Wednesday, May 11, 2016
Little Girl Lost: More than 600 people ignore lost child in TV experiment
Would you help this young girl or be afraid of being accused of being a pedophile or kidnapper?
Would you help a girl? (Social Experiment)
While it is important to talk about the halacha about whether you are allowed to call the police when you see find out about someone being abused - it is as least as important that you actually do something to protect the victim. Most people - even if they feel abuse is wrong and that it is permitted to call the authorities or even beat the assailant - will not intervene as can be seen from this video. WHAT WOULD YOU HAVE DONE?
It’s a Tough Job Market for the Young Without College Degrees
For seniors graduating from the University of Michigan this month, employers have been lining up since the fall to offer interviews and boast of their companies’ benefits. Recruiters would ask when their competitors were coming, said Geni Harclerode, the university’s assistant director of employer development, and then they’d say: “Well, we want to come the week before.”[...]
The outlook for many high school graduates is more challenging, as Vynny Brown can attest. Now 20, he graduated two years ago from Waller High School in Texas, and has been working for nearly a year at Pappasito’s Cantina in Houston, part of a chain of Tex-Mex restaurants. He earns $7.25 an hour filling takeout orders or $2.13 an hour plus tips as a server, which rarely adds up to more than the minimum, he said. He would like to apply to be a manager, but those jobs require some college experience.
“That is something I don’t have,” said Mr. Brown, who says he cannot afford to go to college now.
“It’s the biggest struggle I’ve had.”
Most young workers have the same problem as Mr. Brown. Only 10 percent of 17- to 24-year-olds have a college or advanced degree, according to a new study by the Economic Policy Institute, although many more of them will eventually graduate.
And for young high school graduates, the unemployment rate is disturbingly high: 17.8 percent. Add in those who are underemployed, either because they would like a full-time job but can only find part-time work, or they are so discouraged that they’ve given up actively searching, and the share jumps to more than 33 percent.[...]
Identity In, Spirituality Out For Jewish Teens
Jewish Week What do the Jewish members of Generation Z — the one right behind the millennials — want?
Not conventional “spiritual” practices, including synagogue attendance, it turns out. What they do want, according to a major report released last week by the New York-based Jewish Education Project, is to be better human beings.
The study, based on the views of 139 teens between the ages of 12 ½ and 17 and from four cities — Atlanta, Boston, Denver and Los Angeles — found that while Jewish teenagers take deep pride in their tribal Jewish identity, they are largely checking out of traditional kinds of Jewish engagement.[...]
ess Korn, 17, a Jewish teen from Forest Hills, said her experience at Sababa Surf Camp, a new immersive teen summer program that teaches teens how to surf while blending in Jewish themes and learning, did more to bolster her Jewish identity than going to synagogue with her family. (The camp, and other similar immersive summer programs aimed at teens, is funded in part by the JEP.) Though she grew up in an active Conservative household, “singing ‘MaTovu’ and then running into the ocean” did more to enforce her connection to Judaism than the Hebrew school classes she attended weekly since kindergarten, she said.
“Praying through meditation every morning reminded me of the Jewish aspect,” she said, adding that the surf instructors taught them to repeat the famous maxim from Pirkei Avot, Ethics of the Fathers, as they rode the waves: “For a righteous man can fall seven times and rise.”
The study also found that teens think of their Jewish identity as “cool,” thanks in large part to messaging from pop culture, said Bryfman.[...]
Trying to judge the success of programs by looking at fixed rituals, Bryfman argued, is flawed to begin with.
“If ritualized synagogue life can’t adapt to that new reality, our community is going to be very challenged as these young people grow up.”
Tuesday, May 10, 2016
An Indian teen was raped by her father. Village elders had her whipped.
The teenage girl, dressed in pink, sits in the dirt before six community elders.
In a scene captured on a cellphone video, one of the men wags his finger angrily at her. He rages: This girl must be punished.
A villager ties her waist with rope, holding the other end, and lifts a tree branch into the air. She bows her head. The first lash comes, then another, then another. Ten in all. She lets out a wail.
Eventually the crowd starts murmuring, “Enough, enough,” although nobody moves to stop the beating. Finally, the man throws down his stick. It’s over.
She is 13 years old. Or maybe 15. Her family doesn’t know for sure. She has never set foot in a school and has spent most of her life doing chores at home, occasionally begging for food and performing in her father’s acrobatic show, for which she is given 20 rupees, about 30 cents.
Her crime? Being too scared to tell anyone her father raped her.[...]
Sube Singh Samain, a leader of an association of clan councils in the northern state of Haryana, said they serve a vital role in a county with an overburdened justice system and where legal cases can be costly. He said that village elders have banned the sale of meat, restricted cellphone use by youths and even prohibited loud music at weddings. (“The music is so bad the cows and bulls fall over and run away,” he said.) They also step in to smooth things between families, sometimes urging people to withdraw police complaints.
“We say, ‘Let’s not go to the courts; let’s resolve it,’ ” he said. “We encourage them to go back to the police if a [complaint] has already been filed and say, ‘I was not in a right state of mind; I want to take back my statement.’ ”[...]
Showdown looms over North Carolina's bathroom bill
CNN
The United States and North Carolina tangled over transgender rights on Monday, with the Justice Department filing a civil rights lawsuit over the state's so-called bathroom bill and state officials defiantly filing suits against the federal directive to stop the implementation of the controversial legislation.
Also, a major player in North Carolina -- the state's public university system -- defied the governor and legislature and told the Justice Department on Monday it intends to act "in compliance with federal law" as it relates to House Bill 2, known as HB2.
The Justice Department seeks declaratory relief and threatens to curtail federal funding to the North Carolina Department of Public Safety and the University of North Carolina.
Update: New polls show that what American's think about this issue depends upon how the question is worded
Washington Post
This is one of those issues where it's easy to slice and dice the numbers to make your case that you are doing the popular thing. Americans' -- and particularly Republicans' -- support for bathroom bills might depend how you frame the question. As we saw in Houston in November, opponents of an LGBT non-discrimination ordinance overwhelmingly defeated it by framing the issue about bathrooms, specifically the predators who might exploit an open-door policy.cnn
The U.S. Justice Department sent his office a letter Wednesday claiming that the state's controversial bathroom law is in violation of the Civil Rights Act.
They gave the Republican leader until the end of the business day Monday to respond with a solution to "remedy the situation."
The controversial law bans individuals from using public bathrooms that do not correspond to their biological sex.
McCrory says what he chooses to do at that deadline goes beyond the Tar Heel state -- it will affect the majority of Americans.
"This is no longer just a North Carolina issue," he said in a Fox News interview on Sunday. "This is a basic change of norms that we've used for decades throughout the United States of America and the Obama administration is now trying to change that norm -- again not just in North Carolina, but they're ordering this to every company in the United States of America -- starting tomorrow I assume, or Tuesday."
North Carolina could lose a lot of federal money if it fails to comply with the Justice Department -- potentially hundreds of millions of dollars for its universities alone.
The Justice Department also sent a letter to the University of North Carolina Board of Governors telling them that new law was in violation of federal law. They were given the same Monday deadline.
McCrory said Sunday that this action sets a precedent, with the federal government "now telling every university that accepts federal funding that boys who may think they're a girl can go into a girl's locker room or restroom or shower facility, and that begins I assume tomorrow." [...]
Hell, hope and healing: a four-part series Mary Gail Frawley-O'Dea
*Editor's note: This blog introduces "Hell, hope and healing", an *NCR*four-part series on sexual abuse. Part 1 of the series http://ncronline.org/node/
Since 2002, we rightly have been bombarded by stories about sexual abuse in the Catholic church. Many Catholics have felt the church has been singled out as a particularly heinous committer of crimes. There is truth to this, but it is also important to contextualize clergy abuse as a part of the wider phenomenon of serious child maltreatment that is still much too prevalent in this country and in others.
The first article in this four-part series,;http://ncronline.org/node/
We also have heard many times since the church crisis exploded into the public square that victims/survivors of clergy sexual abuse are damaged for life, that these horrible experiences never leave them and instead turn their lives into hell on earth forever. While this can occur, it does not have to. Survivors of adverse childhood experiences can heal and the second article in this series extends hope by describing what processes can help that happen.
In the third article, I extend the discussion beyond healing to discuss the possibility, now validated through research, that some trauma survivors actually experience post-traumatic growth. While never suggesting that somehow the survivor is better off because of the abuse, it is possible to derive meaning from those traumatic experiences and the healing processes addressed in Part 2 of this series. At that point, survivors often develop capabilities, interests and skills that add fullness to their lives. Part 3 also suggests that institutions and organizations affected by trauma can strive for growth by understanding the parts they are playing in healing or impeding their own and others' recoveries.
Finally, in Part 4 of the series, I offer some practical suggestions for making empowered choices among healing resources.
[Mary Gail Frawley-O'Dea is author of *Perversion of Power: Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church* and a psychologist who has been working with sexual abuse survivors for 30 years.]
*Source URL (retrieved on 05/09/2016 - 12:59):*
http://ncronline.org/blogs/
*Links:*
[1] http://ncronline.org/node/
[2] http://ncronline.org/feature-
http://ncronline.org/news/
Childhood abuse and neglect take their toll
Mary Gail Frawley-O'Dea | May. 9, 2016
Hell, hope and healing
Analysis
*Editor's note: This is the first part of a four-part examination of the clergy sex abuse scandal in the Catholic church. Read more about the series here: "Hell, hope and healing." <http://ncronline.org/node/
The past two decades have witnessed an interdisciplinary explosion of new information about the prevalence and aftermath of child abuse and neglect.
From 1995 to 1997, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Kaiser Permanente conducted a study of more than 17,000 Americans to determine how many had been subjected to adverse childhood experiences
(ACEs) and what symptoms and disorders they suffered that differentiated them from those patients who did not have such histories. At the same time, researchers in clinical, developmental and neuropsychology, along with
neurobiologists and trauma specialists, have increased our understanding of the potential impact of early abuse and neglect on virtually every aspect
of a victim's life.
So what do we know?
The CDC data indicates that only a little over one-third of subjects had no ACEs; 26 percent had one; 15.9 percent had two; 9.5 percent had three; and 12.5 percent had four or more. The study found that symptoms and disorders in ACE survivors were correlated with the number of ACEs experienced and with the frequency and/or intensity of each particular stressor. Let's make this real.
The U.S. Census Bureau tells us that in 2014, there were about 245.2 million Americans over 18, meaning that more than 156 million adults have histories of ACEs, with more than 30 million having four or more. Over 50 million of us were sexually abused before the age of 18. Over 30 million watched our mothers get hit.
Think about these numbers when we get to the aftermath of adverse childhood experiences. Big numbers, but by now you may be wondering why you are being deluged with all this information. Isn't the issue for Catholics "just" the sexual violations of kids by priests and the sometimes still-ongoing cover-up by bishops and provincial superiors?
I would say no. While clergy sexual abuse is the ACE most haunting the church right now, it is important that Catholics take in and feel that more than every other person in their pew has a history of ACEs and every eighth person has had four or more of these devastating childhood experiences, many of which are not single episodes, but ongoing incidences of abuse, neglect, watching mom get beaten, or coming home to a drunk parent.
If churches are to be field hospitals, as Pope Francis so eloquently suggests, we should all understand who the patients really are and what they suffer, even when they don't look obviously injured. The abused and neglected are not "them"; they are us.
We now know that ACEs can have major effects on every aspect of human functioning. Symptoms and disorders increase commensurately with the more types of ACEs we have been subjected to and the more times those ACEs have occurred. Let's quickly review what happens to ACE victims and survivors. [...]
If churches are to be field hospitals, as Pope Francis so eloquently suggests, we should all understand who the patients really are and what they suffer, even when they don't look obviously injured. The abused and neglected are not "them"; they are us.
We now know that ACEs can have major effects on every aspect of human functioning. Symptoms and disorders increase commensurately with the more types of ACEs we have been subjected to and the more times those ACEs have occurred. Let's quickly review what happens to ACE victims and survivors. [...]
Monday, May 9, 2016
Grandfather to pay child support after father fled to Uman
Israeli Supreme Court ruled that father of 'divorce refuser' who fled to Ukraine will pay 2000 shekels a month for grandchildren’s support.
The Israeli High Court (Supreme Court) authorized a ruling of the Rabbinical Court of Jerusalem on Sunday that the father of a Get (divorce) refuser who abandoned his family will have to pay child support for his grandchildren, according to a Channel 10 report.
The Get refuser fled Israel to Uman, Ukraine, and left his wife an Agunah(woman who is "chained" to her marriage) without any means to support their three children.
These unfortunate circumstances led the Rabbinical Court of Jerusalem to rule that the father of the Get refuser is to make child support payments for his three grandchildren, amounting to 2,000 shekels ($530) per month.
Likewise, the court placed a prohibition on the grandfather from leaving the country.
The grandfather appealed to the High Court claiming that the Rabbinical Court acted against the principles of natural justice, that he should not suffer because of his son’s sins, and that his fundamental rights have been violated without justification.[...]
Private schools, painful secrets - child abuse in private schools
More than 200 victims. At least 90 legal claims. At least 67 private schools in New England. This is the story of hundreds of students sexually abused by staffers, and emerging from decades of silence today.
Steven Starr reached into the back of his hallway closet and fished out the old camera, a gift nearly 50 years ago from the man he says molested him.
“It’s like a talisman or a grim reminder,’’ he said, holding the dusty Minolta Autocord in his Los Angeles apartment. Not that he could ever forget what he alleges happened to him when he was 11 at the Fessenden School.
In 1968, he was a lonely sixth-grader from Long Island when he met James Dallmann, a Harvard graduate who taught geography at the all-boys private school in West Newton and was an avid photographer.
Dallmann took Starr under his wing. He made the boy his apprentice and encouraged him to visit the teacher’s bedroom in their dorm at Moore Hall after lights out to learn how to use his makeshift darkroom. The teacher photographed Starr and delighted the boy by giving him the twin-lens Minolta.
Then one night, Starr said, Dallmann served him a mix of Tang and vodka, got him to pose naked for pictures on a bed, and performed oral sex on him. This is our secret, Dallmann told Starr, who said the abuse went on for about a year.
For nearly half a century, Starr kept his feelings of betrayal and humiliation inside, sharing his story only with therapists and a few confidants.
But now he is among a growing number of former students at New England private schools who are breaking their silence about sexual abuse by staffers. They are emboldened by a cascade of recent revelations about cases — many of them decades old — that were often ignored or covered up when first reported, and that school administrators still struggle to handle appropriately today. [...]
There is no research available on the prevalence of abuse at private schools and whether it is more common than in public schools, where one federal study found nearly 10 percent of students are targets of unwanted sexual attention by educators in grades K-12. But boarding schools, in particular, present unique opportunities for educators to have close contact with students. Students often go weeks or months without seeing their families, while spending time with staff before and after classes and living alongside them in dorms.
The schools, many with rich histories and famed alumni, have often struggled to balance the need to respond robustly to abuse allegations with a desire to guard their reputations. Historically, few allegations were reported to law enforcement, and many schools avoid publicizing them even today. Getting past the schools’ reticence is a challenge; because these are private institutions, they are exempt from public records laws. And when the Globe sent surveys to 224 private schools on their experience with sexual misconduct allegations, only 23 — about 10 percent — chose to reply. [...]
Article Details Widespread Claims of Sex Abuse at Private Schools
Since 1991, more than 200 students from at least 67 private schools across New England have accused teachers, administrators or other staff members of sexually abusing or harassing them, according to a report on Sunday by The Boston Globe’s Spotlight investigation team.
These and other allegations, going back decades, include claims of rape, fondling, molestation and oral sex by trusted adults in positions of authority, including, in one case, an admissions officer.
At least 90 lawsuits or other legal claims have been filed on behalf of the people who have made the accusations, and at least 37 school employees have been fired or forced to resign because of the allegations, the newspaper said. In addition, nearly two dozen employees eventually pleaded guilty or were convicted on criminal charges of abusing children or related crimes.
The Globe’s tally of abuse claims at New England’s private schools, many of them among the nation’s wealthiest and most prestigious institutions, appears to be one of the first efforts to quantify the extent of the problem. There is no central database of allegations against private school employees. A 2004 analysis of the scant research on sex abuse at the nation’s public schools estimated that 9.6 percent of students between kindergarten and 12th grade had experienced some form of sexual misconduct by an educator, ranging from offensive comments to rape; there is no comparable research on private schools.
The Globe said that even its report most likely underestimated the incidence of sexual abuse at these schools; because they are private, they are exempt from public records requests. The Globe sent surveys to 224 private schools about their experience with sexual misconduct allegations, but just 23 — about 10 percent — responded. The article is based on an examination of court cases and interviews with alumni, relatives, school officials and lawyers.
Still, The Globe found 11 cases in which private school employees who were accused of sexual misconduct went on to work at other schools — “an echo of the Catholic Church scandal, in which abusive priests were often moved to other parishes,” the newspaper said.
Allegations of sexual abuse have been emerging in recent years as survivors have slowly gained the confidence to tell their stories publicly after decades of grief, dysfunction and difficulties with intimacy. Many came forward after the 2011 scandal at Penn State, which has paid $92 million in settlement costs related to Jerry Sandusky, an assistant football coach who was convicted of abusing 10 boys over 15 years.
The private schools have generally been loath to acknowledge problems when their students or alumni have reported them, at least in the past. But The Globe’s report could add urgency for administrators to be more responsive and transparent in these cases as they seek to protect their students, assuage parents and satisfy alumni and donors.
“The Globe’s tally is sobering,” Peter Upham, the executive director of the Association of Boarding Schools, wrote in an email. But he added, “I don’t think it’s the quantification of the problem that moves most administrators: It’s the heartbreaking stories.” [...]
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