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Archives > Volume 7 Issue 47 - August 26, 2009 California teacher thwarts Columbine-style attack...Hillsdale High teacher Kennet Santana admitted Tuesday he was merely reacting to the chaos around him when he tackled and subdued a former student, who had entered the school armed with 10 pipe bombs, a sword and a chainsaw. KTVU News story here 
Santana's actions were being praised for preventing a 'Columbine-Style' massacre at the San Mateo high school attended by more than 1,000 students.
The 17-year-old former Hillsdale High student who set off two bombs at the school Monday and was carrying eight more strapped to his chest was targeting school staff members as part of a revenge plot, authorities said Tuesday. San Jose Mercury News story here "This was a cold-blooded plot of execution," San Mateo police Chief Susan Manheimer said. No one was injured by the bombs, which exploded in an empty hallway. Alex Youshock, of San Mateo, was fixated on several "perceived" wrongs and was going to kill the people responsible for them, the chief added. Manheimer did not say if there was a list of people he was targeting or if students were a part of the teen's plot. She said it was the quick thinking and heroics of several teachers that prevented "mass casualties." Youshock was also carrying a sword and a chain saw, but no gun, police said. He was tackled by teacher Kennet Santana after the 17-year-old set off the second bomb in an empty hallway. He was arrested by police a short time later and has been booked into Hillcrest juvenile hall. Police have recommended that the San Mateo County District Attorney's Office charge the former student with attempted murder, igniting a destructive device with intent to cause bodily harm, possession of a destructive device with intent to destroy property, and assault with a deadly weapon, Manheimer said. The district attorney's office has until the end of today to file charges, Assistant Deputy District Attorney Karen Guidotti said. Youshock had been planning the attack for months, and police recovered additional bomb-making materials at his family's apartment. Manheimer didn't say what was seized, but said it was being tested by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. "He was clearly out to demonstrate that he could get back at them," she said. "He was interested in hurting as many people as possible." On Tuesday, a custodian scrubbed away a smudge on the hallway floor just outside Room 141 at Hillsdale High. The mark was part of the minor damage done by Monday's explosions. Although few physical repairs were needed in the aftermath of what could have been a tragedy, a sense of safety and security on campus could take longer for students to fully regain. School officials have set up counseling for students, who are expected to return to classes today. Students will have the chance to talk with faculty and staff members in small-group settings about what happened, Hillsdale Principal Jeff Gilbert said. "We want to make sure we answer their questions," Gilbert said. At that time, the entire student body will gather for more discussion and support before instruction restarts, he said. "We'll try to get people back to a routine," he said. Houston schools ban 'sexting'... In Houston, Texas, thousands of students are returning to school to discover a new rule: no "sexting" - the distribution of nude or semi-nude photographs or videos by text message. Breitbart story here 
In Houston, one of the biggest school districts in the United States, education authorities decided to adopt the new rule before some 200,000 students returned to classes after their summer vacation.
"Some principals raised the issue, so we included a provision saying sending, receiving, possessing sexually suggestive messages is forbidden," said Hans Graff, assistant general counsel at the Houston Independent School district. "They were reporting that it was an issue and may be becoming more of a problem," he told AFP. A recent study by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy found 22 percent of US teenage girls and 18 percent of teenage boys have sent messages or posted images or video online showing them nude or semi-nude. See more on that study at vol6_iss77. "A student may be sending pictures to their boyfriend and they break up and he sends it to everybody," said Graff. Aside from the disruption and trauma the practice can cause, Graff warns that the pictures potentially violate child pornography laws that ban sexually suggestive pictures of underage children. "Any pictures of an underage child could potentially be child pornography and we are not really interested in seeing students punished criminally," he said. "We want to put them on notice that it's just not something that really belongs in school." For information on teens and cell phone use see eGuide.org/cell phones. In other news... 
Even in a world with increasingly tough and graphic public service announcements on TV about the dangers of such activities as smoking, a recent PSA originating out of Gwent, Wales, breaks new boundaries in the explicit level of its bloody details. MSNBC News story here Two teen girls giggle over a text message they are sending while driving along a country road. Distracted, the driver smashes head-on into another car, and while the bloodied girls exchange dazed glances, a third car careens into the passenger side. The driver finds her friend lying dead next to her. Then the camera switches to another smashed vehicle and shows a young child inside, asking why her parents are not waking up. Produced by the Gwent Police Department, the PSA sends out a horrible visual to illustrate the dangers of texting while driving. But it currently isn't being aired on U.S. television. For Americans to even view the ad on YouTube, they must assert they are at least 18. Recent studies show that texting while driving may be as dangerous and lethal as drunken driving. Up to a quarter of the estimated 40,000 vehicle fatalities in the U.S. annually may be traced back to distracted drivers texting. A recent Virginia Tech study found that texting drivers are 23 times more likely to be involved in a collision than nontexters. And although the AAA reports 95 percent of drivers polled acknowledge texting while driving is dangerous, 21 percent of them have done it recently anyway.
Jamie Auchincloss is well known and well liked in Ashland, Oregon for his longtime support of local theater, his videos of Democratic political events, and being the half brother to Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. ABC News story here So when authorities announced Tuesday that Auchincloss had been indicted on charges of encouraging child sexual abuse by possessing, duplicating and disseminating child pornography, friends and neighbors rose to defend him. But Eddy McManus, the 44-year-old former personal assistant whose allegations led to the long and highly visible probe, said he felt vindicated by the indictments. "It's been years of warning him, really," McManus said. In October, police searched Auchincloss's home and found a large number of graphic images of young boys, according to court documents. Deputy District Attorney David Hoppe said Auchincloss is not charged with any production, sale or distribution of child pornography - only possession and duplication - meaning that he may not have to serve any jail time if convicted. "For someone who has no criminal history, such as Mr. Auchincloss, it's possible that probation is available to them," Hoppe said. A plea bargain is typical for the charges against Auchincloss and that he likely would remain free pending resolution of the case, he added.
Workers at four youth detention centers in New York caused dozens of serious injuries, including broken bones and teeth, when they routinely used force as a primary way to restrain juveniles and not just as a last resort, according to federal investigators. Findlaw.com AP News story here The Justice Department's Civil Rights Division also reported that youths in the state system failed to get needed counseling and mental health treatment, though most have psychological problems. The findings released Monday were the result of a nearly two-year probe. Gladys Carrion, commissioner of the state Office of Children and Family Services, said they have begun overhauling the troubled system she took over 18 months ago, including a new restraint policy and hiring more mental health workers. "Much more still needs to be done," she said. Investigators said conditions they found last year at the Lansing and Louis Gossett Jr. residential centers outside Ithaca and the Tryon residential centers for boys and girls in Johnstown violated the teens' constitutional rights as well as department policy. "Anything from sneaking an extra cookie to initiating a fist fight may result in a full prone restraint with handcuffs," acting Assistant Attorney General Loretta King wrote. "This one-size-fits-all control approach has not surprisingly led to an alarming number of serious injuries to youth, including concussions, broken or knocked-out teeth and spiral fractures."
Calls to poison control centers about teens abusing attention-deficit drugs soared 76 percent over eight years, sobering evidence about the dangerous consequences of prescription misuse, a study shows. ABC News story here The calls were from worried parents, emergency room doctors and others seeking advice on how to deal with the problem, which can be deadly. Four deaths were among cases evaluated in the study. Kids taking ADHD drugs to get high or increase alertness may not realize that misuse of the drugs can cause serious, sometimes life-threatening symptoms, including agitation, rapid heartbeat, extremely high blood pressure. In the study, researchers from Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center evaluated 1998-2005 data from the American Association of Poison Control Centers. During that time, nationwide calls related to teen abuse of ADHD drugs, specifically stimulants, increased from 330 to 581 yearly, and there were four deaths. Overall, 42 percent of teens involved had moderate to severe side-effects and most ended up getting emergency-room treatment. The true number of teen abusers who have bad side effects is likely much higher, because many cases don't result in calls to poison control centers, said study author Dr. Randall Bond, medical director of the hospital's Drug and Poison Information Center. The surge, from 1998 to 2005, outpaced calls for teen substance abuse generally. It also paralleled an 86 percent rise in ADHD medicine prescriptions for kids aged 10 to 19, from about 4 million to nearly 8 million during that time.
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