Friday, November 25, 2011 6:40:55 AM
7 in Renegade Amish Group Charged With Assaults
Five of the seven men arrested Wednesday in court in Millersburg, Ohio. Not shown is Sam Mullet, who the authorities say founded a renegade group whose members cut the beards and hair of other Amish men and women.
Mike Schenk/Wooster Daily Record, via Associated Press
Sam Mullet, the leader of a renegade Amish group, outside his home in Bergholz, Ohio, in October.
Amy Sancetta/Associated Press
By ERIK ECKHOLM
Published: November 23, 2011
Federal agents arrested the leader of a renegade Amish group and six others in eastern Ohio on Wednesday and charged them with hate crimes for a series of beard- and hair-cutting assaults against Amish men and women.
In a case that drew wide attention because of the unusual nature of the attacks, five of the men were arrested last month on kidnapping and other state charges, and were out on bail. At the time of those arrests, officials said that the founder of the breakaway group, Sam Mullet, 66, had not taken part directly in the nighttime assaults against his perceived enemies, and he was not initially charged.
But at 6 a.m. on Wednesday, the F.B.I. and local sheriffs raided the splinter settlement near the village of Bergholz, arresting Mr. Mullet, three of his sons and three other followers on federal hate-crime and conspiracy charges.
“We believe these attacks were religiously motivated,” Steven M. Dettelbach, the United States attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, said in a telephone interview. “While people are free to disagree about religion in this country, we don’t settle those disagreements with late-night visits, dangerous weapons and violent attacks.”
Prosecutors in Holmes County, Ohio, said Wednesday that they would dismiss the state charges to allow the federal prosecution to go forward. The seven men were to be arraigned Wednesday in Youngstown, Ohio.
The distinctive beards worn by married Amish men, and the uncut hair that married women keep rolled in buns, are treasured symbols of religious identity, and the attacks appeared intended to inflict public humiliation, said Donald B. Kraybill, an expert on the Amish at Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania.
In at least four violent attacks over the last few months, groups of men from Mr. Mullet’s compound held men down to shear their beards with scissors and battery-operated clippers, according to the authorities. In one case, they said, several of Mr. Mullet’s nephews also hacked off the hair of their own mother — Mr. Mullet’s sister — who had fled the compound years earlier.
One victim told investigators that “he would prefer to have been beaten black and blue than to suffer the disfigurement and humiliation of having his hair removed,” according to the F.B.I. affidavit supporting the hate-crime charges. The attacks caused fear and bewilderment among the 60,000 Amish of Ohio, who are pacifists and reject the idea of revenge.
Former residents of Mr. Mullet’s compound said he exerted iron control over the settlement of 120, many of them his relatives, sometimes imprisoning men in a chicken coop for days or beating them. Former residents also said that Mr. Mullet had sex with married women in the community “to cleanse them of the devil,” according to the F.B.I. affidavit.
Mr. Mullet moved with some followers to an isolated valley near Bergholz in 1995 after conflicts with Amish leaders in another part of the state. He was ordained as a minister in 1997 and later as a bishop. But he fell out with other Amish bishops in eastern Ohio, who determined that his effort to excommunicate eight families that left his compound in 2005 was not justified.
Mr. Mullet has apparently nursed a grudge ever since, and the recent victims included bishops who opposed his excommunication decrees as well as people who aided those who fled from his community.
The federal affidavit provides details of four beard-cutting attacks and notes that the assailants took photographs of the victims to keep a record of their humiliation. It describes recorded telephone conversations between Mr. Mullet and some of those jailed in October, in which they discussed possible further beard-cutting reprisals against their Amish enemies.
In justifying the charges against Mr. Mullet, the affidavit also cites his statements to reporters that the dispute was a religious one, that he had been treated unfairly by other Amish and that he should be able to punish people who violate the laws of the church.
*
Related
Amish Renegades Are Accused in Bizarre Attacks on Their Peers (October 18, 2011)
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/18/us/hair-cutting-attacks-stir-fear-in-amish-ohio.html
*
© 2011 The New York Times Company
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/24/us/7-arrested-in-hair-cutting-attacks-on-amish-in-ohio.html [comments at http://community.nytimes.com/comments/www.nytimes.com/2011/11/24/us/7-arrested-in-hair-cutting-attacks-on-amish-in-ohio.html ]
===
Jerry Sandusky -- abuse at Penn State
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&gl=us&tbm=nws&btnmeta_news_search=1&q=jerry+sandusky
*
abuse at The Citadel
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&gl=us&tbm=nws&btnmeta_news_search=1&q=citadel+abuse
*
abuse at Syracuse
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&gl=us&tbm=nws&btnmeta_news_search=1&q=syracuse+abuse
===
After sheriff cites hazing in FAMU death, parents say band was abusive
Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University drum major Robert Champion, 26, died Saturday following a performance at the Florida Classic (Courtesy of Florida Agricultural and, Courtesy of Florida Agricultural and / November 21, 2011)
[ http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/os-robert-champion-death-famu-20111121,0,4359951.story ]
Video [embedded]
Sheriff Demings says hazing involved in death of FAMU student
Robert Champion, 26, died Saturday night after he became ill aboard a parked bus outside the band's Orlando hotel.
By Arelis R. Hernández, Orlando Sentinel
11:27 p.m. EST, November 22, 2011
On the same day Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings announced that hazing was involved in the death of a FAMU drum major, the Orlando Sentinel learned that several parents have been complaining for months about verbal and physical abuse within the school's prestigious marching band.
Robert Champion collapsed aboard a parked charter bus in front of the Rosen Plaza hotel Saturday night after the Florida Classic football game in which the Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University and Bethune-Cookman University marching bands performed during halftime.
He was pronounced dead a short time later at Dr. P. Phillips Hospital. The 26-year-old was a first-year drum major poised to become the top student in the band next year.
On Tuesday, the parents of three members of the FAMU "Marching 100" band told the Sentinel that they have implored university officials for months to end the verbal and physical abuse that one parent characterized as "a well-kept secret."
Felicia Fabre, whose son is a sophomore in the band, said she received a text message Saturday night saying a drum major had been killed after a hazing incident.
Her first thought was, "Oh, my God, I told them that this was going to happen," Fabre said. She shared with the Sentinel a series of emails, beginning in August, that outlined some of the abusive behavior her son had witnessed and been subjected to by "section leaders" in the band.
"These practice[s] MUST STOP and they will not until someone stands up and some changes are made," Fabre wrote in an email to band director Julian White and Ralph Turner, listed on the website as the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. "I feel because of love, calling and duty I must not only speak up for my son, but also for the students who are being belittled and mistreated and feel they do not have a voice."
Demings' news conference came just hours after FAMU officials announced all band performances would be suspended while the university investigates the circumstances of Champion's death amid allegations of hazing within the school's famed marching band.
"Any death that occurs as a result of hazing is a third-degree felony," Demings said.
FAMU President Dr. James Ammons said the university is organizing an independent task force to "determine if there are patterns of inappropriate behavior within the culture" of the 375-member band.
Champion's family could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
Demings, in his remarks Tuesday, said his investigation "indicates that hazing was involved in the events that occurred prior to the 911 call for assistance.
"Anyone who participates in such events can be criminally charged," he said, adding that results of an autopsy performed Monday were inconclusive. More medical tests will be performed.
'Being terrorized'
Berlinda Johnson, whose son is a freshman and in the band, said she was in Orlando for the game and heard late Saturday that Champion had died. She told the Sentinel there were rumors that Champion had been beaten in the moments before he collapsed.
"Hazing has been ongoing throughout the year," she said. "This started the very first week of band camp."
In September, Johnson sent an email to band director White, which began, "Without my son's consent, I am sending you this e-mail…."
"Students are being terrorized and humiliated daily," she wrote. She gave examples: Her son had been "punched in the back while he was running around track" by a freshman section leader.
"This is now an official complaint," she wrote. "Please stop him and warn him that this verbal and physical abuse is serious business."
Johnson said she thinks White has tried hard to stop the hazing behavior, but other leaders in the band continue to participate.
FAMU parent Julie Lopez said her son, a band member, received a call from another student saying Champion was "crossing bus C" when he died.
She asked her son to describe the "rite of passage," which involves beating a new section member who is walking from the back to the front of a bus. To earn the respect and acceptance of his fellow drum majors, Champion may have endured this pummeling, all three parents who contacted the Sentinel said.
"Everyone was talking about it," Lopez said. "It was a planned event."
It is still unclear what type of hazing incident took place aboard the charter bus, and Demings would not answer questions at the news conference Tuesday.
'Very shocking'
Walter Kimbrough, an expert on hazing, said the prestige of the FAMU band — the drum-major position is particularly coveted — could entice students to submit to abuse.
"It's the most famous [college] band in the world, and so you can create rituals and customs in that band because people want to belong," said Kimbrough, president of the historically black Philander Smith University in Little Rock, Ark.
The problem, he said, is not confined to bands.
In 2005, Florida became one of the few states to make hazing a felony. The Chad Meredith law is named after a University of Miami student who drowned in 2001 after drinking during a fraternity hazing.
"It's a higher-education problem," Kimbrough said. "It just manifests in different ways."
Ocoee High band director and 1997 FAMU grad Bernard Hendricks called the recent incident "very sad, very shocking." And the possibility that the death was "band-related" is more of a shock, he said.
Hendricks marched in the band in the 1990s, and said he recalled some hazing but nothing physical.
"It was a lot more verbal and mental," he said.
Hendricks said if he made a mistake on the field, he "expected" someone to call him out.
Now that's he's a band director, Hendricks said he watches for hazing in his own classroom.
"As a teacher, I try to make sure that it doesn't creep into what I do."
On Tuesday, Bethune-Cookman University released a statement saying its president, Trudie Kibbe Reed, and the entire B-CU family offered its "sincerest condolences" to FAMU "and the family of drum major, Mr. Robert Champion, for their tragic loss."
In his remarks Tuesday, FAMU's Ammons addressed rumors that Champion was hazed, saying that the school was cooperating fully with the sheriff's investigation.
"Hazing is illegal," Ammons said, adding that the school is dealing with the issue and vowing to make sure "we end this practice."
The Tallahassee school has received seven reports of hazing in the past decade, officials said. Two of those cases resulted in the arrests of three people, according to university spokeswoman Sharon Saunders. The other cases were not prosecuted or the victims refused to cooperate, she said.
Saunders said the school has an anti-hazing policy, and band director White said he has dismissed more than two dozen band members recently because of possible hazing incidents.
Ammons said band performances would be halted "out of respect" for Champion's family.
Former FAMU marching-band member Marcus Parker won a $1.8 million verdict against members of the band in 2004, stemming from an incident in 2001, according to the Florida Times-Union newspaper in Jacksonville.
The newspaper reported that Parker was beaten with paddling boards so badly during a Marching 100 initiation that one of his kidneys shut down temporarily. Five men were held liable for his injuries.
Staff writers Jon Busdeker, Susan Jacobson and Jeff Weiner contributed to this report. arehernandez@tribune.com or 407-883-7796.
Copyright © 2011, Orlando Sentinel
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/os-famu-hazing-probe-robert-champion-20111122,0,6708845.story [ http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/os-famu-hazing-probe-robert-champion-20111122,0,3617190,full.story ]
===
National Study Finds Widespread Sexual Harassment of Students in Grades 7 to 12
By JENNY ANDERSON
Published: November 7, 2011
Nearly half of 7th to 12th graders experienced sexual harassment in the last school year, according to a study [(via) http://www.aauw.org/learn/research/crossingtheline.cfm ] scheduled for release on Monday, with 87 percent of those who have been harassed reporting negative effects such as absenteeism, poor sleep and stomachaches.
On its survey of a nationally representative group of 1,965 students, the American Association of University Women [ http://www.aauw.org/ ], a nonprofit research organization, defined harassment as “unwelcome sexual behavior that takes place in person or electronically.” Over all, girls reported being harassed more than boys — 56 percent compared with 40 percent — though it was evenly divided during middle school. Boys were more likely to be the harassers, according to the study, and children from lower-income families reported more severe effects.
“It’s pervasive, and almost a normal part of the school day,” said Catherine Hill, the director of research at the association and one of the authors of the report.
Over all, 48 percent of students surveyed said they were harassed during the 2010-11 school year. Forty-four percent of students said they were harassed “in person” — being subjected to unwelcome comments or jokes, inappropriate touching or sexual intimidation — and 30 percent reported online harassment, like receiving unwelcome comments, jokes or pictures through texts, e-mail, Facebook and other tools, or having sexual rumors, information or pictures spread about them.
Whatever the medium, more girls were victims: 52 percent of girls said they had been harassed in person, and 36 percent online, compared with 35 percent of boys who were harassed in person and 24 percent online.
“I was called a whore because I have many friends that are boys,” one ninth-grade girl was quoted as saying. An eighth-grade boy, meanwhile, reported, “They spread rumors I was gay because I played on the basketball team.”
The study asked students to reflect on the 2010-11 school year in an attempt to capture the prevalence of sexual harassment, the effects it has on the harassed and the reasons the harassers engage in the behavior. It also questioned students about preventive measures. Coming amid increased attention to bullying and cyber-bullying, the report aimed to highlight the damaging effects of inappropriate sexual comments, online rumors or lurid Facebook posts.
“Bullying is getting a lot of attention,” said Holly Kearl, an author of the report and program manager of the university association’s Advocacy Fund. “We don’t want schools to forget about sexual harassment” and not talk about it, she said. Ms. Kearl said some schools that talk to students about sexual harassment and how to respond to it have been successful in reducing it. “We want to encourage schools to know what Title IX is,” she said, referring to the federal law that prohibits discrimination based on gender in schools, “to have a coordinator and to publicize it.”
The report documents many forms of harassment. The most common was unwelcome sexual comments, gestures or jokes, which was experienced by 46 percent of girls and 22 percent of boys. Separately, 13 percent of girls reported being touched in an unwelcome way, compared with 3 percent of boys; 3.5 percent of girls said they were forced to do something sexual, as did 0.2 percent of boys. About 18 percent of both boys and girls reported being called gay or lesbian in a negative way.
In the survey, students were asked to identify what had the worst effect on them. For boys, it was being called gay — “Everyone was saying I was gay, and I felt the need to have to run away and hide,” a ninth-grader said. For girls, the leading problem was having someone make “unwelcome sexual comments, jokes or gestures to or about you.”
Girls also reported more negative consequences: 37 percent said they did not want to go to school after being harassed, versus 25 percent of boys. Twenty-two percent of girls who were harassed said they had trouble sleeping, compared with 14 percent of boys; 37 percent of girls felt sick to their stomach, versus 21 percent of boys.
Those students who experienced both online and in-person harassment experienced the worst effects: 46 percent said they did not want to go to school, 44 percent felt sick to their stomachs and 43 percent found it hard to study.
Half of those who were harassed said they did nothing about it; 9 percent said they reported the incident to an adult at school; and 27 percent of students (32 percent of girls and 20 percent of boys) said they talked about it with a family member.
When asked what types of students were most at risk of harassment, students said “good-looking boys” were the safest, with pretty girls, ugly girls and feminine boys the likely targets. Girls whose bodies are most developed are the most at-risk, students said.
“This is an issue that’s especially complex for girls, though it affects all students,” Ms. Hill said. “Boys are targets, and girls can be harassers.”
*
Related
Times Topic: Sexual Harassment
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/s/sexual_harassment/index.html
*
© 2011 The New York Times Company
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/07/education/widespread-sexual-harassment-in-grades-7-to-12-found-in-study.html
===
Brandon McInerney gets 21 years: School faulted in gay teen slaying
Brandon McInerney, left, and Larry King.
Credit: E.O. Green Junior High School 2006-07 yearbook
November 22, 2011 | 7:11 am
As Brandon McInerney agreed to spend the next 21 years in prison for fatally shooting gay middle-school classmate Larry King, the actions of school officials have come under scrutiny from both sides in the case.
McInerney's attorneys presented evidence during the trial that school officials could have done more to prevent the violence, a point King's mother also expressed in an interview with The Times on Monday.
McInerney, who was 14 when he pulled a gun out of his backpack and shot King two times at point-blank range, will be kept behind bars until he is 38 under the terms [ http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-1122-gay-shooting-20111122,0,425342.story ] of the deal struck by Ventura County prosecutors.
The victim's mother, Dawn King, revealed for the first time Monday that she had contacted school officials four days before the shooting in an effort to solicit their cooperation in toning down her son's behavior. The boy had been taken from the Kings' home two months earlier by authorities because of domestic problems.
She said she was told that her son had a civil right to explore his sexual identity.
"I knew, gut instinct, that something serious was going to happen," she said. "They should have contained him, contained his behavior."
School administrators sent a memo advising teachers to give King his space, but to report safety problems. Teachers at the trial testified that when they tried to report growing tensions between King and several boys, school leaders shunned them.
McInerney shot King in a school computer lab at E.O Green Junior High in Oxnard in February 2008 after days of conflict between the boys. Students and teachers at the trial testified that King had been dressing in women's accessories and wearing makeup, and was flirting aggressively with male students on campus who did not want the attention.
Assistant Principal Joy Epstein has come under criticism for allegedly being more intent on protecting King's civil rights than in acknowledging that his dress and behavior were causing problems.
"It was reported, more than once, by more than one person,'' said English teacher Dawn Boldrin. "It was documented. There is paperwork on this. She kept saying that she didn't know and she did. She knew. She did. Everybody knew."
Epstein, who testified for the prosecution, denied that anyone on the campus relayed concerns about King's safety before the shooting.
Copyright 2011 Los Angeles Times
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/11/brandon-mcinerney-school-criticized-by-both-sides-in-gay-teen-slaying-case.html [with comments]
===
Mom faults authorities in suicide of daughter who tweeted about abuse
Video [embedded]
Teen tweets about abuse before suicide
By the CNN Wire Staff
updated 8:42 PM EST, Tue November 15, 2011
(CNN) -- The mother of a Texas teen who killed herself after reportedly sending more than 140 tweets detailing years of sexual abuse spoke out on Tuesday, faulting law enforcement for failing her daughter.
Before 18-year-old Ashley Billasano took her life last week, she poured her heart out on Twitter.
She reportedly sent 144 messages in six hours, touching on allegations of sexual abuse, the pain it caused and her long struggle for justice. According to one tweet, the final straw for Billasano was a phone call telling her it was unlikely her alleged abuser would ever be prosecuted, according to the Houston Chronicle.
By Tuesday, Billasano's Twitter messages had been removed.
"She gave up. She felt like nothing was ever going to happen, nobody was ever going to believe her," Billasano's mother, Tiffany Ruiz Leskinen, told CNN's Brooke Baldwin.
"It was almost as if they were treating her like she was the one under investigation instead of her being the victim. She felt like they were really insensitive to what had gone on," she said, referring to officials working the case. "They say that they did what they could to protect her, but they let her back into the home where she was abused."
Billasano was not living with her mother at the time of her death.
However, Dayna Blazey, assistant district attorney at the Travis County district attorney's office, defended authorities' handling of the investigation. She told CNN's Baldwin that she was not aware of anyone in her jurisdiction telling Billasano a criminal case was not being pursued.
"The status of the case is that it's still open; it's still pending. At this point, what we have to do is we have to go back and we have to look at the evidence that we have in this case, in light of knowing that Ashley is not going to be available to testify," Blazey said. "Our hearts go out to Ashley and her family."
Similarly, Texas Child and Protective Services said that it was looking into Billasano's case.
"Earlier this year, Child Protective Services (CPS) conducted a thorough, five-month investigation, interviewing 11 individuals who we believed might have had relevant information to share with us. As a result of that investigation, we were unable to confirm that abuse had occurred," spokesman Patrick Crimmins said in a statement.
"However, because of Ashley's death, we are taking a second look at the case and our focus will be to ensure that any remaining children in the household are free from abuse," he said, confirming that her death was a suicide.
On Tuesday, Billasano's mother described her daughter as beautiful, outgoing and loving.
"She was really accepting and driven. She knew what she wanted out of life," said Ruiz Leskinen.
She said her daughter had dealt with bullying and bulimia and was sexually abused for years by a man who "was supposed to be the very one to protect her." Before her torrent of tweets, Billasano had struggled to talk about the abuse, her mother said, in part because she feared no one would believe her.
Shortly before killing herself, Billasano addressed a message to anyone paying attention to her Twitter account, according to the Houston Chronicle.
"That's the story of how I came to be who I am," she wrote, the paper reported. "Well, the condensed version. I'd love to hear what you have to say. But I won't be around."
© 2011 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.
http://www.cnn.com/2011/11/15/us/texas-teen-suicide/index.html [with comments]
===
(linked in):
from earlier this string, http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=69269782 and preceding and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=68672291 (and any future following)
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=68484789 and preceding (and any future following)
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=68255912 (and any future following)
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=65740421 and preceding and following
http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=39551176 and preceding and following -- here's that Liberal Hunting Sticker via the linked http://www.alan.com/2009/06/11/right-wing-site-selling-liberal-hunting-sticker/ :
Five of the seven men arrested Wednesday in court in Millersburg, Ohio. Not shown is Sam Mullet, who the authorities say founded a renegade group whose members cut the beards and hair of other Amish men and women.
Mike Schenk/Wooster Daily Record, via Associated Press
Sam Mullet, the leader of a renegade Amish group, outside his home in Bergholz, Ohio, in October.
Amy Sancetta/Associated Press
By ERIK ECKHOLM
Published: November 23, 2011
Federal agents arrested the leader of a renegade Amish group and six others in eastern Ohio on Wednesday and charged them with hate crimes for a series of beard- and hair-cutting assaults against Amish men and women.
In a case that drew wide attention because of the unusual nature of the attacks, five of the men were arrested last month on kidnapping and other state charges, and were out on bail. At the time of those arrests, officials said that the founder of the breakaway group, Sam Mullet, 66, had not taken part directly in the nighttime assaults against his perceived enemies, and he was not initially charged.
But at 6 a.m. on Wednesday, the F.B.I. and local sheriffs raided the splinter settlement near the village of Bergholz, arresting Mr. Mullet, three of his sons and three other followers on federal hate-crime and conspiracy charges.
“We believe these attacks were religiously motivated,” Steven M. Dettelbach, the United States attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, said in a telephone interview. “While people are free to disagree about religion in this country, we don’t settle those disagreements with late-night visits, dangerous weapons and violent attacks.”
Prosecutors in Holmes County, Ohio, said Wednesday that they would dismiss the state charges to allow the federal prosecution to go forward. The seven men were to be arraigned Wednesday in Youngstown, Ohio.
The distinctive beards worn by married Amish men, and the uncut hair that married women keep rolled in buns, are treasured symbols of religious identity, and the attacks appeared intended to inflict public humiliation, said Donald B. Kraybill, an expert on the Amish at Elizabethtown College in Pennsylvania.
In at least four violent attacks over the last few months, groups of men from Mr. Mullet’s compound held men down to shear their beards with scissors and battery-operated clippers, according to the authorities. In one case, they said, several of Mr. Mullet’s nephews also hacked off the hair of their own mother — Mr. Mullet’s sister — who had fled the compound years earlier.
One victim told investigators that “he would prefer to have been beaten black and blue than to suffer the disfigurement and humiliation of having his hair removed,” according to the F.B.I. affidavit supporting the hate-crime charges. The attacks caused fear and bewilderment among the 60,000 Amish of Ohio, who are pacifists and reject the idea of revenge.
Former residents of Mr. Mullet’s compound said he exerted iron control over the settlement of 120, many of them his relatives, sometimes imprisoning men in a chicken coop for days or beating them. Former residents also said that Mr. Mullet had sex with married women in the community “to cleanse them of the devil,” according to the F.B.I. affidavit.
Mr. Mullet moved with some followers to an isolated valley near Bergholz in 1995 after conflicts with Amish leaders in another part of the state. He was ordained as a minister in 1997 and later as a bishop. But he fell out with other Amish bishops in eastern Ohio, who determined that his effort to excommunicate eight families that left his compound in 2005 was not justified.
Mr. Mullet has apparently nursed a grudge ever since, and the recent victims included bishops who opposed his excommunication decrees as well as people who aided those who fled from his community.
The federal affidavit provides details of four beard-cutting attacks and notes that the assailants took photographs of the victims to keep a record of their humiliation. It describes recorded telephone conversations between Mr. Mullet and some of those jailed in October, in which they discussed possible further beard-cutting reprisals against their Amish enemies.
In justifying the charges against Mr. Mullet, the affidavit also cites his statements to reporters that the dispute was a religious one, that he had been treated unfairly by other Amish and that he should be able to punish people who violate the laws of the church.
*
Related
Amish Renegades Are Accused in Bizarre Attacks on Their Peers (October 18, 2011)
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/18/us/hair-cutting-attacks-stir-fear-in-amish-ohio.html
*
© 2011 The New York Times Company
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/24/us/7-arrested-in-hair-cutting-attacks-on-amish-in-ohio.html [comments at http://community.nytimes.com/comments/www.nytimes.com/2011/11/24/us/7-arrested-in-hair-cutting-attacks-on-amish-in-ohio.html ]
===
Jerry Sandusky -- abuse at Penn State
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&gl=us&tbm=nws&btnmeta_news_search=1&q=jerry+sandusky
*
abuse at The Citadel
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&gl=us&tbm=nws&btnmeta_news_search=1&q=citadel+abuse
*
abuse at Syracuse
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&gl=us&tbm=nws&btnmeta_news_search=1&q=syracuse+abuse
===
After sheriff cites hazing in FAMU death, parents say band was abusive
Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University drum major Robert Champion, 26, died Saturday following a performance at the Florida Classic (Courtesy of Florida Agricultural and, Courtesy of Florida Agricultural and / November 21, 2011)
[ http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/os-robert-champion-death-famu-20111121,0,4359951.story ]
Video [embedded]
Sheriff Demings says hazing involved in death of FAMU student
Robert Champion, 26, died Saturday night after he became ill aboard a parked bus outside the band's Orlando hotel.
By Arelis R. Hernández, Orlando Sentinel
11:27 p.m. EST, November 22, 2011
On the same day Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings announced that hazing was involved in the death of a FAMU drum major, the Orlando Sentinel learned that several parents have been complaining for months about verbal and physical abuse within the school's prestigious marching band.
Robert Champion collapsed aboard a parked charter bus in front of the Rosen Plaza hotel Saturday night after the Florida Classic football game in which the Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University and Bethune-Cookman University marching bands performed during halftime.
He was pronounced dead a short time later at Dr. P. Phillips Hospital. The 26-year-old was a first-year drum major poised to become the top student in the band next year.
On Tuesday, the parents of three members of the FAMU "Marching 100" band told the Sentinel that they have implored university officials for months to end the verbal and physical abuse that one parent characterized as "a well-kept secret."
Felicia Fabre, whose son is a sophomore in the band, said she received a text message Saturday night saying a drum major had been killed after a hazing incident.
Her first thought was, "Oh, my God, I told them that this was going to happen," Fabre said. She shared with the Sentinel a series of emails, beginning in August, that outlined some of the abusive behavior her son had witnessed and been subjected to by "section leaders" in the band.
"These practice[s] MUST STOP and they will not until someone stands up and some changes are made," Fabre wrote in an email to band director Julian White and Ralph Turner, listed on the website as the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. "I feel because of love, calling and duty I must not only speak up for my son, but also for the students who are being belittled and mistreated and feel they do not have a voice."
Demings' news conference came just hours after FAMU officials announced all band performances would be suspended while the university investigates the circumstances of Champion's death amid allegations of hazing within the school's famed marching band.
"Any death that occurs as a result of hazing is a third-degree felony," Demings said.
FAMU President Dr. James Ammons said the university is organizing an independent task force to "determine if there are patterns of inappropriate behavior within the culture" of the 375-member band.
Champion's family could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
Demings, in his remarks Tuesday, said his investigation "indicates that hazing was involved in the events that occurred prior to the 911 call for assistance.
"Anyone who participates in such events can be criminally charged," he said, adding that results of an autopsy performed Monday were inconclusive. More medical tests will be performed.
'Being terrorized'
Berlinda Johnson, whose son is a freshman and in the band, said she was in Orlando for the game and heard late Saturday that Champion had died. She told the Sentinel there were rumors that Champion had been beaten in the moments before he collapsed.
"Hazing has been ongoing throughout the year," she said. "This started the very first week of band camp."
In September, Johnson sent an email to band director White, which began, "Without my son's consent, I am sending you this e-mail…."
"Students are being terrorized and humiliated daily," she wrote. She gave examples: Her son had been "punched in the back while he was running around track" by a freshman section leader.
"This is now an official complaint," she wrote. "Please stop him and warn him that this verbal and physical abuse is serious business."
Johnson said she thinks White has tried hard to stop the hazing behavior, but other leaders in the band continue to participate.
FAMU parent Julie Lopez said her son, a band member, received a call from another student saying Champion was "crossing bus C" when he died.
She asked her son to describe the "rite of passage," which involves beating a new section member who is walking from the back to the front of a bus. To earn the respect and acceptance of his fellow drum majors, Champion may have endured this pummeling, all three parents who contacted the Sentinel said.
"Everyone was talking about it," Lopez said. "It was a planned event."
It is still unclear what type of hazing incident took place aboard the charter bus, and Demings would not answer questions at the news conference Tuesday.
'Very shocking'
Walter Kimbrough, an expert on hazing, said the prestige of the FAMU band — the drum-major position is particularly coveted — could entice students to submit to abuse.
"It's the most famous [college] band in the world, and so you can create rituals and customs in that band because people want to belong," said Kimbrough, president of the historically black Philander Smith University in Little Rock, Ark.
The problem, he said, is not confined to bands.
In 2005, Florida became one of the few states to make hazing a felony. The Chad Meredith law is named after a University of Miami student who drowned in 2001 after drinking during a fraternity hazing.
"It's a higher-education problem," Kimbrough said. "It just manifests in different ways."
Ocoee High band director and 1997 FAMU grad Bernard Hendricks called the recent incident "very sad, very shocking." And the possibility that the death was "band-related" is more of a shock, he said.
Hendricks marched in the band in the 1990s, and said he recalled some hazing but nothing physical.
"It was a lot more verbal and mental," he said.
Hendricks said if he made a mistake on the field, he "expected" someone to call him out.
Now that's he's a band director, Hendricks said he watches for hazing in his own classroom.
"As a teacher, I try to make sure that it doesn't creep into what I do."
On Tuesday, Bethune-Cookman University released a statement saying its president, Trudie Kibbe Reed, and the entire B-CU family offered its "sincerest condolences" to FAMU "and the family of drum major, Mr. Robert Champion, for their tragic loss."
In his remarks Tuesday, FAMU's Ammons addressed rumors that Champion was hazed, saying that the school was cooperating fully with the sheriff's investigation.
"Hazing is illegal," Ammons said, adding that the school is dealing with the issue and vowing to make sure "we end this practice."
The Tallahassee school has received seven reports of hazing in the past decade, officials said. Two of those cases resulted in the arrests of three people, according to university spokeswoman Sharon Saunders. The other cases were not prosecuted or the victims refused to cooperate, she said.
Saunders said the school has an anti-hazing policy, and band director White said he has dismissed more than two dozen band members recently because of possible hazing incidents.
Ammons said band performances would be halted "out of respect" for Champion's family.
Former FAMU marching-band member Marcus Parker won a $1.8 million verdict against members of the band in 2004, stemming from an incident in 2001, according to the Florida Times-Union newspaper in Jacksonville.
The newspaper reported that Parker was beaten with paddling boards so badly during a Marching 100 initiation that one of his kidneys shut down temporarily. Five men were held liable for his injuries.
Staff writers Jon Busdeker, Susan Jacobson and Jeff Weiner contributed to this report. arehernandez@tribune.com or 407-883-7796.
Copyright © 2011, Orlando Sentinel
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/os-famu-hazing-probe-robert-champion-20111122,0,6708845.story [ http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/os-famu-hazing-probe-robert-champion-20111122,0,3617190,full.story ]
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National Study Finds Widespread Sexual Harassment of Students in Grades 7 to 12
By JENNY ANDERSON
Published: November 7, 2011
Nearly half of 7th to 12th graders experienced sexual harassment in the last school year, according to a study [(via) http://www.aauw.org/learn/research/crossingtheline.cfm ] scheduled for release on Monday, with 87 percent of those who have been harassed reporting negative effects such as absenteeism, poor sleep and stomachaches.
On its survey of a nationally representative group of 1,965 students, the American Association of University Women [ http://www.aauw.org/ ], a nonprofit research organization, defined harassment as “unwelcome sexual behavior that takes place in person or electronically.” Over all, girls reported being harassed more than boys — 56 percent compared with 40 percent — though it was evenly divided during middle school. Boys were more likely to be the harassers, according to the study, and children from lower-income families reported more severe effects.
“It’s pervasive, and almost a normal part of the school day,” said Catherine Hill, the director of research at the association and one of the authors of the report.
Over all, 48 percent of students surveyed said they were harassed during the 2010-11 school year. Forty-four percent of students said they were harassed “in person” — being subjected to unwelcome comments or jokes, inappropriate touching or sexual intimidation — and 30 percent reported online harassment, like receiving unwelcome comments, jokes or pictures through texts, e-mail, Facebook and other tools, or having sexual rumors, information or pictures spread about them.
Whatever the medium, more girls were victims: 52 percent of girls said they had been harassed in person, and 36 percent online, compared with 35 percent of boys who were harassed in person and 24 percent online.
“I was called a whore because I have many friends that are boys,” one ninth-grade girl was quoted as saying. An eighth-grade boy, meanwhile, reported, “They spread rumors I was gay because I played on the basketball team.”
The study asked students to reflect on the 2010-11 school year in an attempt to capture the prevalence of sexual harassment, the effects it has on the harassed and the reasons the harassers engage in the behavior. It also questioned students about preventive measures. Coming amid increased attention to bullying and cyber-bullying, the report aimed to highlight the damaging effects of inappropriate sexual comments, online rumors or lurid Facebook posts.
“Bullying is getting a lot of attention,” said Holly Kearl, an author of the report and program manager of the university association’s Advocacy Fund. “We don’t want schools to forget about sexual harassment” and not talk about it, she said. Ms. Kearl said some schools that talk to students about sexual harassment and how to respond to it have been successful in reducing it. “We want to encourage schools to know what Title IX is,” she said, referring to the federal law that prohibits discrimination based on gender in schools, “to have a coordinator and to publicize it.”
The report documents many forms of harassment. The most common was unwelcome sexual comments, gestures or jokes, which was experienced by 46 percent of girls and 22 percent of boys. Separately, 13 percent of girls reported being touched in an unwelcome way, compared with 3 percent of boys; 3.5 percent of girls said they were forced to do something sexual, as did 0.2 percent of boys. About 18 percent of both boys and girls reported being called gay or lesbian in a negative way.
In the survey, students were asked to identify what had the worst effect on them. For boys, it was being called gay — “Everyone was saying I was gay, and I felt the need to have to run away and hide,” a ninth-grader said. For girls, the leading problem was having someone make “unwelcome sexual comments, jokes or gestures to or about you.”
Girls also reported more negative consequences: 37 percent said they did not want to go to school after being harassed, versus 25 percent of boys. Twenty-two percent of girls who were harassed said they had trouble sleeping, compared with 14 percent of boys; 37 percent of girls felt sick to their stomach, versus 21 percent of boys.
Those students who experienced both online and in-person harassment experienced the worst effects: 46 percent said they did not want to go to school, 44 percent felt sick to their stomachs and 43 percent found it hard to study.
Half of those who were harassed said they did nothing about it; 9 percent said they reported the incident to an adult at school; and 27 percent of students (32 percent of girls and 20 percent of boys) said they talked about it with a family member.
When asked what types of students were most at risk of harassment, students said “good-looking boys” were the safest, with pretty girls, ugly girls and feminine boys the likely targets. Girls whose bodies are most developed are the most at-risk, students said.
“This is an issue that’s especially complex for girls, though it affects all students,” Ms. Hill said. “Boys are targets, and girls can be harassers.”
*
Related
Times Topic: Sexual Harassment
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/s/sexual_harassment/index.html
*
© 2011 The New York Times Company
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/07/education/widespread-sexual-harassment-in-grades-7-to-12-found-in-study.html
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Brandon McInerney gets 21 years: School faulted in gay teen slaying
Brandon McInerney, left, and Larry King.
Credit: E.O. Green Junior High School 2006-07 yearbook
November 22, 2011 | 7:11 am
As Brandon McInerney agreed to spend the next 21 years in prison for fatally shooting gay middle-school classmate Larry King, the actions of school officials have come under scrutiny from both sides in the case.
McInerney's attorneys presented evidence during the trial that school officials could have done more to prevent the violence, a point King's mother also expressed in an interview with The Times on Monday.
McInerney, who was 14 when he pulled a gun out of his backpack and shot King two times at point-blank range, will be kept behind bars until he is 38 under the terms [ http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-1122-gay-shooting-20111122,0,425342.story ] of the deal struck by Ventura County prosecutors.
The victim's mother, Dawn King, revealed for the first time Monday that she had contacted school officials four days before the shooting in an effort to solicit their cooperation in toning down her son's behavior. The boy had been taken from the Kings' home two months earlier by authorities because of domestic problems.
She said she was told that her son had a civil right to explore his sexual identity.
"I knew, gut instinct, that something serious was going to happen," she said. "They should have contained him, contained his behavior."
School administrators sent a memo advising teachers to give King his space, but to report safety problems. Teachers at the trial testified that when they tried to report growing tensions between King and several boys, school leaders shunned them.
McInerney shot King in a school computer lab at E.O Green Junior High in Oxnard in February 2008 after days of conflict between the boys. Students and teachers at the trial testified that King had been dressing in women's accessories and wearing makeup, and was flirting aggressively with male students on campus who did not want the attention.
Assistant Principal Joy Epstein has come under criticism for allegedly being more intent on protecting King's civil rights than in acknowledging that his dress and behavior were causing problems.
"It was reported, more than once, by more than one person,'' said English teacher Dawn Boldrin. "It was documented. There is paperwork on this. She kept saying that she didn't know and she did. She knew. She did. Everybody knew."
Epstein, who testified for the prosecution, denied that anyone on the campus relayed concerns about King's safety before the shooting.
Copyright 2011 Los Angeles Times
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/11/brandon-mcinerney-school-criticized-by-both-sides-in-gay-teen-slaying-case.html [with comments]
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Mom faults authorities in suicide of daughter who tweeted about abuse
Video [embedded]
Teen tweets about abuse before suicide
By the CNN Wire Staff
updated 8:42 PM EST, Tue November 15, 2011
(CNN) -- The mother of a Texas teen who killed herself after reportedly sending more than 140 tweets detailing years of sexual abuse spoke out on Tuesday, faulting law enforcement for failing her daughter.
Before 18-year-old Ashley Billasano took her life last week, she poured her heart out on Twitter.
She reportedly sent 144 messages in six hours, touching on allegations of sexual abuse, the pain it caused and her long struggle for justice. According to one tweet, the final straw for Billasano was a phone call telling her it was unlikely her alleged abuser would ever be prosecuted, according to the Houston Chronicle.
By Tuesday, Billasano's Twitter messages had been removed.
"She gave up. She felt like nothing was ever going to happen, nobody was ever going to believe her," Billasano's mother, Tiffany Ruiz Leskinen, told CNN's Brooke Baldwin.
"It was almost as if they were treating her like she was the one under investigation instead of her being the victim. She felt like they were really insensitive to what had gone on," she said, referring to officials working the case. "They say that they did what they could to protect her, but they let her back into the home where she was abused."
Billasano was not living with her mother at the time of her death.
However, Dayna Blazey, assistant district attorney at the Travis County district attorney's office, defended authorities' handling of the investigation. She told CNN's Baldwin that she was not aware of anyone in her jurisdiction telling Billasano a criminal case was not being pursued.
"The status of the case is that it's still open; it's still pending. At this point, what we have to do is we have to go back and we have to look at the evidence that we have in this case, in light of knowing that Ashley is not going to be available to testify," Blazey said. "Our hearts go out to Ashley and her family."
Similarly, Texas Child and Protective Services said that it was looking into Billasano's case.
"Earlier this year, Child Protective Services (CPS) conducted a thorough, five-month investigation, interviewing 11 individuals who we believed might have had relevant information to share with us. As a result of that investigation, we were unable to confirm that abuse had occurred," spokesman Patrick Crimmins said in a statement.
"However, because of Ashley's death, we are taking a second look at the case and our focus will be to ensure that any remaining children in the household are free from abuse," he said, confirming that her death was a suicide.
On Tuesday, Billasano's mother described her daughter as beautiful, outgoing and loving.
"She was really accepting and driven. She knew what she wanted out of life," said Ruiz Leskinen.
She said her daughter had dealt with bullying and bulimia and was sexually abused for years by a man who "was supposed to be the very one to protect her." Before her torrent of tweets, Billasano had struggled to talk about the abuse, her mother said, in part because she feared no one would believe her.
Shortly before killing herself, Billasano addressed a message to anyone paying attention to her Twitter account, according to the Houston Chronicle.
"That's the story of how I came to be who I am," she wrote, the paper reported. "Well, the condensed version. I'd love to hear what you have to say. But I won't be around."
© 2011 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.
http://www.cnn.com/2011/11/15/us/texas-teen-suicide/index.html [with comments]
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(linked in):
from earlier this string, http://investorshub.advfn.com/boards/read_msg.aspx?message_id=69269782 and preceding and following
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from John Philpot Curran, Speech
upon the Right of Election, 1790
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