Lead Stories
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A whole class of middle school students in New Bedford, Massachusetts, was recommended for blood tests last month after officials learned that in May 2001 a seventh-grade science teacher, since retired, had used the same needle to prick the fingers of about two dozen students to make blood sample slides. The teacher wiped the needle with alcohol between uses, and officials thought the risk of infection was low, but they had no explanation for how a veteran science teacher could have strayed so far from contemporary blood-safety procedures.
In May a paper prepared by psychologist Michel Lariviere for Correctional Services of Canada concluded that most guards don’t respect inmates (which inhibits rehabilitation efforts)….That same month a $4 million study by the University of Buffalo Research Institute on Addictions revealed that employees are much more likely to call in sick if they drank alcohol the previous night….Last month a Harvard School of Public Health survey found that people report more noise and other disruptions in binge-drinking college neighborhoods than in other neighborhoods….And in June an Iowa State University study found that TV viewers were less likely to notice commercials during shows that contain explicit sex.
In May a mother and stepfather in Hamilton, Ohio, were charged with duct-taping their 12-year-old son to a lawn chair so he would get sunburned, a punishment for sassing his mother….Two months ago in Levittown, Pennsylvania, police charged Gary and Kathleen Rabatin and their teenage kids with possession of marijuana, which was found in every room of their house. The parents expressed pride at the fact that their kids smoke at home rather than on the street….And in May, Sedrick Lamont Curtis and Shakima Lewis of Gary were charged with forcing their adolescent kids into sex shows in their home and charging spectators $10.
In the Last Month
