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Strollerderby
Baby-crazed Kassandra Toruga is accused of trying to cut a baby out of her friend's pregnant belly
It doesn’t happen often, but on rare occasions I am without words. This is one of those times.
According to law enforcement officials, an 18-year-old girl in Arizona has admitted to attacking her nine-months-pregnant friend in an attempt to steal her unborn child.
Kassandra Toruga of Maricopa was apprehended by firefighters at her friend’s home while in possession of butchers knives, scissors, diapers and a bag of baby clothes.
What are our kids learning about senseless acts of violence?
Last night, I lay in bed with my kids while my first-grader read us her newest library book: “A Picture Book of Martin Luther King, Jr.” Her school and her class have been studying about Dr. King in anticipation of next week’s holiday. Julia quietly read passages like:
“In 1954, Martin Luther King, Jr. began his first job as a pastor in Montgomery, Alabama. The next year Rosa Parks, a black woman, was arrested in Montgomery for sitting in the ‘White Only’ section of the bus.”
Then, my daughter would abruptly put the book down and sit straight up to interject comments like:
“Now, let me tell you about Rosa Parks! She was tired. And she just wanted to sit down on the bus, and when a white man told her to move, she decided to stand up for herself, and that was a good thing to do!”
Then she’d pick up the book, and continue reading:
“In 1964, Dr. King was awarded one of the greatest honors any man can win, the Nobel Peace Prize.”
Except that, when she was sounding it out, Julia pronounced it as “noble” peace prize, and when I corrected her, she said:
“Mom! Are you sure? Don’t you think it should be noble peace prize?”
Julia is clearly animated about and interested in the subject. And I’d like to thank her teachers and her school for that. Especially this week, as our nation witnessed the senseless shooting of congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, and as people have been quick to point out that the state of political discourse in this country (for instance, Katie’s blog on Sarah Palin’s “crosshairs” map) has in no small part contributed to this type of violence. I’m so glad to know that—at least in our schools this week—our children are learning about concepts like free speech and peaceful protest and one man’s dream for a world free of hate, prejudice, and violence. Continue reading »
As Congresswoman Giffords battles for her life, details are emerging from yesterday's tragic shooting.
By now, most everyone knows that 22 year old Jared Lee Loughner is the suspected triggerman of the Arizona shooting which injured 12 people, including Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, and killed 6 others, including U.S. federal judge John Roll and a 9-year-old girl. As Giffords battles for her life in an Arizona hospital, more details are starting to emerge from yesterday’s tragedy that instantaneously put an entire nation in mourning.
Among them, information about the youngest of those who died, a little girl named Christina Taylor Green.
Strollerderby reported that whooping cough has been an epidemic in California since the end of June, but many parents have still not vaccinated their kids. Marin County, one of the most affluent areas in the golden state, “currently accounts for about 15 percent of all reported whooping cough cases in California,” according to The New York Times.
Why? Parents there tend to be against vaccinating their children. ”Of 58 counties in the state, Marin is ranked seventh — and No. 1 in the Bay Area — in parents’ choosing not to get their children the immunizations required for kindergarten. Some 7 percent of kindergartners in the county had a personal belief exemption in 2009,” the Times reports, and 13 percent of kindergartners had not been vaccinated against whooping cough.
Whooping cough, also known as pertussis, “is among the most common vaccine-preventable diseases in the United States,” per the CDC. However, the Times notes that “the vaccine is not a cure-all; it does not always prevent the disease, and booster shots are needed to retain immunity.” Pertussis cases are on the rise in neighboring Arizona as well, and officials are urging parents and children to get the vaccine or a booster.
We’ve talked a lot about parents who think the CDC’s vaccine schedule needles kids too much and too soon. But in the event of an epidemic, do these parents have a cultural and social responsibility to vaccinate against the ubiquitous disease? Continue reading »
With all the tension in Arizona over immigration law, wouldn’t it be crazy if some local politician with a radio talk show started a campaign to have the faces of black and Hispanic children on a school mural lightened so that they looked white? That would be totally insane, right?
Right.
Which is why all hell broke loose this weekend in Prescott, AZ. Wonkette first reported Friday that “a group of artists has been asked to lighten the faces of children depicted in a giant public mural at a Prescott school. The project’s leader says he was ordered to lighten the skin tone after complaints about the children’s ethnicity.” Ordered by the principal of Miller Valley School, no less, because of pressure led by Prescott city councilman Steve Blair.
Prescott residents were riled by Blair’s inflammatory comments about the appropriateness of depicting a black student in the center of the mural. Blair said on his radio show, “I am not a racist individual, but… to depict the biggest picture on that building as a black person, I would have to ask the question, ‘Why?’” Continue reading »
33-year-old Tanya Nareau of Mesa, Arizona was arrested on Tuesday for allegedly attempting to exchange her 2-year-old daughter for a gun. The trade was to be with a family friend who Nareau said would do a better job of raising the child.
After her choir students sang at the Arizona Center recently, choir teacher Mary Segall took them out to lunch at the only downtown Phoenix restaurant that could accomodate their large group of 40 people: Hooters.
That move got the teacher, whose been teaching for 23 years, in hot water. She’s been put on administrative leave, and district official say they believe that there were other restaurants in the area that the group could have chosen instead.
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