One tragedy turned into two for a Nevada family on Friday. The father was backing his SUV out of his driveway when his little boy ran out and was hit.
The toddler was transported to a local hospital, where he later died. But the distraught father stayed behind in the driveway of his Reno, Nev., home — and stabbed himself in the chest. The father was listed in stable condition over the weekend, the Reno Gazette-Journal reported. Police did not release the names of anyone in the case.
Ah, wasn’t it much simpler when kids just spread outrageous lies about each other through bathroom graffiti?
Instead, four teens allegedly created a Facebook profile for Laura Cook’s son. The page, which featured the teen’s name, photo and cell phone number, claimed that the boy was having sex with other boys and made racist remarks, including one about President Barack Obama. The fake profile might have been nasty and crude, but it was popular, quickly collecting at least 580 online friends.
The page has since been taken down, but Cook, a Chicago-area mom, isn’t satisfied. She filed a lawsuit this week in a county circuit court, claiming that her son was defamed and his reputation damaged, theChicago Tribune reported.
The lawsuit lists the teen defendants only by their initials, R.C., A.G., K.Z., and M.S. Cook is asking for unspecified damages.
A woman in Indonesia gave birth to a baby the size of a year-old toddler on Monday. The boy weighed in at 19.2 pounds and two feet long and came into the world safely via C-section, NBC News reported. (Check out the video on the Web site.)
The big boy, who hasn’t been named yet, set a record in Indonesia, but he came short of the world record of 23 pounds set in 1879. Doctors speculate that the boy grew so big because his mother had gestational diabetes. The condition causes babies to receive too much glucose in the womb.
“He’s got a strong appetite, it’s almost nonstop feeding,” his doctor told Agence France-Presse. “This baby boy is extraordinary; the way he’s crying is not like a usual baby. It’s really loud.”
But for his mother, we’re sure, the baby’s size just means there’s more to love.
The baby was ready to be born, but no one else was available to help except for her big sister.
Mom Briana Johnson had to depend on her 6-year-old daughter, Diyana, to fetch towels and other supplies. Johnson, a nurse from the Raleigh, NC, area, had to deliver the infant herself on Wednesday because the baby came faster than the ambulance and relatives.
Diyana saw her mom in pain through the contractions, but managed to be brave and not cry. “I was asleep and my mama woke me up,” Diyana told the Raleigh News & Observer. “She had stomach pains, and then she had the baby. I helped by getting the baby a blanket and opening the door for the rescue squad.”
Madisyn, who weighed 5.5 pounds, was born safe and sound. And her sister, Diyana, knows firsthand where babies come from.
She got a cleaner house; the kids got alcohol, marijuana and antidepressants. That’s the exchange that cops say an Illinois high school teacher made with two 14-year-old girls.
Kym A. Krocza, a 41-year-old math teacher in a Chicago suburb, was charged with contributing to the criminal delinquency of a juvenile. Police say that the incidents took place between January and August. A mom tipped off cops when her kid came back from a visit to Teacher’s house with booze and pot, the Northwest Herald reported.
Krozca was arrested Tuesday and has since been suspended from Grant Community High School in Fox Lake. “She befriended them before they were even students of hers,” Sheriff Mark Curran told the Herald. “She enticed them with Zoloft, marijuana and alcohol, and they would come over and do favors in terms of cleaning up her house.”
Now, would it have been better or worse if she had offered them better grades instead?
A Dallas-area child psychiatrist had to register as a sex offender after pleading no contest to charges of taking indecent liberties with a 10-year-old girl. But Dr. William Olmsted can still keep his medical license. The Texas Medical Board will allow Olmsted to practice as long as he does it in a group setting and stays away from kids. (It’s not clear how he’s going to practice child psychiatry if he can’t have contact with kids. Maybe teleconferencing?)
But now, a second family has come forward to say that Olmsted behaved inappropriately when he treated their 10-year-old daughter, the Dallas Morning News reports. In 2005, the family says, Olmsted dropped his pants in front of the girl. Her parents pulled the girl out of treatment and reported the incident to the medical board, but say there was no follow-up.
“To find that the state board knew of not one but two complaints of impropriety with young girls and yet allowed this doctor to continue his practice with children is unconscionable,” the father wrote in a statement. “I am severely disappointed with the state of Texas right now and doubtful of its ability to stand watch.”
At least one state legislator is looking into whether laws need to be changed so doctors don’t get to keep their licenses so easily. The Texas Medical Board says that currently, licenses are revoked only if a doctor is convicted. Although Olsted pleaded no-contest to the charges, he received a sentence of six years’ deferred adjudication in January, which means that judgment will not be decided until then. The victim was a neighbor of Olmsted’s who was visiting his kids when he touched her inappropriately and sucked her toes.
One Kentucky church is extremely forgiving. On Sunday, the City of Refuge Worship Center ordained a sex offender as a pastor. Mark Hourigan, 41, was convicted in 1998 of two felony counts of sexual abuse of an 11-year-old boy. He served more than four years in prison and has to register as a sex offender for life (see his registry mug shot above).
Randy Meadows, one of the church’s pastors, told WAVE TV News that Hourigan, who joined the City of Refuge two years ago, has paid his debt to society. But others aren’t so sure. Protesters marched in front of the church in Germantown, Ky., on Sunday, and some of them compared Hourigan’s ordination to the Catholic Church’s cover-up of pedophile priests. “I’m scared for the children of Germantown,” one resident said.
While many states have laws barring sex offenders from trolling Web sites such as MySpace or even driving ice cream trucks, Kentucky apparently has no statute forbidding them from becoming ministers. City of Refuge did make one restriction on Hourigan — he can’t have any contact with kids.
So if you’re high on drugs and need to get home, what’s a parent to do? Lakisha Hogue apparently decided the best solution was to let her 6-year-old daughter drive their SUV.
Hogue, 30, of southeastern Pennsylvania, was arrested and charged with child endangerment after cops stopped the vehicle on Sunday afternoon, the Associated Press reported. Police say that Hogue was sitting in the passenger seat and told them that she was teaching the girl to drive. Hogue was jailed on $15,000 bond.
Staffers at Williston’s Mercy Medical Center in North Dakota are scratching their heads trying to figure out how they sent a new mom home with the wrong baby, according to the Associated Press. The mistake happened last weekend, was discovered within an hour, and the mother was quickly reunited with her own child.
The Mercy mix-up is hardly the only recent incident of its kind. In March of this year, Shatiesha Brown, 32, was dismayed to learn that another mother had been given her baby to breast feed at Brookdale Hospital. After the incident, her daughter, Anya, rejected breast milk.
Teens are notoriously bad drivers, but maybe worried parents should take a look in the mirror. Many moms and dads are setting bad examples when they’re behind the wheel.
Sixty-percent of 500 parents of teens questioned in an online survey admitted to talking on the cell phone while driving, according to Reuters. Forty-two percent coped to speeding, while 17 percent said that they had sent emails or texts while driving.
No one is a bigger influence on a teen’s driving habits, according to Dave Melton, a driving safety expert with Liberty Mutual Research Institute for Safety. ”And if they grow up watching their Mom or Dad speed, talk on their cell phone, text and email, or pay more attention to what’s on the radio than their driving, they are going to think it’s okay to do the same thing.”
Hey, Mom and Dad: Hang up and drive!
