Free Republic

An Arkansas woman was taken to jail for using a switch on her great-granddaughter, who she says was misbehaving. Police say the girl has visible welts on her arm. Norma Toussaint, 70, says she's not a bad person, but says she did pull a switch off her front hedges, stripped the leaves and used it to punish her 12-year-old great-granddaughter. "I went back in the house and whooped her on her arm," Toussaint said. Upset, the girl threatened to dial 911. "I asked, I said, 'You want to call the police on me?' And she said, 'Yes.' I said, 'Call...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/posttv/national/pope-franciss-10-secrets-to-happiness/2014/08/01/ed283448-1996-11e4-88f7-96ed767bb747_video.html From this video it is apparent to me that he is talking to all people, even those who might have Sunday jobs. Words printed out the site.

A Virginia Beach high school teacher accused in the sexual battery of one of his students has been found guilty. Back in Jan., the student accused Michael Shanklin, Jr. of spanking her. Police arrested Shanklin, 37, and charged him with abduction and sexual battery of a minor. Shanklin was tried Thursday on the sexual battery charge, found guilty and sentenced to 12 months in jail. Police said on Jan. 18 at approximately 4:30 p.m., a student at Landstown High School stayed after school for a tutoring session. The student failed to complete an assignment and the teacher reportedly felt the...

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (Indiana's NewsCenter) - An East Allen County Schools parent is accusing her son's teacher of spanking him with his pants down in front of the class. Fort Wayne Police confirm a detective is investigating an incident at Village Elementary after the child's mother called police Monday. In a report, the mother says the child was acting up in class. The teacher made the student sit in the corner and when he continued to act up the teacher pulled the boys pants down and spanked him for misbehaving. The mom says the child is mildly disabled. East Allen...

A former headmaster accused of assaulting and sexually abusing schoolboys at two East Anglian schools yesterday admitted that he was a paedophile. Derek Slade told a jury that there was a sexual motive behind his “excessive” smackings, canings, slipperings, and beatings of boys at St George’s School, Great Finborough, near Stowmarket, in the late 1970s and early 80s. The 61-year-old yesterday conceded that he went beyond what was reasonable corporal punishment and feared that he had caused long-lasting physiological harm to pupils who attended the boarding school he formed in Wicklewood, near Wymondham, Norfolk, and later at Great Finborough. The...

An Enfield High School teacher has been accused of inappropriately touching a student and was ordered to have no contact with her student while he works at the school. Court records state that Francis Hajosy, 54, of Stafford, spanked the student. He has been suspended, the superintendent said. He was arrested on Tuesday and charged with fourth-degree sexual assault and second-degree breach of peace, according to court records. Hajosy was arrested after a school resource officer was notified of a June 9 incident, according to the Journal Inquirer. He is accused of spanking a student who was visiting the class,...

Unruly students have turned some Memphis classrooms into war zones where teachers have been subjected to verbal and physical attacks, according to a school board commissioner who has introduced a resolution to reinstate corporal punishment. “Teachers, for several years now, have been increasingly agitated by the lack of classroom discipline,” said School Board Commissioner Kenneth Whalum. “It’s out of hand, man.” Memphis city schools banned corporal punishment five years ago. Since then, according to Whalum, teachers have been subjected to out-of-control kids. “They are being abused,” he said. “Teachers have been hospitalized after getting attacked by middle schoolers. It’s a...

Last school year, Simeon High School senior Bruce Zayas was captain of the volleyball team, a rising star recruited from Mount Carmel, and looking at a volleyball scholarship. But a paddling by his coach last April for missing serves during a game -- a "whupping" that left welts on the 17-year-old -- changed that. » Click to enlarge image Bruce Zayas, No. 5, was captain of Simeon’s volleyball team and working toward a college scholarship. He says he was forced off the team. RELATED STORIESTell us: Should student athletes be paddled? "I worked so hard at volleyball to get to...

. . . Whether Cesar Rodriguez, who is accused of beatings and abusive behavior that killed his 7-year-old stepdaughter, could not have known he had crossed a line is a matter for a jury to decide. He has admitted that he routinely beat Nixzmary with a belt, hit her with his hands using “all my force,” threw her on the floor. He has admitted duct-taping her emaciated 37-pound frame to a chair and binding her with bungee cords. But at least in a broad legal sense, Mr. Schwartz has a point. The laws in New York State, as in the...

There is nothing in Wagga to compare to this place; in fact it makes Wagga Beach look like heaven on earth. Welcome to summer in the Middle East . Corporal Darren Abercrombie, 37, is an Army cargo specialist serving his second tour of duty at the main Australian Defence Force logistic base in the Middle East Area of Operations. Raised in Wagga Wagga, he is again enduring the harsh desert environment that surrounds the remote base. “The toughest things about this place are the heat and sand,” he said. “Some days it gets up to about 48 degrees, which can...

FORT HUACHUCA — The final journey of Cpl. Casey Lee Mellen begins today with a noon funeral service at the Main Post Chapel on Fort Huachuca, followed by his burial at the Southern Arizona Veterans Memorial Cemetery at 2 p.m. Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano has ordered all flags in the state to be lowered to half staff today to honor Mellen. On Tuesday, the flags were ordered to half staff by the governor to honor Army Lt. Col. Douglas Mann, of Sierra Vista, who was killed in an accident in San Antonio, Texas, as he was preparing for deployment to...

TUCSON — Case is home. The body of Army Cpl. Casey Lee “Case” Mellen came back to Arizona around 2 p.m. Monday as a Navy cargo aircraft landed at Tucson International Airport and taxied to the executive terminal. Although it was a sad day, the soldier’s father, Casey Edward Mellen, said, “I’m happy my son’s home.” The war is claiming many American men and women, he said. Case is just one of the dead and is part “of all the future dead soldiers,” Mellen said. It was not a political statement against the war, just a reality as GIs remain...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 26, 2006 – A Marine corporal quizzed top leaders at a recent Pentagon employees’ question-and-answer session about what the department can do to counter the reporting of negative news from Iraq and Afghanistan. “Negativity in the press is absolutely detrimental to the morale of our forces and our efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan,” Cpl. John A. Stukins said to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, at a Sept. 22 town hall meeting. “What are we doing to confront this problem and to better the morale of our...

PRESTWICK (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged Israel late on Monday to give diplomacy a chance to win the release of an Israeli soldier taken hostage by militants in Gaza. Palestinians in northern Gaza have begun blocking roads with mounds of earth and Israeli armor has massed on the other side of the Gaza frontier as Israel awaits word on the fate of Corporal Gilad Shalit, who was abducted by Palestinian gunmen and taken to Gaza on Sunday. "There really needs to be an effort now to try and calm the situation, not to let the situation...

In 1263 a German priest, Peter of Prague, stopped at Bolsena while on a pilgrimage to Rome. He is described as being a pious priest, but one who found it difficult to believe that Christ was actually present in the consecrated Host. While celebrating Holy Mass above the tomb of St. Christina (located in the church named for this martyr), he had barely spoken the words of Consecration when blood started to seep from the consecrated Host and trickle over his hands onto the altar and the corporal. The priest was immediately confused. At first he attempted to hide the...

CAMP TAQADDUM, Iraq (Jan. 27, 2006) -- More than 25 Marines from different sections within 2nd Marine Logistics Group (Forward) received their Corporals Course certificates here Jan. 25. At garrison bases, Corporals Course is held over a two week period and comprised of uniform inspections, sword manual, drill, physical training and numerous hours of academic instruction. It is not much different here in Iraq, according to Gunnery Sgt. Thomas E. Clough, 8th Engineer Communications Detachment commander and chief instructor for the Corporals Course. “We do the same things here,” Clough said. “Except here we don’t have the same uniform inspections...

MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. (Nov. 18, 2005) -- Just because a Marine is not in an infantry unit, does not mean he will not be attached to a combat patrol and be forced to depend on his training and instincts to survive. This was the case for Lance Cpl. Chris L. Wliszczak. Wliszczak was augmented from Headquarters and Service Battalion, 2nd Marine Logistics Group, and attached to Small Craft Company, Headquarters Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, when he deployed to Iraq in March 2005. This Allentown, Pa., native did not think he would see much combat in Iraq being...

Generations by W. Thomas Smith Jr. Their faces were an odd mix of happiness, sadness, and envy. Happy for me, but sad and envious all the same. They were losing a squad leader who had taken care of them as an older brother watches over his kid siblings. But these really were not kids. They and I were U.S. Marine infantrymen – "grunts," as we often were called by our non-infantry counterparts in those days ("Grunt" being an affectionate term for Marine infantryman – a holdover term from the Vietnam War – ultimately hijacked by the ever-envious Army and applied...

OSLO (Reuters) - Norwegian schools are meant to be magically free of bullying when students go back to class on Wednesday after the summer break. But pupils say the landmark "zero tolerance" campaign for name-calling, hitting, hair-pulling, arm-twisting and other playground nastiness is about as realistic as the plot of a "Harry Potter" novel. Even Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik admits the two-year scheme launched in 2002 is optimistic in its goal of eradicating bullying from the start of the school year Wednesday. "There will be cases of bullying but zero tolerance is our target," he told Reuters of a...

by Cathy Young The contentious debate over corporal punishment of children - a part of the "culture wars" between conservatives who support parental authority and liberals inclined to be suspicious of it - has recently focused on Michigan, with two cases of mothers accused of assault for slapping their wayward teen-age daughters. A month ago, 32-year-old Kathi Herren of Novi was convicted and sentenced to probation and counseling. Last week, 47-year-old Deborah Skousen of Genoa had better luck: A jury took just more than an hour to clear her.    Both women have presented their prosecution as a misguided...