"Once you actually see the stuff that's on there, it's shocking." Victims of Cyberbullying Fight Back in Lawsuits

Originally Published Online: April 27, 2012
By The Associated Press


 Atlanta: Alex Boston, 14, sits in her home in Acworth, Ga. Boston's family this month filed a libel lawsuit claiming two classmates humiliated her by using a doctored photo to set up a phony Facebook account in her name, and then stacking the page with phony comments claiming Boston was sexually active, racist, and involved in drugs. When a Georgia middle school student reported to police and school officials that she had been bullied on Facebook, they told her there was not much they could do because the harassment occurred off campus. So the 14-year-old girl, Alex Boston, is using a somewhat novel strategy to fight back: She's slapping her two classmates with a libel lawsuit.


As states consider or pass cyberbullying laws in reaction to high-profile cases around the country, attorneys and experts say many of the laws aren't strong enough, and lawsuits such as this one are bound to become more commonplace. "A lot of prosecutors just don't have the energy to prosecute 13-year-olds for being mean," said Parry Aftab, an attorney and child advocate who runs stopcyberbullying.org. "Parents are all feeling very frustrated, and they just don't know what to do." Almost every state has a law or other policy prohibiting cyberbullying, but very few cover intimidation outside of school property.


Alex, who agreed to be identified to raise awareness about cyberbullying, remembers the mean glances and harsh words from students when she arrived at her suburban Atlanta middle school. She didn't know why she was being badgered until she discovered the phony Facebook page. It was her name and information, though her profile picture was doctored to make her face appear bloated. The page suggested Alex smoked marijuana and spoke a made-up language called "Retardish." It was also set up to appear that Alex had left obscene comments on other friends' pages, made frequent sexual references and posted a racist video. The creators also are accused of posting derogatory messages about Alex. Chris Boston looks over a screen shot on his computer of the phony Facebook account that was set up in his daughter's name with awful comments about herself and her classmates in Acworth, Ga. 


"I was upset that my friends would turn on me like that," she told The Associated Press. "I was crying. It was hard to go to school the next day." Alex learned of the phony page a year ago and told her parents, who soon contacted administrators at Palmer Middle School and filed a report with Cobb County Police. "At the time this report was taken in May 2011, we were not aware of any cyberbullying law on the books that would take her specific situation and apply it to Georgia law," said Cobb County police spokesman Sgt. Dana Pierce. Police encouraged the Boston family to report the fake account to Facebook. Alex's family said despite requests to Facebook to take the page down, the company did not do so. The website was taken down around the time the lawsuit was filed a week ago. Facebook spokesman Andrew Noyes and Cobb County school officials declined comment on the case. 


The two students named in the lawsuit haven't hired an attorney and their parents couldn't be reached for comment. The thorny issue of whether schools may censor students who are off campus when they attack online has led to split decisions in federal courts. Administrators and judges have wrestled over whether free speech rights allow students to say what they want when they're not at school.


Justin Layshock of western Pennsylvania was suspended after he created a MySpace parody in 2005 that said his principal smoked marijuana and hid beer behind his desk. The suspension was overturned by a federal judge, who found that school officials failed to show the student's profile disrupted school operations. The judge's decision was later upheld by an appeals court.


In West Virginia, Kara Kowalski sued school officials after she was suspended from her high school for five days in 2005 for creating a web page suggesting another student had a sexually transmitted disease. A federal appeals court upheld the suspension, dismissing Kowalski's argument that the school shouldn't punish her because she created the site at home. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear either case. Jason Medley, of Houston, filed a defamation lawsuit in June against three of his daughter's classmates. The classmates were accused of filming themselves making false sexual remarks about his daughter and posting the video to Facebook. The complaint was settled months later with apologies from the girls and a small donation to charity, Medley's attorney Robert Naudin said. "The girls involved likely now understand the wrongful nature of what they did and the harm that can come of such conduct," he said. "They made a donation out of their allowances to a charitable organization that fights against cyberbullying." RELATED BLOG Visit this blog. 


In Georgia, lawmakers have given school administrators new powers to punish students if they bully others at school, but legislation that would expand the laws to include text messages and social media sites never reached a vote this year. Seven states have added off-campus harassment to their bullying laws in recent years, though Georgia is not one of them. "Cyberbullying really goes beyond the four walls of the school or the four corners of the campus, because if you use a cellphone, PDA or social media site, then those activities follow the child both into the school and out of the school," said House Minority Leader Stacey Abrams, a Democrat from Atlanta who co-sponsored the legislation that would have expanded Georgia's bullying law. "It's important for the state to really get ahead of this. It's already happening, but it's going to be more exacerbated and more difficult the longer we go." Alex and her family have started a petition to encourage lawmakers to strengthen Georgia's law. Her lawsuit seeks a jury trial and unspecified damages. "At first blush, you wouldn't think it's a big deal," said Alex's attorney, Natalie Woodward. "Once you actually see the stuff that's on there, it's shocking."

Child Abduction Syndicates in Indonesia Thrive On Weak Policing

A recent surge in reports of children being abducted directly reflects the police’s lack of seriousness in dealing with the issue, a leading child protection advocate contends.

Arist Merdeka Sirait, the chairman of the National Commission for Child Protection (Komnas Anak), said on Thursday that the police’s approach to child kidnappings was “weak” and focused only on punishing individuals rather than rooting out entire syndicates.

“We’re now seeing an increase in these cases because the way the police are handling them is very weak,” he said.
“So far, the police have been treating each case as an isolated crime, when instead they should be looking at the bigger picture and the syndicates involved. Most child abductions involve a syndicate, and it’s these that the police should be waging war on.”

Arist was responding to a recent string of abductions and sexual violence against children across the country.

In the past three months, eight young girls were kidnapped from their homes in Bantaeng and Jeneponto districts in South Sulawesi, while earlier this month police rescued a one-year-old girl who had been kidnapped from her home in Yogyakarta so she could be sold to a couple in Jakarta.

In the South Sulawesi cases, the children were all found alive but had been sexually assaulted. Police have not yet named any suspects.
In the Yogyakarta case, however, a sex worker was arrested for kidnapping the one-year-old. A West Jakarta man was arrested for trying to buy the youngster.

Arist said the hallmarks of child-abduction syndicates could be seen in most cases of babies or infants going missing.
“The targets are always children from poor families who need money for treatment at a hospital, maternity clinic or community health center,” he said. “The syndicates typically have people scoping out those places, and it’s also possible that some of the hospital or clinic staff are involved.
“These people pretend to help the parents by offering to assist with their paperwork, but what they’re really doing is registering the child for a birth certificate under the name of a family that has already paid for the child.”
Komnas Anak received 120 reports of child abductions last year, up from 111 in 2010, Arist said.

“These were only the cases that were reported to us and they’re not nationwide data,” he said. “So far this year, we’ve received four reports of abductions, including one of a pair of twins that occurred just a few days ago.”
The flurry of reported abductions mirrors recalls a period in 2010 when a rash of kidnappings prompted communities in the Greater Jakarta area to carry out vigilante attacks.

Three men were killed and eight attacked by mobs in separate incidents in Bogor and Tangerang last August by mobs who feared they were planning to kidnap local children.
At the time, Arist agreed that the attacks may have been prompted by paranoia over the unsolved abductions.

2011 marred by test cheating scandals across US

DORIE TURNER, AP Education Writer 

Dec. 27, 2011 9:16 PM ET

ATLANTA (AP) — It was the year of the test cheating scandal.

From Atlanta to Philadelphia and Washington to Los Angeles, officials have accused hundreds of educators of changing answers on tests or giving answers to students. Just last week, state investigators revealed that dozens of educators in 11 schools in Georgia's Dougherty County either cheated or failed to prevent cheating on 2009 standardized tests.

In July, those same investigators accused nearly 180 educators in almost half of Atlanta's 100 schools of cheating dating back to 2001 — which experts have called the largest cheating scandal in U.S. history. At least 20 students have been charged on Long Island with cheating on SAT and ACT college-entrance exams by paying someone to take the test for them.

"It's a year in which cheating became a national scandal, a scandal of national proportions," said Bob Schaeffer, a spokesman for the National Center for Fair & Open Testing, which advocates against high-stakes testing. "The Atlanta case forced policymakers and journalists in other jurisdictions to look to see if there's anything similar going on in their backyards."

Experts say some educators have bowed to the mounting pressure under the federal No Child Left Behind law as schools' benchmarks increase each year toward the ultimate goal of having all children reading and doing math at their grade level by 2014. Teachers in Atlanta reported that administrators created a culture of "fear, intimidation and retaliation" where testing goals had to be met no matter what, according to investigators.

"This problem existed before No Child Left Behind, but NCLB has exacerbated the problem, clearly," said Walter Haney, a retired Boston College education professor and expert on cheating. "I think testing is really important, but the problem has been the misuse of test results without looking behind the test scores to see who and who is not tested."

Federal officials have been saying for more than a year that the law, which is four years overdue for a rewrite, doesn't accurately depict what's happening in schools. While federal lawmakers agree the law needs to be fixed, an overhaul has become mired in the partisan atmosphere in Congress.

At President Obama's invitation, states have begun filing waivers to get relief from the law. Under the 11 waivers already filed, states are asking to use a variety of factors to determine whether they pass muster and to choose how schools will be punished if they don't improve. Among the factors that could be used are college-entrance exam scores or the performance of students on Advanced Placement tests.

At least 39 states, plus Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico, have said they will file waivers, though it is unclear how many will get approved.

In Pennsylvania, an investigation continues into irregularities found in 2009 state standardized tests in reading and math. The probe began last summer after a routine forensics report flagged "highly improbable" results in 90 schools across the state.

The state education secretary ordered the 50 districts representing the named schools to conduct internal investigations and submit reports to him by Aug. 15., But nearly four months later, the reports are still being analyzed and have not been made public.

Twenty-eight of the flagged schools were in Philadelphia, the state's largest district. District representative Fernando Gallard said the system is talking with the state Department of Education over how to move forward with the cheating investigation.

In Washington, D.C., federal and city officials are investigating possible cheating in more than 100 schools from 2008 to 2010. The unusually high rate of erasures in those schools became known after a USA Today investigation into improbable test gains in more than 300 schools in six states and D.C.

City officials tossed out test results for three classrooms in May because of proven cases of cheating.

A Waterbury, Conn., principal resigned earlier this month over an alleged cheating scheme on the Connecticut Mastery Test. A dozen teachers who were also caught up in the scandal lost 20 days of pay and have to perform 25 hours of free tutoring.

In Los Angeles, teachers at three schools have resigned after being accused of coaching students or changing answers on tests. The test scores at two of those schools have been thrown out.

Schaeffer, who follows cheating scandals closely for years, said he's seen as many cheating stories this year as in the last half-dozen years combined. He said there have been confirmed cases of cheating in 30 states and D.C. in the last three years.

___

Reporters Kathy Matheson in Philadelphia and Brett Zongker in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.

___

Study Warns of Limited Savings from Closing Schools

Edited by I, Praetorian

·         Printer-Friendly

Closing schools doesn’t save air academic progress. And it says school districts can help generate some acceptance for a downsizing plan by involving the community early and establishing clear reasons for why certain schools must close.

The report, released Oct. 19, was written by the Philadelphia Research Initiative to foreshadow what the 154,000-student Philadelphia district can expect over the next few years as it plans to close a number of schools because of declining enrollments. The district currently has 70,000 empty seats, according to the report. School administrators have not decided which schools to close and how many, but internal school documents published in June by the website Philadelphia Public School Notebook listed 26 schools that could be shut down.

The report looks at school closings in Chicago, Detroit, Kansas City, Mo., Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, and the District of Columbia. Each of those districts has closed at least 20 schools in the past decade, and most of the buildings have been shuttered in the recent past.

For example, Pittsburgh, with around 25,300 students, went through a “right-sizing” effort that closed 22 schools in 2006. The district is now discussing closing seven more schools. The 17,400-student Kansas City district closed 29 schools—nearly half of its school buildings—in 2010.

A Matter of Context

Closing schools does save money, but in districts whose budgets add up to hundreds of millions of dollars or more, the final savings are relatively small, said Larry Eichel, the program director for the Philadelphia Research Initiative, which is a project of the Pew Charitable Trusts. Philadelphia’s current annual budget, for example, is $2.8 billion.

Six Cities Shuttering Buildings

To inform deliberations over plans to close schools in Philadelphia, researchers conducted case studies of recent school closings in six other urban districts.

Chicago
Closure Period: 2001-2009
Number Closed: 44
Buildings in Use: 602

Detroit
Closure Period: 2009-2010
Number Closed: 59
Buildings in Use: 130

Kansas City, Mo.
Closure Period: 2009-2010
Number Closed: 29
Buildings in Use: 29

Milwaukee
Closure Period: 2005-2010
Number Closed: 20
Buildings in Use: 137

Pittsburgh
Closure Period: 2006
Number Closed: 22
Buildings in Use: 64

District of Columbia
Closure Period: 2008
Number Closed: 23
Buildings in Use: 11

*As of 2011.

Source: The Philadelphia Research Initiative

“The savings are under a million dollars per school,” Mr. Eichel said. “That’s real money, but not money that changes anything fundamentally.”

The biggest chunk of district money is spent on teachers, and those staff members typically are still needed, just at different locations.

A district also has to pay for some maintenance on shuttered buildings so they don’t become neighborhood eye sores.

And districts should not expect a windfall from selling their old buildings. Those facilities are undesirable to businesses for some of the same reasons that districts decided to close them: The buildings are often located in areas that are losing population. Also, they tend to be in poor condition, and it may be hard to convert them to other purposes, Mr. Eichel said.

The study found examples of repurposing, however. In Milwaukee, a former middle school was bought last year for $600,000 to be converted into senior housing. In Chicago, several closed schools have been converted to charter schools.

Impact on Learning

In examining the academic performance of students in schools slated to be closed, the report focused on a study by the Consortium on Chicago School Research that looked at students whose schools were closed between 2001 and 2006. That study found that student performance fell at schools that were slated to be shut down and remained low for the rest of the school year. A year later, though, the academic performance of those displaced students had rebounded to preclosure levels.

The Pew report also cites a study led by researchers from the RAND Corp. that examined achievement from students from closed schools in a “midsized urban district in the Northeast.” Though the district was not named, the paper noted that the district closed 22 schools in the 2005-06 school year, which corresponds with Pittsburgh’s experience.

That paper said students in the district whose schools were closed did see a drop in their reading and math scores, but researchers found the effect could be mitigated or eliminated if the students were moved to schools that were higher-performing than the ones they left behind.

The Pew report offers several tools that districts can use to reduce the pain of closing schools. For example, it suggests that outside experts can bring a level of objectivity to the proceedings. Seeking community support early is also essential, the report notes.

It says that the 45,000-student District of Columbia school system committed a misstep by moving too quickly to close schools in the face of a 30 percent decline in enrollment. Under the leadership of then-Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee, the school system announced that closures were coming in September 2007, and the final vote to close 23 schools came, after much controversy, four months later.

Mary Filardo, the executive director of the Washington-based 21st Century School Fund, studies school facilities issues and agrees that the system in Washington moved too quickly to shut down schools. Too many school districts distrust the public when it comes to closure decisions, she said.

Taking It to the Public

“The reason you involve the community is not to make [closings] palatable,” she said. “The reason you involve the community is because you want to make better decisions.”

She added that people whose children attend school in such urban areas often “are working-class or low-income. They know about making tough decisions and struggling” and can understand the necessity for some closings.

As District of Columbia school officials learned, making a misstep in school closings can cause political fallout. The community uproar over the closings in Washington was one of the ingredients that led last year to the primary-election defeat of then-Mayor Adrian M. Fenty, who had selected Ms. Rhee, and to the chancellor’s departure.

And after community members in Chicago protested that school- closure decisions were being made in secret, the Illinois legislature passed a law in August that governs how that 409,000-student system can make facilities decisions.

“The political fallout is from not having a trusting relationship with your public,” Ms. Filardo said.

Being Transparent

But involving the public can be a delicate balancing act, said Nancy R. Kodman, the executive director for academic and operations integration for Pittsburgh schools. Just introducing the problem to the community, she said, leads to people saying, “You don’t have any solutions? You don’t have any ideas?” But a full plan is criticized for being drawn up in secret.

“You lessen that by being as transparent as you can,” Ms. Kodman said.

When Pittsburgh closed more than 20 schools, she said, the district talked with the public about what it was hoping to achieve. Academic improvement was put forward as the top goal, and to eliminate some political horse-trading, the closures were considered as a group, in a single up-or-down vote by the school board.

While many urban districts are struggling with how to handle excess space, Ms. Filardo noted that Seattle is dealing with overcrowded classrooms, thanks to unexpected population growth. The Seattle Times reported in October that in one school, a 4th grade class is meeting in a hallway, and many classes are meeting in portables. An infusion of about 1,500 more students than expected is prompting the district to reopen some schools that it had closed, over community objection, in the past few years.

Part 1 of Deconstructing Hate Sites

This Information is Provided by the Victim of Such A Hate Site: A Man Still Fighting One Year Later to Clear His Name From the False Accusations of Belonging to Such Hate Based Internet Sewage... I am that Victim along with another outstanding person and Journalist MVgordie (mvgordie.com). I, Praetorian Responding to Online Hate When people see hate on the Net, they just say: "Well, what can I do about it?" And they move on. But the only way people can start to get rid of the hate is by taking some interest in the ways in which we, as human beings, can prevent hate from spreading. A Vancouver Island high-school student MNet’s 2001 survey "Young Canadians in a Wired World" showed that when young people came across a "hateful" Web site, more than a third (36 per cent) simply ignored it. If they received hateful e-mail messages, again more than three in ten did nothing—though a similar percentage told a friend, an adult, or the police. There is no reason to believe that adults’ rate of response is any higher. Granted, it’s not always easy to tell whether hateful online content is actually illegal, rather than just offensive and annoying. Sometimes material can only properly be defined as illegal by the courts. Still, the courts can’t prosecute what they don’t know about—so public response is crucial. If people want to do something about hate material they see on the Internet, there are several options: Contact the Internet Service Provider All over the world, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are being forced to become more proactive about hate material on their servers. Most ISPs now have Acceptable Use Policies that clearly define the guidelines for using their services, as well as the penalties for violating those guidelines. In Canada, most ISPs belong to the Canadian Association of Internet Providers (CAIP). CAIP’s Code of Conduct states that its members will not host illegal content, and will make a reasonable effort to investigate legitimate complaints about illegal content or network abuse—taking appropriate action, if needed. However, ISPs do not have the legal power to decide what material is illegal; and so most are reluctant to remove suspect content from their servers without official direction from a law enforcement agency. Report online hate to the police Some urban police departments now have a High-Tech Crime Unit to investigate online offences. If none exists, a complaint can be made to the local police. It’s advisable to attach a copy of the offending material to the letter of complaint. File a complaint with the F.B.I. Good for the records otherwise pretty useless unless threats of violence are made. Check out "hate watch" Web sites A number of sites exist to monitor and document illegal material on the Internet. Some notable examples are B’nai Brith League for Human Rights, which hosts a hate hotline; and the Simon Wiesenthal Center, which has identified thousands of offensive Web sites. Its CD entitledDigital Hate 2002 lists sites that promote antisocial and illegal activities ranging from hate music to suicide bombing. The Southern Poverty Law Center is another good resource. Any hate found on a California Web site is now subject to new legislation—though hate encountered on other states sites must be dealt with differently. However, the U.S.-based Simon Wiesenthal Center and the Anti-Defamation League both recommend that surfers alert them to any online hate, so that they can try to get the offending material removed. And since the active promotion of tolerance is one of the best responses to hate, check out the online pamphlet 101 Tools for Tolerance: Simple Ideas for Promoting Equity and Diversity, developed by the Web-based group Tolerance.org. For more detailed information about the organizations mentioned here, as well as information on how to report online hate, see the links in the sidebar.

The Self Harm Cycle

Latest Evidence Suggests

Self-harm is most common in children over the age of 11 and increases in frequency with age. It is uncommon in very young children although there is evidence of children as young as five trying to harm themselves.


Self-harm is more common amongst girls and young women than amongst boys and young men. Studies indicate that, amongst young people over 13 years of age, approximately three times as many females as males harm themselves.


A study in Oxford found that approximately 300 per 100,000 males aged between 15 and 24 years, and 700 per 100,000 females of the same age, were admitted to hospital following an episode of self-harm during the year 2000. Community based studies report higher rates of self-harm than hospital based studies.


A national survey of children and adolescents carried out in the community found that 5 per cent of boys and 8 per cent of girls aged 13-15 said that they had, at some time, tried to harm, hurt or kill themselves.
In the same national survey, rates of self-harm reported by parents were much lower than the rates of self-harm reported by children. This suggests that many parents are unaware that their children are self-harming.


A study carried out in schools in 2002 found that 11 per cent of girls and 3 per cent of boys aged 15 and 16 said they had harmed themselves in the previous year.
Greater incidence of self-injury amongst gay and lesbian young adults; five times more likely than their heterosexual counterparts. A greater number of occurrences of self-injury exist among those with physical disabilities and epilepsy.


The UK has one of the highest rates of self-harm in Europe, at 400 per 100,000 population. It is estimated that there are at least 170,000 cases of self-harm which come to hospital attention each year. Many more incidents of self-harming behaviour probably take place but are not included in any statistics because people may choose not to seek medical help.


New estimates have been made about the most common form of Self Harm
Cutting: 72 percent
Burning: 35 percent
Self-hitting: 30 percent
Interference w/wound healing: 22 percent
Hair pulling: 10 percent
Bone breaking: 8 percent
Multiple methods: 78 percent (included in above)

If you would like to email Stop Self Harm, to ask for help or advice email us at stopselfharm@hotmail.co.uk or leave a message in our guestbook and we'll get back to you.

We Now Have Myspace. Check It Out

We also ask, if you are visiting this site, please leave us a message in our guestbook with what you thought of the site or ideas on how to improve it, we appreciate any feed back.

Amber Alert

THE DEFINITION OF COURAGE. YOU NEED TO KNOW.

Please understand this is a 70 year-old former U.S. Prosecutor! This man, Dr. Richard I Fine, PHd is my hero (see video series below, courtesy of Full Disclosure) and model for my fights to come  with Moreno Valley USD  also one of the most litigated school districts in the inland empire. For over 20 years of corruption spearheaded by the personalities of the COWARDS and BULLY BOYS RUNNING MVUSD'S HUMAN RESOURCES.  One of the former participated in felony misuse and theft of public funds, one a convicted felon who used an unregistered pistol firing at a car fleeing his house with his own daughter inside the car. He is still employed and partially running a MVUSD middle school. This school was formerly the flagship of the entire district. The current coward is helping to cover up directly or indirectly the theft of  or miss use of  student funds that totals in the multiple $100,000s in cash  EVERY YEAR.


The man most responsible for this system wide cover-up, a man who lied more than once to me when I was looking for help with the criminal activity I stumbled upon, was fired early this year then allowed to stay on with a double demotion to assistant principal. The Board was afraid that out and out firing would tempt him to tell all. For years covered up by some of the Superintendents and their assistants, including Bob Crank who was one of the key players Most area taxpayers are paying twice over for there child's education without knowing and some of that money is stolen in cash! Watch for the documentation and names to come.  BUT lets not forget the School Board who hires these people, among which contains a documented CHILD MOLESTER and a yet to be charged criminal who used the power of the office for... well, come back and see. Another is on the payroll of local Developer and member of the shadowy Jewish "Gold Trust" and its silent members. An organization who's home is somewhere in Beverly Bills, CA. I have fired off a letter to the Jewish Defense League* asking point blank if they are associated... 

Did I mention the possible cover-up of an alleged murder of a 17 year-old student at the hands of a former school district employee? One of whom was working here until two years ago. I am still working on this. Time and the efficiency of the alleged cover-up has made it hard to follow.
Sincerely, I, Praetorian.

*The Jewish Defense League or JDL is a Jewish nationalist and far-right organization whose stated goal is to "protect Jews from antisemitism by whatever means necessary".^[1] While the group asserts that it "unequivocally condemns terrorism", and claims to have a "strict no-tolerance policy against terrorism and other felonious acts,"^[2] it was described as "a right-wing terrorist group" by the Federal Bureau of Investigation^[3] in 2001, and as a hate group involved in "anti-Arab terrorism" by the Southern Poverty Law Center.^[4] According to the FBI, the JDL has been involved in plotting terrorist attacks within the United States.^{[3] Outside the FBI, the}  Anti-Defamation League (ADL)^[2] and the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).^[3 are the largest watch dog organizations in the US monitoring hate groups. 

TESTSCORES

September 28, 2011|By Brad Lendon, CNN; editedby Praetorian
7 arrested in allegedSAT cheating scam in New York

Authorities have arrested seven people in an, high schooland are investigating whether the cheating extends to other schools. SamuelEshaghoff, 19, of Great Neck, New York, was arrested Tuesday on felony fraudcharges that could result in four years in prison if he's convicted, the NassauCounty District Attorney's Office said.

Six students face misdemeanor charges. Their names are notbeing released because they are minors.

Prosecutors allege Eshaghoff impersonated sixGreat Neck North High students between 2010 and 2011, charging between $1,500and $2,500 to take the SAT test for them.

Eshaghoffwould take the test at schools other than Great Neck, where proctors would notbe familiar with the students' identity, and present fake, unofficialidentification, prosecutors say.

Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Ricesaid authorities uncovered the scam after hearing rumors of cheating, comparingthe test scores of suspects to their school grade-point averages, and finding a"wide gulf" in the cases of the six suspects.

The district attorney's office said it isinvestigating possible cheating scams at two other Nassau County high schoolsas well as possible further instances involving Eshaghoff.

Eshaghoff's attorney, Matin Emouna, said hisclient pleaded not guilty in the case.

And he said cheating on tests is something thatshould be handled in schools, not in criminal courts.

"At what point are you going to draw theline?" Emouna asked during a phone interview with CNN Wednesday. "Noone has had a case like this in the U.S., and I think attorneys are going tohave a field day with it."

The victims in the case are other students whoare denied admission at the colleges of their choice by the students whocheated, Rice said Wednesday on CNN's "American Morning."

"Honest kids should not be bumped out ofcollege slots by kids who cheated," she said.

Rice called on the Educational Testing Service,the nonprofit entity that administers the SAT nationwide, to establishprocedures to combat cheating, including photographing students as they takethe test and attaching the picture to the answer sheet.

"We need ETS to tighten security they haveat these test centers," Rice said.

She also called on ETS to inform colleges ifcheating is suspected. ETS currently deals with suspected cheating by cancelingtest scores and offering refunds, retests or arbitration, according to thedistrict attorneys office.

Rice said authorities have no evidenceimplicating parents in the cheating scandal.

Great Neck North identifies itself as ahigh-performing high school, with a 97% graduation rate and almost 97% ofstudents planning to pursue higher education.

The mean scores achieved by Great Neck Northstudents on SAT tests in 2010 were well above the national average, accordingto the profile.

Eshaghoff, a 2010 Great Neck North graduate,tested in the 97th percentile, Rice said. He is now enrolled at EmoryUniversity in Atlanta after attending the University of Michigan for hisfreshman year, the prosecutor's office said.

The next SAT test dates are this weekend, andRice said authorities will be vigilant.

"These arrests should serve as a warningto those taking the SAT this Saturday that if you cheat, you can face seriouscriminal consequences," Rice said.

Campaign Season 2011: More importantly, the reals fights of right and wrong are less than a year away

We are less than two months away from Campaign Season 2011. More important, the big fights will come in about one year. That's why I thought it important pull up this old Press-Enterprise article (below). The thing that Dan Lee couldn't say (and keep his job) was that the $300,000 that Ieedo put into the front organzation. "Moreno Valley Taxpayers Association," was used in one of the most ugly and legally questionable smear campaigns since Carl Rove. It is estimated that only $10,000 were actually used to unseat White and 30,000 to unseat West who had stood up to the "developer" and "Israeli Ex. Pat." Ieedo Benzeevi in public session. The rest was easily channeled to other campaigns to skirt Campaign Finance laws and then the majority back to Benzeevi who probably got the tax write off anyway. Further, it is rumoured that Ieedo Benzeevi is on a "Home Land Security" watch list. Hmmmm!

 For those that don't remember Carl Rove, the brain (God knows Bush needed one) and executioner for the George W. Bushees run for the RNC nomination for the Presidency in 2000. Rove who dodged Vietnam, thus the name "Chicken Hawk" accused an actual veteran, John McCain of being dishonest and dishonorable in serving his country (Remember the "Sift Boat" Veterans ad?). Utter bullshit and the prelude for Bushes entire presidency.  McCain of course was a Vietnam Vet who spent many years as a POW, tortured regularly by his captors, and who came home via a prisoner exchange.

On the local Moreno Valley Front:

Beware conflicts of interest among newcomers, departing Moreno Valley councilman says

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10:00 PM PST on Thursday, November 27, 2008

By DAN LEE
The Press-Enterprise MORENO VALLEY - A departing city councilman expressed concern Tuesday about the influence that development ()and real estate interests might have on the council in light of this month's election.

Charles White , who was defeated in his re-election bid Nov. 4, noted that developer (and Israeli Ex. Pat.) Iddo Benzeevi and real estate broker Jerry Stephens donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Moreno Valley Taxpayers Association. The group, which is headed by city Planning Commissioner Michael Geller, campaigned strongly against White and Councilman Frank West.


"Because of developer and real estate broker relationships with the planning commissioner and council (and now the school board), I am concerned that money has taken control of our city," White said at the end of Tuesday's council meeting. "I believe conflicts of interest do exist."



Conflicts of interest, illegal campaign financing, threats and arson... the list of accusations goes on. I want to know is it true the now nearly bankrupt developer and Israeli Ex. Pat., Iddo Benzeevi is on a Homeland Security Watch List? Really? More will be revealed this time next year. I predict a surprisingly well-funded resurrection of the MPA a racist organization that never really went away and of course Vickie E. Baca or one of her (31 known alias.)

The background story continues below

Tuesday was the last regular council meeting for White and West, who represented the 1st and 3rd council districts, respectively, for the past 12 years. New council members Jesse "420" Molina and Robin Hastings will be sworn in Dec. 9 at the next regular council meeting. None of the council members responded publicly to White's concerns. Mayor Bill Batey did not attend Tuesday's meeting because he was working at his firefighting job. Council members Richard Stewart and Bonnie Flickinger thanked White and West for their service on the council.
"I think we can be collectively proud of what we have been able to accomplish together over the past 12 years," Flickinger said after White spoke.
The Moreno Valley Taxpayers Association sent out a barrage of mailers to voters before the election, saying White and West had failed to stop crime and traffic from increasing.
The councilmen said they were targeted because White had opposed naming eastern Moreno Valley "Rancho Belago" -- which Benzeevi had supported -- and West opposed Benzeevi's plans to build distribution centers there.
Geller said White was merely bitter about being defeated. The planning commissioner also disputed the notion that Benzeevi and Stephens might have undue influence at City Hall with the election of two new council members.
"Ultimately Jesse and Robin are going to make their own decisions," Geller said by phone Wednesday. "Anyone who thinks otherwise hasn't talked with them."
During the campaign, Hastings and Molina said they would act independently of Geller, Benzeevi and Stephens.

Geller, who is also a local attorney, also said he does not have any conflicts of interest. He said he personally has never taken any money from Benzeevi and does not take a salary from the taxpayers association. Geller added that he abstains from voting when Stephens' projects come before the planning commission, because he has done legal work for Stephens.

Benzeevi said he had the highest respect and admiration for White's dedicated service to the city and expressed hope that the councilman would continue to remain involved in the community. "I wish him all the best," the developer said by phone. He declined to respond further to White's comments about his potential influence at City Hall. Stephens did not return a phone call seeking comment Wednesday.

White also brought up the issue of Molina's campaign signs, which said, "Elect Jesse Molina, He's One of Us." He said he thought that was a reference to Molina's Latino background.
"I thought, 'What would have been the reaction if my signs had read, 'Vote Right, Vote White'?" White said. "We do not need racism in our city elections ... Hopefully, we have seen the last of it."
Molina, White's successor, attended Tuesday's council meeting and said the "He's One of Us" slogan was not meant to imply anything racial. It was meant to convey that he was part of the working class, he said.
"It's sad to think people felt that way," Molina said after the meeting. "I wish he could have taken it another way."

Meanwhile, candidate Mike Rios, who finished second in the 3rd District behind Hastings and ahead of West, told the council that he plans to remain active in city issues, vowing to fight proposals to build warehouses in eastern Moreno Valley and "special interests" like Benzeevi and Stephens, and starting his own city watchdog organization.

"Mike Rios is not going away, so get used to my face, because I'm not leaving," Rios said. "I will not rest until I give this city back to the people of Moreno Valley ... This is Round One. I've still got 11 rounds to go, and I will take that championship belt from Iddo Benzeevi."
Benzeevi said he appreciated everyone's participation in community affairs.
West did not make any departing remarks at the end of the meeting.

"(White) did a very dramatic and moving statement that should stand alone," he said afterward.

Reach Dan Lee at 951-763-3457 or dlee@PE.com