Category Archives: News

Legal Smoking, Vaping Age Raised to 21 Nationwide

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President Donald Trump on Friday signed a sweeping spending bill into law, including a measure that prohibits the sale of tobacco products to anyone under the age of 21.
The increased age restriction for tobacco purchases is one of several provisions outside of the spending measures themselves that will be attached to the broader $1.4 trillion spending agreement.
Trump tweeted Friday that the spending agreement “raises smoking age to 21! BIG!” — marking the change as one of its highlights.

The restriction on tobacco sales has long been pushed by a bipartisan mix of senators: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican; Republican Sens. Mitt Romney of Utah and Todd Young of Indiana; as well as Democrats including Sens. Richard Durbin of Illinois, Tim Kaine of Virginia and Brian Schatz of Hawaii.
Those lawmakers have been looking for a way to get the prohibition across the finish line and now they’ve found one, by attaching it to a must-pass series of bills to avoid a government shutdown.

States that have already raised the minimum age

Raising the legal age to purchase tobacco products in the United States from 18 to 21 marks a major public health achievement for the White House. There already have been several states that have individually passed legislation to raise the tobacco-buying age to 21.
As of December, 19 states have raised the minimum age to buy tobacco products to 21, according to the nonprofit Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids: Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia and Washington.
Washington, DC, and more than 500 cities and towns also have raised the age.

Posted by CNN Wire and ktla.com

Mother of girl who died after school fight says she’d complained of bullying in the past

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By Eliott C. McLaughlin, CNN

The mother of Raniya Wright, the Walterboro, South Carolina, girl who died after a classroom fight, says Raniya’s friends told her that a bully had been baiting the 10-year-old into a fight and caused her to hit her head on a bookshelf before she died.

Speaking to “Good Morning America” on Monday, Ashley Wright said she had complained to Forest Hills Elementary School in the past about the girl involved in the altercation. “I notified the school and I also spoke with her teacher at the time about this same person,” she told the morning show. “She would just always come home saying this one girl picking on her.”
Read more:  www.cnn.com/

Parkland community ‘shocked’ after student’s suicide — the second in a week, officials say

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PARKLAND, Fla. — In the span of one week, two teenagers have died by apparent suicide in this Florida community still grieving the loss of 17 teachers and students in a deadly mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School last year.

The mother of a recent graduate told CBS Miami last week that her daughter, Sydney Aiello, had taken her own life. Aiello, 19, was a senior at the school during the massacre. One of her friends, Meadow Pollack, was killed. In the year since the shooting, Aiello had struggled with survivor’s guilt and had recently been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, her mother said.

During the weekend, word began to spread that another Parkland teenager had also died in what authorities called an “apparent suicide.” The student’s name and age were not released, and authorities said the death was under investigation.

Read full article: www.washingtonpost.com

By Lori Rozsa ,
Kayla Epstein ,
Katie Mettler and
Lindsey Bever

 

New York Today: The City’s Bystander Effect

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Good morning on this clear Monday.

The first time I dialed 911 in New York was on a subway platform at 42nd Street — last week.

A woman was bleeding on her head and neck; she had fallen on the stairs between the platform and turnstiles.

Some passengers hurried past her. Others stopped to look and moved on. Several took out their phones — not to call for help, but instead to record the scene.

Maybe you’ve witnessed a similar episode in the city: curious onlookers who hesitate to act or opt not to do anything at all.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com

 


Is there such thing as a digital bystander effect?CreditJohn Taggart for The New York Times

By Alexandra S. Levine

Master the 3 “D”s of Bystander Intervention

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Bystander intervention is one of the most effective ways to prevent sexual assault. An active bystander is someone who has the moral courage to find a way to safely intervene to stop a potentially dangerous situation.  In a recent survey, of the 4% of Junior Enlisted respondents who observed a high risk situation that they believed was or could have led to sexual assault, 86% intervened.*

Safety is Your Top Priority

Before jumping into a potentially dangerous situation, be smart and think about your own safety.

Ask yourself these questions:

  • How can I keep myself safe in this situation?
  • What are all the options available?
  • Who else might be able to assist me?

Learn more:  http://www.usmc-mccs.org/articles/master-the-3-d-s-of-bystander-intervention/

Australian Schools: National Day of Action Against Bullying

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Take a Stand Together on the National Day of Action Against Bullying and Violence 2018

Friday the 16th of March is 2018 National Day of Action Against Bullying and Violence. This is a day for school communities to take a stand together, and demonstrate their commitment to creating a safe and supportive environment for all students.

See how they do it in Australia:  https://bullyingnoway.gov.au/NationalDay

Pre-Teens Arrested for Cyberbullying Before Girl’s Suicide

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Two 12-year-olds in Florida were arrested for cyberbullying in connection with the death of a middle school student who police say hanged herself two weeks ago.

By JASON DEAREN, Associated Press

Two 12-year-olds in Florida were arrested for cyberbullying in connection with the death of a middle-school student who police say hanged herself two weeks ago.

The circumstances around the death of 12-year-old Gabriella Green on Jan. 10 led to the arrests of the two Surfside Middle School students, Panama City Beach officials said in a news release Monday.

Police did not release the names of the two children who were arrested because they are minors.

Investigators were made aware of the potential cyberbullying against the girl while looking into the death, which led them to examine several cellphones and social media accounts, the news release said.

They interviewed two suspects with their parents’ permission, and say both confessed to cyberbullying.

A police report states that one of the suspects told an investigator that she had started rumors about Green in person, and online.

“Her actions consisted of starting rumors of the victim having sexually transmitted diseases, vulgar name-calling … and threats to ‘expose’ personal and sensitive details of the victim’s life,” the police report said.

The other suspect, a boy, told police he video-chatted with Green after she told him she had attempted to hang herself and had marks on her neck, according to the report.

“(He) responded by saying something to the effect of, ‘If you’re going to do it, just do it,’ and ended the call,” police wrote. “He immediately regretted that statement, and began calling and text-messaging her, but did not receive a response.”

Green’s cousin, Chad Baker, told police she hanged herself with a dog leash in her closet, the police report said.

Police said the suspects did not notify any adult or authority about Green’s state of mind. The two children arrested also acknowledged that their conduct was directed at Green “knowing that said conduct would result in emotional distress.”

 

Jan. 23, 2018, at 3:57 p.m.

Parents: ‘Criminal’ inaction by Penn State, frat members led to son’s death

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(CNN)The parents of 19-year-old Timothy Piazza, who died after participating in a hazing ritual at a Penn State fraternity, say the students who have been charged in the case “murdered” their son, and called the system governing fraternities at the university “criminal.”

“They killed him,” Jim Piazza said in an interview with CNN, referring to members of Beta Theta Pi who now face charges in the February 4 death of his son.
“They fed him lethal doses of alcohol and they killed him, and then they treated him like a rag doll, like road kill, they slapped him around, threw water on him, one kid punched him.”
His son died following his first night of pledging at Beta Theta Pi — a fraternity that was supposed to be alcohol-free at Penn State, a result of a suspension eight years ago. The university has now permanently banned the fraternity from operating on campus.  Click here to read more

Former Somerville athletes say hazing went undetected before assault

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Galileo Mondol, shown in 2016, is suing the city of Somerville for more than $1 million

– Boston Globe by Dina Rudick/Globe Staff

Somerville’s mayor and school officials have insisted for nearly four years that they did all they could to prevent members of the high school soccer team from indecently assaulting three teammates during a city-run summer sports camp in the Berkshires. They described the incident, which involved the crude use of a broomstick, as an isolated crime.

But three former captains of the Somerville High School soccer team and at least five other players who attended the 2013 camp have testified under oath that the broomstick assault was preceded that weekend by numerous incidents of sexualized misconduct that purportedly went undetected by Somerville coaches and chaperones who were responsible for supervising the student-athletes.

The two juveniles who pleaded guilty to the assaults and served 13 months in youth detention facilities also gave sworn statements that they were victims of hazing or sexual misconduct at Somerville’s sports camp the previous summer. Click here to read entire article