Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Love Boys

Via Scribbal and KOB, a woman in New Mexico saw child pornography on a Facebook page called "Love Boys" and reported it to law enforcement.

Valencia County resident Loretta Armijo contacted the Valencia County Sheriff's Department after making the shocking discovery on Facebook and said she wanted to do anything she could to bring down the page and expose it to authorities.
The page was titled “Love Boys” and posted pictures of scantily clothed children on the wall.
Armijo said she found the page while surfing Facebook and immediately called police, but was told she would have to talk to federal authorities.
Local sheriff's officials said that in cases like this, people need to report the page or site right away to police, the attorney general's office of the FBI.
Officials stated one person is responsible for creating the page and law enforcement will investigate it.
Armijo was appalled with what she saw on the Facebook page.
“I was disgusted with the photos that were on the site, on this page and it brought tears to my eyes because I felt bad for these kids. I don't know what part of the world they are in but Facebook is a place for everybody,” she explained.
Good for her (and anyone else who tried to do something about it).

Sunday, June 26, 2011

James Dobson Fans

Karen Mentor seems to be a big fan of anything related to spanking kids, including the Bible and some books by James Dobson.  Some of Karen's friends just seem to be into spanking, plus or minus the Christianity.



Meet Lynn Redbottom, one of Karen's friends.  She's not exactly subtle about her interest in spanking.



She's a fan of James Dobson's books on child discipline.  Is Dobson really not aware that certain kinds of people find his books "stimulating" or is it just easier for him to ignore this fact?


Here's where it really starts getting creepy.  She's in a number of groups, including one named "Mommy, show your love by using your belt."  The "About Lynn" section says "Have two teenage daughter's that know what it means to go over Mommy's knee."


Someone else questioned this, and she seemed to have no idea why other people might find it less than appropriate.


Friday, June 3, 2011

St. Augustine's High School

New Orleans Archbishop Gregory Aymond's decision to ban corporal punishment at St. Augustine's High School generated a lot of controversy.  It even made its way to Facebook.


Corporal punishment is currently banned in all U.S. Catholic dioceses.  Why was Archbishop Aymond so concerned about paddling?  Some of the members of the St. Augustine community see it as a racial issue, where white people are telling black people how they can discipline children.  Let's take a look at a very brief clip, believed to be shot at St. Augustine's.



Some public schools, mostly in the South, still use paddling.  The paddle is not an idiot-proof device, and students have been injured.  Some of the public schools' handiwork is online at http://www.nospank.net/violatn.htm .

The New Orleans Archdiocese hired Monica Applewhite, a well-respected consultant, to prepare a report and recommendations about discipline policies at St. Augustine.  Applewhite reported that some parents and students had mentioned injuries and excessive paddling.  Some St. Augustine alumni responded by suing her.  Here's a link to one of the documents they filed: http://www.scribd.com/doc/56993089/St-Augustine-Lawsut

Let's take a look at some of the claims the plaintiffs make.  In 2005, New Orleans was hit hard by Hurricane Katrina, one of the deadliest in the history of the U.S.  There were 1836 confirmed fatalities and over $80 billion in damages.  St. Augustine's was forced to temporarily close its doors.
But Katrina's devastation pales compared to the damages caused and now continually inflicted upon this venerable institution due to the defamatory statements by Monica Applewhite, which have been carelessly, recklessly published and then republished by the Archdiocese of New Orleans.
Let's get this straight.  These people believe that a consultant saying that she had heard complaints about paddling-related injuries at St. Augustine was of the same magnitude as Hurricane Katrina?

There's something really disturbing about the paragraph below:
The school administrators learned, unequivocally, no parent, student, or alumni ever stated to Applewhite or any member of the Disciplinary Review Committee that their son had been hospitalized due to corporal punishment at St. Augustine, nor did anyone report that their son had ever been paddled 5 or 6 times in one day.  Further, an independent consultant checked all state records of any reported abuse that would have been made by area hospitals, which are also mandatory reporters of abuse pursuant to the Louisiana Children's Code.  There were no reported cases by any area hospital of any St. Augustine student complaining of abuse by the school.  None.
Does this mean that conversations between Applewhite and students or parents were not confidential?  The claim that a school consultant was able to check all state records of abuse reported by a hospital and see if any of the cases mentioned a St. Augustine student is even more troubling.  Aren't both medical records and child abuse reports supposed to be confidential?

On June 1, Archbishop Aymond responded that he had also heard from students who'd been injured as a result of paddling.  Later that week. St. Augustine made the news again in connection with a case where a school employee was alleged to have taken a $20000 bribe in 2004 to involve the school in a scheme to defraud the federal government.  Instead of complaining about the damage to the "stellar reputation of the school," these alumni have been surprisingly quiet so far.