Free Republic

Gang Concerns Prompt School T-Shirt Ban POSTED: 3:22 pm EDT April 23, 2004 UPDATED: 5:42 pm EDT April 23, 2004 CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- A Charlotte-Mecklenburg middle school has banned students from wearing solid color T-shirts. The principal at Northridge Middle School sent a letter to parents on Thursday saying that groups of students have begun wearing white and pink T-shirts that could be a system to identify different gangs. "We're not saying there are gangs at the school, but we are saying there had been some rumors and there were some students who were concerned and some discussions about not...

SAN DIEGO — A Marine's wife and another woman were arrested with the deadly poison ricin, and authorities said the pair planned to kill the husband to get insurance money. No terrorism was involved, the FBI said. Authorities said Astrid K. Tepatti and Ebony Wood, both 21, were lovers who used a recipe obtained on the Internet to cook up a small amount of the poison out of castor beans. Highway patrol officers said they found the ricin in a bag in a car the two women were riding in Sunday near Winterhaven, about 150 miles east of San Diego....

Flint -- School officials are taking action over allegations that lesbian students at Central High School and other buildings are harassing other girls. There appear to be more complaints and rumors this year regarding lesbians fighting and sexually harassing students, said Larry Watkins, director of the office of school safety. The school doesn't track incidents by sexual orientation, so Watkins said he doesn't know for sure if the problems are increasing. But suspensions for fighting and sexual harassment have included at least one fight between two girls arguing about a relationship, he said. In response to concerns, the district reviewed...

A lesbian foster parent allegedly raped a 15-year-old girl in her custody twice last month, tearing apart a Fall River household and sparking a new firefight in the ongoing gay marriage fury. Christina Machado, 26, was in the Bristol County lockup last night, charged with forcefully raping the teen - abuse allegedly witnessed by the woman's friends and reported by the girl's teachers. Department of Social Services officials who spent two weeks investigating told the Herald the case was ``disturbing'' but said Machado had a near-spotless record in eight years as a foster parent. But conservatives leaped on the case....

Two women have been arrested on murder charges in the shaking death of a 4-month-old boy. Candis Nikita West, 22, was charged with murder and cruelty to children Thursday in the death of her son, Dante West. West's former domestic partner and roommate, 29 year-old Baretta Harold Pierce, faces similar charges. The women are being held without bond in the Cobb County Adult Detention Center. The child died Feb. 11, said Cpl. Dana Pierce. Police waited nearly two months to file charges because investigators were waiting for the medical examiner to rule out other possible causes of death, Pierce said....