"Bullied Fla. girl, 12, commits suicide" Associated Press, September 13, 2013
LAKELAND, Fla. — A 12-year-old Florida girl committed suicide after she was bullied online by more than a dozen girls, and a sheriff said Thursday that he is investigating whether he can file charges under Florida’s new law that covers cyber-bullying.
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said that Rebecca Ann Sedwick jumped to her death on Monday at an old cement business in Lakeland, a city between Tampa and Orlando. Investigators say the girl was despondent after others had posted hate messages about her online.
Sedwick was ‘‘absolutely terrorized on social media,’’ Judd said.
The Lakeland Ledger reported that detectives found multiple social media applications where Sedwick was constantly bullied with messages, including ‘‘Go kill yourself,’’ and ‘‘Why are you still alive?’’
Judd said parents of all 15 girls have cooperated with detectives and several cellphones and laptops have been confiscated. He said charges could be filed, including cyber stalking.
Judd said detectives are trying to investigate the social media applications that Sedwick used, including Kik and Ask.fm, but many of the websites are based in other countries.
If detectives can find evidence, according to Florida law, the girls could be charged with felony cyber stalking because Sedwick was under 16 years old.
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I sure hope the media is not jumping to agenda-pushing conclusions like the Incognito situation.
"2 girls arrested in Florida bullying case" by Mike Schneider and Jennifer Kay | Associated Press, October 16, 2013
WINTER HAVEN, Fla. — After 12-year-old Rebecca Sedwick committed suicide last month, one of her tormenters continued to make comments about her online, even bragging about the bullying, a sheriff said Tuesday.
The especially callous remark hastened the arrest of a 14-year-old girl and a 12-year-old girl who were primarily responsible for bullying Sedwick, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said. They were charged with stalking and released to their parents.
“ ‘Yes, I bullied Rebecca and she killed herself but I don’t give a . . . ’ and you can add the last word yourself,’’ the sheriff said, quoting a Facebook post the older girl made Saturday.
Police in central Florida said Sedwick was tormented online and at school by as many as 15 girls before she climbed a tower and hurled herself to her death Sept. 9.
The sheriff said they were still investigating the girls, and trying to decide whether the parents should be charged.
About a year ago, the older girl threatened to fight Sedwick while they were sixth-graders at Crystal Lake Middle School and told her ‘‘to drink bleach and die,’’ the sheriff said. She also convinced the younger girl to bully Sedwick, even though they had been best friends.
The girls repeatedly intimidated Sedwick and called her names, the sheriff said.
The bullying began after the 14-year-old girl started dating a boy Sedwick had been seeing, the sheriff said.
Call me old-fashioned, but isn't that a bit young to be dating?
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Related(?): The Boston Globe's Invisible Ink: She's No Princess
"Charges dropped in cyberbullying case" by Lizette Alvarez | New York Times, November 22, 2013
MIAMI — Prosecutors in Polk County have dropped the charges against two girls in a cyberbullying case that the police said led to the death of 12-year-old Rebecca Ann Sedwick, who jumped from a cement plant tower two months ago.
After weeks of investigation and an analysis of thousands of Facebook chats, the Polk County state attorney’s office Wednesday dropped the charges of aggravated stalking against the girls, one 14 and one 12, their lawyers said. The New York Times had not identified the girls because they are juveniles, but one, Katelyn Roman, now 13, said in an interview on the NBC’s “Today” show Thursday that she had done nothing wrong.
Jose Baez, a lawyer for Roman, who was once friends with Sedwick, said Thursday that the 27,000 pages of Facebook chats showed no evidence that his client had committed a crime. In fact, he said, the chats revealed that Roman had also been bullied.
Baez called it “outrageous” that the Polk County sheriff, Grady Judd, had arrested the girls in October, releasing their names and photographs — which appeared on national television — without evidence to support the charges. The girls were vilified, he said.
“He wants to get up there and act like a crusader, and this time it was at the expense of two girls,” said Baez, who also represented Casey Anthony, the Orlando woman tried and acquitted two years ago on charges that she had killed her toddler. “They had zero by way of evidence.”
See: Casey Anthony Needs Cash
Brian Haas, a spokesman for the state attorney’s office, said prosecutors could not comment because of laws protecting juveniles.
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Related: Bullied girl’s mother to push Fla. law
She going to bully the legislature?
"Woman hanging onto Fla. bridge saved" Associated Press, October 14, 2013
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A woman seen dangling from a Fort Lauderdale bridge was rescued Saturday by firefighters after she participated in a cancer walk earlier in the day.
The woman was walking across the New River railroad bridge when it began to open. Witnesses called 911 to report that the woman was dangling 22 feet above the tracks with the bridge in the upright position, city officials said.
Firefighters responded and helped rescue the woman using a 24-foot ladder as witnesses cheered them on. She was not injured.
The 55-year-old woman, who was wearing a pink shirt, told authorities she had taken part in a breast cancer awareness walk earlier Saturday morning. It was not clear why she was on the bridge since pedestrians are not allowed on it.
The woman wasn’t immediately identified.
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"Fla. band reinstated after hazing death" by Brendan Farrington | Associated Press, June 28, 2013
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida A&M University’s interim president lifted the suspension of its famous Marching 100 band on Thursday, about a year and a half after a drum major’s death led to the departure of school leaders and an effort to crack down on brutal hazing in the band, fraternities, and other groups.
The decision was criticized by the parents of victim Robert Champion, who collapsed and died after running through a gantlet of band members, who beat him with fists and instruments on a bus parked outside an Orlando hotel after a football game in November 2011.
Related: Percussion and Photo From Florida
‘‘I don’t think it’s a problem that you can fix in one year,’’ Robert Champion Sr. said.
Interim president Larry Robinson said the university has taking steps to prevent and investigate hazing.
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"Fla. town mystified over fatal rampage" Associated Press, August 26, 2013
LAKE BUTLER, Fla. — A longtime employee of a Florida trucking company was once very close with his former boss, and had even been described as his right-hand man. But police say Hubert Allen Jr. drove around Saturday and shot former co-workers and his onetime boss, killing the former employer and another man before turning a gun on himself.
On Sunday, residents in this close-knit community near Jacksonville mourned and tried to piece together what happened. Police did not release new details or information on a possible motive....
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"Fla. woman who fired gun gets new trial" by Gary Fineout | Associated Press, September 27, 2013
TALLAHASSEE — A Florida woman serving 20 years in prison for firing a shot at her estranged husband during an argument will get a new trial, though she will not be able to invoke a ‘‘stand your ground’’ defense, an appeals court ruled Thursday.
The case of Marissa Alexander, a Jacksonville mother of three, has been used by critics of Florida’s ‘‘stand your ground’’ law and mandatory minimum sentences to argue that the state’s justice system is skewed against defendants who are black.
The First District Court of Appeal ruled that Alexander deserves a new trial because the trial judge who was handling her case did not properly instruct the jury regarding what is needed to prove self-defense.
The ruling, written by Judge Robert Benton, said the instructions constituted a ‘‘fundamental error’’ and required Alexander to prove self-defense ‘‘beyond a reasonable doubt.’’
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Also see:
Zimmerman faces assault charge
Zimmerman faces domestic violence-related charges
NEXT DAY UPDATE: Warrant: Zimmerman had 5 guns, ammo when arrested
I don't blame him for being heavily armed. Who knows who wants to kill him.
The biggest bullies of all:
"Florida looks to ease arrests of students; Joint effort alters zero-tolerance" by Christine Armario | Associated Press, November 06, 2013
MIAMI — One of the nation’s largest school districts, law enforcement, and the NAACP have reached a deal aimed at arresting fewer students for minor offenses and cutting down the so-called school-to-prison pipeline, which the civil rights group and others say disproportionately affects minority students.
Related: Mississippi Schools Put on Parole
The agreement with Broward County Public Schools in Florida disclosed Tuesday is one of the first comprehensive plans bringing together district officials, police, and the state attorney’s office to create an alternative to the zero-tolerance policies prevalent in many schools. It charges principals rather than school resource officers with being the primary decision makers in responding to student misbehavior.
The move is designed to cut down on what has become known as the ‘‘school-to-prison pipeline,’’ where students accused of offenses like disrupting class or loitering are suspended, arrested, and charged with crimes.
That will not be tolerated in 21st-century AmeriKa!
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In this South Florida district and others across the country, minority students have been disproportionately arrested, sometimes for offenses that resulted in only a warning for their white peers.
Nationwide, more than 70 percent of students involved in school-related arrests or law enforcement referrals are black or Hispanic, according to US Department of Education data.
‘‘It’s pretty rare,’’ Michael Krezmien, a professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, said of the agreement. ‘‘I think if every other school district did it that would be a great step forward.’’
The new policy creates a matrix for district officials and school resource officers to follow when a student misbehaves. For nonviolent misdemeanors like trespassing, harassment, incidents related to alcohol, possession of a misdemeanor amount of marijuana, and drug paraphernalia, administrators are instructed to try and resolve the situation without an arrest. A variety of alternatives, like participation in a week-long counseling program, are designed to address and correct the student’s behavior.
No student would be arrested for a first nonviolent misdemeanor, but further offenses will result in graduated levels of school-based interventions. After a fifth incident, students are referred to law enforcement.
Felonies or serious threats will still be handled by police....
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At least you kids are learning something.
"Fla. schools chief quits after allegations" by Gary Fineout | Associated Press, August 02, 2013
TALLAHASSEE — Florida’s education commissioner resigned on Thursday amid allegations that he improved the performance rating of a charter school run by a major Republican donor during his previous job as Indiana’s school chief.
Tony Bennett said that he did nothing wrong, but he didn’t want to be a distraction to ongoing efforts to overhaul Florida’s education system. E-mails published by the Associated Press this week show that Bennett and his Indiana staff scrambled last fall to ensure that Christel DeHaan’s school received an A, despite poor 10th-grade algebra scores that initially earned it a C.
Bennett called that interpretation ‘‘malicious and unfounded’’ and said he would call for Indiana’s inspector general to look into the allegations because he is certain he will be cleared of wrongdoing.
He said it would be unfair to Florida Governor Rick Scott ‘‘to have to spend my time and the State Board [of Education’s] time, as things continue to trickle out, defending myself.’’ He called the allegations ‘‘politically motivated.’’ He said the move to step down was his and that both Scott and former governor Jeb Bush had urged him to remain on the job.
‘‘The decision is mine and mine only because I believe that when this discussion turns to an adult we lose the discussion about making life better for children,’’ he said.
What a self-sacrificing saint, huh?
Bennett, who had been reworking Florida’s grading system as the state’s education commissioner, denied that DeHaan’s Christel House Academy school received special treatment. He said earlier this week that discovering that the charter would receive a low grade raised broader concerns with grades for other ‘‘combined’’ schools — those that included multiple grade levels — across the state.
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I hope you kids learned your le$$on there.
"Fla. teacher returns in pledge case" by Jennifer Kay | Associated Press, November 08, 2013
MIAMI — A fourth-grade teacher has returned to the classroom after a suspension for requiring one of her students, a Jehovah’s Witness, to join in the Pledge of Allegiance on 9/11, school district officials said Thursday.
Anne Daigle-McDonald was placed on an alternative assignment, suspended without pay, and ordered to complete diversity training after an investigation into charges that she placed her hands on the student to bring his hand to his heart for the pledge, forced him to participate against his religious beliefs, violated his constitutional rights, and made derogatory remarks, the Hernando County School District said.
McDonald has returned to teaching, but it was not clear whether she returned to the same class at Explorer K-8 in Spring Hill in the Tampa Bay area, district spokesman Roy Gordon said Thursday.
According to a district report, the boy’s parents complained Sept. 12 that McDonald physically forced the student to put his hand on his heart for the pledge, even though she knew he was a Jehovah’s Witness.
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Yeah, that 9/11 can really cause problems in the classroom.
"Schools move to repair damage after flubs on 9/11 anniversary" by Jaclyn Reiss and Derek J. Anderson | Globe Correspondents, September 13, 2013
Two separate school systems attempted to make amends Thursday after getting hit with criticism from students and parents for how their high schools handled the 12th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.
On Wednesday, the day of the anniversary, the Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School omitted a traditional moment of silence, and Concord-Carlisle High School left out the Pledge of Allegiance, but had a Muslim poem recited instead over the intercom, sparking controversy and some outrage....
Related: Concord-Carlisle Bullies Are Jewish?
Lincoln-Sudbury High senior Jon Skramstad said numerous students were upset with the missing remembrance on Wednesday. He felt that although a moment of silence may not be necessary, something should have been done.
“Maybe they are trying to let things wind down,” said Skramstad, who mentioned that there is not a moment of silence for the attack on Pearl Harbor. “I would have liked to see something done: It could have been an after-school event,” he suggested.
Jill Halperin, a parent of a student at the school, as well as the recording secretary for the Lincoln-Sudbury Parent Organization, said that people were upset but it was cleared up on Thursday. “I think [Wong] handled it nicely,” Halperin said. “She was appreciative that there are so many people that care about others.”
At Concord-Carlisle High School, principal Peter Badalament apologized to parents about the school’s opening ceremony Wednesday in which the Muslim poem was recited over the intercom, but the Pledge of Allegiance was not.
He said in a statement to parents that the poem was to promote “cross-cultural understanding” and that the Pledge was not read because of a mix-up with the student reader.
The combination of the two has “outraged a small number of members of our community,” Badalament said in an e-mail to the Globe, noting that the school received a handful of calls and about 10 e-mails from unhappy parents....
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Also see: Fla. Supreme Court rules on gay parental rights
"Fla. lawmaker to take leave over cocaine" by Michael S. Schmidt | New York Times, November 21, 2013
CAPE CORAL, Fla. — Florida Republican Representative Henry Radel said Wednesday he was taking a leave of absence from Congress and donating his salary to charity after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor charge of cocaine possession and receiving a sentence of a year’s probation.
Radel made the announcement at a crowded news conference where he acknowledged that he had let down his country, his family, and southwest Florida residents.
He said he takes responsibility for what he did, adding, ‘‘I want to be a better man.’’
At a court hearing earlier Wednesday in Washington, Radel told a judge, ‘‘I’ve hit a bottom where I realize I need help’’ in acknowledging that he purchased 3.5 grams of cocaine from an undercover police officer.
Is that a lot?
As part of a plea agreement Radel admitted he agreed to buy the cocaine for $250 in a Washington neighborhood on Oct. 29. After the undercover officer gave Radel the drugs federal agents confronted him, court documents show. Radel agreed to talk with the agents and invited them to his apartment, where he also retrieved a vial of cocaine he had in the home, the documents said.
At his news conference in Florida late Wednesday, Radel said he has been struggling with alcoholism and substance abuse ‘‘off and on for years.’’ He said that he will enter an in-patient treatment program.
And how long has he been serving in Congress?
‘‘I’m not going to sit here and make any excuses for what I’ve done,’’ he said. ‘‘I have let down our country. I’ve let down our constituents. I’ve let down my family.’’
Get out.
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