School Scandals and Abductions

1

Scandals against School Children

5/12/2013 1:23:53 PM

School Children Scandals How bad are the problems? (Children placed at risk commuting between home and school.) News etc. digested by Alister William Macintyre A collection of incidents, which appear to fit similar patterns, to try to see how frequently these problems happen, and where our state-of-art most needs improvement. Last updated 2013 May-12 Version 0.8

Table of contents Introduction......................................................................................................................... 3 Copying Permission ........................................................................................................ 4 Conclusion Summary...................................................................................................... 5 Mass Shooting Summary ............................................................................................ 5 Drivers should know ................................................................................................... 6 Lessons for parents ......................................................................................................... 6 What NOT to do, when child goes missing .................................................................... 9 What to do if your child is missing............................................................................... 10 Call 911..................................................................................................................... 10 Other Emergency Services........................................................................................ 12 Family Search Organization ..................................................................................... 13 After Most Critical Reactions ................................................................................... 16 Amber Alerts................................................................................................................. 17 Amber ignores some children ................................................................................... 20 Amber Alert suggestion ................................................................................................ 22 Social Media debates my Amber idea .......................................................................... 22 School Bus Abductions and similar events....................................................................... 25 Alabama: Midland City................................................................................................. 26 Arizona: Prescott Incident............................................................................................. 26 California: Los Angeles 3 Incidents ............................................................................. 27 California: Moreno 7 Incidents..................................................................................... 27 California: Morgan Hill Incident .................................................................................. 28 California: Oakland....................................................................................................... 28 California: Selma Incident ............................................................................................ 28 Colorado 3 Incidents ..................................................................................................... 28 Connecticut ................................................................................................................... 29 Florida 9 Incidents ........................................................................................................ 29 Fl – Brenda Heist – homeless fantasy....................................................................... 31 Georgia: Augusta Health Safety ................................................................................... 34 Georgia: Atlanta Sniper Incident .................................................................................. 34

1

Al folder: Studies / Scandals

2

Scandals against School Children

5/12/2013 1:23:53 PM

Idaho: Child locked up and forgotten ........................................................................... 34 Illinois: Chicago DUI Incident...................................................................................... 37 Illinois: Chicago ambush Incident ................................................................................ 37 Illinois: Mount Carmel Incident.................................................................................... 37 Indiana: Evansville Incidents ........................................................................................ 38 Maryland: Baltimore Incidents ..................................................................................... 38 Maryland: Marlboro Incident........................................................................................ 38 Maryland: McLean 44 years ago .................................................................................. 38 Massachusetts: Concord Incident ................................................................................. 38 Massachusetts: Hingham 3 Incidents............................................................................ 39 Massachusetts: Watertown DUI Incident ..................................................................... 39 Michigan: Rape Friendly School Bus Stops ................................................................. 39 Michigan: Ann Arbor 2 Incidents ................................................................................. 39 Michigan: Armada Incident .......................................................................................... 40 Michigan: Riverview Incident ...................................................................................... 40 Missouri: Jackson Incident ........................................................................................... 40 Missouri: Liberty Incident ............................................................................................ 40 Missouri: Riverside 4 Incidents .................................................................................... 41 Nebraska Sniper Incident.............................................................................................. 41 New Jersey: Gloucester City Oops Incident ................................................................. 41 New York City 33 years ago......................................................................................... 41 New York: New Rochelle Skewed Priorities................................................................ 42 North Carolina: 2 Incidents........................................................................................... 42 Ohio Cleveland Kidnap................................................................................................. 43 Oh Cl authorities stories+ ......................................................................................... 43 Oh Cl summary sources overview+.......................................................................... 44 Oh Cl Who’s Who .................................................................................................... 45 Oh Cl – Amanda Berry and family ........................................................................... 46 Oh Cl – Gina DeJesus and family............................................................................. 47 Oh Cl – Michelle Knight and family ........................................................................ 47 Oh Cl – Ashley Nicole Summers.............................................................................. 47 Oh Cl - Suspect and Family ...................................................................................... 48 Oh Cl Time Line ....................................................................................................... 48 2013 May-6 Monday Ramsey rescues Berry for successful 911.............................. 49 2012+ Time Line continues ...................................................................................... 51 2007+ = Year of Ashley Summers disappearance.................................................... 51 2004+ = Year of Gina DeJesus abduction ................................................................ 52 2003+ = Year of Amanda Berry abduction .............................................................. 54 2002+ = Year of Michelle Knight abduction............................................................ 55 Oh Cl Horror Stories................................................................................................. 57 Oh Cl – Missed opportunities ................................................................................... 57 Oh Cl – claims police called ..................................................................................... 58 Oh Cl similar patterns, statistics, suspicions, mitigation .......................................... 59 Ohio Winter .................................................................................................................. 60 Oregon: Eugene Incident .............................................................................................. 61 Pennsylvania: Altoona Incident .................................................................................... 61

2

Al folder: Studies / Scandals

3

Scandals against School Children

5/12/2013 1:23:53 PM

Puerto Rico.................................................................................................................... 62 South Carolina .............................................................................................................. 62 Texas: Austin bus stop safety ....................................................................................... 63 Texas: Fort Worth Incident........................................................................................... 63 Texas: Greenville 3 Incidents ....................................................................................... 63 Texas: Lubbock............................................................................................................. 64 Texas: Houston Kindergarten Incidents........................................................................ 65 Utah: Child Hostile – 2 Incidents.................................................................................. 65 Virginia: Cheriton 2 Incidents ...................................................................................... 66 Virginia: Norfolk Incident ............................................................................................ 67 Virginia: Lynchburg Incident ....................................................................................... 67 West Virginia 3 Incidents ............................................................................................. 67 Foreign to USA also has school safety issues............................................................... 68 It also happens in the Middle East ............................................................................ 68 Schools in India do not believe in child safety ......................................................... 68 School Violence ................................................................................................................ 69 Motorists passing a Stopped School Bus ...................................................................... 70 Other Driving Safety................................................................................................. 72 Revision History ............................................................................................................... 73 May-12 Version 0.8 .................................................................................................. 73 2013 May-8-9 Version 0.7........................................................................................ 74 2012 Dec-18 Version 0.6 .......................................................................................... 74 Nov-18 Version 0.3................................................................................................... 74 Nov-16 Version 0.2................................................................................................... 75 Nov-16 Version 0.1................................................................................................... 75 Nov 15 Nancy Grace................................................................................................. 75

Introduction I am hearing a number of disturbing stories about children placed at risk, and authorities apparently often dropping the ball when it comes to the protection and safety of the children. The parents need to independently contact services which take this sort of thing seriously,1 the news media, and post signs with photo of child and info related to the disappearance, such as when last seen, what the child was wearing. Some years ago, I looked into a controversy regarding school bus safety. Proponents of school buses claim that school buses are the safest means of travel for children to and from school. However, the statistics in support of this claim, exclude incidents of children being killed in traffic accidents after they have got off the school bus, or are crossing the street to get on the bus, where motorists ignore the school bus stop warnings.2 There are also incidents where children waiting at bus stop, which do not go 1

http://www.missingkids.com/missingkids/servlet/PublicHomeServlet?LanguageCountry=en_US http://www.blackandmissinginc.com/cdad/ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/missing-persons/ 2 http://thetandd.com/news/local/troopers-set-to-target-motorists-who-pass-stopped-schoolbuses/article_8b5d2876-ffa4-11e1-aafa-0019bb2963f4.html

3

Al folder: Studies / Scandals

4

Scandals against School Children

5/12/2013 1:23:53 PM

into these statistics. If you include 100% of incidents involving bus stops, the conclusion is that school buses are *not* the safest means of travel. Also, there is a federal agency which has done crash tests with dummies in school buses, wearing lap belts, shoulder belts, and no safety belts. They found that the most dangerous to children is lap belts without shoulder belts. In a school bus crash, the torso flies forwards, hits back of seat in front, the head is snapped back, with serious injury, or even death to the child. Many states mandate the lap belt, without shoulder belt, for school buses. In my earlier reading up on this, I was only looking at traffic accidents. It had not dawned on me that school bus stops are a playground for rapists and pedophiles. There’s a lot of pictures painted by TV news and popular shows. Some of these pictures are distorted, not statistically representative of reality. Some of them are true, valid. Different people have perceptions on where the dividing line is. When someone disagrees with me, I try to get at the truth, show the different viewpoints, and credible citations. No matter what your politics, I try to be polite. Some people propose solutions which I can have many problems with. Arguing about some of them can be off-topic for what I am trying to do here:  Figure out what has been happening, see if there really are disturbing patterns.  Identify the problems which repeat too often.  Share workable solutions.  Speculate what we can do to improve state-of-art of dealing with this.

Copying Permission I get info from both the general copyrighted3 news media, and sources which are under Creative Commons license, carefully providing citations. For the stuff which is purely my ideas, I think of them as being under Creative Commons,4 meaning anyone may use the material, but I ask that you give me credit. Please try not to imply that I endorse your stuff. Basically, it should be Ok for you to copy, alter, and otherwise publish the contents provided that proper attribution is given, and you are not making money off of it. If you are making money off it, you need to back trace my citations to get the appropriate permissions. I make a sincere effort to make sure my information is accurate, for many reasons, but I cannot assert that it is 100% correct. I can make mistakes, and sometimes my sources have made mistakes, or may have an agenda or bias contrary to truth. Other people need to do some due diligence with any information source.

3 4

4

http://www.whatiscopyright.org/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/

Al folder: Studies / Scandals

5

Scandals against School Children

5/12/2013 1:23:53 PM

Conclusion Summary I do not know the statistics of kids being abducted, raped, assaulted, hit by autos, in association with their use of school bus stops, or how they get to and from school. But it is evident that more can be done to improve their safety. 

The penalty for motorists trying to run down children at school buses, should be higher than for motorists who try to run down road construction workers. It may not be deliberate, but whether accident or ignorance, making high penalty, then widely advertising a $1,000 fine and 1 year suspension of license, or whatever the penalty, will have a chilling effect on motorists who otherwise ignore school buses.  School bus stops should be sufficiently well lighted that children do not have to be waiting in the dark.  School bus stops should be added to list of locations where smoking is prohibited.  School buses can have cameras to record motorists who ignore school bus stop warnings, so that the police can issue citations to the vehicle owners.  School buses should have green lights to tell motorists when it is Ok to go past them.  School buses can be painted with numbers, so people who witness them being operated unsafely, can report which one.  Seat Belt Crash studies need to be better communicated to state legislatures, perhaps using a GAO investigation: (a) what is the best safety info known so far? (b) which states rules are best / worst for the children in those states? Rank the states by their so-called safety rules, and their enforcement.  20 mph signs, for motorists approaching school zones, should have flashing lights which are activated (a) by timer for before / after school / lunch time = when students most likely to be coming or going from the school (b) Principal office have controls to adjust the timer schedule.  Department of Education, or Department of Justice, should start to capture statistics on harm to children associated with commuting to and from school, to indicate which of these problems are serious enough to improve safety. CCTV cameras along routes school children commute between school, home, and school bus stops, won’t prevent abductions, but they will capture info about the kidnappers and their vehicles, to improve police ability to catch up with them sooner rather than later.

Mass Shooting Summary See my separate research notes “Mass Shootings” starting around page 72, for what transpired Dec 2012 at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown CT. Within those notes, I share what many people have suggested to mitigate risks for schools, and add my commentary on which of them I think are good / bad ideas. In my opinion, some of the best ideas:  At the University level, start classes for Police who will be working in schools, or responding to schools. They need to know that children are not little adults, so the measures they take against big adults are not appropriate. They need to know

5

Al folder: Studies / Scandals

6

Scandals against School Children



 

 

5/12/2013 1:23:53 PM

what is appropriate, based on age gender disability etc. Issue graduation certificates with grades earned in these classes, and copy to local school districts, so school leadership can specifically ask for police who know what they are doing. Major building complexes have lock boxes located near the building, but outside of it, containing blue prints and residency statistics. Fire Depts have standard keys, local building management have keys. In an emergency, the Fire Dept has needed info. On a monthly basis, building management reviews occupancy and updates what is there. Schools need a similar arrangement with their Police Depts so 911 operators can look up how many students are there, ages, disabilities, how many faculty staff, and a map of the facility. Schools should have a specific alarm saying they need the police, using a land line, like a fire alarm. This is because in many natural disasters, the cell phones go out, so it may be impractical to call 911. Entrances to schools should be rethought, so people trying to break in are slowed down enough until police can arrive. Entrances and Exits need big picture thinking, so kids can get out rapidly if there is a fire, yet avoid the exits being abused like what happened with the Aurora Theater shooting, or the Social Security Administration failed audit. The law against plastic guns, invisible to metal detectors, needs to be amended to include guns made by 3D printers. Background checks should be extended to everyone who buys a gun, and their immediate family. If there is within a household, a person banned from guns, such as mental ill, felon, domestic abuser, then gun purchaser must be using a gun safe.

Drivers should know Apparently many motorists are ignorant of the basics of School Buses. School buses are used to transport children between their schools, and the vicinity of their homes. Most, but not all, are yellow. Children often do not have the mental development to safely cross streets, without the assistance of adults. With school buses, this involves the school bus being a rolling traffic signal system, and motorists heeding the signals from the bus. The bus will often stop places, where there are no obvious bus stops, so you should not be tailgating the bus. Keep a close watch if a school bus is about to stop. When its lights start flashing, and it sticks out the stop sign, you should stop, and wait until its lights stop flashing, and it retracts the stop sign. You may not see them clearly, but small children may be trying to cross the road.

Lessons for parents Before your child is placed at risk, there are things you can do to lessen the chances it ever happens, and to increase the chances of rapid rescue, if it does happen. Whenever possible,  Request a DNA kit from your nearest State Police Post. Make sure you have appropriate info on your child, easily accessible, in case of a future crisis. Keep 6

Al folder: Studies / Scandals

7

Scandals against School Children



 



      

 

current identification on each child (such as a recent photo, video, fingerprints, hair sample, blood type, identifying marks, and physical description) in a safe accessible place. Know how to obtain your child's dental x-rays and medical records. Seek an id for your child, and keep a copy of it for your reference. The various state motor vehicle agencies, in addition to driver’s licenses for people eligible to have them, can also issue identity cards to other people. There are also private organizations which issue id cards, which can help your child identify self, 5 but may not be any good for legal identification purposes, at places which require photo id. Make it a routine to take at least one head and shoulders photograph of your loved ones each year. Be aware that child proximity to home does not increase safety. In a study of 775 child abductions, which led to their murder, more than ½ the abductions occurred within 3 blocks of the child’s home. 6 Be sure your child is supervised, even when in front yard or home street. Approx 1/3 the abductions occurred within ½ block of the child’s home. Be aware of strangers and unusual behavior in your neighborhood. Many child abductions are witnessed by people who do not realize a crime is occurring. Teach your child not to cross the road where it is not safe. If the school bus does not have the stop sign extended, the flashing lights on, then it is not safe to cross. Even when the school bus does everything right, there are motorists who do not, so as soon as you can, teach the child about looking for coming vehicles. Know the routes your child takes to and from school, friends' homes and other activities. Tell your children they should never approach or get into the car of anyone, stranger or not, without explicit parental permission, do not accept their word for it. Approx ½ child abductions are by someone who was not a stranger.7 Ask your children to get in the habit of keeping parents informed on their planned whereabouts, get there, who will be going with child, and when expect to be back. Have an adult wait at the bus stop until the child is onto the bus. Have an adult wait at the bus stop, where the child is expected to get off. Ask the school to notify you if there is to be a change in the school bus schedule, such as the school day being ended early. Teach the child about crossing the street safely, including risk of proximity of school bus blocking visibility vs. dangerous drivers. 8 In addition to looking both ways, walk where school bus driver can see you, and when get to where cars might be passing the bus, look again, to make sure none there, before walking into the roadway. Accompany the child all the way between home and bus stop. Teach your children their full names, addresses and phone numbers.

5

http://www.amberalert.com/ http://www.atg.wa.gov/ChildAbductionResearch.aspx 7 http://www.atg.wa.gov/ChildAbductionResearch.aspx 8 http://www.hlntv.com/video/2012/09/27/school-bus-safety-natasha-curry-wxp 6

7

5/12/2013 1:23:53 PM

Al folder: Studies / Scandals

8

Scandals against School Children       

    

  



5/12/2013 1:23:53 PM

Make sure the child knows how to phone home in a crisis.9 Teach your children how to make a long distance call (both directly to you using the area code and by dialing "0" for the operator). Know your neighbors and your child's friends, including their names, addresses and telephone numbers. Sew the child’s name, and other identity info, inside their clothing, to help police if the child is ever found by them. Teach the child about situational awareness, such as what to do if the school bus catches on fire.10 Before leaving your child in the care of a day-care, pre-school, baby sitter, or youth organization, check their references and qualifications. Ask if criminal background checks are conducted before new staff members are hired. Guide the child on the avoidance of stranger behavior. Teach your child what to do if approached by a stranger. Common uses are offering a ride, gifts or candy, asking the child to help them look for a lost dog or cat, or claiming that the child's parent has asked them to bring the child home because of an emergency. You also be aware of stranger behavior. Is anyone, who is a stranger to you, giving gifts to the child? Listen to your child; don't disregard their fears. Instead, let them know that you take their fears and concerns seriously. Be involved in your child's activities by volunteering at school, clubs, and sporting events - participate in a neighborhood watch program. Work with neighborhood watch to identify safe homes near school and near home, along commute route, that your child knows to run to in an emergency. Work with neighborhood watch to see about getting a CCTV view of school bus stops in your neighborhood, where cameras look in all directions. Thus, the next time there is an attempt on a child in the vicinity of the bus stop, there is some evidence to help identify the culprits, which the news media can use, even if the police do nothing. Periodically check school records on names of adults authorized to take custody of the child from school, and from school bus. There have been reports of kidnappings from the schools, by people like Jerry Sandusky. Learn how to work location tracking, associated with any consumer electronics normally carried by the child. Write your police chief, sheriff and other elected officials, in support of the Amber Alert Plan, police missing person programs, and other child safety efforts; write the general managers of your local radio and TV stations in support of the Amber Alert Plan and the Emergency Alert System. Learn about Internet risk avoidance, with your kids.

9

Many years ago I had extra change, for pay phone, in a baggie separate from my coin purse, and also in the baggie were phone numbers for emergency services, and friends of my parents, in case no answer at home. 10 http://thetandd.com/news/school-bus-fires-in-days-raise-concerns/article_638af62c-d1fe-11e0-90bd001cc4c03286.html

8

Al folder: Studies / Scandals

9

Scandals against School Children        



5/12/2013 1:23:53 PM

Review the web sites of Missing Child Organizations for volunteer opportunities, such as e-mailing or distributing posters of missing children. Check out the Polly Klaas Foundation.11 They have guidelines for how to prepare children, without it being scary. If you do not already have one, buy a cellular phone or pager so you can be reached when you are away from home. Ask law enforcement to install a trap and trace on your phone. Install a phone with the ability to tape calls. Learn the laws in your state, regarding phone taping. Some require some way of informing callers that there calls are being recorded. Ask your telephone company to install caller ID on your telephone line. Keep a phone log, a pad of paper, or a spiral notebook next to the phone to record the date and time of phone calls, the name of the caller, and other information. If your child is old enough to have a cell phone, or similar consumer electronics, make sure they know to have it turned off when in school, so it does not get confiscated. A kidnapper may try to turn off its location tracking capability, but you can prevent that in advance. Here’s How.12 Good Housekeeping. When I was burglarized, the police said there was too much dust in the house, for them to get finger prints.

The above list is a mixture of common sense dreamed up by me, and ideas I found on various sites I have visited.13

What NOT to do, when child goes missing    

  

Do not panic. Do not delay in searching. Time can be of the essence. Do not keep their disappearance a secret, the more you tell, the more people you have looking on your behalf and speedier the results might be. Do not tidy up their bedroom until the police have seen it, mess or not. But it is Ok to do a quick review of what the child may have taken, which is unusual to take, or if it looks like the house was broken into. This info can be of critical aid to the police. Do not dust before fingerprints have been taken. Don't be put off ... you know your own ... follow your intuition. Do not wait - if missing person is vulnerable, notify the police as soon as you think something is wrong.

11

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polly_Klaas_Foundation http://www.klaaskids.org/pg-missingchildren.htm http://www.pollyklaas.org/ http://www.klaaskids.org/ http://www.beyondmissing.com/ 12 http://www.itworld.com/consumerization-it/312613/how-stop-thieves-turning-your-find-my-iphone-app 13 http://www.in.gov/amberalert/2335.htm

9

Al folder: Studies / Scandals

10

Scandals against School Children   

5/12/2013 1:23:53 PM

Do not put your own telephone numbers or address on posters or advertisements, to avoid hoaxes - use the police numbers. Do not put info on the posters which will put the child at risk of identity theft later in life. Do not give up, keep appealing and searching. Remember, people want to help. Try and keep the name and photo in the public eye.

Above list adapted from places with links all over the place. 14

What to do if your child is missing Act immediately if you believe your child is missing. Download the Quick Reference Guide for Families15 in English or Spanish. What to Do If Your Child is Missing: 





If your child is missing, search the house checking closets, piles of laundry, in and under beds, inside large appliances, and inside vehicles, including trunks— wherever a child may crawl or hide. If your child disappears in a store, notify the store manager or security office. Then immediately call your local law-enforcement agency. Many stores have a Code Adam plan of action— if a child is missing in the store, employees immediately mobilize to look for the missing child. Always have a note pad handy. Jot down a record of everyone you talked to, their contact info. After your child is found, you will want to call them with the good news, thank them for their help, and call off the search.

Call 911 



In the few minutes before calling the police, search for, and jot down the info they will need, such as the stuff on this missing person check list.16 Maybe print out a copy, and fill in the blanks. This will help you organize your thoughts, avoid panic, and make your communication with the police go efficiently. You might want to put little check marks beside things, as you tell the police, so it becomes obvious what they have not yet been told. Later, after this info has gone to the police, you might want to visit a photo copy machine, to make sure both parents, and closest friends have a copy. Block out personal identity info of a nature that might place the child at risk of identity theft, later in life. If you cannot find your child, immediately call your local law enforcement agency. If you meet resistance, with police not wanting to accept your missing child report, demand to speak to the watch commander and insist that they take a

14

http://www.missing.ws/checklist.htm http://www.missing.ws/checklist1.html 15 http://www.missingkids.com/missingkids/servlet/PageServlet?LanguageCountry=en_US&PageId=244 16 http://www.acmeinvestigations.com/mpc.htm

10

Al folder: Studies / Scandals

11

Scandals against School Children

5/12/2013 1:23:53 PM

report, and enter the information into the National Crime Information Computer (NCIC) at once. 

When you call law enforcement, provide o your child's name, any nick name, o age, date of birth, o gender, o race, ethnicity, skin tone/complexion, o physical description, any birth marks, freckles, recent injuries, tattoos, missing body parts, o height, weight, 17 o the most recent photograph (both color, and black & white) of the child, o the child's fingerprints, hair sample, blood type, o any medication (name, what for, type (pill, liquid, etc.) (inhaler, Asthma, brand name, etc.) the child is taking, medical condition: what is it, and how does it manifest itself (Epilepsy... seizures, etc.). o any other unique identifiers such as eyeglasses and braces. o Their cell phone #, e-mail accounts, favorite social media, if any. 





 

17

Tell them when you noticed that your child was missing and what clothing he or she was wearing. What accessories (usual jewelry, book bag, keys, cell phone, etc.) and Incidentals (when they went missing) (bicycle, pool cue, briefcase, etc.), normally with them. What Were They Doing (going to school, leaving work, at a friend’s house, etc.), when last seen or heard from. If you suspect someone in particular, let the investigator know right away. Create an information sheet for that person the same way you have done for the missing person, with whatever information you have or can gather. Let the investigator determine if that person is involved or not... not you. Any speculation you might have which might contribute to the child disappearance, even if it turns out to not be true, it can help the investigation check out leads to prove or disprove those speculations. Even fragmentary information is helpful. Let the investigator sort it out; they are supposed to know what to do and how to do it. Information such as “recent custody dispute”, “argument with boyfriend last night”, “threats from a former employee”, and “I really have no idea” are all relevant until disproved by investigation. Request that your child's name and identifying information be immediately entered into the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) Missing Person File. The police may wish to search your home, garage, car, etc. looking for your child, or evidence about the child. Cooperate. You have already done that, but as soon as the police satisfy themselves the child is not in the obvious places, the more resources to look further afield. Also, police searching child’s room, child’s possessions, may turn up clues which did not occur to you. Until the

http://suite101.com/article/steps-to-take-for-missing-children-a22635

11

Al folder: Studies / Scandals

12

Scandals against School Children



5/12/2013 1:23:53 PM

police are done with this, try to keep other people out of those areas, so as not to get evidence contaminated. The police may ask you to take a polygraph test. Cooperate. The sooner they are convinced you had nothing to do with your child’s disappearance, the better. There have been cases where the police became fixated on the notion that the family was responsible, not done a good search of other suspects. When police find one suspect, they often diminish investigation of other suspects.

Other Emergency Services 

  



After you have reported your child missing to law enforcement, call the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) on the toll-free telephone number: 1-800-THE-LOST (1-800-843-5678). Or you can use Live Hotline to talk to NCMEC through their website. The National Center can issue e-mail alerts about your missing child, distribute posters with your child's photo and information nationwide, and provide support and other resources for you and your family.18 - The following links from John Walsh’s America’s Most Wanted19 - What to do If Your Child Is Missing - Information about International Abduction - Where to Report Child Sexual Exploitation - Child-Sexual-Exploitation State Resources - Learn about Keeping Your Child Safer - Learn about how to stay safer online with the NetSmartzWorkshop Do *not* put child date of birth on the posters. Otherwise, you are placing the child at risk of identity theft later in life. Contact your local child locator service.20 Consider calling your State police directly.21 This is especially important if you are in a small town, or community, whose police force has limited resources, limited relevant training. Consider calling the FBI directly.22 This is critically useful if you get a ransom demand, especially if the crooks tell you not to notify law enforcement. Tell that to the FBI, and they can sneak into your home, without the crooks knowing, tap your phone line, do all sorts of electronic magic to trace the crooks. If you suspect a predatory abduction, tell the FBI. The FBI will initiate a kidnapping investigation involving a missing child of tender years, defined as a child twelve years or younger, even though there is no known interstate aspect. The FBI will monitor other kidnapping situations when there is no evidence of interstate travel, and it offers assistance from various entities including the FBI Laboratory. They

18

http://www.amw.com/missing_children/resources.cfm http://www.amw.com/missing_children/resources.cfm 20 http://www.klaaskids.org/pg-mc-childlocators.htm 21 http://www.pdi-web.com/missing-children.html 22 http://www.acmeinvestigations.com/MissingPersons.htm 19

12

Al folder: Studies / Scandals

13

Scandals against School Children





5/12/2013 1:23:53 PM

have written protocols, dedicated agents, unsurpassed resources and vast experience in this specialized investigative field. If you suspect your child has been kidnapped: - Contact the National Center For Missing and Exploited Children at 1-800THE-LOST. - Contact Team H.O.P.E., a parent support network for families with missing children. Team H.O.P.E. volunteer parents have experienced the agony of searching for their own children. They provide practical and emotional support for parents whose children are victims of predatory kidnapping, parental abduction, international abduction, adult missing and runaways and can be reached at 1-800-306-6311. If you suspect your child is a run away: - Contact the National Runaway Switchboard www.1800runaway.org at 1800-786 2929.

Family Search Organization 







Do not stop there, since some local police are not competent to do a good job to locate a missing child, especially in small communities whose police have limited resources. Also many police depts can get overwhelmed, and not give your case the attention it ought to get. So in addition with periodically checking with the police to ask if they are making any progress, there is stuff the family and friends can do, in addition to the role of the police. Have different members of the family focus in different areas, keeping in touch regularly to be reassured what has been accomplished so far. o Other agencies, than the police, to be contacted. o Calling around to people who may have seen your child. o Preparing press release for the news media. o Preparing posters to enlist help from the community. o One person to be liaison with the police, then brief the family on what the police said, in latest meetings. o Coordinating volunteers involved in a physical search. o Someone to take the info from your note pad, enter into a computer, organize your diary notes various different ways. Plan on at least one parent staying home, or other person known to your child, in case the missing child calls home. Before you wear yourself out, frantically touring the neighborhoods in person, where you think your child may sometimes go, phone friends and neighbors asking them not only if they have seen your child, but for them to also get the word out that she is missing. As people phone you, ask them to keep the phone line clear of any conversations which do not help find the child, in case there is an incoming call, which has relevant help. As you call around to your child’s teachers, homes of friends, relatives, anyone you can think of, etc. have a notebook or note pad handy, to jot down as much info as you can, especially about when and where the child was last seen, as quickly as you can, in as calm a manner as you can manage. The more calm you remain, the better you can help find the missing person. You’ll have time to beat yourself up emotionally later.

13

Al folder: Studies / Scandals

14

Scandals against School Children 











 







  

14

5/12/2013 1:23:53 PM

When calling around, also ask if they have recent photos, of the child, which may be more recent than what you got to the police, or perhaps better quality such as close up poses. Also jot down names of other people who were known to be at the last places the child was seen, in close proximity to the times the child last seen. They are additional potential witnesses. If anyone, in these calls, has useful info, ask them to call the police, in case the police have additional questions, which did not occur to you, or the witnesses. Keep a record of everyone you talked to, their contact info. After your child is found, you will want to call them with the good news, thank them for their help, and call off the search. Always keep a note pad with you, to jot down ideas, info as you get it. Pass on to the police any new info you find, which might help their investigation. If the police tell you to stop doing your personal investigations and search for your child, seek a second opinion from a lawyer, missing child organization, or other links shared in this list of suggestions. Start generating a list of duties that volunteers could help you with, including participating in a physical search, designing and distributing fliers, preparing meals for your family, running errands, etc. People want to help, and no task is too small to ask for help. In rural areas, check the bus stop, other transportation pick up points. Did your child board a bus, with some stranger? Are there any CCTV cameras there, whose footage may show your child? Shopping Centers have cameras. Is your child on them? Places with CCTV may not want you, a stranger to them, to be viewing the tapes. Give them photo of your child, ask THEM to view, and to save the tapes until the police have had a chance to view them. Often tapes are erased and re-used. Inform the police about this conversation. Does your child drive a car which has LoJack installed, or use a laptop which has LoJack for Laptops installed? Get that service to track down where the hardware now located. Install Caller ID if you do not already have that service and record conversations. This may be the only way your child knows how to reach you. Your child may get to a phone, be unfamiliar with location. Caller ID info can be told to the police, to help them trace precisely where your child called from. Seek a second phone line installed in your home, so you can leave one for people calling you, while you have an unlisted one to use for your research. Request an itemized bill from the phone company, showing who your child has called recently, then you call those people, ask for help in the search. Does your child have a bank account? Ask the bank for latest info on where they may have withdrawn money. Take care to preserve your physical and emotional welfare: Friends, neighbors and even total strangers will be working toward a successful resolution, but you must remember to eat and sleep regularly. This will be the most daunting and difficult journey that you will ever take and you will need sobriety, presence

Al folder: Studies / Scandals

15

Scandals against School Children

 



5/12/2013 1:23:53 PM

of mind and good judgment if it is to be successful. Seek emotional and psychological support from your church, a social service agency or even a professional counselor with experience in your type of situation. Remember that you alone are leading the battle for the return of your missing child. Don’t let your volunteer helpers burn out either. Volunteers should work in groups of at least two people. Set up a central base for key volunteers to work from. Briefings can take place here too and other volunteers can meet here before going out to distribute posters, leaflets etc. Make a list of all media - print, radio and television and target all of them with a press release and the offer of someone to interview about the case.

Depending on the age of your child, any evidence of kidnapping or other family member interference with who has legal right to care for the child, and what kind of help you are already getting from other services for people in your situation, you might want to contact 1-800-Crime-TV AMW = America’s Most Wanted, a TV program hosted by John Walsh which is not just focused on known perpetrators of children kidnapped, but a spectrum of other issues associated with lost children,23 and other missing persons.24 AMW can only accept missing person cases that have been reported to police. If you have not yet reported your case to local authorities, you should do so immediately. To have your case considered for America's Most Wanted and AMW.com, send a letter with the following elements to: America's Most Wanted Missing Persons Unit P.O. Box Crime TV Washington, DC 20016 Your full name and contact information. Be sure to include phone numbers and email addresses where we can reach you during the day. Name and contact information of law enforcement personnel assigned to the case Your written description of circumstances surrounding the disappearance Good quality photos, either originals or digital copies on a CD.* * NOTE: photos can not be returned. If you don't have photos handy, don't worry -- you can get them to AMW later.

23

http://www.amw.com/ http://www.amw.com/missing_children/ http://www.amw.com/about_amw/ 24 http://www.amw.com/missing_persons/ http://www.amw.com/missing_persons/resources.cfm

15

Al folder: Studies / Scandals

16

Scandals against School Children

5/12/2013 1:23:53 PM

After Most Critical Reactions 

 





Contact the U.S. State Department's Passport Office (Office of Citizen Appeals and Legal Assistance, Passport Services) at 202-647-0518 in case the suspect tries to apply for a passport to leave the country with your child. If your finances permit, consult with a lawyer for guidance on offering a reward, hiring a private detective agency, working with the news media. If your finances do not permit such help, consult with the police regarding what belongs on a press release for the news media. You probably don’t want your home phone ringing off the hook with news people asking for the same info you already gave out to other news people. Do the police want a particular phone # for news people and another for witnesses to call? If you should ever be in this unfortunate circumstance, and you need someone to talk to about it, call the Acme Group at 1-866-507-1717. Leave a message that someone is missing and your name and number. You’ll get a call-back within a few minutes. Really.25 Check with the police every day or two, to make sure they are pursing your child’s case. Ask what steps they have taken so far. Ask them which new info is appropriate to share with the news media, and what is not.

If it has been a year, you may want to get your missing child listed with the Charley Project.26 The Charley Project profiles over 9,000 "cold case" missing people mainly from the United States. It does not actively investigate cases; it is merely a publicity vehicle for missing people who are often neglected by the press and forgotten all too soon. Criteria for cases being included in the Charley Project:  Every case must be at least a year old -- that is, the person must have disappeared at least one year prior to posting. It is acceptable if a person's disappearance was reported less than one year ago, as long as they vanished before the limit.  The missing person must have vanished within the United States or in one of its territories or foreign military bases. Exceptions may be made for U. S. citizens who disappeared abroad, people who disappeared in a foreign country but who are believed to be in the U. S., or otherwise at the administrator's discretion.  Each case must be on file with a law enforcement agency, and there must be contact information (i.e. a phone number) available for that agency.  There must be at least one photograph or drawing of the missing individual available.  Endangered Missing, Missing, and Non-Family abduction cases will get priority in posting. (See terms page27 for definitions of these.) The project also make an effort to post as many runaway and family abduction cases as possible, but at any given time there is a backlog of at least several hundred cases to post, so unfortunately some triage is necessary.

25

http://www.acmeinvestigations.com/mpc.htm http://www.charleyproject.org/ 27 http://www.charleyproject.org/terms.html 26

16

Al folder: Studies / Scandals

17

Scandals against School Children

5/12/2013 1:23:53 PM

 Runaway cases are more likely to be posted if they are several years old, if the child was under the age of 14 at the time of his/her disappearance, if the child was a foster child, if the child is traveling with their own child, if the child has a medical condition which may require treatment, or if there is evidence that the child is in particular danger.  Family abduction cases are more likely to be posted if they are several years old, if there is evidence that the abductor(s) may be a danger to the child, if the child was a foster child, or if the child has a medical condition which may require treatment.  Charley Project is reluctant to post runaway and family abduction cases which are not profiled on the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC)'s website, because it is difficult to ascertain whether or not such cases have been resolved. There are, however, a few such non-NCMEC cases on the Charley Project, and if a request is made Charley is not likely to refuse it.  Adoptees looking for their biological parents, friends or relatives you've lost touch with, etc., will not be accepted. There are many other websites for those kinds of listings.  Publicly submitted cases are not acceptable. However, if you would like to notify about a case that, for example, is on a law enforcement website, you may contact me at [email protected].  For a case to be selected for the Charley Project's missing person of the week feature (see the front page),28 it must be profiled on the Charley Project, it must not have been added or updated within the last three months, and it must not have been a missing person of the week before. Missing persons of the week are generally changed every Tuesday. It may be that the child is gone for an extended time period, and your life evolves to the point of you moving to a different residence, or even different city. Make sure the phone book for the community, where the child last knew you were located, still has an entry for you, so that if the child escapes from captivity, they can find you. Most phone books, for a very small annual fee, can have what they call a “foreign listing.” For example, you used to live in Cincinnati Ohio, but now you are in Evansville Indiana. In the Cincinnati phone book, there can be a listing for you, pointing at Evansville. This is not just for helping lost children find you again. It can also help school alumni re-unite, former coworkers re-unite, other benefits. Some of my Check List adapted from Just in Case...Missing. Copyright© 1985, 2004, and 2010 National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC). All rights reserved. Also see government tips.29 I also used info from many sites mentioned in the links.30

Amber Alerts I have found that there is no one place where all Amber Alerts 31 are sent, because I try to check the following places at least daily, and I find Amber Alerts at many of them, which are not at the others. 28

http://www.charleyproject.org/index.html http://www.in.gov/amberalert/2335.htm 30 http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?t=71513 31 http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Amber%20Alert 29

17

Al folder: Studies / Scandals

18

Scandals against School Children

5/12/2013 1:23:53 PM

http://www.codeamber.org/ Upon receipt of an Amber Alert from Law Enforcement Authorities anywhere in the world, day or night, the CodeAmber ticker will be updated immediately on their server. During an Amber Alert all of the relevant details provided by the reporting Authority will be scrolled in the Code Amber ticker window. The information will include the location of the abduction and contact information for the reporting Authority as well as links (if available) to images of the abductee, suspect composites and any other details provided by the reporting Authority. If you have a web site, such as a blog, you can get their “ticker” added to it, to show the latest Amber information.32 You can also get this for your PC desk top. https://www.amberalert.com/public/en/ or http://www.amberalert.com/ Explore Missing and Exploited Children web site pages on Amber Alerts.33 Visit the Black and Missing Foundation.34 Notice their BAM Alerts, about people missing, then some of those people found. 35 Visit the Huff Post missing persons page.36 Note you can get an RSS subscription of this page to your favorite news reader. I am currently using Google Reader. There are outfits to help locate missing people, including both adults and children. 37 Go to Google Public Alerts.38 Search for “Amber”. Go to your favorite Search Engine, such as Google. Select News. Search for “Amber Alert.” There should be option(s) to have that topic show up on your personal favorite topics and/or send you e-mail or other alerts, when there are new stories on that topic. Indiana State only http://www.in.gov/amberalert/ This site includes tips for parents. New York State only http://www.criminaljustice.ny.gov/missing/alpha1.htm 32

http://www.codeamber.org/index-2.php http://www.missingkids.com/missingkids/servlet/AmberServlet http://missingkids.com/missingkids/servlet/PageServlet?LanguageCountry=en_US&PageId=4319 http://missingkids.com/missingkids/servlet/PageServlet?LanguageCountry=en_US&PageId=2168 http://www.amberalert.gov/active.htm 34 http://www.blackandmissinginc.com/cdad/ 35 http://www.blackandmissinginc.com/cdad/alerts.htm 36 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/missing-persons/ 37 http://www.lostnmissing.com/ 38 http://www.google.org/publicalerts 33

18

Al folder: Studies / Scandals

19

Scandals against School Children

5/12/2013 1:23:53 PM

http://amber.ny.gov/Subscription/ alerts via e-mail https://www.wirelessamberalerts.org/index.jsp alerts via cell phone US State by State links to Amber Alert systems.39 Many nations have systems similar to Amber Alert in USA. Some have other names.40 Britain has several systems to help locate missing children, and adults.41 Canada’s Amber Alert system.42 Netherlands Amber Alert system.43 Since states usually have web sites using state abbreviation44 dot gov, we can search for that for our state, and the word amber, to find either amber dot our state dot gov, or our state dot gov slash amber with whatever other words they have. In addition, there is a need for browser add-ons, and-or Internet services, which will send Amber Alerts to us, as they get issued. Otherwise, we visit a site, and see no alert there, then we leave, and there’s one added there, and we don’t see it for 2 days until the next time we visit the site. Here is a site where we can sign up to get Amber Alerts sent to us, but the selection may be limited, to one US state of our choice, per e-mail address we use.45 You can get an ap for your cell phone, so it will get amber alerts.46 Here we can subscribe to e-mail amber alerts, limited to New York State.47 Here for cell phone alerts, limited to New York State.48 Apparently we can only get amber alerts to our cell phones,49 if our local cell phone carrier supports this service.50 Beware of Amber Alert hoaxes. You can check out e-mail “pass it on” alerts via the Urban Legend sites.51

39

http://www.amberalert.gov/state_contacts.htm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_abduction_alert_system https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missing_Children_Europe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_missing_people_organizations https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Centre_for_Missing_%26_Exploited_Children 41 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missing_People https://www.missingpeople.org.uk/ 42 http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/omc-ned/news-nouv/amber-eng.htm http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/omc-ned/index-accueil-eng.htm 43 http://www.amberalertnederland.nl/Default.aspx?lang=nl 44 We can get a list of the abbreviations from the US Postal Service. 45 https://www.amberalert.com/public/en/ 46 https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/amber-alert/id305574085?mt=8 47 http://amber.ny.gov/Subscription/ 48 https://www.wirelessamberalerts.org/index.jsp 49 http://www.amberalert.gov/wireless.htm 50 http://missingkids.com/missingkids/servlet/PageServlet?LanguageCountry=en_US&PageId=2168 51 http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/missing/faketext.asp 40

19

Al folder: Studies / Scandals

20

Scandals against School Children

5/12/2013 1:23:53 PM

I post an Amber Alert on social media. 12-25 people re-share it. 2-3 days later the kid is found. I want an easy way to notify the people who did the re-sharing, especially those who did not share it in public, or shared it independently of the cluster of shares which I was within, so they may be invisible on G+ View Ripples. We can use G+ search for “Amber.” We can go to shared list, view more / all, copy paste those names, then transcribe with + in front to include them in the update about the kid found. This is all quite tedious. I want an easier way. Here is Wikipedia on Amber Alerts.52 Wikipedia is good for adults, but should only be used by children, with adult supervision, for two reasons. 1. It does not censor topics which are inappropriate for children. 2. With international volunteers, the content is politically far left of US politics. Here is general info, and FAQ, about Amber Alerts from the US Dept of Justice.53 Here are statistics on how successful they are, in recovering missing children.54 Here is general info about the Emergency Broadcast System.55 We usually see it used on TV with info about serious weather, or Amber Alert, impacting our geography. Congressional Report Service (CRS) Think Tank 2005 report on what’s needed to improve Amber Alert technology.56 The letters AMBER are an acronym for "America's Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response" and also named after a 9 year old girl, Amber Hagerman, who was abducted and murdered. Info about Code Adam, a system which is implemented by many retail stores.57 If your child goes missing in a store, contact the management immediately. They may be using this system. There are organizations to help families re-unite, who got separated through some natural, or man-made disaster, such as: The Red Cross;58 Salvation Army.

Amber ignores some children I had a friendly debate on this G+ thread,59 where I had asserted that there are some problems with the Amber system, not being used in cases where had it been used, the child might have been saved. I was told by Alice Summers60 that what I was sharing was anecdotal evidence, that is not a good foundation for changes in police and government policies. I said that I had heard various places that the first 48 hours is critical for crime solving, that the longer people have to forget what they saw, the risk that cameras will have their info taped over the top with more recent info, the more difficult it becomes to solve the case. I was told that was TV show and Hollywood BS, not real truth. I want to check credible sources on this difference of opinion. 52

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AMBER_Alert http://www.amberalert.gov/ http://www.amberalert.gov/faqs.htm 54 http://www.amberalert.gov/statistics.htm 55 http://www.in.gov/amberalert/2338.htm 56 http://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metacrs7629/ 57 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_Adam 58 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Red_Cross_and_Red_Crescent_Movement 59 https://plus.google.com/u/0/102778563580121606331/posts/J2txnzKJwCo 60 https://plus.google.com/u/0/108381875421140432477/about 53

20

Al folder: Studies / Scandals

21

Scandals against School Children

5/12/2013 1:23:53 PM

The subject of missing persons can be controversial and difficult. People “go missing” for a variety of reasons and under a variety of circumstances. 61 Some institutions and people can have conflicts of interest. The decision to do an Amber Alert, is that of the local police. A 3 year old boy was taken late November in a Manhattan Kansas custody dispute.62 The local police do not consider the boy to be in grave danger, short term, so they are not issuing an Amber Alert. Wikipedia has:63 In the USA: of 621 child abductions which ended in murder[1]:64 Other sources had similar statistics.65 This is stuff we do not want the parents to be dwelling on, but the statistics can help indicate what parents can do to lower realistic risks.  Threat that the killer will be a friend or acquaintance, is nearly equal to that of a stranger.  The probability that the killer’s name will come up during the first week of the investigation has decreased.  The use of pornography by killers as a trigger to murder has increased.  44% of the children were killed within the first hours.  74% were killed within 3 hours.  91% within 24 hours after the disappearance. Many TV shows do include a sort of science fiction, when portraying how police could solve crimes.66 Police Chief Magazine says “Experience has shown that the first minutes and hours following the abduction of a child are crucial, as the chances of rescuing an abducted child decrease significantly after the first 24 hours.”67 According to this government site, “The actions of parents and of law enforcement in the first 48 hours are critical to the safe recovery of a missing child.”68 61

http://www.acmeinvestigations.com/MissingPersons.htm http://www.wibw.com/home/localnews/headlines/Amber-Alert-Not-Issued-For-Missing-Manhattan-Boy180365991.html 63 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missing_Children_Europe 62

64 ^ Katherine M. Brown, Robert D. Keppel, and Joseph G. Weis, Marvin E. Skeen. CASE MANAGEMENT for Missing Children Homicide Investigation. Olympia, Washington: Office of the Attorney General, State of Washington and U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, May 2006, page 13 65

http://www.atg.wa.gov/ChildAbductionResearch.aspx

66

http://www.policechiefmagazine.org/magazine/index.cfm?fuseaction=display_arch&article_id=2604&issue _id=22012 67

http://www.policechiefmagazine.org/magazine/index.cfm?fuseaction=display_arch&article_id=2604&issue _id=22012 68 http://www.ojjdp.gov/pubs/childismissing/ch1.html

21

Al folder: Studies / Scandals

22

Scandals against School Children

5/12/2013 1:23:53 PM

Amber Alert suggestion I believe that we need a revision of the AMBER ALERT system. 1. When someone disappears, and no one yet knows if it was an abduction or whatever the reason, I believe there should be a web site with photo of missing person, and geography within which they went missing when. 2. Then there should be an ap, for cell phones and PCs, so people can match their video, with that of the photo. In other words do a facial recognition search of personal video to see if they have a match, of that person, then if yes, have an option to send copy of their video, with time stamp, and GPS identification, to the family and investigators. Info before the disappearance can also help, since it shows people the disappeared person has been with. 3. If no match, the ap can also show that at certain time stamp and GPS combination, that the missing person was NOT on a particular street, or location. This also can help family and investigators retrace the probable path of the missing person. 4. Announcement that there has been an addition to the search website, for missing persons, should go to the immediate community, identifying url / however person date geography etc. there. 5. Announcement can also go nationwide … did anyone travel to CITY-location around certain dates, with video from there? 6. The web site could have whether the family wants copies to missing & exploited children, other places, or just for local police. This is because some people trust the local police, and some do not.

Social Media debates my Amber idea I shared the above on social media May-8 nite.69 I have in the past shared similar thoughts, but each time I write it up, I dream up more refinements. Here are some comments after my sharing: ravi chandran subramaniam May-8 10:47 PM Why not have an app in the person themselves planted. That could help govts against immigration, human trafficking, crime etc. problem with devices are many (in case of cellphones).. 69

If you are on Google Plus, you can join this discussion. 1. Get to this link: https://plus.google.com/u/0/108007903544513887227/posts/biDiP6ZssBM which is where I originally posted these ideas, in the Ethics section of a Lawyer community. 2. Click on the tiny circle in upper right corner, and select view ripples. 3. This will get you a list of all places where this post has been shared. Each of those places may be hosting part of the discussion. You can follow that path from any of the individual post threads. 4. Get to this link: https://plus.google.com/u/0/108007903544513887227/posts/YxxuN1vDNwd which I shared with my circles of people interested in Legal implications of Current Events; Parenting; Security; Technology; and other topics, because I am in contact with people inside and outside the special interest communities. That is where the debate began. 5.

22

Get to this link: https://plus.google.com/u/0/100039621655743657556/posts/gSgYh1rN4D1 which was the first sharing of my post by someone else, Bruno Nunes May-9 1:26 AM

Al folder: Studies / Scandals

23

Scandals against School Children

5/12/2013 1:23:53 PM

Alister Macintyre May-8 10:49 PM Depending on where a person travels in the world, an ap implanted in a person can help kidnappers target the children of parents who can pay a handsome ransom. There is also the risk that the crooks will stick a knife into where the chip is planted, to remove it. ravi chandran subramaniam May-8 10:51 PM Information should be available only to the govt and not to private owners and we keep the politicians out of it. a New agency like FBI or CIA aimed at protecting democratic values.. Crooks shouldn’t know where the chip is planted (that can be incorporated into design). There are chips which look alike skin. Alister Macintyre May-8 11:15 PM The range of a chip, inside a human body is proportional to the size of the chip. This is why RFID scanners can only read stuff that is 6 inches away. Thus had the 3 women, just rescued in Cleveland, been wearing your proposal, it would not have helped, because they were locked in house and basement dungeon far from any ability of any scanner to pick up such a signal. Also there is a limited life span for the battery. The politicians are involved in all aspects of government. It is impossible to keep them out. Every government agency, at one time or another, and sometimes for decades, ends up being run by people who do not appear to respect democratic values, such as the nation’s constitutional rights or legislative privacy rights. Many people do not trust the government. Your scheme should be like the voluntary system where parents can get their children finger printed, DNA samples taken, etc., with the info in a responsible place, to be shared with the police if and when there is a future problem, where they might need this. Also the id-kit needs to be partially done again, as child gets older. Updated photo, biographical info, teeth impressions, any scars, X-rays after oops. Martin Smith May-8 11:16 PM Thought provoking, once again, Professor Macintyre! 70 Our Law Enforcement agencies are lacking enormously, of practical ways to combat crime & protect honest citizens. ravi chandran subramaniam May-8 11:22 PM hmmm there is a bit of disagreement to it. The normal scanners used are worse that part we know for sure. Reason how is it possible for people to find what is the composition of the stars far away in different galaxy there are better sensors available..

70

I am not a Professor, but have earned this nick name, because I often talk about problems in society from the perspective of how I think those problems could be mitigated or solved. Then we engage in a friendly debate with people of contrary views on what’s practical, or wise.

23

Al folder: Studies / Scandals

24

Scandals against School Children

5/12/2013 1:23:53 PM

Sound energy is converted to electrical (remember the usage in microphone). practically most of us keep generating a lot of sound whole day or in a range of place where sound gets generated (once again an idea to replace batter).. I know that part but still don’t we have some sort of faith in govt today. like FBI or CIA you have some faith on them in case of national security (agreed that there are a lot of pitfalls). but they are the best available currently.. people dont trust the govt since the media always projects what is not important as some thing which is the most important stuff. even i dont trust them much but at what cost ? there are things where they can help. I do agree that there needs to be privacy to ppl. but I dont see much harm in having this. At least a pilot study if started can help. :) Alister Macintyre May-8 11:36 PM Yes, a friendly disagreement, on what is practical to address a serious problem. I am looking at what technology already exists today, or can be developed very rapidly, at low cost. I am not an expert on all areas of science, so I cannot rapidly respond to all of your speculations. I have also seen stuff in science fiction, which I do not know is credible, such as the idea that unique stuff like fingerprints, footprints, voice prints, DNA, also propagate themselves into other areas of the electromagnetic spectrum, which can be detected from greater distance. Hundreds of thousands of people go missing every year in the USA. About ¼ million of them are children. In Cleveland alone, 899 people went missing in 2013 so far, according to a report I downloaded tonite from the Cleveland Police web site. 822 have been found, with 77 still missing. About 2/3 of them in Cleveland are children, about ¾ in the whole nation’s missing people were children when they went missing. I was on the Cleveland Police web site, looking for the police report the news media say has the list of reasons why only one of the three brothers is still under arrest, so the other two have a chance to skip town before the police have enough to arrest them. I did not find that report, but I found some other interesting ones. Martin Smith May-8 11:39 PM +Alister Macintyre, a quick thought on your first paragraph '^', in relation to, " on what is practical to address a serious problem." A large caliber handgun would work! Alister Macintyre May-8 11:47 PM I currently have a lot of faith in some government agencies, although I did not always feel this way. Remember that the CIA opened people’s snail mail for many years, photocopied the contents, and then sealed the mail up again. They did this in secret from postal inspectors. Remember that the FBI treated the Civil Rights movement as communists, until the Kennedys got on their case about it. There are some govmt

24

Al folder: Studies / Scandals

25

Scandals against School Children

5/12/2013 1:23:53 PM

agencies I currently do not have much faith in, such as ATF, which recently was exporting military weapons to Mexican drug cartels, and keeping this activity secret from their bosses in Washington DC. A few days ago I watched US Senators calling for drones to kill people near US borders, who are only suspected of some wrong doing. But it does not matter what I think about govmt agencies, what matters is the confidence the general public has, which is again why I think this should be voluntary. We can start with the politicians who are on the no fly list, and cannot get off it. Your chip might help them get off it, by showing to TSA that they are the real citizen, and not the bad guys who happen to have the same name, but totally different birth date and description. Alister Macintyre May-8-9 12:04 AM +Martin Smith Hand guns for teenagers and pre-teenagers will require changes in the rules about having most schools being gun free target zones where only the crooks and the cops are armed, let alone rules in major cities where the authorities are trying to lower gun ownership, because when seconds count, the police are minutes away. Remember that many abductions are kids commuting between home and school. I have seen news stories on tons of such incidents all over the USA. There’s also teaching kids how to handle weapons properly. There’s a maturity development issue, where some kids brains are not yet ready to handle this responsibility. How old was that kid who just killed his little sister? I don’t know if it was by accident or not, because the gun control debate is all over the parents for letting the kid walk around with the cricket rifle, without parental supervision. So we are not hearing whether or not the pro-gun philosophy of proper kid-gun-training had in fact been done. The reasoning against children having fire arms is similar to the reasoning against them having driver licenses, and alcohol. I started driving when I was age 14, and it was legal for me to have something less than 5 horsepower. My second vehicle had 4.98 horsepower. I think the younger a child learns how to drive, the better society is, because by the time the kid is an adult, the brain development is really slowed down. But my view is in the minority.

School Bus Abductions and similar events There have allegedly been multiple cases where:71  a child is let off school bus about a block from home;  the child never gets home;  parents call friends of the child, trying to locate the child, are unsuccessful;  parents call the police;  the police take no action,72 assuming the child is either a run-away, or is spending the weekend with some friends, without telling parents, even though the child has never done either of this before, and there is no evidence they did that this time; 71

According to Nancy Grace on HLN TV. http://www.hlntv.com/shows/nancy-grace

25

Al folder: Studies / Scandals

26

Scandals against School Children 

5/12/2013 1:23:53 PM

a few days later, the child is found, dead, in which the coroner evidence is such that had the police issued an Amber Alert, or notified the news media, promptly, the child might have been saved.

Several of these incidents have occurred within a few miles of each other, leading some parents to suspect there may be a child serial killer, who specializes in kidnapping children right after they get off a school bus. In one case, where the child disappeared on a Friday afternoon, and turned up dead the Tuesday after, the school had issued iPads to all the kids, then tried to trace the location of the missing child’s iPad, on the Saturday, but got no hits. What does that mean? The iPad destroyed, turned off, shielded, or the trace did not have the cooperation of the police? I have yet to find all the cases mentioned by Nancy Grace on HLN, but I have found enough other cases to see that students, commuting to and from school, have risks where parents need to be pro-active to protect them.

Alabama: Midland City An incident grabbed attention of news media for a week at end January, early February 2013, when a gunman got on board a school bus in Midland City, the driver blocked the gunman so 22 kids could escape, but the driver died, and the gunman held one child hostage for a week, 5 year old Ethan. In the aftermath of this, several Alabama school districts are instituting a new rule. Adults may not approach within 15 feet of where children get on or off bus at school bus stops. If any adult does so, the driver is to close the doors, and drive away. It does not matter if the adult is a family member or friend of the child, this rule is now absolute.

Arizona: Prescott Incident A problem in many communities is young children riding bicycles, where those kids appear to either be totally ignorant about safety, or don’t care about safety. In my opinion, before a child is allowed to travel the public streets without adult supervision, whether walking, biking, using roller skates, whatever, there should be relevant education in safety. A school bus let off a bunch of kids, and had the stop sign out, then after they were safely across, retracted the stop sign and began a turn around a corner. A 12 year old child on a bicycle came across, rapidly through the school bus driver’s blind spots, where the cross walk clearly said “don’t cross”, and was hit by the school bus. Fortunately the kid only sustained a broken arm.73

72 73

http://www.hlntv.com/video/2012/11/15/moore-alicia-missing-girl-no-amber-alert-body-found http://www.dcourier.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&SubSectionID=1&ArticleID=112979

26

Al folder: Studies / Scandals

27

Scandals against School Children

5/12/2013 1:23:53 PM

The article says the bus driver was not cited, since the bus driver did not do anything wrong. The article does not say what kind of legal trouble the boy might now be in.

California: Los Angeles 3 Incidents A disabled 18-year old, who has the mental capacity of a 10 year old, was on bus on way home from school, when she was raped on the bus, and no one interfered. 74 This was caught on the bus video, and was the third rape to be reported on a county transit bus this year.

California: Moreno 7 Incidents Within a one week period, there have been multiple abduction attempts, where the sketches of the culprits look like multiple different men are trying to do it. An adult offering drugs to a child, sounds like a kidnap effort. The first incidents happened on Halloween just outside of Moreno Valley High School. That night, an African-American man in his 40s tried to lure a girl into his white van, police said. Both times he exited the van to try to force the girl inside; once he grabbed the girl by her arm.75 On Nov. 6, officers responded to another attempted abduction near the high school. Detectives said two female students and one male student were approached by a man who asked if they wanted to use drugs with him. All three students continued walking toward the school and the man eventually walked away, police said.76 The next day, on Nov. 7, officers responded to a reported attempted abduction at Vista Del Lago High School. There, a student was approached by an African-American man as she was walking home from school on John F. Kennedy Drive near Thyme Place. The man asked her if she wanted to “smoke weed” with him. The student continued walking home, and told police she saw the man talking to more students as they walked home.77 That same day, there was a report of an attempted kidnapping at March Middle School. The victim was walking home from school when a Latino man approached her in a blue/gray Nissan Altima. The man asked her if she needed a ride, then exited his car and approached the girl, who ran away and told her family about what happened. 78

74

http://www.stnonline.com/blogs/daily-routes/4893-how-would-student-transporters-report-respond-tosexual-assault-on-bus 75 http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/String-of-Attempted-Abductions-in-Moreno-Valley179218281.html 76 http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/String-of-Attempted-Abductions-in-Moreno-Valley179218281.html 77 http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/String-of-Attempted-Abductions-in-Moreno-Valley179218281.html 78 http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/String-of-Attempted-Abductions-in-Moreno-Valley179218281.html

27

Al folder: Studies / Scandals

28

Scandals against School Children

5/12/2013 1:23:53 PM

California: Morgan Hill Incident In 2009, this guy attempted to kidnap three women, using a stun gun to subdue them. March 2012 Sierra's Ann Sobrato High School bus arrived at her bus stop but Sierra was not there, because the same guy had kidnapped Sierra LaMar, 15, somewhere between leaving home, and being at the school bus stop.79

California: Oakland Saint Andrew Missionary Baptist Church Private School, receives $ 50,000 federal taxpayer funding annually, based on a claim of 195 students, but CBS investigation could only find 20. The school sends students out to panhandle at BART stations, late at night, without proper security. When parents call to check on their kids, they are told that they are in Bible studies, when they are actually panhandling, which the parents do not consider to be appropriate. Charlos Joiner is no longer a student there, because he was mugged at age nine, while ordered to panhandle for the school, and the experience terrified him.80

California: Selma Incident Two men attempted to abduct a Lincoln Middle School student, as the girl was walking to school. She described the vehicle as an older model blue and white van, with an airconditioning type unit on top that appeared to have been spray painted blue. The girl said two men in a van pulled up to her. The driver began talking to her when she said the second man got out and tried to pull her into the rear doors of the van. She was able to get away and run home. Her parents called the police.81 The police said it has been many years since the last abduction attempt like this in the city, that they knew of. Similar vehicle abduction incidents walking to or from school: California = Selma; Florida = Palm Beach; Michigan = Riverview; Pennsylvania = Altoona; South Carolina.

Colorado 3 Incidents I am not sure what city this happened in. 10 year old Jessica Ridgeway was kidnapped, then murdered. 82 She was walking between home and school because the Jefferson County School District had started charging $ 150.00 for students to ride the bus.83

79

http://www.ksbw.com/news/central-california/hollister-gilroy/Sierra-LaMar-murder-suspect-linked-tomore-attempted-abductions/-/5738758/17404136/-/item/1/-/bmehx9/-/index.html 80 http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2012/06/13/oakland-school-board-hears-from-parents-of-panhandlingstudents/ http://californiawatch.org/dailyreport/oakland-unified-board-orders-investigation-church-school-16635 81 http://www.hanfordsentinel.com/selma_enterprise/news/attempted-abduction-of-selmastudent/article_bfb3b40c-3035-11e2-a564-0019bb2963f4.html 82 http://yourhub.denverpost.com/adamscounty/adams-12-amps-up-security-at-schoolsafter/oVbe34CFLh3QYZ6jghXCWI-story?source=DPWidget http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/10/24/suspect-arrested-in-jessica-ridgeway-abduction-killing/ 83 http://denver.cbslocal.com/2012/11/08/petition-drive-to-eliminate-school-bus-fees-has-ridgeway-link/

28

Al folder: Studies / Scandals

29

Scandals against School Children

5/12/2013 1:23:53 PM

Police say the Jessica Ridgeway incident is related to an attack on a woman jogger in May, but they won’t give details on how they know they are related. We might suspect similar suspect DNA left on the bodies of both victims, or the chemicals involved. A 22 year old woman fought off a stranger who grabbed her from behind and put a rag over her mouth which smelled of chemicals. The jogger attack happened at Ketner Lake. Several trails leading to the lake and a surrounding open-space park are across the street from Witt Elementary School, where Jessica was headed when she was abducted. 84 We know Aurora Colorado, from the movie theater shootings, is a suburb of Denver. Two men tried to lure a young girl into their car at E. Louisiana Ave. and S. Idalia St. while she waited for her school bus. Because of publicity over Jessica Ridgeway, the girl knew to scream *No* then run away. When the police did a canvas, they found a witness who did not see that incident, but did see a green SUV stalking the bus stop. 85 Similar Bus Stop Abduction Incidents Include: Colorado = Denver; NYC 33 yrs ago; NC = Salisbury; Texas = Greenville. Also see “Florida – Brenda Heist – Homeless Fantasy”, where I talk about undocumented workers, including an anecdote about Colorado payroll taxes.

Connecticut A 17-year-old boy was in serious condition at St. Vincent's Medical Center after being struck by a car Monday morning while crossing the street toward his school bus on Old Town Road. The school bus had its stop signals going, which were ignored by the driver, cited for failure to obey a school bus signal. 86 See my separate research notes “Mass Shootings” starting around page 72, for what transpired Dec 2012 at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown CT.

Florida 9 Incidents An 11 year old boy’s father has a difference of opinion with police and school authorities about the appropriate use of weapons and toy guns, in the proximity of school children. The boy brought to school, what the police and school say was a live round, but what the father said was not. This got him a 3 day suspension from school. Then during the suspension, he harassed kids at a school bus stop, with what his father says is a toy gun incapable of hurting anyone. The kids ran away, being pursued for about 15 minutes, none were hit by the pellets the boy was shooting at them with an Airsoft pistol. This led to the 11 year old being taken away in handcuffs, and is now facing felony battery and weapons charges.87 It is a pity the father cannot serve the jail time the boy may be facing.

84

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/23/police-link-abduction-of-_n_2006179.html http://kdvr.com/2012/10/22/8-year-old-girl-says-one-word-stopped-her-potential-kidnappers/ 86 http://www.ctpost.com/local/article/Teen-struck-by-car-at-school-bus-stop-4249507.php 87 http://www.wftv.com/news/news/local/boy-11-faces-felony-charges-over-airsoft-gun-incid/nS8Q2/ 85

29

Al folder: Studies / Scandals

30

Scandals against School Children

5/12/2013 1:23:53 PM

A 13 year old girl was shot to death, on her school bus, allegedly by a male student. 88 This has been understandably traumatic for her 7 year old sister, on the same bus, witnessing this. The school bus was not equipped with video surveillance equipment. A 15-year-old boy is now in juvenile detention, charged with carrying a concealed weapon and manslaughter, after police say he took a gun out of a backpack and showed it to other students during the ride to school. Investigators say he fired it once in an apparent accident, striking Lourdes Guzman-DeJesus. A 13 year old girl missed her school bus, was running to rendezvous with it. The school bus driver saw the girl, was turning to another possible pick up point, did not yet have the flashers on and stop sign out, since it was in transit. The girl apparently did not know “thou shalt not cross the road where it is not safe, when the school bus does not have to stop rules out.” Other motorists were apparently oblivious to the situation. She was killed in a traffic accident. The driver was not cited because the girl ran out right in front of a woman driving home, after dropping her son off at school.89 A youngster was walking to Wynnebrook Elementary School, in Palm Beach, when a man yelled “come here." The child did not answer, ran to school and reported the incident.90 A 13 year old girl was walking home from a school bus stop in St Petersburg. As she walked south on 31st Street, she saw two men sitting on the front porch of the vacant residence. As she walked by the house, one of the men called out to her, but she ignored him and kept walking. That's when, one of the men grabbed the victim from behind, and tried to drag her into a vacant house. The suspect began to strike the teenager as she struggled to get free. That's when an unidentified man ran up and pushed the suspect. The victim was able to break free from the suspect's grasp and ran home.91 A 14 year old girl was walking to school along County Road 419 near State Road 50 when a man in a pick-up truck tried to offer her a ride to school. When she refused, he cut her off and attempted to abduct her. During the confrontation a homeless man named Gordon Jones emerged from the nearby woods and scared off the stranger. The teen girl is familiar with Jones and knew him as "neighbor."92

88

https://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/22/us/florida-killing-on-school-bus-apparently-accidental.html http://www.suntimes.com/news/nation/16548091-418/mom-of-girl-shot-on-fla-school-bus-seeksanswers.html http://abcnews.go.com/US/girl-sister-jina-13-shot-dead-florida-school/story?id=17781698 http://www.seattlepi.com/news/crime/article/Girl-13-fatally-shot-on-Miami-area-school-bus-4053794.php 89

http://www.abcactionnews.com/dpp/news/region_hillsborough/13-year-old-girl-struck-by-suv-whiletrying-to-catch-school-bus-dies 90 http://www.wptv.com/dpp/news/abduction-attempt-investigation-man-wanted-for-questioning-afterchild-confronted-on-way-to-school 91 http://stpete.patch.com/articles/suspects-attack-teenage-girl-walking-home-from-bus-stop 92 http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2012-11-14/news/os-homeless-saves-girl-abduction20121114_1_homeless-man-abduction-attempts-deputies

30

Al folder: Studies / Scandals

31

Scandals against School Children

5/12/2013 1:23:53 PM

The teen was one of three women who reported similar abduction attempts within about an hour in East Orange County, in which the description, of the attempted kidnapper and vehicle, was identical.93 A Florida school bus monitor is caught on camera abusing an autistic boy. 94 Also see chapter = Passing a stopped school bus. Similar vehicle abduction incidents walking to or from school: California = Selma; Florida; Michigan = Riverview; Pennsylvania = Altoona; South Carolina. We now know that all 3 young women kidnapped by Ariel Castro in Cleveland Ohio, were invited into his car, where he made up a story about knowing family members, and he had lots of believable details.

Fl – Brenda Heist – homeless fantasy Being homeless is a nightmare. The fantasy is that she was in that reality for 11 straight years. However, different people have different definitions of homeless. Here are some of MY personal definitions.  Live-in servant = a person who has lodging in association with being a nanny, maid, or other services for the people who are in charge of the residence. I do not consider this to be homeless, when the relationship lasts years. I recognize that other people have other definitions.  Homeless = persons who do not have a home. They live on the streets, in cardboard boxes, sometimes in cars, sometimes get help from charity, friends, strangers.  Becoming Homeless = people can get into this reality by many different means. Some people work their whole lives, by the rules, saving for retirement, and the bad times, then their savings get wiped out by fraud, which they are not able to prevent, and now we have elderly people who cannot get a job because of discrimination against older people, and they cannot get enough income to pay for a home, utilities, other necessary expenses. Others can get into this reality due to drug abuse, or health issues, that get in the way of them getting a good job. I know people on Google Plus, who are Vets of US wars, who are disabled, cannot get a job, are homeless. One of them lists his address as a particular parking spot at a particular Walmart parking lot. Some people are in such a below poverty reality, that they cannot pay for a home, and good nutrition, and provide for their children, and other things, so they become homeless. Except for that reality, where they believe there is

93

http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2012-11-14/news/os-homeless-saves-girl-abduction20121114_1_homeless-man-abduction-attempts-deputies 94 http://articles.nydailynews.com/2012-11-12/news/35073022_1_autistic-boy-bertis-paulino-darryl-blue

31

Al folder: Studies / Scandals

32

Scandals against School Children

5/12/2013 1:23:53 PM

something worse than homeless, I do not believe anyone is homeless because they want to be.

Most of the news media is saying that this woman had been missing for 11 years, then was found, homeless in Florida. The truth is apparently rather different. She may have been homeless when found, but she was not homeless for 11 years. Brenda Heist created a new life for herself after she disappeared from Lititz in 2002, leaving behind her two children, her job and her suburban mom lifestyle, leaving them after becoming distraught over a pending divorce and money problems. After a while, her husband Lee had completed the divorce and gone to court to have her legally declared dead. According to this article, citing interviews with people Brenda Heist knew in Florida, she was NOT homeless for the entire time she was missing.95 She took housekeeping jobs and often lived with her employers. Heist posted her cleaning services online, on craigslist, and had a bevy of customers who paid her in cash. To supply herself with a new identity, she stole a driver's license from one of her housekeeping clients. 96 When she thought the police were closing in on the stolen identity, she up and disappeared again. Over time she saved enough money to get a car, and she also had a cell phone and a Facebook page for a time, and even dated once in awhile. Very few people can survive on the street for 10 straight years, especially women, for pretty obvious reasons. It appears Brenda was on the streets sometimes, perhaps even for months at a time, but certainly not all the time. 97 Brenda’s situation is not unusual.  Within the last decade or so, the economy has gone into the toilet for many people who formerly were middle class. We have had a jobless recovery, where business enterprises are getting back on their feet, without hiring the volume of people they had before the economic downturn.  There are massive numbers of people whose income is no longer sufficient to pay for a decent place to live, proper nutrition, other values, so they end up living out of their car, which can only be temporary. If you have been evicted due to foreclosure, you can have a post office box, but not with the post office, because the post office wants to know your residence address. In many states, you can’t renew your driver’s license or license plates without a residence address. If the police see a car with expired license plates, even parked on private property, they can confiscate it. 95

http://lancasteronline.com/eedition/pages/news/edition/CEAM/20130503/A/1/2468123 http://lancasteronline.com/eedition/pages/news/edition/CEAM/20130503/A/1/2468123 97 https://charleyross.wordpress.com/2013/05/06/the-continuing-brenda-heist-saga/ 96

32

Al folder: Studies / Scandals

33

Scandals against School Children 





5/12/2013 1:23:53 PM

Officially the unemployment rate is 8-9% of the US population. But this only includes people who fairly recently were actually employed, lost jobs through no fault of their own, are still eligible for unemployment compensation. There’s a lot of people no longer employed, who want a job, or a better job, not included in these statistics. Then there are recently graduated students who want to enter the work force, who never had their first job, not included in these statistics. A large proportion of the US population has managed to get in trouble with the law, and/or legal system. Once categorized as a convicted felon, who has paid their debt to society, they are denied any access to any form of public assistance, irrespective of the fact that they have to pay taxes into such systems. Government data bases have error rates of 5-10%. Some of those errors lead to people being denied their citizenship rights.

As more people feel the economic crunch, some choose to run away from their debts and obligations. If they know how to get a fake ID, they can re-enter the system under a new identity. This is harder nowadays than it used to be, but is still a huge problem. Each year, there are ½ million new people whose identities are stolen by crooks for the purpose of cheating them, and the IRS. I talk about this, and my ideas on how this problem can be mitigated, in my Solution Ideas notes.98 The IRS has been trying to improve how they deal with this challenge, but in Congressional Oversight hearing after hearing, we hear how they still have a long way to go. There are estimates of 11+ million illegal undocumented alien workers in the USA. Most of the adults have jobs. How can you have a job without documentation? Well some jobs are in the grey underground economy,99 but many are via stolen identities. A few years ago, Colorado sorted their info on payroll taxes by social security #. Several #s had around 100 different people all across the state using the same #. Maybe one was the real McCoy, the rest were identity thefts, which had gone under the radar, until this state did that audit. Most states have not yet done any such audit. When the GAO did an audit of civilians working for the military and critical infrastructure, they found illegal aliens working at nuclear power plants, and legally dead people working at the Pentagon. I read an article in Reason magazine many years ago. They claimed that approx 1/3 of the US economy was underground, meaning money changes hands, but there is no report to the government taxing authorities. There are allegations that for the employees of such enterprises, there is also no adherence to minimum standards of safety, working conditions, or minimum wage.

98

http://www.scribd.com/doc/119857289/Solution-Ideas http://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/black-economy.asp http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey_market 99

33

Al folder: Studies / Scandals

34

Scandals against School Children

5/12/2013 1:23:53 PM

Georgia: Augusta Health Safety School bus stops are being added to places where smoking is illegal inside city limits. This is because parents of two children, one with asthma, the other with cystic fibrosis, complaining about another parent at their bus stop who smoked at school bus stop and refused to stop.100

Georgia: Atlanta Sniper Incident A man was seen aiming a rifle at a school bus. He ran when witnesses intervened. He left a note behind, with school bus numbers on it, indicating he had particular buses in mind, to shoot at.101 See similar incident – Indiana, Evansville.

Idaho: Child locked up and forgotten I have heard numerous stories about schools using isolation rooms for children for alleged trivial issues, left there a long time, they need to go to bathroom, have to do it on the floor in there. It was inevitable that at some point, a teacher would forget there was a child in there, and go home, adults forget the child was there. There are conflicting stories how dark the room was. His father, James Cagle tells KTVB that Tanner was scared, had urinated on himself and was crying in the dark. School officials deny the room was dark. It had a window, the classroom had a window onto the hallway. Light would have filtered in that way, they say. But we do not know if the hallway was lighted. There are conflicting stories regarding whether the room was locked. The parents needed help from a school secretary to locate their child. Depending on who you believe, the child had been in there:    

An hour 1 ½ hours 1 ¾ hours Two Hours

5 year old Tanner Cagle was placed in an isolation room, his teacher forgot he was there, so at end of school day she goes home, leaving the child locked up, in the dark, with nothing to sit on, no way to get help. The school refuses to tell the parents anything about the circumstances, citing confidentiality, so what they know is what leaked out from the teacher when she phoned to apologize. The kindergarten class was making a chain for Christmas, and Tanner broke his, we don’t know if by accident.

100

http://www.kjonline.com/news/smoking-ban-may-extend-to-bus-stops_2012-11-16.html http://www.hlntv.com/video/2012/05/18/hunt-georgia-school-bus-sniper-suspect http://www.hlntv.com/article/2012/05/17/police-searching-man-who-aimed-gun-school-bus 101

34

Al folder: Studies / Scandals

35

Scandals against School Children

5/12/2013 1:23:53 PM

According to, ABC news;102 HLN; The Huffington Post;103 Idaho Press Tribune;104 KING5TV;105 KLOG; KTVB;106 NBC9NEWS;107 Mr. Cagle said that he and his wife began to worry when their son, Tanner, didn't come home on the bus Wednesday from his Morning Kindergarten, in the Caldwell School District. They called the bus company, then after about 45 minutes to an hour,108 the couple went to Washington Elementary School to look for the boy -- and found him in what Cagle called "a closet." School officials dispute that the room was locked, saying the teacher would not have had a key. However when a small child is put in a room, and ordered by the teacher to stay there, what are the odds the child will try to leave? Assistant District Superintendent Monica White also noted that the door to the room has a large window, which allows light in from the hallway. Since this was mid day, after the classroom abandoned, can we assume the hallway had lighting? While Cagle said the room was "like a jail cell," Caldwell Superintendent Tim Rosandick told KTVB that the room is used for tutoring sessions, as well as for pre-approved student management for students with special needs. The room is not, however, intended for disciplinary use by general educators, and Rosandick said the teacher "should not have done that." Rosandick said the teacher placed Tanner in the room -- for reasons not told -- at the end of morning kindergarten while she gathered the rest of the students together for their bus rides home. District officials have expressed their regrets about the incident. But Cagle says the teacher is still in the classroom, and he wants to see her punished. "If someone called the police and said that hey there's a dad that locked his kid in a small room with no lights and he was in there so long and he was crying and he urinated his pants, I would be going to jail," Cagle told ABC News. "If not, then at the very least [Child Protective Services] would be here taking my children. How is it any different for a school teacher?" 102

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/upset-dad-kindergarten-son-locked-room17852061#.ULznW9Pjn_103 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/03/tanner-cagle-idaho_n_2232725.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/30/school-seclusion-restraint_n_2219091.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/10/activists-seek-to-curtail_0_n_1336619.html 104 http://www.idahopress.com/members/parents-quiet-rooms-not-used-correctly/article_86a33ace-3b7b11e2-8ebe-001a4bcf887a.html 105 http://www.king5.com/news/boy-locked-in-room-at-school-181545381.html 106 http://www.ktvb.com/home/5-year-old-boy-left-in-dark-room-at-Caldwell-school-181453681.html http://www.ktvb.com/news/regional/Wash-school-removes-student-isolation-booth-182070591.html 107 http://www.9news.com/news/world/302770/347/Teacher-places-5-year-old-alone-in-dark-room-leavesschool 108 Different news stories give different estimates.

35

Al folder: Studies / Scandals

36

Scandals against School Children

5/12/2013 1:23:53 PM

James Cagle met with the school principal Thursday morning. They agreed to place Tanner in another kindergarten classroom for the remainder of the school year. Mr Cagle said he has had other problems with the school, including three prior incidents where the boy didn't get home on the bus as he should have. Twice he was placed on the wrong bus, and once he wasn't placed on the bus at all. Cagle said he complained each time. White, for her part, said she hadn't heard those reports and that it's possible school officials had not notified district administrators. "The last thing we ever want to do is lose a child," White said. After this story hit the news, a second parent came forward with a similar story. Nichole Decker, a parent of a child at East Canyon Elementary in the Vallivue School District, saying her 5-year-old son was sent into a "full-blown panic" when he was placed in a quiet room for disciplinary reasons. "He had head-to-toe hives, because he was having trouble breathing," Decker told the Press-Tribune. The incident in Caldwell comes as dozens of families across the country sue schools in a fight against isolation and physical restraint as methods of school discipline. A Longview, Wash., school has removed a controversial booth that was used to isolate special education students to prevent them from hurting themselves or others. School district spokeswoman Sandy Catt says the booth was removed over the weekend from Mint Valley Elementary School. She also told KLOG the district has decided to use an independent company to investigate how the padded booth was being used, and that might take longer than the few weeks originally expected. The school stopped used the booth last week after a photo posted on Facebook raised concerns it was being used as punishment. The school says most students used it voluntarily to control emotional behavior. An Education Department report in March found that schools physically retrained students 39,000 times during the 2009-2010 school year. There are currently no federal standards for the use of seclusion and restraint in schools, and only 17 states have specific laws that limit their use. A Government Accountability Office study in 2009, illustrated cases of children as young as preschool age who were duct-taped to chairs and locked alone for hours. Investigators

36

Al folder: Studies / Scandals

37

Scandals against School Children

5/12/2013 1:23:53 PM

found "hundreds of cases of alleged abuse and death related to the use of these methods on schoolchildren during the past two decades." In one recent case, the mother of a Kentucky boy with autism said that when she went to her son's school, she found him stuffed in a canvas duffel bag in the hallway. I wrote about this issue extensively in 2011, when looking into a different kind of child abuse at America’s educational institutions, with people like Jerry Sandusky, and victims like Trevor Martin.

Illinois: Chicago DUI Incident A school bus driver taking children to a public elementary school on Chicago's North Side was arrested and charged with driving under the influence of alcohol after being stopped for erratic driving.109 A police officer writing tickets in the 4100 block of North Lawndale Avenue was waved down by a driver who complained that a nearby school bus had nearly rear-ended his vehicle three times, Chicago police said.110 The driver failed a field sobriety test but refused to take a breath test. The four children aboard the bus were taken to Hawthorne elementary school in the Lakeview neighborhood by another driver.111 See similar incident = Massachusetts, Watertown.

Illinois: Chicago ambush Incident A 14 year old girl was walking to school, when six men ambushed her at gunpoint and forced her inside a gray, four-door car in the north Lawndale neighborhood. Then they drove her to an unknown house and gang raped her.112

Illinois: Mount Carmel Incident A semi damn near crashed into a school bus taking students to Wabash Valley College, on a hill which has had lots of accidents and near accidents. The truck was in an accident with another vehicle, and had to swerve into the ditch, to avoid crashing into the back of a school bus, which stopped to load students. This has caused a resurgence of discussion whether the speed limit on the hill should be reduced to 45 mph, and enforced.113 109

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/education/ct-met-cps-bus-driver-arrested20121108,0,6649154.story 110 http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/education/ct-met-cps-bus-driver-arrested20121108,0,6649154.story 111 http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/education/ct-met-cps-bus-driver-arrested20121108,0,6649154.story 112 http://www.fox5vegas.com/story/20054261/community-outraged-over-kidnapping-gang-rape-of-girl 113 http://www.tristate-media.com/drr/news/local_news/article_6d973750-3262-11e2-871a001a4bcf887a.html

37

Al folder: Studies / Scandals

38

Scandals against School Children

5/12/2013 1:23:53 PM

Indiana: Evansville Incidents I live in Evansville Indiana. Nov 20, I was out driving to run some errands. For several blocks, I followed a school bus (a white one for handicapped kids) flashing non-stop, which I think undermines safety. A few years ago, we had a problem with someone shooting at school buses. As soon as the first incident was reported, the entire city’s schools went on lock down, and police sought the where-abouts of all school buses. Ultimately the case was solved. It was traced to a teenager with a BB gun who did not know it was dangerous to shoot at vehicles. See similar sniper incident – Georgia, Atlanta.

Maryland: Baltimore Incidents Two men facing charges for the rape of two young women, on their way to school, abducted from Catonsville bus stops have been linked to six other violent crimes against eleven victims—mostly young women, teenagers, and students at local colleges,—and may be responsible for additional crimes.114

Maryland: Marlboro Incident A pickup truck crashed into the back of a school bus, which was taking kids home from Barack Obama Elementary School.115

Maryland: McLean 44 years ago Christopher R. Kloman, 73, of McLean, who taught at the Potomac School for decades, has been arrested and charged with three counts of indecent liberties and one of abduction with intent to defile involving four of his former students. Fairfax County Police say the investigation of Kloman began in November 2011 when a 55-year-old woman saw that he was teaching children at Washington Episcopal School and reported that he had molested her when she was 12.116

Massachusetts: Concord Incident One reason for school bus stopping at locations familiar to students, with flashers on, is to improve safety for young children who have not yet learned school crossing safety, and not to trust strangers.

114

http://arbutus.patch.com/articles/catonsville-kidnapping-and-rape-suspects http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dozens-of-students-possibly-injured-in-prince-georges-countyschool-bus-crash/2012/11/14/ec6e5dd0-2e96-11e2-b631-2aad9d9c73ac_story.html 116 http://www.wjla.com/articles/2012/11/christopher-r-kloman-former-potomac-school-teacher-chargedwith-molesting-girls-in-1968-69-82176.html 115

38

Al folder: Studies / Scandals

39

Scandals against School Children

5/12/2013 1:23:53 PM

A school bus, for unknown reason, over-shot normal stopping place. Normal procedure is to go around the block, try again for right place. But instead, the bus dropped the kids at a location unfamiliar to them, where they needed to cross busy streets to get home, without the benefit of the school bus flasher safety aid. As they began to try to cross, a stranger stopped in one lane and waved them across, but a car in another lane did not see the kids, and there was an accident, injuring a 9 year old. 117

Massachusetts: Hingham 3 Incidents An 8-year-old arrived at the bus stop before his mother and was approached by someone he didn’t recognize. The man offered him a ride. The boy said no, then the man drove away. When mother arrived, the boy told her. She assumed it was a neighbor or friend, e-mailed around, and no one said it was them, so she called the police. 118 Apparently there have been 2 similar suspicious incidents reported to local police.

Massachusetts: Watertown DUI Incident A school bus driver has been charged with kidnapping and driving under the influence after he was supposed to drive a student home, but dropped him off nearly three hours late. When he was more than an hour and a half late, the boy’s panicked parents called police. At one point, officers reached the driver on his cell phone but he quickly hung up.119 See similar incident = Illinois, Chicago.

Michigan: Rape Friendly School Bus Stops It should be self evident to anyone, that if students are to be at school bus stops, outside the daylight hours, that there should be sufficient lighting so they do not have to wait in the dark. An elementary school girl in Michigan was abducted, dragged into an alley and assaulted. The attacker fled the scene.120

Michigan: Ann Arbor 2 Incidents A 15 year old student was hospitalized because of a traffic accident where a 45 year old woman disregarded the school bus stop warnings, and struck the girl as she was crossing the street at 6.46 am.121

117

http://boston.cbslocal.com/2012/11/16/9-year-old-hit-by-car-after-concord-school-bus-driverovershoots-bus-stop/ 118 http://www.boston.com/yourtown/news/hingham/2012/11/hingham_police_urge_vigilance.html 119 http://www1.whdh.com/news/articles/local/metro-west/12008831536665/police-school-bus-driverdrove-drunk-to-student-s-house/ 120 http://www.stnonline.com/blogs/safe-at-the-stop/2788-school-bus-stops-waiting-in-the-dark 121 http://www.annarbor.com/news/crime/woman-cited-for-careless-driving-after-ignoring-school-bus-stoplights-hitting-student/?cmpid=RSS_link_crime

39

Al folder: Studies / Scandals

40

Scandals against School Children

5/12/2013 1:23:53 PM

This is the second local incident of this nature, leading to hospitalization of victim of motorist disregarding school bus safety.

Michigan: Armada Incident A 13 year old boy was walking near North Avenue and Irwin Street, when a man approached him in a 2002/2003 maroon Ford Taurus and tried to convince him to get into his vehicle. Police say the boy refused and ran home as the vehicle sped away northbound on North Avenue. There is an elementary school, middle school, and high school about a mile to two miles away where the incident occurred.122

Michigan: Riverview Incident A Seitz Middle School student was skateboarding on Longsdorf near Ray Street when a man pulled alongside him and tried to lure him into his later-model Ford Ranger. The small pickup truck was described as burgundy or dark red, with some body rust. The man asked the student for his address and offered the student a ride home.123 The young man declined saying “No thank you, I’m OK” and continued walking. The man continued to drive alongside him, still trying to get him in the truck. The boy told the man to leave him alone, which made the man angry. He told the boy not to talk to him like that. The boy then grabbed his skateboard, ran inside nearby Memorial Elementary School and reported the incident to the principal.124 He was picked up by his parent, and taken to the Riverview Police Department to file the report. Similar vehicle abduction incidents walking to or from school: California = Selma; Florida = Palm Beach; Michigan = Riverview; Pennsylvania = Altoona; South Carolina.

Missouri: Jackson Incident A 4 year old girl had to get her foot amputated, because: 125 1. She got off the school bus she was riding, and started to cross the street. 2. The first school bus failed to use the STOP signage. 3. The driver, of a second school bus, thought it was ok to pass the first school bus, and ran over the girl’s foot.

Missouri: Liberty Incident A 15-year-old girl called Liberty police about 7 a.m. after she was on her way to school near Missouri and Murray streets when a man jumped out, assaulted her with a knife, forced her into the woods, and threw himself on top of her. She managed to get loose and 122

http://www.wxyz.com/dpp/news/13-year-old-boy-says-a-man-tried-to-abduct-him-in-armada-township http://www.thenewsherald.com/articles/2012/11/16/news/doc50a6391340fc1426758011.txt 124 http://www.thenewsherald.com/articles/2012/11/16/news/doc50a6391340fc1426758011.txt 125 http://www.clarionledger.com/article/20121117/NEWS/121117005/4-year-old-Jackson-elementarystudent-hit-by-school-bus-has-foot-amputated?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|&nclick_check=1 123

40

Al folder: Studies / Scandals

41

Scandals against School Children

5/12/2013 1:23:53 PM

run away from him. The girl suffered scrapes and bruises, and her clothing was ripped in the struggle. Understandably, the girl remains extremely distraught.126 Similar incidents, trying to rape school children: Missouri = Liberty + Riverside; Virginia = Lynchburg.

Missouri: Riverside 4 Incidents A masked man grabbed a Lakeview Middle School seventh-grader about 6:40 a.m, when the 13 year old girl was waiting for the school bus. Fortunately, a person driving by saw the attack and stopped to yell at the man, who ran into the woods, without the girl. 127 Witnesses then called police. This is the fourth stranger-danger alert this school year, for the same school district.128 This girl is now so traumatized, by the incident, that an adult will accompany her to the school bus stop every morning. Similar incidents, trying to rape school children: Missouri = Liberty + Riverside; Virginia = Lynchburg.

Nebraska Sniper Incident A bullet struck a school bus, narrowly missing the driver, and not injuring any of the students. Local police are treating this as an accident, assuming it was due to deer hunting season.129

New Jersey: Gloucester City Oops Incident Art Deaner was doing a favor for a friend when he picked up little Courtney from school. Turns out, it was the wrong Courtney. Both little girls have light hair and, coincidentally, were waiting to be picked up by friends of their parents at the exact same spot.130

New York City 33 years ago Hernandez has been indicted by a grand jury, for killing a 6 year old boy 33 years ago, in 1979.131 The first time Etan's parents had let the 6 year old boy make the journey from his family home to the Manhattan school bus stop alone, he disappeared. 132 Hernandez allegedly lured the little boy with the offer of a soft drink to the Soho shop where he was a clerk, then allegedly strangled him in the basement before throwing his

126

http://www.kctv5.com/story/19852576/father-says-teen-fought-for-her-life-after-school-bus-stop-attack http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/13/woman-saves-girl-kidnapping_n_2122328.html 128 http://www.kctv5.com/story/20071338/police-man-tried-to-abduct-girl-at-bus-stop-in-riverside 129 http://www.ketv.com/news/local-news/Bullet-misses-school-bus-driver/-/9674510/17383870/-/etspxbz//index.html 130 https://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/man-picks-wrong-girl-school-article-1.1202440 131 http://www.9news.com/news/world/299856/347/Suspect-indicted-in-79-death-of-NYC-boy-Etan-Patz132 http://news.sky.com/story/1011515/etan-patz-suspect-indicted-for-murder-kidnap 127

41

Al folder: Studies / Scandals

42

Scandals against School Children

5/12/2013 1:23:53 PM

body out with the rubbish.133 At the time, authorities did not figure out who was responsible. Similar Bus Stop Abduction Incidents Include: Colorado = Denver; NYC 33 yrs ago; NC = Salisbury; Texas = Greenville.

New York: New Rochelle Skewed Priorities Two sisters were walking, a 6 year old, and a 12 year old. The 6-year old wandered into the street and a neighbor grabbed the girl to pull her out of the street, and back onto the sidewalk. Authorities treated this initially as an attempted abduction, but the police soon figured out the truth. However, the school superintendent used this case to send a reverse 911 warning to all parents about a stranger danger to the students. 134 Why this non-event triggered the alert is a bit of a mystery, considering the school never told parents about an incident where three students actually held a gun to the head of a 6th grader on a school bus, and then brought the gun into Isaac E. Young Middle School.135 The New Rochelle Board of Education fired one employee for drunk driving, and replaced him with a different drunk driver.136 A 24 year old female librarian at New Rochelle High School has been arrested for sexual abuse of a 16 year old boy student there.137

North Carolina: 2 Incidents Thousands of Wake County students were stranded at bus stops at the start of the Raleigh, NC school year.138 It sounds like maybe the politicians are too busy pointing fingers, than actually solving the problems. A 14 year old girl reported that after getting off of the school bus in Salisbury NC, an older white man, driving a small white pickup, tried to get her to get into his truck.139 Similar Bus Stop Abduction Incidents Include: Colorado = Denver; NYC 33 yrs ago; NC = Salisbury; Texas = Greenville.

133

http://news.sky.com/story/1011515/etan-patz-suspect-indicted-for-murder-kidnap http://www.newrochelletalk.com/content/new-rochelle-schools-superintendent-sends-out-reverse-911calls-incident-never-happened 135 http://www.newrochelletalk.com/content/new-rochelle-suspends-three-following-gun-head-incidentbee-line-school-bus 136 http://www.newrochelletalk.com/content/why-did-new-rochelle-board-education-fire-employee-drunkdriving-then-replace-him-another-dr 137 http://www.newrochelletalk.com/content/new-rochelle-high-school-librarian-arrested-sex-stinginvolving-16-year-old-student 138 http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/02/04/2656358/wake-may-spend-225-million-to.html 139 http://salisbury.wbtv.com/news/crime/76202-teen-reports-attempted-kidnapping-bus-stop 134

42

Al folder: Studies / Scandals

43

Scandals against School Children

5/12/2013 1:23:53 PM

Ohio Cleveland Kidnap In early May 2013, 3 kidnap victims were found, where for the one gone the longest it had been 10 years. The authorities had given up looking for them, and had categorized 2 as missing, not kidnapped. These type events are very rare and unusual, fueling a news media feeding frenzy, which in turn leads the general public to believe they are more common than in reality. I plan to keep notes on this event here initially, then either have sub-chapters here, or open up a new section on this topic, irrespective of Cleveland.

Oh Cl authorities stories+ Throughout my notes there are scenarios where someone says X, and the police deny that X ever happened. For example several people describe suspicious things they say they called into the police, where the police response was inadequate, given what we now know, but police leadership deny they were ever called about what the neighbor remembers. Here’s what the authorities were saying about this, as of 2013 May 7, the same day I found out about this news.140 Three suspects are currently in Cleveland Police custody awaiting charges to be filed. They are brothers   

Ariel Castro,141 52; Onil Castro, 50; and Pedro Castro, 54.

By mandate, charges are expected within 36 hours of arrest. A search warrant is currently being executed at 2207 Seymour with other locations pending. The City understands the need for continuous information; and is getting information to media as fast as possible. The City asks that media refrain from speculation and reporting based on unconfirmed information. Law enforcement is grateful for all those in the neighborhood who responded to help   

Amanda Berry,142 Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight,

including Charles Ramsey who called 911 to alert Police. The support of the community is critically important to all that law enforcement does.

140

http://www.cleveland-oh.gov/CityofCleveland/Home/media-gallery/slideshow?id=1189 Ariel Castro had been a school bus driver. He was the owner of the home. 142 A 6-year-old girl, believed to be Berry's daughter, also was found in the home. 141

43

Al folder: Studies / Scandals

44

Scandals against School Children

5/12/2013 1:23:53 PM

The City asks the community to send tips and information – to "say something if you see something", as the City cannot do this alone. All are asked to report any suspicious activity to 1.877.OHS.INTEL. For the cases involving Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight specifically, they are asked to call the Cleveland Office of the FBI at 216.522.1400.

Oh Cl summary sources overview+ Other news research notes documents by me, on topics related to this story, and my ideas about solutions and mitigation, include:  Boston Bombing – what’s working, and what’s not, in response to crisis and threats.143  Solution Ideas – a collection of issues, including police response, where I propose things to help mitigate some serious problems.144 I also have to be careful with what I use from the news media. In any complex feeding frenzy news story, there is a pattern of bogus reports making it into the news media, sometimes getting a life of their own for days weeks months even years, after they were totally debunked. In my experience, news media sources in the city or close to the community where the event occurred, are more likely to have the facts sooner, than national TV all news talking heads who rush in, and compete to interview a handful of people, who may be in shock about the surprising event.  Cleveland dot com145  Cleveland dot com portal for info about the 3 young ladies being found. 146 There’s also the specialty media, relevant to some of the actors or issues relevant to the incident. Unfortunately, some such media sometimes has an agenda which can get in the way of the truth.  Officer dot com news (police officer stories)147  Officer dot com on the 911 call(s) which led to the women being rescued.148  Officer dot com on questions for the police based on allegations that over the years there were many suspicious incidents reported.149 Had they been investigated properly, these kidnap victims might have been rescued much sooner.  Wikipedia on the 3 women whose kidnap ordeal just ended, although they may need mental health therapy for the rest of their lives.150 143

http://www.scribd.com/doc/136142293/Boston-Bombings-2013-April-by-Al-Mac http://www.scribd.com/doc/119857289/Solution-Ideas 145 http://www.cleveland.com/ 146 http://www.cleveland.com/decade-of-captivity/#incart_maj-story-1 147 http://www.officer.com/latest-news 148 http://www.officer.com/news/10937976/frantic-911-call-leads-ohio-police-to-missingwomen?utm_source=related_content_box&utm_medium=related_content&utm_campaign=10938726 149 http://www.officer.com/news/10938726/ohio-police-face-questions-after-women-found 150 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Cleveland,_Ohio,_missing_trio 144

44

Al folder: Studies / Scandals

45

Scandals against School Children

5/12/2013 1:23:53 PM

Although there are times I do not totally trust what the authorities have to say on some issues, especially in international foreign policy and military adventures, I do find police sites illuminating for many domestic issues.  FBI News Blog151  FBI News latest152 Events usually hit the news media immediately, but we don’t know what we can believe, then 2-3 days later there are press briefings by the authorities, which are often replayed on TV news, and that info shows up on the city or police web sites within a few days after the press briefings. Some cities are better than others at handling this.  City of Cleveland Ohio government web site153  CPD = Ohio Cleveland Police154 Dept  CPD Missing Persons Website155 had o 20 pages when I checked May-8 nite  CPD 2013 May-7 press conference about the safe return of the 3 young ladies.156  CPD 2013 May-8 (PDF 5 pages): City of Cleveland Missing Persons Report o I downloaded, calling my copy “OH CL Missing 2013 May 08” It looks to be similar info as is on the Missing Persons Website, except nice graphs showing demographics. o The last person who went missing, in this report, was May-6. Almost 900 have gone missing in Cleveland in 2013, of whom 822 have returned, so 77 cases are open from 2013, 111 between 2006-2013. The vast majority are between the ages of 13 and 17. (See graph on page 2). All the reports I am downloading, on this topic, are in my SCANDALS folder, on my home PC. Sometimes I get several downloads, then take a while to get caught up on reading them. I currently have a 16 page US Inspector General (IG) report on US Border Security issues, sitting in front of my PC, to read as soon as it is convenient.

Oh Cl Who’s Who I am placing this before the Time Line, so that when a name comes up, we remember up here was additional clarification about who some people are. I have separate chapter headings for the major players, where we may accumulate a lot of info on some people.

151

https://www.fbi.gov/news/news_blog https://www.fbi.gov/news 153 http://www.city.cleveland.oh.us/CityofCleveland/Home 152

154

http://www.city.cleveland.oh.us/CityofCleveland/Home/Government/CityAgencies/PublicSafety/Division %20of%20Police 155

http://www.city.cleveland.oh.us/CityofCleveland/Home/Government/CityAgencies/PublicSafety/Division %20of%20Police/MissingPerson 156 http://www.cleveland-oh.gov/CityofCleveland/Home/media-gallery/slideshow?id=1189

45

Al folder: Studies / Scandals

46

Scandals against School Children

5/12/2013 1:23:53 PM

This section has just begun. There are several names I plan to add to it.

Oh Cl – Amanda Berry and family Abducted: April 21, 2003 Age when abducted: 16 Age when rescued: 27 Amanda Berry is part Native American.157 Berry disappeared at age 16, April 21 2003, when she called her sister to say she was getting a ride home from her job at a Burger King.158 This was the day before her 17th birthday. The 6 year old child is Berry’s daughter, so that child would have been born in 2007, conceived in 2006, while Berry was in captivity. Castro forced Knight to deliver the baby in an inflatable swimming pool and had threatened to kill Knight if the baby did not survive birth. After the delivery, the baby stopped breathing. That is when Knight "breathed for the newborn," resuscitating the child.159 Castro would occasionally leave the home with Berry's 6-year-old daughter, who did not know the real names of DeJesus or Knight.160 Berry's mother, Louwana Miller, who had been hospitalized for months with pancreatitis and other ailments, died in 2006. She had spent the previous three years looking for her daughter, whose disappearance took a toll as her health steadily deteriorated, family and friends said.161 In eastern Tennessee, Berry's father, Johnny Berry, told WJHL-TV that he spoke to her for the first time Monday night, May-6, by phone at his home in Elizabethton. "She said, `Hi, Daddy, I'm alive,'" Johnny Berry said. "She said, `I love you, I love you, I love you,' and then we both started crying."162

157

https://charleyross.wordpress.com/2013/05/07/an-exciting-day-all-around/ http://www.officer.com/news/10938726/ohio-police-face-questions-after-women-found?page=3 http://www.officer.com/news/10937976/frantic-911-call-leads-ohio-police-to-missing-women?page=2 159 http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2013/05/police_report_michelle_knight.html#incart_river 160 http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2013/05/police_report_michelle_knight.html#incart_river 161 http://www.officer.com/news/10937976/frantic-911-call-leads-ohio-police-to-missing-women?page=2 162 http://www.officer.com/news/10938726/ohio-police-face-questions-after-women-found 158

46

Al folder: Studies / Scandals

47

Scandals against School Children

5/12/2013 1:23:53 PM

Oh Cl – Gina DeJesus and family Abducted: April 2, 2004 Sex: Female Race: Hispanic163 Age when abducted: 14 Age when rescued: 23 DeJesus vanished at age 14 on her way home from school, in 2004.164 Jessica Aponce said she walked home with DeJesus the day the teenager disappeared. "She called her mom and told her mom she was on her way home and that's the last time I seen her," Aponce said. "I just can't wait to see her. I'm just so happy she's alive. It's been so many years that everybody thinking she was dead."165 Gina DeJesus said that Ariel Castro had sex with her.166

Oh Cl – Michelle Knight and family Abducted: Aug. 23, 2002 Age when abducted: 21 Age when rescued: 32 Knight vanished at age 20 in 2002. Police said Knight is 32 now.167 Here is an article which has a photo of Michelle Knight, 168 which a lot of recent news media did not have access to.169 Knight told police that Castro would starve her for weeks. 170

Oh Cl – Ashley Nicole Summers The following info from the Charley Project:171 163

http://www.amw.com/missing_children/case.cfm?id=26744 http://www.officer.com/news/10938726/ohio-police-face-questions-after-women-found?page=3 165 http://www.officer.com/news/10938726/ohio-police-face-questions-after-women-found?page=3 166 http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2013/05/police_report_michelle_knight.html#incart_river 167 http://www.officer.com/news/10937976/frantic-911-call-leads-ohio-police-to-missing-women?page=2 168 http://www.kpho.com/story/22184761/questions-still-remain-about-michelle-knights-disappearance 169 https://charleyross.wordpress.com/2013/05/10/finally-a-photo-of-michelle-knight/ 170 http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2013/05/police_report_michelle_knight.html#incart_river 171 http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/s/summers_ashley.html 164

47

Al folder: Studies / Scandals

48

Scandals against School Children

5/12/2013 1:23:53 PM

 Missing Since: July 9, 2007 from Cleveland, Ohio  Classification: Endangered Missing  Date of Birth: June 16, 1993  Age: 14 years old  Height and Weight: 5'5, 130 pounds  Distinguishing Characteristics: Caucasian female. Brown hair, blue eyes. Ashley has a tattoo on her right arm of a heart with the name "Gene" on it. She may have cut her hair short and dyed it blonde after her disappearance.  Clothing/Jewelry Description: A black shirt, blue jeans and white sneakers.

Oh Cl - Suspect and Family The family is not yet suspected, but included here to help put in perspective what is becoming known about the suspect. Some news media say the Castro family emigrated from Puerto Rico. This is misleading. Puerto Rico has been a territory of the USA since the Spanish American War. People born there are Citizens of the USA, just like people born in Ohio or Hawaii. In the 2012 election, a majority of people in Puerto Rico voted to become the 51 st state of the USA,172 but there’s some dispute whether this was a valid interpretation of the voting results.

Ariel Castro is one of the sons of Pedro Castro, now deceased, who moved from Puerto Rico to Pennsylvania and then Cleveland Ohio.173 Ariel Castro allegedly knew the DeJesus family. His extended family had grown up in the same west Cleveland neighborhood.174

Oh Cl Time Line There are multiple reports where the dates are vague. I plan to color bold date references, elsewhere in these Ohio Cleveland notes, then add to this time line if and when dates are firmed up. Info in here will be with the most recent dates on the top.

2013 May-9 Thursday We learn thru the news media175 that: 172

For more info on US political geography, such as how to become 51 st state of USA, see my Leaving America notes. 173 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Cleveland,_Ohio,_missing_trio Dolan, Matthew. "Charges Expected in Cleveland". Online.wsj.com. Wikipedia retrieved May 8, 2013. 174 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Cleveland,_Ohio,_missing_trio Coyne, John; Sheeran, Thomas J (April 21, 2003). "Frantic 911 Call Leads to 3 Missing Women in Ohio". Time. Wikipedia retrieved May 7, 2013. "Police: No indication women were being held at home". CNN. May 7, 2013. Wikipedia retrieved May 7, 2013. 175

http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2013/05/7_things_we_learned_today_abou.html#incart_river#in cart_maj-story-1

48

Al folder: Studies / Scandals

49

Scandals against School Children   

5/12/2013 1:23:53 PM

Ariel Castro is to be charged with aggravated murder, attempted murder, assault, and for each day the women were held captive, and for each instance in which they say they were raped. He has already been charged with 4 counts of kidnapping and 3 counts of rape (1 for each victim). He is being held on $8 million bond.

2013 May-8 Wednesday A fund has been established to help Berry, DeJesus, Knight and their families. The Cleveland Courage Fund will be administered through the Cleveland Foundation. Donations, which will go to nonprofit organizations to provide services for the victims, can be given at clevelandfoundation.org or sent to the Cleveland Foundation, 1422 Euclid Avenue, Suite 1300, Cleveland, Ohio 44112. 176 Donations can also be made at all KeyBank branches. The fund also has a Facebook page. For in-kind donations of goods and services, email [email protected]

2013 May-7 Tuesday May-7 was when I first noticed this on the news. It may have been on earlier, but I no longer watch the news every day. The three women appeared to be in good health and were taken to a hospital to be evaluated and reunited with relatives. A photo released by Berry's family showed her smiling with an arm around her sister. All three were released from Metro Health Medical Center 2013 May-7 Tuesday morning. Police said they were taken to an undisclosed location in the suburbs. 177

2013 May-6 Monday Ramsey rescues Berry for successful 911 Many efforts could have led to the rescue of these women years sooner, but there was a breakdown in communications between neighbor witnesses and police response to alleged 911 calls. I have a later chapter just on that problem. However, on May-6 neighbor witness action did lead to a successful rescue. Berry noticed the front door was unlocked, but saw the outer storm-door was still bolted. She was reluctant to attempt an escape because Castro was known to test the three women by leaving doors unlocked. Castro would beat the women if they left the 176

http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2013/05/amanda_berry_and_gina_dejesus_1.html#incart_majstory-1#incart_maj-story-1 177 http://www.officer.com/news/10937976/frantic-911-call-leads-ohio-police-to-missing-women

49

Al folder: Studies / Scandals

50

Scandals against School Children

5/12/2013 1:23:53 PM

unlocked rooms, police sources confirmed. Berry made the decision to break through the storm door after seeing people on a neighbor's porch.178 A neighbor, Charles Ramsey, told WEWS-TV he heard screaming Monday and saw Berry, whom he didn't recognize, at a door that would open only enough to fit a hand through. He said she was trying desperately to get outside and pleaded for help to reach police.179 He and other neighbors helped her escape. Neighbor Anna Tejeda was the person who supplied the woman with a cell phone so that she could call 911 for police help.180 After escaping on Monday from the West side home of accused rapist and kidnapper Ariel Castro, Berry told police Castro would be in the neighborhood, driving a blue Mazda convertible.181 Police called in the car's description. Soon after, patrolling officers spotted the car driving northbound on West 33rd Street, where it pulled into a nearby McDonald's. The officers were told to stop the vehicle and apprehend anyone inside. Castro, 52, was at the wheel. His brother, Onil Castro, was in the passenger seat.182 Onil, 50, asked police if they were being held because of a third brother, 54-year-old Pedro Castro. "If so, he's over at our mom's house," Onil said. Police then went to the mother's Hyde Avenue home, where Pedro was arrested.183 At the time of the arrests, the home was in foreclosure for 3 years of unpaid real estate taxes.184 The police arrived within minutes of the 911 calls. The first two officers to arrive at Castro's home crawled into the house through the front storm-door, With guns drawn, officers searched upstairs, where they walked a hallway and called out that they were with Cleveland police. That is when one of the officers saw a pair of eyes peeking through a slightly opened bedroom door. The eyes belonged to Knight, who fled the room and leapt into the arms of one of the officers and repeatedly said "you saved me." The

178

http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2013/05/police_report_michelle_knight.html#incart_river http://www.officer.com/news/10937976/frantic-911-call-leads-ohio-police-to-missing-women 180 http://www.officer.com/news/10937976/frantic-911-call-leads-ohio-police-to-missing-women?page=2 181 http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2013/05/police_report_michelle_knight.html#incart_river 182 http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2013/05/police_report_michelle_knight.html#incart_river 183 http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2013/05/police_report_michelle_knight.html#incart_river 184 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Cleveland,_Ohio,_missing_trio Shaw, Scott (May 2013). "Cleveland house where missing women held captive is in foreclosure". Cleveland. Wikipedia retrieved May 7, 2013. 179

50

Al folder: Studies / Scandals

51

Scandals against School Children

5/12/2013 1:23:53 PM

officer choked back tears, the source said, and soon DeJesus entered the hall from another room.185

2012+ Time Line continues Ariel Castro was fired from his school bus job for "bad judgment" in Nov 2012.186 He had had the job since Feb 1991, for the Cleveland Metropolitan School District. His employer grievances included:187  making an illegal U-turn with children on the bus;188  using his bus to go grocery shopping;  and leaving the bus unattended while he took a nap at home.189 While family and others held vigils, and searched for Gina DeJesus190 and Amanda Berry,191 Ariel Castro was identified by Gina's family in video footage of two of these vigils.192 He reportedly participated in a search party, and tried to get close to the family.193

2007+ = Year of Ashley Summers disappearance Ashley Summers was age 14 on July 6, 2007 when she was reported missing in the same neighborhood where Berry and DeJesus had vanished.194 She lived with her great-uncle in the 2100 block of West 96th Street, near Madison Avenue, at the time. She disappeared after an argument, taking all her clothes with her. A month later, she called her mother to say she was okay and not to worry. In November of that year, Ashley's step-grandmother believes she saw Ashley from her car on West 44th

185

http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2013/05/discovery_of_amanda_berry_gina_1.html#incart_majstory-1#incart_maj-story-2 186

http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2013/05/discovery_of_amanda_berry_gina_1.html#incart_majstory-1#incart_maj-story-2 187 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Cleveland,_Ohio,_missing_trio 188 "Ariel Castro Arrested as Suspect in Abduction and Disappearance of Three Cleveland Women". Cleveland Leader. Wikipedia retrieved May 7, 2013. "Police: No indication women were being held at home". CNN. May 7, 2013. Wikipedia retrieved May 7, 2013. 189 Allison Terry (April 16, 2012). "Three brothers arrested: what's known so far about alleged Cleveland captors". CSMonitor.com. Wikipedia retrieved May 8, 2013. 190 Gina DeJesus disappeared April 2004, at age 14. 191 Amanda Berry disappeared April 2003, at age 16. 192 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Cleveland,_Ohio,_missing_trio "Georgina Lynn DeJesus". The Charley Project. Wikipedia retrieved May 7, 2013. "Missing Children | Gina DeJesus | Case". AMW. Wikipedia retrieved May 7, 2013. 193 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Cleveland,_Ohio,_missing_trio Northeast Ohio. "Castro family connections to Gina DeJesus and Amanda Berry investigations go back years". cleveland.com. Wikipedia retrieved May 8, 2013. 194

http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2013/05/amanda_berry_and_gina_dejesus_1.html#incart_majstory-1#incart_maj-story-1

51

Al folder: Studies / Scandals

52

Scandals against School Children

5/12/2013 1:23:53 PM

Street. Ashley had her hair cut short and dyed blonde. She disappeared before her stepgrandmother could turn the car around.195 Authorities believe Ashley left of her own accord, but she hasn't been seen or heard from since 2007 and they think she could be being held against her will. Two other teen girls have disappeared from the same area; Amanda Berry vanished in April 2003, and Georgina DeJesus went missing in April 2004. Police are investigating the possibility that the three cases are related.196 They think one or more of the girls may have been forced into prostitution. All three cases remained unsolved until May 2013, when Berry escaped, leading to DeJesus and Knight, and Berry’s daughter, being rescued. 2006 Relevant 2004 segment of America's Most Wanted, was re-aired March 25, 2006.197 No AMBER Alert was issued the day Gina DeJesus disappeared April 2004, because no one had witnessed her being abducted. The lack of an AMBER Alert angered her father, Felix DeJesus, who said in 2006 that he believed the public would listen even if the alerts become routine.198 2005 Relevant 2004 segment of America's Most Wanted, was re-aired April 02, 2005.199 In 2005, a filing in Cuyahoga County Domestic Relations Court accused Ariel Castro of attacking his former wife, Grimilda Figueroa, who died in 2012. Figueroa twice suffered a broken nose, and suffered broken ribs, a knocked-out tooth, a blood clot on her brain, and two dislocated shoulders. Attorney Robert Ferreri requested that a judge "keep Castro from threatening to kill" Figueroa, and said Figueroa had full custody with no visitation for Castro of the children, but "Nevertheless, Castro frequently abducts daughters and keeps them from mother.200

2004+ = Year of Gina DeJesus abduction Amanda Berry was featured in May 22 2004 segment of America's Most Wanted, which re-aired in 2005 and 2006 and linked her to Gina DeJesus.201 Both had gone missing, 195

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/s/summers_ashley.html http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/s/summers_ashley.html 197 http://www.amw.com/missing_children/case.cfm?id=26744 198 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Cleveland,_Ohio,_missing_trio "3 missing women found in Cleveland, Ohio; man arrested". Necn.com. April 21, 2003. Wikipedia retrieved May 7, 2013. 199 http://www.amw.com/missing_children/case.cfm?id=26744 200 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Cleveland,_Ohio,_missing_trio "Kidnapping suspect Ariel Castro's daughter in prison for slashing her own daughter in 2008". Cleveland. November 1, 2011. Wikipedia retrieved May 7, 2013. 201 http://www.amw.com/missing_children/case.cfm?id=26744 196

52

Al folder: Studies / Scandals

53

Scandals against School Children

5/12/2013 1:23:53 PM

close to 1 year apart, in about the same place in Cleveland.202 They were profiled on The Oprah Winfrey Show and The Montel Williams Show, where self-described psychic Sylvia Browne told Miller in 2004 that her daughter Amanda was dead, and that she was "in water."203

Georgina "Gina" Lynn DeJesus disappeared April 2, 2004 at age 14.204 There are conflicting news stories on last contacts with all 3 young ladies.  DeJesus was a seventh-grader in special education classes at Wilbur Wright Middle School on April 2, 2004, when she decided to walk home. Her family quickly realized something was wrong when she didn't arrive home at her usual time. She was reported missing that same day, and the FBI became involved just two days later.205  She was last seen at a pay phone at about 3 p.m. April 2, as she headed home from middle school at West 105th Street and Lorain Avenue. She and suspect Ariel Castro's daughter Arlene Castro had called Ariel's wife, Grimilda Figueroa, seeking permission for a sleepover at DeJesus' house, but the answer was no.206  Berry and DeJesus disappeared within five blocks of each other, perhaps even on the same block.207 Police offered a $25,000 reward for info on locating of Dejesus or Berry, since their disappearances were so close to each other.208 202

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Cleveland,_Ohio,_missing_trio Northeast Ohio. "Search continues for Amanda Berry's body on West Side of Cleveland". cleveland.com. Wikipedia retrieved May 7, 2013. "Missing Children | Amanda Berry | Case". AMW. Wikipedia retrieved May 7, 2013. "Missing Children | Gina DeJesus | Case". AMW. Wikipedia retrieved May 7, 2013. 203 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Cleveland,_Ohio,_missing_trio "Amanda Berry's mother asks Psychic Sylvia Browne 'Is she out there'". WKYC News. November 18, 2004. NBC. WKYC. Wikipedia retrieved May 7, 2013. "Page 2: Daughter Found With 3 Women Missing for a Decade – ABC News". Abcnews.go.com. Wikipedia retrieved May 7, 2013. Senger, Emily. "Psychic on The Montel Williams Show said Amanda Berry was dead. She wasn’t. – Need to know". Macleans.ca. Wikipedia retrieved May 8, 2013. "Abductions of Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Ashley Summers – Video". Oprah.com. October 12, 2009. Wikipedia retrieved May 8, 2013. 204 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Cleveland,_Ohio,_missing_trio Northeast Ohio. "Six long days, Gina still missing Parents, police, city officials focus on case at community meeting | cleveland.com". Blog.cleveland.com. Wikipedia retrieved May 7, 2013. 205

http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2013/05/discovery_of_amanda_berry_gina_1.html#incart_majstory-1#incart_maj-story-2 206 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Cleveland,_Ohio,_missing_trio Dissell, Rachel (May 7, 2013). "Suspect's daughter said in 2004 she was the last to see Gina DeJesus (video)". cleveland.com. Wikipedia retrieved May 7, 2013. 207 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Cleveland,_Ohio,_missing_trio By Philip Rosenbaum Nancy Grace Producer. "Three teens disappear from same neighborhood". CNN. Wikipedia retrieved May 7, 2013. 208 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Cleveland,_Ohio,_missing_trio Northeast Ohio. "Vigil today for Gina DeJesus, missing for eight years". cleveland.com. Wikipedia retrieved May 7, 2013. Northeast Ohio. "New search for Gina DeJesus comes up empty Family's day is filled with anxiety, relief". cleveland.com. Wikipedia retrieved May 7, 2013.

53

Al folder: Studies / Scandals

54

Scandals against School Children 

5/12/2013 1:23:53 PM

A week after Gina's disappearance police released a sketch and description of a Hispanic man aged 25 to 35, 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m) tall, weighing 165 to 185 pounds (75 to 82 kg), with green eyes and a pencil-thin beard. The suspect had been seen near her school driving a light blue or white car, and asking for Gina.209

When FBI agents questioned Fernando Colon in 2004 about the recent disappearance of 14-year-old Gina DeJesus,210 Colon pointed agents toward Ariel Castro as a possible suspect, Colon recalled the week of the ladies young being found and rescued.211 Colon, who at the time was living with Castro's ex-wife, said he told the agents that Castro's two daughters knew DeJesus and Amanda Berry, who had gone missing from the same area on Cleveland's West Side a year earlier.212 "Nobody wanted to believe me about this guy," Colon said in an interview with The Plain Dealer. "Maybe the FBI didn't feel there was enough evidence to focus on him." 213 The FBI disputes Colon’s memory. There’s nothing in their records to indicate he said any such thing.214

2003+ = Year of Amanda Berry abduction

Amanda Marie Berry disappeared at age 16, April 21 2003 (one day before her 17th birthday).215 There are conflicting news stories as to last contacts with all 3 young ladies.  She called her sister to say she was getting a ride home from her job at a Burger King.216 She was believed to have made it home, changed from her uniform, but no one witnessed her there.217 She left money and all her clothes at home.218

209

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Cleveland,_Ohio,_missing_trio "3 missing women found in Cleveland, Ohio; man arrested". Necn.com. April 21, 2003. Wikipedia retrieved May 7, 2013. 210 http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2013/05/fbi_previously_investigated_th.html#incart_river 211

http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2013/05/7_things_we_learned_today_abou.html#incart_river#in cart_maj-story-1 212 http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2013/05/fbi_previously_investigated_th.html#incart_river 213

http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2013/05/7_things_we_learned_today_abou.html#incart_river#in cart_maj-story-1 214 http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2013/05/fbi_previously_investigated_th.html#incart_river 215 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Cleveland,_Ohio,_missing_trio 216 http://www.officer.com/news/10938726/ohio-police-face-questions-after-women-found?page=3 http://www.officer.com/news/10937976/frantic-911-call-leads-ohio-police-to-missing-women?page=2 217 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Cleveland,_Ohio,_missing_trio "The Charley Project: Amanda Marie Berry". Wikipedia retrieved May 7, 2013. 218 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Cleveland,_Ohio,_missing_trio "The Charley Project: Amanda Marie Berry". Wikipedia retrieved May 7, 2013.

54

Al folder: Studies / Scandals

55

Scandals against School Children 



5/12/2013 1:23:53 PM

She was known to have had plans to celebrate her birthday the next day. Before her disappearance Berry had been in a gifted program at John Marshall High School, but had switched to an online home school program in which she was on track for early graduation.219 Police initially considered Berry a runaway, until a man used her cell phone to call her mother, Louwanna Miller, claiming the teenager would return in a few days and that they were now married.220

Berry's disappearance received extensive media coverage because of the tenacious efforts of her mother, Louwana Miller. Miller frequently went to local media, held vigils, and appeared on TV shows such as "America's Most Wanted" to keep her daughter's name in the news.221

2002+ = Year of Michelle Knight abduction

Michelle Knight disappeared Aug 22, 2002 at age 21.222 There are conflicting news stories with last known info on all 3 young ladies.  At the time she disappeared, she lived at a house on Walnut Avenue. 223  She was last seen when she left her cousin's house. She disappeared near West 116th or 108th Street and Lorain Avenue, on a day she was to appear in court for a child custody case concerning her son.224  Her mother thought she had once seen her with an older man at a shopping plaza on West 117th Street.225  Police and family members came to believe that Knight may have left on her own, frustrated because she had lost custody of her son. 226 219

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Cleveland,_Ohio,_missing_trio "The Charley Project: Amanda Marie Berry". Wikipedia retrieved May 7, 2013. 220 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Cleveland,_Ohio,_missing_trio "The Charley Project: Amanda Marie Berry". Wikipedia retrieved May 7, 2013. 221

http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2013/05/discovery_of_amanda_berry_gina_1.html#incart_majstory-1#incart_maj-story-2 222 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Cleveland,_Ohio,_missing_trio Debbi Wilgoren "Police: Three rescued Cleveland women, 6-year-old are in good health". The Washington Post. Wikipedia retrieved May 7, 2013. Seitz, Colleen. "Michelle Knight, missing Cleveland woman, disappeared in 2002". Wikipedia retrieved May 7, 2013. "Three brothers arrested over Cleveland abductions". Reuters. Wikipedia retrieved May 7, 2013. 223 http://www.kpho.com/story/22184761/questions-still-remain-about-michelle-knights-disappearance 224 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Cleveland,_Ohio,_missing_trio "The three girls abducted in Cleveland all went missing on the SAME BLOCK and were held captive three miles (5 km) away". Daily Mail Reporter. Wikipedia retrieved May 7, 2013. 225 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Cleveland,_Ohio,_missing_trio Northeast Ohio. "Michelle Knight's 'normal teenage life,' plagued by troubles in years before disappearance". cleveland.com. Wikipedia retrieved May 7, 2013. Atassi, Leila. "Berry, DeJesus, Knight found alive, police source confirms". The Plain Dealer. Wikipedia retrieved May 7, 2013. 226 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Cleveland,_Ohio,_missing_trio

55

Al folder: Studies / Scandals

56

Scandals against School Children  

5/12/2013 1:23:53 PM

Her brother, who was a twin, said he and his sister were products of an abusive home.227 In a 2002 missing persons report, police stated she had a mental disorder.228

1996 Ariel Castro was accused of pulling a fence post from a neighbor's property. The neighbor's 6-year-old daughter stepped in the resulting hole and fell, hurting herself. Court documents detailed significant hostility between the neighbors, and Castro said he spoke with police "on a number of occasions” about the neighbor. Castro was ordered to pay $241 in damages.229 1995 Ariel Castro was stopped six times by Cleveland Police between 1995 and 2008 for traffic violations.230 1993 Ariel Castro was arrested for domestic violence in 1993, and spent three days in jail before being released on bond, but a grand jury declined to indict him.231 He was also arrested in December 1993 for disorderly conduct. He pleaded guilty to the charge.232 1992 Ariel Castro has owned the house at 2207 Seymour Ave., where the women were found, since 1992.233

"The three girls abducted in Cleveland all went missing on the SAME BLOCK and were held captive three miles (5 km) away". Daily Mail Reporter. Wikipedia retrieved May 7, 2013. 227 http://www.kpho.com/story/22184761/questions-still-remain-about-michelle-knights-disappearance 228 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Cleveland,_Ohio,_missing_trio Northeast Ohio. "Michelle Knight's 'normal teenage life,' plagued by troubles in years before disappearance". cleveland.com. Wikipedia retrieved May 7, 2013. 229 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Cleveland,_Ohio,_missing_trio "Kidnapping suspect Ariel Castro's daughter in prison for slashing her own daughter in 2008". Cleveland. November 1, 2011. Wikipedia retrieved May 7, 2013. 230 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Cleveland,_Ohio,_missing_trio "Ariel Castro owns home where missing women Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus, Michelle Knight found". Newsnet5. Wikipedia retrieved May 7, 2013. 231 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Cleveland,_Ohio,_missing_trio Barr, Meghan. "Amanda Berry's sister offers thanks, seeks privacy". The Seattle Times. Wikipedia retrieved May 8, 2013. "Berry, DeJesus, Knight found alive, police source confirms". Cleveland. May 2013. Wikipedia retrieved May 7, 2013. 232 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Cleveland,_Ohio,_missing_trio 233

http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2013/05/discovery_of_amanda_berry_gina_1.html#incart_majstory-1#incart_maj-story-2

56

Al folder: Studies / Scandals

57

Scandals against School Children

5/12/2013 1:23:53 PM

Oh Cl Horror Stories There are tales of abuse coming out via the news media, where we do not yet have sufficient details to put in the time line. Some of this may be a continuing attack on the mental health of the women, not one time events. While in captivity, the women had multiple pregnancies, at least one live birth, and multiple miscarriages.234 Police said the women were sometimes kept in "chains and bondage"235 There may now be permanent hearing loss due to repeated beatings. When allowed in the back yard. Berry, DeJesus and Knight wore wigs and sunglasses,, and Castro instructed them to keep their heads down.236

Oh Cl – Missed opportunities These ladies could have been rescued years earlier, had there been better cooperation between the police and the community. Neighbors say they saw and heard suspicious things, called police several times, got a do nothing response. The police deny any such calls, claim that there is a record of all calls, so even if good reason to do nothing, there’d be a record of it. There is no such record. People remember telling investigators immediately after the abductions, their suspicions about Arial Castro. Since this never made it into the notes of the investigators, as far as the authorities are concerned, it never happened. There were a lot of accusations between Colon and Castro. The result is massive distrust of the authorities. We know witness testimony is often flawed. We know human memories are often flawed. Maybe some of these people with memories would be willing to have a lie detector test with the news media regarding what they remember, that is not in any official records. The Boston bombing could have been avoided had there been better information sharing.  9/11 showed a problem with security and intelligence agencies data stove piped. It has been 12 years, and that has not yet been fixed. 234

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Cleveland,_Ohio,_missing_trio "Police source: Multiple pregnancies, miscarriages among missing women found in Cleveland home". Newsnet5.com. Wikipedia Retrieved May 8, 2013. 235 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Cleveland,_Ohio,_missing_trio "Michelle Knight, Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus: Chains, bondage found in Seymour Avenue home". Newsnet5.com. Wikipedia retrieved May 8, 2013. 236 http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2013/05/police_report_michelle_knight.html#incart_river

57

Al folder: Studies / Scandals

58

Scandals against School Children        

5/12/2013 1:23:53 PM

College chums heard something about bomb making, but did they warn authorities? Conversion to fanaticism was observed by many family members, but did they do anything about it? Fanatic was kicked out of the Mosque, but did they alert authorities? Jihadist videos downloaded and uploaded. An interest in this topic is not necessarily an indication that the person agrees with the content, but it is a clue among many. Russian government said there’s a problem, would not communicate what it was. Several federal agencies had tiny bits of info, never shared nor correlated. Student visa no longer applies if you drop out of classes. Isn’t the university supposed to tell someone when this happens? Yes, but the capability for the government to do anything with that data had been defunded. Twitter feeds show they were part of the mentality that promotes the idea that 9/11 was a Bush inside job. Many people believe conspiracy theories, only a few are motivated by them to do violence against the nation, such as militia groups, Unabomber, Ok City bomber, Sikh Temple shooter.

In aggregate there were more than enough clues that these boys were a potential problem, but each clue was known to only one group of people. I continue to add to this collection of clues, within my Boston Bombing notes.237

Oh Cl – claims police called There are tales of people calling the police, about suspicious behavior of that household, and the police investigation being superficial, according to news media interviews of people in the neighborhood. Cleveland police records do not support these claims. The suspicious stuff was not absolute proof of wrongdoing. For example, there was the house in Cleveland where the bodies of 11 dead kids were found. The neighbors reported stench coming from the house to the police, several times, before the bodies were found. Initially the stench was attributed to a nearby sausage factory. 238 City Safety Director Martin Flask said 2013 May-7 that investigators had no record of anyone calling about criminal activity at the house but were still checking police, fire and emergency databases.239 The allegations are NOT that anyone called about criminal activity, but rather that they reported suspicious activity. Here is testimony from neighbors who claimed they called police due to very suspicious activities, then the police failed to do as the witnesses thought reasonable. I count at least 5+ different persons claiming to have called the police with similar stories. Today the police are saying these calls never happened.

237

http://www.scribd.com/doc/136142293/Boston-Bombings-2013-April-by-Al-Mac http://www.officer.com/news/10938726/ohio-police-face-questions-after-women-found?page=2 239 http://www.officer.com/news/10938726/ohio-police-face-questions-after-women-found 238

58

Al folder: Studies / Scandals

59

Scandals against School Children

5/12/2013 1:23:53 PM

Women who lived in a neighborhood apartment building said they called police because they saw three young girls crawling on all fours naked with dog leashes around their necks in the backyard, as three men controlled them.240 Elsie Cintron, who lives three houses away, said her daughter once saw a naked woman, on a leash, crawling on her hands and knees in the backyard several years ago and called police. "But they didn't take it seriously," she said.241 A neighbor told USA Today he had called police after other neighbors said they saw naked women on dog leashes crawling on all fours in the home's backyard. 242 A woman said she called police after seeing a naked women in the backyard.243 Another neighbor, Israel Lugo, said he heard pounding on some of the doors of Castro's house, which had plastic bags on the windows, in November 2011. Lugo said officers knocked on the front door, but no one answered. "They walked to side of the house and then left," he said.244 If the police are to be more active, as a result of this public outcry, innocents will be more vocal about that police activity. One who called 911 this time said the 911 operator was a moron because 911 asked the caller what he was wearing. Strikes me that this helps police distinguish caller from suspect, when they arrive on scene.

Oh Cl similar patterns, statistics, suspicions, mitigation Very few people who go missing, are categorized as kidnap victims. For a missing person to be so categorized, there needs to be a good police investigation, and good evidence to lead to such a conclusion. Most cases of people going missing, there is neither a good police investigation, nor good evidence. Our surveillance society may improve the availability of evidence, since there are many cameras recording what’s happening in public, and a great abundance of people with cell phone cameras. I can envisage a future society where there’s a missing person picture on the Internet, combined with facial recognition software. We connect our camera footage 240

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Cleveland,_Ohio,_missing_trio Post to Facebook. "Reports of sex abuse, beatings inside Cleveland house". Usatoday.com. Wikipedia retrieved May 8, 2013. 241 http://www.officer.com/news/10937976/frantic-911-call-leads-ohio-police-to-missing-women http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2013/05/discovery_of_amanda_berry_gina_1.html#incart_majstory-1#incart_maj-story-2 242 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Cleveland,_Ohio,_missing_trio Post to Facebook. "Reports of sex abuse, beatings inside Cleveland house". Usatoday.com. Wikipedia retrieved May 8, 2013. "Ariel Castro Allegedly Kept Sexually Abused Kidnap Victims In 'Chains And Ropes'". Huffingtonpost.com. Wikipedia retrieved May 8, 2013. 243 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Cleveland,_Ohio,_missing_trio "Ariel Castro Allegedly Kept Sexually Abused Kidnap Victims In 'Chains And Ropes'". Huffingtonpost.com. Wikipedia retrieved May 8, 2013. 244 http://www.officer.com/news/10937976/frantic-911-call-leads-ohio-police-to-missing-women

59

Al folder: Studies / Scandals

60

Scandals against School Children

5/12/2013 1:23:53 PM

to that site, to find out if we have any pictures of that person. Also people who have footage of places, where the missing person might have been, commuting between school and home, or visiting the mall, or whatever, that could be shared to show time periods when the missing person was not along certain sections of the territory being searched. We saw in the Boston Bombing, that when a lot of the public agree that the case should be solved rapidly, that this kind of thing can work. It takes the right kind of resources, and right kind of cooperation. I will be spelling out what I think we need, in my upcoming notes. Some people are angry with the police, other authorities. I think that drains energy from solving the problems, plus fingerpointing puts the police on the defensive. In my career as a computer geek, serving the corporate world, I like to use the word GLITCH = no fault error. Something is messed up. It can be minor, or catastrophic. Our mutual team goal is to get it fixed, and to fix whatever the pattern of behavior or policy practices are, that lead to such things happening. Finger-pointing can be destructive to an organization, because people who think they may get in trouble over the problems, they fight the investigation, raise false clues, the problem never gets solved. I learned from MSNBC Rachel Maddow show that  Hundreds of thousands of people go missing every year in the USA.  75% of them are children at the time they go missing.  50% of those children are never found.  45% of the children are rapidly found, they were not really missing.  7% of the children are classified as suspected abduction by a family member.  2% of the children are classified as suspected abduction by a stranger.  661,691 people were categorized as missing in the USA in 2012. In 2012, 660 thousand missing people, 75% of them were children, 50 % of the children never found … so that’s approx 250 thousand children from 2012. There is speculation what happened to the never found 50%, such as child sex traffic, then there is controversy what should be done about that. Since there is no evidence what happened to those hundreds of thousands of missing children every year, the uproar over these uninformed speculations distracts resources from finding out what is REALLY happening with those kids, or dealing with other problems where we do know some facts for sure, such as adult sex trafficking.

Ohio Winter A school bus crashed in Logan County, with 41 students aboard, none seriously injured.245 Icy snowy road conditions could be a contributing factor.246 245

http://www2.nbc4i.com/news/2013/feb/04/6/school-bus-carrying-40-students-crashes-logan-co-ar1340350/ 246 http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2013/02/05/school-bus-tips-in-snowy-weather.html

60

Al folder: Studies / Scandals

61

Scandals against School Children

5/12/2013 1:23:53 PM

I saw on a National Geographic channel show about tow trucks in Donner Pass, where those trucks have on their dashboard, the word ICE which lights up in red, when the vehicle detects black ice ahead on the roadway. I wonder how expensive to install that on school busses, and train the drivers what to do when they see that light go on? After I shared this sentiment on social media, I was informed that the technology does not actually detect the black ice, rather it detects that conditions are at risk of this being the case, so instead the focus should be on bus driver training to recognize risks, and drive accordingly, such as with chains on the tires, or the school should not be in session when driving conditions real bad. Perhaps there can be adjustments to insurance rates, based on drivers training and certification that they know what they are doing in adverse driving conditions. There is also such a thing as smart car technology. The kinds of systems which are used for maps, to tell drivers how to get where they want to go, but distract them so they will probably crash on the way there, can also be linked to weather info, to provide alerts if we are driving into hazardous conditions, which we don’t see yet, but are getting close.

Oregon: Eugene Incident A witness — a person who police have subsequently interviewed — reported seeing a white sport-utility vehicle pull into South Eugene High School’s northeast parking lot just after 5 p.m. Thursday and abduct a man who had been wearing a white jacket and jeans and carrying a backpack.247 The witness said three people exited the SUV through the rear hatch and put a white hood over the man’s head, then put him in the vehicle before getting back in themselves and speeding away, according to police.248 No one has yet been reported to the police, as missing, who fits the description of the victim, but the police do have surveillance footage to help the case. 249

Pennsylvania: Altoona Incident An abduction attempt of an Altoona Area Junior High School student has led to a registered sex offender who police have labeled a "person of interest." A junior high girl reported that a man attempted to kidnap her as she walked along the 1700 block of

247

http://www.registerguard.com/web/updates/29051466-55/police-reported-eugene-personthursday.html.csp 248 http://www.registerguard.com/web/updates/29051466-55/police-reported-eugene-personthursday.html.csp 249 http://www.registerguard.com/web/updates/29051466-55/police-reported-eugene-personthursday.html.csp

61

Al folder: Studies / Scandals

62

Scandals against School Children

5/12/2013 1:23:53 PM

Seventh Avenue at 7:29 a.m. Tuesday on her way to school.250 It sounds like the police do not know whether or not to believe the girl. The alleged abduction attempt occurred almost exactly one year after the Mirror covered an Altoona Area Junior High School parent addressing the school board about bus transportation for his child, saying a search of the Megan's Law website found 10 convicted sex offenders living within a 1-mile radius of his home and the junior high school.251 In accordance with state law, the district does not provide bus transportation to secondary students living within a two-mile radius of school. Similar vehicle abduction incidents walking to or from school: California = Selma; Florida = Palm Beach; Michigan = Riverview; Pennsylvania = Altoona; South Carolina.

Puerto Rico I found this story, when searching for confirmation of Nancy Grace stories, but I don’t see anything about a school bus stop. It is a kidnapping of a 6 year old boy. 252 See “Oh Cl – Suspect and family chapter”, for a common misconception about Puerto Rico by a lot of US news media.

South Carolina Some traffic accidents occur because a driver does not know the rules of the road, which is a pre-requisite to getting a driver’s license. A man was driving a truck, without a license. He drove past a school bus, which had stopped, and had the stop sign out. The truck hit a 10 year old boy who was crossing the street to get to the bus. The boy was dragged several feet, then went airborne. Valverde was charged with passing a stopped school bus and driving without a South Carolina driver's license.253 A video shows that bullying has escalated to a brutal beating of a 12 year old girl on the bus. The video was taken by a friend of the girl, to try to help reduce the violence, and get justice for the victim, assuming she survives the assault. The girl, who took the video, has been disciplined, by the school. Apparently taking video inside a bus is prohibited, unless it is done by the authorities, and constitutional rights are to be denied children.254 Can we imagine what life was like for kids, before cameras became affordable for their protection? The victim’s mother suspects the school policy, in opposition to students using cameras, is to facilitate cover-ups of events like this. A 15-year-old boy said the incident occurred between 7:30 a.m. and 7:45 a.m. on Nov. 5 as he was walking to school on Legrand Smoak Street in Cordova, he was taken at gun 250

http://www.altoonamirror.com/page/content.detail/id/565181/Investigation-continues-into-allegedstudent-abduction.html?nav=742 251 http://www.altoonamirror.com/page/content.detail/id/565181/Investigation-continues-into-allegedstudent-abduction.html?nav=742 252 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/31/alfry-infante-perez-kidnapped-puerto-rico-returnedunharmed_n_2051218.html 253 http://www.live5news.com/story/19923693/police-truck-passes-school-bus-stop-sign-hits-child 254 http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2012/11/15/3666930/police-investigate-school-bus.html

62

Al folder: Studies / Scandals

63

Scandals against School Children

5/12/2013 1:23:53 PM

point by someone who wanted to steal his money, but the boy said he did not have any, then he was let go. Orangeburg Consolidated School District 4 spokesman Tim Newman said that such an incident is “not at all” common at the school. 255 Does that mean it happens only once a month, a year? Similar vehicle abduction incidents walking to or from school: California = Selma; Florida = Palm Beach; Michigan = Riverview; Pennsylvania = Altoona; South Carolina.

Texas: Austin bus stop safety Austin city council is considering ways to make it easier to identify drivers who pass stopped school buses, placing the children in danger, because there have been many recent incidents.256 They want surveillance cameras on the buses. They want tougher penalties. A bus headed to Gordon Bailey Middle School was stopped along Old Manchaca, waiting for students to get on, when a Jeep attempted to go around the stopped bus on the two lane road. The Jeep clipped the front end of the bus and rolled into a ditch on the side of the road. Driver of Jeep ticketed for traffic violations. The 43 students on the bus were not injured, and no one was taken to the hospital.257

Texas: Fort Worth Incident A school bus swerved to try to miss an oncoming car as it was taking nine Wedgwood Middle School students home following an after-school program. The bus crashed and the car hit the bus.258

Texas: Greenville 3 Incidents The Alicia Moore case259 fits the Nancy Grace pattern:  a 16 year old child is let off school bus about a block from home;  the child never gets home;  parents call friends of the child, trying to locate the child, are unsuccessful;  parents call the police;  the police take no action, not taking the situation seriously,260 assuming the child is either a run-away, or is spending the weekend with some friends, without telling parents, even though the child has never done either of this before, and there is no evidence they did that this time;

255

http://thetandd.com/news/local/teen-says-he-was-snatched-going-to-school/article_b2d8f95a-2e1d-11e2b598-0019bb2963f4.html 256 http://www.kxan.com/dpp/news/local/austin/council-looking-to-make-bus-stops-safer 257 http://www.kxan.com/dpp/news/local/austin/council-looking-to-make-bus-stops-safer 258 http://www.wfaa.com/news/local/Bus-carrying-Fort-Worth-middle-school-students-crashes-throughwall-179600271.html 259 http://www.wfaa.com/news/crime/Frustrations-grow-as-probe-into-Greenville-teens-murder-continues-178148451.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/12/alicia-moore-texas-teen-investigation_n_2117942.html 260 http://www.hlntv.com/video/2012/11/15/moore-alicia-missing-girl-no-amber-alert-body-found

63

Al folder: Studies / Scandals

64

Scandals against School Children 

5/12/2013 1:23:53 PM

a few days later, the child is found, dead, in which the coroner evidence is such that had the police issued an Amber Alert, or notified the news media, promptly, the child might have been saved.

The community suspects that the police inaction could have been due to racism, prejudice against people who are not rich, and an assumption that older children are more likely to be doing things without informing parents. One man reportedly told police he saw Moore sitting in the front seat of a car at a Greenville convenience store on the afternoon she disappeared. The police say that lead went nowhere. A second similar case in Greenville was reported to police in January. In that case, a child said someone attempted to kidnap her near a bus stop. After the Alicia Moore case, police reacted more rapidly. A man drove toward a student in the Greenville Middle School parking lot, lowered his window and offered a ride. The girl refused the ride, and just as that was happening, her aunt approached and the man left. School resource officers caught the truck on video and tracked down the driver. The man was a friend of the family and was legitimately offering the child a ride home. Before it was figured out, that it was an innocent encounter, a letter was sent to parents, warning them of risks.261 However, approx ½ abductions are not by strangers, so he could have been up to no good. Similar Bus Stop Abduction Incidents Include: Colorado = Denver; NYC 33 yrs ago; NC = Salisbury; Texas = Greenville.

Texas: Lubbock In 2007, a law was passed requiring school districts to report school bus accidents. The Texas Education Agency web site shows statistics by school district and year,262 which are then checked by some local news media. There were 89 school bus accidents in the last five years involving 863 students, with Lubbock Texas school districts, and 1 had apparently missed 1 year of complying with the law. School officials speculate that many accidents are fender benders due to areas of high traffic volume. LISD says 79% of the accidents were not their fault, and Frenship says 16 of theirs were also caused by other drivers. 263

261

http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/Attempted-Abduction-in-Greenville-177854301.html http://www.tea.state.tx.us/index2.aspx?id=7732 263 http://www.kcbd.com/story/20963082/tonight-10-kcbd-investigates-school-bus-accidents 262

64

Al folder: Studies / Scandals

65

Scandals against School Children

5/12/2013 1:23:53 PM

Texas: Houston Kindergarten Incidents A substitute school bus driver had a list of adults who were authorized to pick up the children on the bus. Katrina Roberson was at the school bus stop to pick up her 7 year old son, but the driver said her name was not on his list, so he would not let the child leave the bus. He closed the doors and returned the child to Holmquist Elementary School. This was on a Monday. There was also an issue with the child saying he had left his jacket on the bus, the driver closing the doors, looking, saying he can’t find it, not letting the child look, the adults screaming at the driver that this is taking entirely too long, so the driver closes the doors with the child inside, and calls dispatch for guidance.264 Dontre Espree shot the video of the school bus driver driving away with the first grader crying, because there was another problem incident with another school bus the previous week. In that earlier incident, Espree was not allowed to pick up her 6 year old son, because the parent’s name was allegedly not on the list. This was on the previous Friday.265 There are problems at this stop due to an after school program, where parents have authorized apartment management to pick up kids and take them to the program, then parents pick them up later, but this permission in writing has failed to make it into the school bus data base.266 This explanation by the school district does not explain to me why the parents are not on the list. The list should have both parents and the apartment management personnel associated with each child.

Utah: Child Hostile – 2 Incidents The Ogden Utah School District is facing a wrongful death lawsuit after a 7-year-old boy died of a heart condition in 2010.267 Before Eduardo’s kindergarten year, Eduardo’s mother says she told the school her son had a serious congenital heart condition called hypoplastic left heart syndrome. The school claims this never happened. They have another story. 7-year-old Jose Eduardo Flores Bedolla’s family said that when he came to Horace Mann Elementary School on Oct. 29, 2010, he wasn’t feeling well. Eduardo complained of a stomach ache and he was sweating, so his teacher sent him to the office. Eduardo was told to sit on a bench alone waiting for his mother to pick him up. While waiting, a teacher trained as a respiratory therapist offered to examine Eduardo, but school officials said to not touch him; just leave him alone. Eduardo’s mother drove him to the hospital where he died. The boy’s family claims school negligence is to blame for the death. 264

http://www.myfoxhouston.com/story/20113549/2012/11/15/a-tale-of-2-school-bus-videos http://www.myfoxhouston.com/story/20113549/2012/11/15/a-tale-of-2-school-bus-videos 266 http://www.myfoxhouston.com/story/20113549/2012/11/15/a-tale-of-2-school-bus-videos 267 http://fox13now.com/2012/12/12/ogden-sd-facing-lawsuit-in-death-of-7-year-old-boy/ 265

65

Al folder: Studies / Scandals

66

Scandals against School Children

5/12/2013 1:23:53 PM

The ACLU,268 in December 2012, proposed a class action law suit over a "gang sweep" December 2010 at West High School in Salt Lake City, during which between 14 and 40 students of color were detained, searched, questioned and falsely accused of being gang members.269 The school supposedly thought it had a problem with gang graffiti where a student was considered to be a gang member because of:  the color of their skin;  their ethnicity or cultural background;  the style of their garments;  color patterns of legally acquired back packs;  choice of art drawings and doodles. The children were not given an opportunity to call a parent or lawyer, before being searched by the police, at the school’s behest. They were forced to hold up a sign giving their name, and claiming to be a gang member. These innocent children, with no prior juvenile record, good academic credentials up to this point in time, etc. were then entered into a “gang data base” to be subjected to intense police scrutiny, without any legitimate basis for suspicion. This led to stress and mental health problems for the children. Their grades suffered as a result.

Virginia: Cheriton 2 Incidents In two consecutive days, reckless school bus drivers caused school bus crashes. 270 In one case, a semi truck had to stop for a traffic light, and school bus crashed into back end of the truck. I have learned not to follow close behind trucks, because they block visibility of conditions ahead. This apparently was missing from the school bus driver’s know-how. Next day, a school bus driver managed to drive into the ditch and roll over.

268

http://www.aclu.org/racial-justice/aclu-files-lawsuit-over-unlawful-sweep-utah-school-targetingstudents-color http://www.aclu.org/criminal-law-reform-prisoners-rights-racial-justice/winston-v-salt-lake-city-policedeptartment-et http://www.aclu.org/racial-justice/winston-v-salt-lake-city-police-deptartment-et-al-complaint 269 http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/55462826-78/gang-students-lake-salt.html.csp 270 http://www.delmarvanow.com/article/20121115/NEWS01/121115001/NORTHAMPTON-Driversticketed-after-school-bus-crashes-consecutive-days?nclick_check=1

66

Al folder: Studies / Scandals

67

Scandals against School Children

5/12/2013 1:23:53 PM

Virginia: Norfolk Incident A 10-year-old girl was walking home from Oceanair Elementary School when an unknown suspect approached her in a black work van. The suspect got out of the van and grabbed the girl’s arm. She was able to get away and fled on foot. 271

Virginia: Lynchburg Incident Shortly after 8 p.m. a 15-year-old girl was approached by a man described as having a muscular build and deep voice who grabbed her and tried to pull her toward a wooded area on Yorktown Avenue. The location is close to Holy Cross Regional Catholic School and about a mile from Linkhorne elementary and middle schools. The girl ran away from her attacker and got home safely.272 Police did not release any information in the case until 2 p.m. the next day. They say they have a balancing act between maintaining the confidentiality of an investigation, and what is in the best interests of protecting other potential victims.273 What I do not understand: it is self evident that the man knows he attempted the crime, so what is to be gained by the police keeping quiet? If he knows the police are looking for him, that might be a chilling effect making him less likely to be stalking other victims. Similar incidents, trying to rape school children: Missouri = Liberty + Riverside; Virginia = Lynchburg.

West Virginia 3 Incidents Vehicles passing stopped school buses, disregarding child safety, is a problem many places in the USA. In West Virginia, it is also a problem with government vehicles. A surveillance video shows a Charleston parking enforcement vehicle driving by a bus while the stop arm was activated. Another vehicle can be seen on the video passing as well. There were several surveillance cameras on the bus. At least one angle captured the license plate number.274 A vehicle passed a stopped school bus, killing a child crossing the road, where the defense was poor visibility due to bad weather conditions, such that the driver did not know the stopped vehicle was a school bus. 275

271

http://www.wavy.com/dpp/news/crime/npd-girl-nearly-abducted-after-school http://www.newsadvance.com/news/local/article_89bc5626-2f98-11e2-824b-0019bb30f31a.html 273 http://www.newsadvance.com/news/local/article_89bc5626-2f98-11e2-824b-0019bb30f31a.html 274 http://www.wowktv.com/story/19919061/cameras-catch-city-vehicle-passing-a-stopped-school-bus 275 http://county10.com/2012/11/14/day-2-of-the-barnes-trial-school-bus-driver-and-students-testify/ http://county10.com/2012/11/16/verdict-barnes-not-guilty-of-aggravated-vehicular-homicide/ http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/0a66d39a09f84d569e93ca70c7ee25b9/WY--School-Bus-Death http://www.sfgate.com/news/crime/article/Man-involved-in-fatal-bus-stop-crash-set-for-trial-4027976.php http://www.sfgate.com/news/crime/article/Driver-acquitted-of-felony-in-WY-school-bus-death4049976.php 272

67

Al folder: Studies / Scandals

68

Scandals against School Children

5/12/2013 1:23:53 PM

When we see a school bus stopped, whether it has its flashing lights going or not, we should stop, until we see that it has finished its duties, and the street is clear of any children crossing. If visibility is impaired due to bad weather, such that we cannot see other vehicles, such as a school bus, clearly, then we have no business being on the highway. I also have some concerns about the school bus being out in such conditions, without a police car escort, to try to prevent this kind of accident. However, to be driving under the 65 mph speed limit, at a time when visibility would not let you clearly see the school bus you were passing, is not a good defense. In fog or snow, if you cannot drive safely at 5 or 10 mph, you should not be driving period. Oct 2012, an 8-year-old girl suffered a broken leg and foot when she was struck by a motorist after getting off the school bus in Summersville.276 Also see chapter: Passing a stopped school bus.

Foreign to USA also has school safety issues Many of the same stories we see in the USA, have their parallels in other nations.

It also happens in the Middle East A man was arrested for the kidnap and attempted rape of a teenage girl who was waiting for a school bus in Sharjah, Iran.277 A taxi followed a school bus in Muskrat Oman, then the driver attempted to kidnap a seven year old girl. Normally the bus arrives at 2 pm, and a relative is waiting at the stop, but school let out early, so there was no one waiting when she arrived at 1.30 pm. Neighbor witnesses stopped the kidnapping. 278 A train hit a school bus in Egypt, killing 51. The people blame the train, and prior government’s neglect of train safety. 279

Schools in India do not believe in child safety After a child fell to her death through a hole in the floor of a school bus, the government of India imposed new regulations for school buses. Private schools went on strike to protest the safety regulations.280

276

http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/W-Va-schools-chief-Drivers-still-passing-buses-4003611.php http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/uae/general/man-held-over-rape-attempt-1.1100882 278 http://www.muscatdaily.com/Archive/Oman/Alert-neighbours-foil-kidnapping-attempt-1s4v 279 http://www.woai.com/news/local/story/Egyptian-train-hits-school-bus-51-killed/7ArIqGEK6k6FjOic1WFjw.cspx 280 http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/coimbatore/Statewide-school-bus-strike-today-to-protest-newguidelines/articleshow/17273874.cms 277

68

Al folder: Studies / Scandals

69

Scandals against School Children

5/12/2013 1:23:53 PM

School Violence Various institutions maintain statistics on violence in association with schools, but none of them are a complete story.  Trouble on and off school buses often do not find their way into any official statistics, where school buses are mentioned as a related factor.  Police abuse of authority, you would not find in statistics maintained of incidents of violence in the schools, because the authorities do not consider police officers damn near traumatizing children to death, to be in the same category of a few kids slapping each other around.  School authorities methods of discipline, also would not be found in statistics maintained by the educational system, since they do not consider this in the same category as unauthorized violence. US Schools are supposed to report a variety of types of things to the US Department of Education, an institution we are told will be closed, the next time a Republican is elected President. Over the years, the categories have increased. Here is a summary of a US Department of Education report, March 12, on disparities around the USA with: school discipline; teacher qualifications; other topics. 281  Minority students across America face harsher discipline, for the same alleged offenses, have less access to rigorous high school curricula, and are more often taught by lower-paid and less experienced teachers. Here is a summary of the 2005 School Safety Report by the US Department of Education.282  In 2003, students in urban schools were twice as likely as students in rural and suburban schools to fear being attacked at school, or on the way to and from school.  Violent crime rates in the nation's schools, unchanged between 2002 and 2003, remained at about half those recorded in 1992.  The report indicates that students are twice as likely to be victims of serious violence away from school.  What the report defines283 as crimes includes: Drug284 Pushing on Campus; Fights; Gangs on School Property; Thefts; Truancy; Unauthorized bullying; Unauthorized Threats; Unauthorized violence; Unauthorized weapons in the possession of students.

281

https://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/new-data-us-department-education-highlights-educationalinequities-around-teache 282 http://www2.ed.gov/news/pressreleases/2005/11/11202005.html The complete text of the report is available online at http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2006001 . 283 Examples of authorized this and that would include: schools bullying kids because they are different, or have values other than the mainstream; police use of tasers, and other non-lethal weapons, on kids for being kids; school discipline methods. 284 Includes both illegal drugs, and one child giving another an aspirin.

69

Al folder: Studies / Scandals

70

Scandals against School Children

5/12/2013 1:23:53 PM

Motorists passing a Stopped School Bus Most school zones have 20 mph speeds, but limited to when students are entering or leaving school. I believe these signs should be issued with warning lights, similar to road construction zones, for those time zones, activated both by a timer and a switch from the Principal office. The timer would cause the light to flash, at times when students are scheduled to be arriving, departing due to the school schedule. At other unscheduled times, the switch in the Principal office could be flipped to add to the warning flashing light. The office switch could also be used to designate some date as being a holiday, like a weekend day, when the lights will not be needed. School busses are rolling traffic signals, with different rules in different localities for the use of amber (warning) and red (stop) lights. Should they also have green lights to let stopped motorists know it is now safe to proceed, because all the relevant children have made their road crossings?285 In many states, penalties are increasing for drivers disregarding speed limits in construction zones. This is because some highway construction workers have been killed by motorists driving too fast for those conditions. I think the penalties for driving fast past school buses which have stop sign and warning lights going, 286 thus placing children’s lives at risk, should be commensurate with people who put construction workers lives at risk. Perhaps there should be more severe penalties for risking the lives of children, than risking the lives of construction workers, because children are less mentally developed to react rapidly, when some reckless motorist action places them at risk. 

In Illinois, there are an average of 7,000 accidents every year, in road construction work zones.287  In 2003, 44 construction workers were killed in Illinois, thanks to motorists disregarding slow down speed limits in highway construction zones. 288  In 2006, there were 29 work zone fatalities in Illinois.289 This issue is complicated by some construction zones poorly sign posted, especially in Indiana. There are slow down signs for construction zones which are deserted, and there are workers doing construction, when there were no warning signs. Do we have national statistics on children killed, thanks to motorists disregarding school bus safety?  Approx half of school children, killed at school bus stops, are due to motorists disregarding the school bus stop sign or flashing lights.290 What about the other 285

http://www.stnonline.com/blogs/safe-at-the-stop/1709-getting-tough-to-stop-illegal-passers-of-schoolbuses 286 http://www.cyberdriveillinois.com/departments/police/faq.html 287 http://www.illinoistollway.com/construction-and-planning/work-zone-safety http://www.illinoistollway.com/construction-and-planning/slow-down-save-lives 288 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2027071/posts 289 http://www.isp.state.il.us/media/pressdetails.cfm?ID=406 290 http://www.stnonline.com/blogs/safe-at-the-stop/2415-llegally-passring-school-buses

70

Al folder: Studies / Scandals

71

Scandals against School Children

5/12/2013 1:23:53 PM

half? Albemarle police Cpl. Sean C. Hackney said many motorists he has pulled over have said, "Well, I didn’t know what to do. It happened too fast." They are ignorant of school bus law, either deliberate accident on purpose, or they knew it once and have forgotten about it. How can you get a driver’s license without having known this at one time? Apparently many driver’s ed classes have been neglecting this important ingredient. What is the penalty for motorists caught doing this with school buses?  I think it was in Cleveland Ohio, where a woman has to hold up a sign that only an idiot would do what she did, driving on sidewalk, to get around a school bus, and its children.291 She also got a $250.00 fine, and license suspended 30 days. Many people in social media think the penalty was too humiliating for the crime committed. I think she should have had to spend some time in jail, have her kids taken away from her and placed in foster care, since she obviously does not value the lives and safety of children. Then there should be a social welfare study to see if she has become mature enough to be a parent again.  In Connecticut, it is a $ 465.00 ticket.  See West Virginia, possible jail time for motorist who killed a child crossing the street when the motorist blew through the school bus stop sign, at 65 mph.  There is no penalty in Virginia, thanks to poorly drafted legislation. 292 What is the penalty for reckless driving through slow down zones, due to highway construction? This varies by state, with penalties increasing over time. 293  First offense $375.00.  Second offense $1,000.00.  90 day license suspension.  Mandatory Court Appearance. In many communities, school buses now have surveillance cameras, to record vehicles and their license plates, which violate school bus safety, or other driving safety, then report them to the cops, who will track down the vehicle owners, issue tickets. 294 In some states, police sometimes do a ride along, on school buses, to do the recording both of vehicles doing these violations, and also to note statistics of on which school bus routes this is the biggest problem.295  West Virginia 2012 May, this led to police issuing five tickets.  West Virginia 2012 Oct, this led to police issuing seven tickets, and one warning.

291

http://www.stnonline.com/home/latest-news/4873-ohio-judges-idiot-sign-order-for-illegal-school-buspasser-causes-online-buzz292 http://www.stnonline.com/blogs/safe-at-the-stop/2943-virginia-school-bus-passing-loophole 293 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2027071/posts http://www.dot.state.il.us/press/r062409.html 294 http://www.wlns.com/story/20075811/grand-ledge-buses-get-new-cameras-for-passing-cars 295 http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/W-Va-schools-chief-Drivers-still-passing-buses-4003611.php

71

Al folder: Studies / Scandals

72

Scandals against School Children

5/12/2013 1:23:53 PM

Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles conducted a study in conjunction with the Florida Department of Education which indicates there are 21,000 recorded incidents of drivers illegally passing school buses every day. This results in 3.7 million possible violations by Florida motorists in the 180-day school year.296 Indiana Department of Education (IN DOE) said a one day study of 184 districts statewide uncovered more than 3,500 cases of motorists illegally passing the buses with stop arms activated and amber lights flashing. IN DOE estimates nearly 630,000 motorists will illegally pass stopped school bus stop arms in a typical school year, and 10,600 of them on the right side of the bus, where children are loading and unloading. 297 Georgia, Virginia and Washington state all passed laws this year to allow school districts to equip video cameras on school bus stop arms or on the external body of the vehicle to catch these motorists. Washington state's law even went as far to require the one-day count each year, starting next May.298

Other Driving Safety The rules (and auto design and understanding human anatomy) may have evolved since I learned to drive (in the 1950’s and 1960’s, which was a combination of traditional schooling and real life experiences), when we were told about how far a vehicle travels at XX speed, before what the eyes see translate to the brain telling the body to react to tell the car, and then the brakes react, so we should have about 1 car length safety margin in front of us for every 20 mph of our speed. Nowadays it seems like no-one heeds this safety margin, including school bus drivers. I might be driving 60 mph, with 3 car lengths of separation between me and the vehicle in front of me, and some other vehicle passes me, then plops into that gap, which I had deliberately maintained for safety. It makes no difference if private auto, truck, or school bus, other drivers do not adhere to this practice I was taught 50 years ago. Was I taught wrong? When it comes to tailgating at high speed, cops are the worst offenders. I have seen many stories in the news, over the years, about a school bus gets stuck in a traffic jam, while part of the bus is sticking over rail road tracks, then it gets hit by a train. In my driver education, I have learned that:  Sometimes the train alarm system is broke, such that the warning signals do not work right to let motorists know a train is coming. You have to LOOK down the

296

http://www.fldoe.org/transportation/pdf/FloridaStoparmResults.pdf http://www.stnonline.com/home/latest-news/4845-florida-organization-formed-to-curb-motorists-whoillegally-pass-school-buses 297 http://www.stnonline.com/blogs/safe-at-the-stop/3502-round-up-stop-arm-counts-continue-to-tell-storyof-illegal-school-bus-passers 298 http://www.stnonline.com/blogs/safe-at-the-stop/3502-round-up-stop-arm-counts-continue-to-tell-storyof-illegal-school-bus-passers

72

Al folder: Studies / Scandals

73

Scandals against School Children





5/12/2013 1:23:53 PM

tracks in both directions, before crossing them, just like a pedestrian crossing a street. Traffic jams do not always get cleared up rapidly, so before crossing train tracks, we should make sure there is space on the other side, so our vehicle has cleared the tracks before we have to stop again. The same kind of principle applies when crossing a busy intersection. If the traffic jam is such that we are likely to end up in the middle of the intersection, when the lights change, we want to avoid entering the intersection until there is room for our vehicle on the other side. In bad weather, safe driving practices requirements are much more constrained than in good weather.

What I have learned is apparently not in the brains of many drivers today. My sister is a school teacher. I asked her if something has happened with driver ed, to contribute to an apparent huge decline in driving skills. She informed me that due to budget cuts, driver ed is no longer part of school curriculum.

Revision History My info sources are re-shared by paragraph, since I expect to later have more sources on developing stories.

May-12 Version 0.8 When I uploaded version 0.7 to Scribd, I found that in the latest Scribd improvements, it had lost the description, and some coding, but fortunately old tags still there. I fixed description, added more tags, and this took my visibility score from 2/5 to 5/5. I know from past experience that most any time I upload a revised edition of any research, an earlier 5/5 will have fallen to 4/5 visibility, so I often review overall description for any improvements implied by the latest additions and rewrites. I added much more to the Ohio-Cleveland-Kidnap story, rearranging some of the content, and starting new sections still to flesh out. I added significant additional info to what’s known about the victims, suspect, and time-line, including conflicting stories between neighbors who say they called the police about very suspicious activities at that house, and police saying this never happened. Suspect # 1’s brothers were co-conspirators based on neighborhood witnesses, but have not yet been charged because the police do not believe those witnesses. I moved my Amber ideas to be grouped up front with Amber in general. While fleshing out the Ohio Cleveland story, I found references to other services to aid parents of newly missing children, and where to go when existing services are exhausted. I updated the front section accordingly. I added to other states, such as the Florida story of the disappeared woman there allegedly homeless for 10 years … UNTRUE. Yes, she was there 10+ years, but not homeless the whole time. She was undocumented, which is a whole other problem, which I tried to summarize.

73

Al folder: Studies / Scandals

74

Scandals against School Children

5/12/2013 1:23:53 PM

There’s more additions scattered throughout, the overall document. There’s also more I want to add, as a result of the Ohio-Cleveland-Story:  So far, I have only scratched the surface of sources closest to the story.  Some media say this is a rare scenario. True, but there are allegedly dozens of similar instances, some of which maybe should be added, and reference each other.  The police have statistics of disappearances by year in Cleveland, perhaps worth adding to the time line.  Charley Project has details of disappearances by geography, where they are now cold cases, perhaps statistics worth adding to each state.  Perhaps up-top I should add a chapter for REUNITING AFTER DISASTER, with resources specific to that scenario.

2013 May-8-9 Version 0.7 May-8-9 wee hours, I uploaded this, at which point the doc was up to 58 pages, with 228 footnotes. In addition to minor updates to multiple earlier chapters, and intermittent scattering of similar incidents added to my notes over time:  Starting around page 33, I had inserted significant content about the situation in Cleveland Ohio, where 3 women were found, who had been abducted in 2002 2003 and 2004, in pretty much the same place, then held in captivity within 5 miles of the kidnap point.  I have lots more I intend to look into on this story, but I had reached a convenient break point, in writing up the so far.

2012 Dec-18 Version 0.6 Dec-18 mid day I uploaded this, at which point it was up to 43 pages, with 170 footnotes. In addition to minor updates to multiple earlier chapters:  Conclusion Summary – copy from body of notes, conclusions so far.  Add summary of my conclusions so far, from Sandy Hook incident. See my separate research notes “Mass Shootings”, for what transpired Dec 2012 at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown CT, starting around page 72 in those notes.

Nov-18 Version 0.3 Nov-18 late afternoon I uploaded this, at which point it was up to 34 pages, with 147 footnote links to my info sources. In addition to minor updates to multiple earlier chapters:  School Violence in perspective - started  What to do when your child is missing – I restructured the list.  Where I note similar incidents, I note after them, where the other ones happened.

74

Al folder: Studies / Scandals

75

Scandals against School Children

5/12/2013 1:23:53 PM

Nov-16 Version 0.2 My semi-retired day job is about to occupy a few hours of my time, so I uploaded version 0.2 at an early evening break point before starting that. In addition to doing minor updates to multiple earlier chapters, I had added significant info in three areas:  Amber Alerts – ways to get at them – I started a new chapter on that.  Lessons for Parents – I added to that list.  What to do when your child is missing – I expanded that chapter.

Nov-16 Version 0.1 I shared Version 0.1 early Nov-16 morning. At that point I had accumulated links to stories about:  25 incidents where some girl aged 7 to 18 is either kidnapped, or an attempted kidnap, while she is between home and school, via a school bus stop.  1 such incident with a boy.  2 incidents with sniper vs. school bus.  2 incidents with a drunk school driver.  2 incidents where school bus driver won’t let parents take their own children, because school data base is screwed up.. I had chapters on lessons learned for parents, and what to do if you think your child is missing. My overall notes were 9 pages with 37 footnote links for source citations.

Nov 15 Nancy Grace 2013 Nov-15 evening, I watched part of Nancy Grace on HLN, during commercials on MSNBC, CNN, other news channels, and nothing of great interest to me, at that time, on C-Span. There are some news stories I am following, and I wanted to check the latest headlines. Nancy Grace spoke of a problem, where I wanted to check other news media to verify her story. I have not yet found specific verification, but I have found enough stories to warrant concern that school bus safety is not everything it should be, and that safety in general for children commuting between school and home, is a house on fire in some communities.

75

Al folder: Studies / Scandals