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CHEYENNE — In one month, a Cheyenne teenager sent 10,000 text messages and received about the same — all while her family's plan did not include texting. That means the family's provider — Verizon — charged them for each incoming and outgoing text message. The girl's parents, Gregg and Jaylene Christoffersen, thought texting had been disabled, so one can imagine their surprise when they got the monthly phone bill and it asked for $4,756.25. "It just hit us like a rock, like you're stepping into a bus," Gregg Christoffersen said. The bill was legit. Dena Christoffersen, 13, had apparently been...

Hundreds Of Kids Beaten, Whipped, Even Choked By Teachers, Coaches Reporting Hundreds of students have allegedly been beaten by teachers, coaches and staff at Chicago Public Schools. 2 Investigator Dave Savini continues his ongoing investigation involving the illegal use corporal punishment. Treveon Martin, 10, is afraid of a teacher at his school. "I've seen him hit five of them in the classroom," Martin said. Martin says he and others have been hit, grabbed and even struck with a belt. "He's threatened almost all the kids in his classroom," Martin said. He says it happened at Robert Emmet Academy in November...

A noted child and family psychologist says spanking a child can be an effective form of discipline, despite a recent study that states otherwise. A new report titled "A Violent Education: Corporal Punishment of Children in U.S. Public Schools" shows that more than 200,000 children received corporal punishment in U.S. schools. Texas accounted for the majority of the cases, although 21 U.S. states allow the use of corporal punishment. The study was conducted by Humans Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union. According to a Reuters article on the study, "liberal groups regard corporal punishment as a barbaric relic...

A Los Fresnos family is asking a state district court to stop a Cameron County justice of the peace from ordering spankings in his courtroom and to remove the judge from office. Mary Vasquez and her husband Daniel Zurita filed a lawsuit Wednesday on behalf of their minor daughter against Cameron County Pct. 6 Justice of the Peace Gustavo "Gus" Garza. Brownsville lawyer Mark Sossi represents the family. The petition alleges that on April 9, Garza told the then-14-year-old girl and her stepfather that the teen would be found guilty of a criminal offense and fined $500 for not attending...

Children who are spanked or given some form of physicial punishment by their parents may be more likely to have sexual problems as adults, a new study finds. An analysis of four studies by Murray Straus, co-director of the Family Research Laboratory at the University of New Hampshire-Durham, found that children who suffer physical punishment in the form of spanking, hitting or slapping are more likely to engage in risky sexual behavior as adults, it is reported by USA Today. The study, presented Thursday to the American Psychological Association, suggests that spanked children also are more likely to be "physically...

ALAMO -- Some kids get "rulered," while others are "whupped" or "popped." Sometimes they get "cuffed," "drubbed," "blipped" or "boxed." The semantics don't matter, said Jordan Riak; it's all a spanking, and, according to the longtime corporal punishment abolitionist, it's unacceptable by any name, anywhere. "The public is in denial," he said. "You have to invent funny words to keep it from being serious. It's cartoon language: 'Oh, I'm not violent, I just gave him a butt-warming.'"'" Riak, 72, is a retired teacher who has dedicated about three decades of his life trying to convince people that sparing the rod...

They’re at it again. Apparently, Massachusetts legislators feel that the nanny state is just not overwhelming enough already. Or perhaps they believe that the term “nanny state” is meant to be taken literally. A Democratic legislator recently filed a bill in the state legislature banning spanking. No no, the bill isn’t designed to ban child abuse or truly injurious behavior – there are already plenty of laws on the books and social services to cover those situations. House Bill 3922 would presume guilty of child abuse and neglect any parent who spanks little Timmy on the behind for repeatedly putting...

FORT WORTH -- A Fort Worth police officer arrested last week on accusations he spanked the rear of a woman he caught engaging in sexual conduct in a car in Oakhurst Park was charged with official oppression. If convicted of that charge, a Class A misdemeanor, officer Craig Murrah faces up to one year in jail and a $4,000 fine. Prosecutor Kurt Stallings confirmed Thursday that Murrah had been officially charged but said the case will also be presented to a grand jury. Police have said that at about 1 a.m. on June 22, Murrah found a couple engaging in...

UNION -- A Monroe County elementary art teacher was suspended without pay for putting masking tape under the noses of about 25 third-graders in a joking attempt to quiet them, Superintendent Lyn Guy said. The Monroe County Board of Education voted Monday night to uphold the 10-day suspension of Donna Spangler, an art teacher at Peterstown Elementary School. Spangler's suspension ended Monday and she has since returned to work. "I didn't think it was very funny,'' Guy said Tuesday. "It wasn't right and she (Spangler) made a huge mistake in judgment and she has paid for it.'' Guy said the...

NASSAU, Bahamas (Reuters) - A man convicted of trying to rape an 83-year-old woman was sentenced to eight lashes with a cat-o'-nine-tails, a punishment used by the British Navy in the 18th century and reinstated in the Bahamas 15 years ago. Click to learn more... Altulus Newbold, 34, was sentenced on Friday to 16 years in prison after being found guilty of burglary, attempted rape and causing harm. Justice Jon Isaacs ordered that he receive four lashes of the whip at the start of his sentence and four upon his release, but suspended the punishment for three weeks pending a...

A Unionville mother and father are complaining about the paddling of their 14-year-old son, allegedly by Community High School's assistant principal, and they've taken their concerns to the superintendent of schools, the sheriff's department and have released their boy's medical records showing bruises and swelling at his tailbone. "Diagnosis: Child Abuse," is a notation in the physician's notes. Community High School Principal Robert Ralston declined comment and deferred questions to Bedford County Schools' Central Office where Superintendent Ed Gray said he's in the middle with responsibilities to protect students' as well as employees' rights. To avoid duplication of efforts, Gray...

The pastor of an Elgin church repeatedly spanked a teenage girl with a 3-foot piece of wood to make her stop making sex abuse allegations against a family member, police said today. The Rev. Daryl P. Bujak, 30, of Elgin, turned himself in to police Wednesday after authorities filed a misdemeanor battery charge against him stemming from the weekly beatings that occurred between March and May of 2005. Police now believe the 13-year-old McHenry County girl was telling the truth when she claimed a relative, Matthew Resh, molested her. Resh, 33, of Ingleside, was arrested this week on five counts...

BRITISH Prime Minister Tony Blair, fresh from announcing initiatives to deal with problem parents and their unruly offspring, has admitted this morning to smacking his older children. Blair's admission came on a BBC television question and answer session with members of the public about his "respect" measures, unveiled earlier in the day to tackle anti-social behaviour. The 52-year-old prime minister was put on the spot about his own parental discipline when the presenter asked: "Do you smack your kids? Did you?... Did it cause a problem?" Blair, who has four children aged five to 21, replied: "No, I think, funnily...

The school bus driver accused earlier this week of duct taping a kindergartener's mouth shut will return to the same route when classes resume after the winter holiday, Pinellas County school officials said Friday. An investigator with the district found no evidence to support Kyle Gerber's allegation that the driver taped his mouth on the ride home from Dunedin Elementary School Monday...

Terry Looper Corporal punishment hasn't been used at Cascade High School for more than a decade, according to the principal. Meanwhile, paddling "has its place" at Shelbyville Central High School, the principal said this week, but he doesn't do it and the only instances of paddling there have been in the vocational part of the school. Cascade Principal Terry Looper and Central Principal Don Embry spoke about corporal punishment on Wednesday and Thursday on a condition that it be made clear: They're not commenting on what's alleged at Community High School. "Child abuse" is what a Smyrna doctor wrote as...

Despite what Bart Simpson might say, repetitive writing of sentences on the blackboard -- as seen at the beginning of every episode of "The Simpsons" -- is not corporal punishment. Neither is running an extra lap around the track or standing in a corner. But swatting a kid's bottom is, and that form of discipline is on its way to being outlawed in Pennsylvania public schools. The Independent Regulatory Review Commission yesterday voted 5-0 to add Pennsylvania to the list of 28 other states that ban corporal punishment in public schools. The regulations don't take effect until they are published...

EZULWINI VALLEY, Swaziland (Reuters) -- The king of Swaziland's daughter was whipped by a palace official at a party of teenage virgins ahead of a festival where more than 50,000 maidens are available to become her father's 13th wife, media said on Sunday. Princess Sikhanyiso, 17, told the Times of Swaziland a palace official whipped girls, including beauty queen Miss Swaziland, at the party as a punishment after they refused to turn down the music. She was pictured showing her bruises. Thousands of bare-breasted virgins will dance for Africa's last absolute monarch in Monday's Reed Dance ceremony, which King Mswati...

A student who claims he was expelled from a training program for prospective teachers because of his support for corporal punishment and his opposition to multicultural education filed a $40 million lawsuit yesterday and demanded to be reinstated.

ST. PETERSBURG - What parent hasn't tried this trick on stubborn children: Tell them it's time to go, pretend you're leaving and hope they follow. Two educators tried the tactic last month in the case of a 5-year-old girl at Fairmount Park Elementary. Twice it failed. The pair used a range of other strategies in an hourlong ordeal, about 30 minutes of which were caught on a videotape released this week by a lawyer for the girl's mother. Some of their "interventions" appeared to work, others did not. Although administrators and many teachers are trained in dealing with misbehaving children,...

'Bring back the whip' By darren bahaw Thursday, June 17th 2004 A REPORT to combat violence and indiscipline in the nation's schools has recommended the reintroduction of corporal punishment as one of the immediate measures to be implemented by the Ministry of Education. Education Minister Hazel Manning, in releasing the report yesterday at the Hilton Trinidad, said Prof Ramesh Deosaran, author of the report, was commissioned to research the growing trend of indiscipline in schools and come up with the necessary solutions. Manning said the rush by the previous administration to provide secondary school places for all students in 2000...