|
Archives > Volume 7 Issue 75 - December 16, 2009 12-year-old girl raped in California middle school stairwell...A 14-year-old boy was charged Monday with raping a 12-year-old girl in the stairwell of an El Cerrito middle school, and the principal and vice principal have been placed on administrative leave while police and school officials investigate the alleged crime. San Francisco Chronicle story here 
El Cerrito police will focus their investigation on the alleged sexual assault, while West Contra Costa Unified School District officials look into how such a crime could have occurred on the Portola Middle School campus during the school day, officials said.
The boy allegedly raped the girl about 2:40 p.m. Thursday at the school at 1021 Navellier St., Police Commander Michael Regan said. The stairwell was empty because class was in session, he said. The two students, who apparently know each other, had passes or reasons not to be in class, he said. He declined to discuss other details of the alleged assault. Another student who entered the stairwell and witnessed the incident reported it to a school resources officer, Regan said. Police arrested the suspect at his home in Richmond about 8 p.m. Thursday. He was booked into juvenile hall in Martinez and charged Monday with rape and false imprisonment. Marin Trujillo, a spokesman for the school district, said Principal Denise VanHook and assistant principal Matthew Burnham had been placed on paid administrative leave, in keeping with a district policy adopted after the recent gang rape outside Richmond High School's homecoming dance. See vol7_iss62 and vol7_iss63 for more on that story. Study: 1 in 6 teens has been "sexted"... Nearly one-sixth of teens who own cell phones have received nude or nearly nude images via text message from someone they know, according to a new survey on "sexting" from the Pew Internet & American Life Project. CNN News story here 
The national telephone survey confirms parent and teacher worries that young people are using cell phones to send out and receive sexually explicit images of themselves and of romantic partners.
The 800-person survey, released Tuesday by the nonprofit research group, found 15 percent of cell-phone-owning teens ages 12 to 17 had received nude or nearly nude photos by phone. Four percent of the teens said they had sent out sexually explicit photos or videos of themselves. Older teens were more likely to send sexual images through text messages than younger teens. Four percent of 12-year-olds reported sending sexually suggestive images by text message, while 8 percent of 17-year-olds reported texting nude or partially nude photos. The Pew survey suggests teens who pay their own cell phone bills and who have unlimited text messaging plans are more likely to engage in sexting than those who use phones owned by their parents or have restrictions placed on how frequently they can text. However, teens whose parents searched through their cell phones were no more or less likely to send and receive sexually explicit text messages than those whose phones were kept private, the report says. Boys and girls surveyed were equally likely to say they engage in sexting. The survey results were paired with focus-group interviews of 74 teens in three cities to create Tuesday's report, titled "Teens and Sexting." The report is not the first to try to quantify teenage sexting, a practice that is still so new and little understood that it's difficult to say if it is on the rise or decline among teens. Americans punched out more than 110 billion text messages in December 2008, double the number in the last month of 2007, as the shorthand communication becomes a popular alternative to cell phone calls. MSNBC News story here "We are seeing a clear trend of huge increases in text messaging," said Amanda Lenhart, senior research specialist at the Pew Internet and American Life Project. "If teens are a leader for America, then we are moving to a text-based communication system. For them, there is less interest in talking." Her research found the average teen currently sends more than 2,000 text messages per month. About two-thirds of all teens use text messaging, mostly due to its simplicity as well as the privacy of being able to communicate without being overheard. For more on teens and cell phone safety, see eGuide/cellphones. In other news... 
A year after the remains of a Florida toddler were discovered, a lawyer for the slain child's mother asked a judge Friday to stop prosecutors from seeking the death penalty against her. CNN News story here Lawyer Andrea Lyon told Orange County Circuit Court Judge Stan Strickland that the "real reason" prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Casey Anthony is because they want to "get as biased a jury as they possibly can." Lyon said a jury that is qualified to serve in a death penalty case is more likely to convict defendants. But prosecutor Jeff Ashton told the court that the state is not seeking the death penalty; rather, the jury and judge will decide whether it is appropriate. Anthony has pleaded not guilty to murder in the death of her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee. The toddler's skeletal remains were discovered December 11, 2008, six months after she disappeared. The remains were bagged and partially buried in a swampy, vacant lot, and duct tape covered the child's mouth. For more on this story, see vol6_iss78, vol7_iss2, and vol7_iss55.
New research suggests that doctors, as well as parents, may be less aware than they should be of the warning signs that a child is engaging in the dangerous practice known as "the choking game." ABC News story here The report, titled "The Choking Game: Physician Perspectives," will be published in the January issue of the journal Pediatrics. It details the results of a survey issued to 163 pediatricians, in which nearly a third of the doctors - 32 percent - had never even heard of the choking game. A quarter of those who responded could not identify a single physical warning sign of a child's participation in the game, such as bruising around the neck, headaches and bloodshot eyes. The choking game is an activity usually practiced by children and adolescents, either alone or in groups. Sometimes the "players" choke each other; other times they use improvised nooses to accomplish the goal of the activity - depriving the brain of needed oxygen - which leads to possible loss of consciousness and a temporary high. In recent years, more research has been devoted to learning more about this dangerous game. In a February 2008 article, researchers with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that the choking game had led to the death of at least 82 children and adolescents since 1995. According to the CDC report, most of those who died were between the ages of 11 and 16. Boys are more likely to die from the choking game than girls, and nearly all who died were playing alone when they died.
Police are investigating allegations that workers at a suburban Cincinnati church daycare slipped children a dietary supplement hidden in candy to help them sleep at nap time. CBS News story here CBS affiliate WKRC-TV in Cincinnati reports some workers from the Covenant Apostolic Church told police on Sunday that they saw fellow employees give the hormone melatonin to children as young as two months old. The Mayo Clinic says the over-the-counter melatonin helps control sleep and wake cycles and is not FDA approved or regulated. Parents of the 30 to 40 children enrolled in the daycare center received a letter Monday alerting them of the allegations and advising them to talk to poison control or their doctor about any concerns. It's unclear if any of the children were harmed by the melatonin. A mother of one child told WKRC that she suspects her child was also given Benadryl without her permission. The pastor told WKRC that the church was cooperating with the investigation and has removed workers allegedly involved from their duties at the daycare.
*for access to member only sites like the New York Times, use the ID "JohnDoeID" and the password "whatever". On sites asking for an email address, feel free to use "info@childprotectionprogram.org" |
Survivors And Victims Empowered
1725 Oregon Pike, Suite 106
Lancaster, PA 17601
(717) 569-0550 voice
(717) 569-3039 fax
http://www.childprotectionprogram.org