in the form of higher prices.

'I would ask them not to take any more than they need. I offer the advice with a heavy heart. Let my words not be misrepresented as a simplistic call for people to shoplift.

'The observation that shoplifting is the best option that some people are left with is a grim indictment of who we are.

'Rather, this is a call for our society no longer to treat its most vulnerable people with indifference and contempt.

'When people are released from prison, or find themselves suddenly without work or family support, then to leave them for weeks with inadequate or clumsy social support is monumental, catastrophic folly.

'We create a situation which leaves some people little option but crime.'

The father of two, whose parish has a wide mix of social conditions, said his advice to people in dire circumstances is that 'they should not hurt anybody and cope as best they can'.

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Originally Posted by Johanna

This is funny:
A priest tells the congregation that it's OK to shoplift in the recession:

His argument is that supermarkets are rather immoral and ungodly kinds of businesses and that God would love the poor people more than shareholders of the supermarkets who would be the ones losing out...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...-shoplift.html

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And when they get caught and have to pay a fine or put in jail... will he take money out of the Offerings to pay the fine or to support their family? :unknown:

This is actually a litle old; but, it was just sent to me and OMG... what were the people on when they thought of this concept and what were the people on when it was approved and the poor boy, I know he was not paid nearly enough to in this lame spot!

Read the comments, they are spot on! You are welcome to post your own here!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QInmPaJKXvc

See, this is what I get for not feeling well, taking my "holiday at Chez Georgetown" this summer, and not writing and finishing my book! Ugh!!

After being opened for what... 79 years... "Tavern on the Green, one of the most famous sites in New York City and once one of the nation's top grossing restaurants, will close its doors on December 31, 2009" I have Dmitri and Valentina eating there on their first outing! Nooooooooooooooo! Now what shall I do??? Darn it!! (*&*^%$&*(!! http://www.en.kolobok.us/smiles/he_a...girl_cray2.gif
http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-375427

I almost posted this under Johanna's Education thread or maybe the Police one ???!!!

http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/02/18/...ex.html?hpt=C1

Girl's arrest for doodling raises concerns about zero tolerance

http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2010/CRI...o.courtesy.jpg


By Stephanie Chen, CNN
STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Alexa Gonzalez, 12, was arrested by NYPD for drawing on her desk Critics of zero tolerance policies say school officials, police have gone too far Zero tolerance policies became more popular after Columbine, security experts say Students in Chicago arrested for food fight; students in L.A. ticketed for tardiness

(CNN) -- There was no profanity, no hate. Just the words, "I love my friends Abby and Faith. Lex was here 2/1/10 :)" scrawled on the classroom desk with a green marker.

Alexa Gonzalez, an outgoing 12-year-old who likes to dance and draw, expected a lecture or maybe detention for her doodles earlier this month. Instead, the principal of the Junior High School in Forest Hills, New York, called police, and the seventh-grader was taken across the street to the police precinct.

Alexa's hands were cuffed behind her back, and tears gushed as she was escorted from school in front of teachers and -- the worst audience of all for a preadolescent girl -- her classmates.

"They put the handcuffs on me, and I couldn't believe it," Alexa recalled. "I didn't want them to see me being handcuffed, thinking I'm a bad person."

Alexa is no longer facing suspension, according a spokeswoman for the New York City Department of Education. Still, the case of the doodling preteen is raising concerns about the use of zero tolerance policies in schools.

Critics say schools and police have gone too far, overreacting and using well-intended rules for incidents involving nonviolent offenses such as drawing on desks, writing on other school property or talking back to teachers.

"We are arresting them at younger and younger ages [in cases] that used to be covered with a trip to the principal's office, not sending children to jail," said Emma Jordan-Simpson, executive director of the Children's Defense Fund, a national children's advocacy group.

There aren't any national studies documenting how often minors become involved with police for nonviolent crimes in schools. Tracking the incidents depends on how individual schools keep records. Much of the information remains private, since it involves juveniles.

But one thing is sure: Alexa's case isn't the first in the New York area. One of the first cases to gain national notoriety was that of Chelsea Fraser. In 2007, the 13-year-old wrote "Okay" on her desk, and police handcuffed and arrested her. She was one of several students arrested in the class that day; the others were accused of plastering the walls with stickers.

At schools across the country, police are being asked to step in. In November, a food fight at a middle school in Chicago, Illinois, resulted in the arrests of 25 children, some as young as 11, according to the Chicago Police Department.

The Strategy Center, a California-based civil rights group that tracks zero tolerance policies, found that at least 12,000 tickets were issued to tardy or truant students by Los Angeles Police Department and school security officers in 2008. The tickets tarnished students' records and brought them into the juvenile court system, with fines of up to $250 for repeat offenders.

The Strategy Center opposes the system. "The theory is that if we fine them, then they won't be late again," said Manuel Criollo, lead organizer of the "No to Pre-Prison" campaign at The Strategy Center. "But they just end up not going to school at all."

His group is trying to stop the LAPD and the school district from issuing the tickets. The Los Angeles School District says the policy is designed to reduce absenteeism.

And another California school -- Highland High School in Palmdale -- found that issuing tardiness tickets drastically cut the number of pupils being late for class and helped tone down disruptive behavior. The fifth ticket issued landed a student in juvenile traffic court.

In 1998, New York City took its zero tolerance policies to the next level, placing school security officers under the New York City Police Department. Today, there are nearly 5,000 employees in the NYPD School Safety Division. Most are not police officers, but that number exceeds the total police force in Washington, D.C.

In contrast, there are only about 3,000 counselors in New York City's public school system. Critics of zero tolerance policies say more attention should be paid to social work, counseling and therapy.

"Instead of a graduated discipline approach, we see ... expulsions at the drop of a hat," said Donna Lieberman, an attorney with the New York branch of the American Civil Liberties Union.

"If they have been suspended once, their likelihood of being pushed out of the school increases," she said. "They may end up in jail at some point in their life."

One of Lieberman's clients was in sixth grade when police arrested her in 2007 for doodling with her friend in class. The child, called M.M. in court filings to protect her identity, tried to get tissues to remove the marks, a complaint states.

Lieberman says police subjected M.M. to unlawful search and seizure. A class-action lawsuit, filed in January on behalf of five juveniles, is pending. It maintains that inadequately trained and poorly supervised police personnel are aggressive toward students when no criminal activity is taking place.

Several studies have confirmed that the time an expelled child spends away from school increases the chance that child will drop out and wind up in the criminal justice system, according to a January 2010 study from the Advancement Project, a legal action group.

Alexa Gonzalez missed three days of school because of her arrest. She spent those days throwing up, and it was a challenge to catch up on her homework when she returned to school, she said. Her mother says she had never been in trouble before the doodling incident.

New York attorney Joe Rosenthal, who is representing Alexa, plans to file a lawsuit accusing police and school officials of violating Alexa's constitutional rights. New York City Department of Education officials declined to comment specifically on any possible legal matters.

"Our mission is to make sure that public schools are a safe and supportive environment for all students," said Margie Feinberg, an education department spokeswoman.

Several media outlets have reported that school officials admitted the arrest was a "mistake," but when asked by CNN, Feinberg declined to comment specifically on the incident. She referred CNN to the NYPD.

The NYPD did not return CNN's repeated phone calls and e-mails. It is unknown whether charges will be pressed against Alexa.

Kenneth Trump, a security expert who founded the National School Safety and Security Services consulting firm, said focusing on security is essential to the safety of other students. He said zero tolerance policies can work if "common sense is applied."

Michael Soguero recalls being arrested himself in 2005 when, as principal at Bronx Guild School, he tried to stop an officer from handcuffing one of his students. A charge of assault against him was later dropped. He says police working in schools need specific training on how to work with children.

In Clayton County, Georgia, juvenile court judge Steven Teske is working to reshape zero tolerance policies in schools. He wants the courts to be a last resort. In 2003, he created a program in Clayton County's schools that distinguishes felonies from misdemeanors.

The result? The number of students detained by the school fell by 83 percent, his report found. The number of weapons detected on campus declined by 73 percent.

Last week, after hearing about 12-year-old Alexa's arrest in New York, he wasn't shocked.

"There is zero intelligence when you start applying zero tolerance across the board," he said. "Stupid and ridiculous things start happening."

I was going to post this video clip when I saw it earlier as it was just so funny... a lady texting as she is walking in a mall and not looking where she is going and then BAMB she falls into the fountain! But now... she plans on sue because the tape went viral??? Puh-lease (please).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ze0OuDq9keM

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Originally Posted by rockzmom

I was going to post this video clip when I saw it earlier as it was just so funny... a lady texting as she is walking in a mall and not looking where she is going and then BAMB she falls into the fountain! But now... she plans on sue because the tape went viral??? Puh-lease (please).

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"The video is not available in your country". I hate this :evil:
Anyway, I've found the original footage on Youtube as well as her interview to ABC News, and my feelings on the subject are mixed. While it was obviously her own fault that she took that dive, I feel pity for her. It was also troubling to see the people in the video just walk by without as much as asking her if she was okay.

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Originally Posted by translationsnmru

"The video is not available in your country". I hate this :evil:
Anyway, I've found the original footage on Youtube as well as her interview to ABC News, and my feelings on the subject are mixed. While it was obviously her own fault that she took that dive, I feel pity for her. It was also troubling to see the people in the video just walk by without as much as asking her if she was okay.

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But part of what she wants to sue for is the embarrassment of the video being shown all over the world. She wants to know how the video got released but the thing is, no one would have known it was her if she had not gone on the news! I agree it is sad that no one went to her aid; but, grrr... in the video grrrr...that you can't see, the reporter makes the point that she gets up by herself and walks, albeit a bit wet, just fine. It is her own fault that she took a dive in the fountain in the first place. The reporter goes on to apologize on behalf of everyone so that she would not have to sue!

i don't blame her, if I had the slightest chance to sue for millions no matter how spurious the cause I would do it - it's the American way to riches.