Free Republic

HOUSTON, Texas--Earlier this week a service was held at the George W Spencer Funeral Home for 12-year-old Octavia Marie Watkins, according to a recent report by a local Fox News affiliate. Octavia's death was easily preventable: she died because she was thrown from the hood of a moving vehicle. But it's the reason she was on the roof of the car that has investigators puzzled. Allegedly, her friend's mother, who was giving her a ride home from a local pool, ordered the girls to ride on the hood and trunk of the car because she felt their swimsuits were too...

Diane Peterson works as a sales clerk at a Walgreens in Fenton. She was developing pictures last month when she spotted some familiar faces — teenage girls she has known since they were in kindergarten — in an X-rated spring break adventure. "I was appalled by what I saw," Peterson said. It wasn't just the drunken, sexual poses that bothered her. She knew some of their parents. And she knew they didn't have a clue. A recent poll commissioned by the cable network WE, which launched a docu-series called "High School Confidential," found a major communication gap between parents and...

Burning Man, infamous for its drug-fueled debauchery in the wind- whipped Nevada desert, may seem like the last place to haul the kids for a family vacation. But the annual experiment in radical self-expression, communal living and massive interactive art is becoming something of a counterculture Disneyland as increasing numbers of Burners from the Bay Area and beyond are bringing their young ones to Black Rock City. To the uninitiated, a dry lakebed in the middle of nowhere -- plagued by dust storms and extreme temperatures and inhabited by no small number of naked people -- sounds like no place...

BELLEVUE - When Ella Gunderson wanted some new clothes she thought for sure she'd find something in the junior's department of Nordstrom. But she was surprised by what she found. "Some of the clothes there just aren't very appropriate," she explained. She found short skirts and blue jeans that left her belly button bare. So, Ella took her complaint to the top. She wrote the company a letter. The letter read: "Dear Nordstrom, I'm an 11-year-old girl who has tried shopping at your store for clothes, in particular jeans. But all of them ride way under my hips and the...

COMMENTARY Teen party video raises moral, ethical questions By Mary McCarty Dayton Daily News "Did she do the right thing?" After all the buzz surrounding the infamous Bellbrook videotape — which recorded underage drinking and drug use during a five-day series of parties in November — it boils down to this one question. Nearly everybody agrees that drinking and drug use are a problem at Bellbrook High School, as they are at nearly every American high school. Nearly everybody agrees that it's not a new problem. What's different about this case, what has made it the talk of the town...

Hearing, "You don't look old enough to be a grandparent," is a little like being a good-looking corpse. Not the greatest compliment. Baby boomers entering the grandparent years are launching a small semantic revolution to avoid the traditional label of senior citizen status. These youth cult boomers are demanding that their grandkids call them names with a younger sound than the traditional "grandma" and "grandpa." "Baby boomers don't want to adhere to the blue-haired old granny stereotype. They are choosing young-sounding names for themselves because generally they don't think of themselves as grandparent age," says Norah Burch, 30, a self-described...

KING OF PRUSSIA, Pa. -- The creator of the controversial “Jesus Dress-Up” refrigerator magnets being sold at Philadelphia-area stores spoke exclusively to NBC 10 on Tuesday night. The man, who goes by the name, “Normal” Bob Smith, says he is doing nothing wrong. “Jesus Dress-Up” is a magnetic crucifix with a variety of clothes and accessories. Many people are outraged by the product, but Smith says he doesn’t see anything wrong with it. “I don't think there's anything wrong with religious satire,” said Smith. “People have got to learn to laugh at themselves, it's part of human nature.” Smith, who...

Would you believe Target has approved its Marshall Field's stores to sell a product called FCUK? Target must consider parents really naive to not know exactly what type of message they are "targeting" to our kids. Here's how one mother put it: I didn't see this on television but it was an advertisement insert in last Sunday's newspaper for Marshall Field's dept. store for a cologne and a clothing line aimed at teenagers called "Fcuk" and their advertising slogan to go with it is "scent to bed". I was really appalled at this and then a friend of mine saw...

Every few days or so on FreeRepublic, those of us who follow the Common Culture and its focus on sexuality start complaining about the clothing in the local stores that is available to children. Mothers and fathers here complain about the trashy, sexualized clothing that little girls are sold. They complain that there are no others choices. Well, I don't know about you folks but I COMPLAIN. To management. Each time I cannot find modest, decent clothes. It takes at most, five minutes. Each time I shop. And I expect I will get results. For each person who complains...mangement extrapolates...

Public health officials struggled to keep about 1,500 teenagers in quarantine yesterday, a task that proved insurmountable when some left their confinement to have fun. On the first day of quarantine for students of Father Michael McGivney Catholic Academy, just north of Toronto, one was already out shopping, while another invited friends to a concert where he was going to be playing last night. Murray McQuigge, a spokesman for York Region's public health department, knows all too well that grounding an entire school without any supervision is far from easy. "I'm sure that after this the parents of those kids...

A head teacher has angered parents by asking them to stop their daughters from wearing thongs to school.Anna Roxburgh, the head of Hamp Junior High School in Bridge Water, Somerset made the plea to parents of 6th Grade Girls, ages 10-11.In a letter she said she had no objection to thongs personally.But she was concerned about the girl possible embarassment while changing for Physical Education Class, falling over in the playground or doing handstands. Hamp Junior High is a mixed -sexes school with 270 puplis. One mother said the letter was 'unbeliveable.' She added: 'Schools lay down enough rules without...

<p>CHARLOTTESVILLE (AP) — A judge sentenced a husband and wife to eight years in jail Monday for supplying alcohol to teenagers at a birthday party for their son.</p> <p>Prosecutors had sought a sentence of 90 days for Elisa Kenty Robinson and George Fisher Robinson of Earlysville. They pleaded guilty to 16 misdemeanor counts of contributing to the delinquency of minors.</p>