Witchy Woman

"Two female high school students in Oklahoma are firing back at their school for refusing to let them graduate after discovering the two are a couple.

According to KWTV News, 18-year-old Melissa McKenzie said she was kicked out of Del City High School in Del City, Okla., at the beginning of the semester when the principal found out she was living with her girlfriend instead of her family. The principal then told her if she returned to her family's home, she would be welcomed back to school."

"7. The overt homosexual participation in Obama's presidential inaugural events by "Bishop" Vickie Eugene Robinson, the Gay Men's Chorus of Washington D. C., and a homosexual marching band."

"Rightwing extremism in the United States can be broadly divided into those groups, movements, and adherents that are primarily hate-oriented (based on hatred of particular religious, racial or ethnic groups), and those that are mainly antigovernment, rejecting federal authority in favor of state or local authority, or rejecting government authority entirely. It may include groups and individuals that are dedicated to a single issue, such as opposition to abortion or immigration."

"The Federal Hate Crimes Bill that attacks religious liberty and freedom of speech. For the first time in our history ministers are vulnerable to investigation and prosecution for telling the truth about homosexuality."

"A group of parents say their children with disabilities experienced waterboarding-like torture” and other forms of abuse at the hands of two teacher’s aides at a Montana middle school.

Now, the teacher’s aides, Julie Parish and Kristina Marie Kallies, face felony charges of assault on a minor and endangering the welfare of children in connection with the alleged abuse in a special education classroom.

Witnesses say that students were subjected to water torture and forced to eat their own vomit. Further, parents say they suspect students were also confined to closets.

Parents noticed that students came home with bruises, bite marks, burnt fingertips and missing hair.

The students, who have a variety of disabilities including autism, Down syndrome and cerebral palsy, were unable to speak up about the problems due to their disabilities."

"WINNIPEG - The mother of a girl who went to school with white supremacist symbols drawn on her body didn't see why her daughter should have to sit next to Muslims, a social worker testified Wednesday.
Nor did the mother appear to understand why it was hateful to laugh if someone beat up a black child, the social worker told a custody hearing.
"White pride is worldwide," the social worker recalled the mother as saying during one of several interviews last year.
"It's not a crime to have pride in who I am." "

"Child services removed the children last year after the girl showed up at her elementary school with white supremacist symbols and slogans drawn on her skin in permanent marker. The social worker said the mother admitted to drawing a symbol on the girl to "deliver a message to the school."

The social worker outlined numerous conversations with the girl's mother, including one in which the woman referred to an incident where someone she knew "beat up a kid" because he was black.
"If I laughed, I am apparently full of hatred," the social worker quoted the mother as
saying."

"The mother questioned why her daughter should have to sit next to a Muslim classmate when that child's religious beliefs ran counter to her daughter's, the worker said."

"Child welfare officials also allege the children were exposed to drug use, something the mother has denied saying it's "not a white thing to do." In court Wednesday, the social worker testified the mother admitted to being on anti-depressants while the girl's stepfather had done heroin and smoked marijuana."

"Afghan officials accused militants of launching a poison gas attack today that caused dozens of schoolgirls to collapse with headaches and nausea as they waited for a Qu'ran reading.
The Taliban and other Islamist groups have regularly attacked girls' schools in Afghanistan, and the second apparent poisoning in two days has raised concerns that they have found a new weapon to scare girls into staying at home.
Students were gathering in the yard of Aftab Bachi school in Mahmud Raqi, in Kapisa province, for a morning reading of the Qu'ran when a strange odour filled the area. First one girl collapsed, then others, the school's headteacher, Mossena, said from her
hospital bed. Teachers told the rest of the students to go home. Mossena said she did not know what happened next because she too collapsed.
At least 98 people were admitted, including 84 students, 11 teachers and two cleaners, said Khalid Enayat, the hospital's deputy director. He said doctors were monitoring the condition of about 30 students.
The incident was the third alleged poisoning at a girls' school in a matter of weeks. Yesterday, 61 schoolgirls and one teacher went to hospital in the neighbouring Parwan province with a sudden illness that caused some to pass out. In late April, dozens of girls were taken to hospital in Parwan after being sickened by what officials said were strong fumes or a possible poison gas cloud.
"The enemies of Afghanistan are behind this poisoning," said the Kapisa education director, Abdul Gani Hedayat. "I am 100% certain it is poison. Ninety-eight people suddenly fell sick. This isn't something that happens just normally." He said blood samples had been sent to the capital, Kabul, for testing.
An interior ministry spokesman, Zemeri Bashary, said officials suspected some sort of gas poisoning in Kapisa, and police were still investigating.
The Kapisa patients complained of similar symptoms to those in the Parwan incidents, including headaches, vomiting and shivering, said Aziz Agha, a doctor treating the girls.
Sonya Sidiqi, 13, said she smelled something like cigarette smoke, "then my head started hurting and I started throwing up". Sidiqi said she was feeling better after resting at the hospital but was still dizzy and nauseous.
Another pupil, 11-year-old Tahira, said she planned to go back to school when she recovered, but was afraid to do so. "I'm going to be scared when I go back to school. What if we die?" she said.
Conservative groups in Afghanistan oppose education for girls, who were not allowed to attend school under the 1996-2001 Taliban regime. Militants in the south have previously assaulted schoolgirls by spraying acid in their faces and burning down schools. Scores of Afghan schools have been forced to close because of violence.
North-east Afghanistan, where the three recent apparent poisonings have taken place, is typically less conservative. No group has claimed responsibility for the mass illnesses.
A Parwan education official said no evidence of an attack had been found after yesterday's incident. He said one student had fallen seriously ill before the others, and suggested some of the symptoms could have been psychological. A Parwan health official said they were awaiting blood test results."

"All human actions have consequences, as we have seen amply illustrated in the world of money and economics. Bankers took risks that they thought they would never have to pay for; personal debts reached dismaying levels because borrowing and credit cards seemed easy. But consequences there will always be. And, as in the money markets, so in the field of personal relationships.
The spiralling rate of unwanted pregnancy – there are now 200,000 abortions annually, the highest number since legalisation in 1967 – as well as the exceptionally high rate of births to unsupported and very young mothers has prompted ever more energetic methods of addressing this problem. Schoolgirls in Oxford may now text the school nurse for morning-after contraception. Indeed, all women will soon be able to purchase this post-coital remedy in bulk over the internet."

"(Gary, Indiana) A federal judge has ordered Gary Community Schools to pay legal fees after finding that school administrators had ignored a ruling to turn over documents to lawyers for a former student. The student is suing the district for barring him from the senior prom because he was wearing a ball gown.
Attorneys asked the court to sanction the school district, saying it could not properly prepare its case without the documents which were to have been turned over last May.
Last fall, Judge Paul R. Cherry ordered the district to turn over the files and fined the school board $540 for dragging its heels. This time the fine is expected to be substantially higher.
In December 2007, Lambda Legal filed a lawsuit on behalf of K.K. Logan challenging a Gary School Corporation policy barring clothing that advertises sexual orientation or indicates that a student’s gender is different from the student’s sex.
Logan argues that the policy violates students’ First Amendment freedom of expression. Logan also claims that his exclusion from prom constitutes discrimination on the basis of gender.
Students and teachers knew that K.K. Logan was transgendered. During his senior year, Logan attended West Side High expressing a deeply rooted femininity in his appearance and demeanor.
At school, Logan wore makeup, accessories and clothing typically associated with girls his age.
However, on May 19, 2006, Principal Diane Rouse stretched her arms across the door of the senior prom, blocking Logan’s entrance because Logan was wearing a pink gown. Classmates and friends rallied to Logan’s defense to no avail—even though a female student was allowed to attend dressed in a tuxedo.
Principal Rouse enforced a Gary School Corporation policy that forbids any clothing or accessories that “advertise sexual orientation” or “portray the wearer as a person of the opposite gender.”
Ragen Hatcher, the attorney for the school district, said the board was not deliberately trying to prevent Lambda from access to the files, but that gathering the information had taken longer than anticipated. Hatcher said that she is confident the board will win its case."

"Afghan authorities have arrested 10 Taliban militants in connection with this month's acid attack on schoolgirls, a provincial governor said Tuesday.
The militants confessed and said they were paid 100,000 Pakistani rupees ($1,265) to carry out the acts, said Rahmatullah Raufi, governor of Kandahar, where the November 12 attack occurred.
The men said high-ranking Taliban officials in Pakistan paid them to cross the porous border to carry out the attack, Raufi said.
The attackers used water pistols to spray acid on girls walking to school in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar, blinding at least two of them, U.S. military officials said at the time.
Kandahar government spokesman Parwaz Ayoubi gave different figures on the number of girls injured, saying that six were burned, including one severely. He called the attackers "enemies of education."
Girls were forbidden to attend school under the Taliban, which ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, when U.S.-led forces removed them."

"A proposed high school for LGBT students under intense criticism has been retooled in a bid to win approval. The Chicago Board of Education put off voting on the Social Justice High School—Pride Campus last month, following criticism by conservative religious groups that it was catering to “a special class” of students, and concerns by Mayor Richard Daley and some LGBT leaders that it would segregate gay students.
The new plan would see the school’s mission expanded to include all disenfranchised students and the name changed to Social Justice Solidarity High School.
The revised mission will be presented Wednesday to the Chicago Board of Education. If it is approved, it would open in 2010.
“While the school will be open to all students, its special mission will be to provide a haven where students can feel safe and valued for who they are,” the school’s new mission statement says."

"After hearing from outraged parents of students who, without notice, were involuntarily segregated by sex at Hankins Middle School in Mobile, Alabama, the American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Alabama sent a letter to the Mobile County School System today warning that mandatory sex segregation in public schools is illegal and discriminatory. The civil liberties organization also asked, under the Alabama Open Records Act, that the school district make public any and all documents relating to sex segregation policies in Mobile County schools from the past two years.
"Mandatory sex segregation in public schools is not only clearly against the law, it's also an empty promise for failing schools," said Allison Neal, staff attorney with the ACLU of Alabama. "Inevitably these experimental programs deny equal opportunity to girls and boys and distract much needed time and money from efforts that we know work like smaller classes, highly trained teachers, sufficient funding and involved parents. Sex segregation doesn't make public schools more like private schools. If some private schools provide a better education, it's because of their
resources, not because they are single-sex."

Without notifying parents, Mobile County School System segregated the entire student body of Hankins Middle School by sex for the 2008-2009 school year and failed to provide any coeducational option. In addition to segregating students for all academic subjects, the sex segregation program goes so far as to punish boys and girls who are caught speaking in the hallways.
The ACLU charges that mandatory sex segregation in public schools violates Title IX of the Education Amendments, the Equal Education Opportunities Act and the U.S. Constitution.
Mark Jones, whose son, Jacob, is a seventh grader at Hankins Middle School, is outraged that his son's school was segregated by sex. "Absolutely nothing good can come from segregating our kids. It's an outdated mode of education that sets gender equality back to the dark ages," said Jones. "I also worry how our children are supposed to learn how to behave around the opposite sex when schools like Hankins Middle School threaten them with punishment if they so much as talk to each other."

Another parent, Terry Stevens, whose son attends the eighth grade at Hankins Middle School, said, "I want my son in a coed school to prepare him for the real non-segregated world. It's simply not right that the public school system is forcing me to send him to a sex-segregated institution."

According to Jones, the school principal told him that the change was necessary because boys' and girls' brains are so different that they needed different curriculums.

A recent review of existing data by the U.S. Department of Education showed that there is no consistent evidence that segregating students by sex improves learning by either sex. Yet, school districts across the country are experimenting with sex-segregated programs, which all too often rely on questionable "brain science" theories based on outdated gender stereotypes that suggest that teachers should treat boys and girls radically differently."