Nice job, Fulton county. Glad to know I have such upstanding citizens working for my county.
Women Claim Secret Recording Shows They Were Fired For Being Pregnant – ABC News.
Georgia student sues school over strip search in front of classmates
Published February 15, 2012
Associated Press
ATLANTA – A Georgia middle school student claimed in a lawsuit Wednesday he was humiliated and traumatized when he was brought to a vice principal’s office and forced to strip in front of classmates who said he had marijuana.
The student, then in the seventh-grade, said he still suffers from emotional distress because his classmates taunted him by calling him Superman, the underwear he was wearing when he was strip-searched. The student is suing the Clayton County school district for unspecified punitive and compensatory damages.
Clayton County school officials didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment about the lawsuit, filed in federal court.
The student, identified in court documents as D.H., said officials at Eddie White Academy initially strip-searched three other students on Feb. 8, 2011, after suspecting they had marijuana. One of them accused D.H. of having drugs, and he was brought to then-vice principal Tyrus McDowell’s office.
While the three classmates watched, D.H.’s pockets and book bag were searched but didn’t find anything, the lawsuit said. One of the students told school officials he had lied about D.H. having drugs, but administrators continued the search as D.H. begged to be taken to the bathroom for more privacy, according to the lawsuit.
D.H. was ordered to strip and again, no drugs were found.
“The strip searches were done intentionally, willfully, wantonly, maliciously, recklessly, sadistically, deliberately, with callous indifference to their consequences,” according to the lawsuit, which also names as defendants the county’s sheriff’s department and Ricky Redding, the school’s resource officer.
The student’s attorney, Gerry Weber, said a 2009 U.S. Supreme Court ruling found school officials can’t perform even a partial strip search of a student, even if they have probable cause.
Weber also litigated a case nearly a decade ago in which the federal appeals court in Atlanta found that a mass strip search of Clayton County students was unconstitutional because it violated their Fourth Amendment rights, which protect against an unreasonable search and seizure.
“This is like deja vu,” said Weber. “It is simply beyond belief that students are still being stripped naked in the Clayton County schools.”
Redding, who was also accused in the complaint of being involved in the search, was fired about a month later, the lawsuit said. McDowell was placed on administrative leave before subsequently resigning.
Redding declined to comment and McDowell could not be reached.
The student’s mother, Angela Dawson, said her son still hasn’t recovered.
“This situation has broken the very foundation of my child’s education because in order for him to learn, he has to believe that what schools are trying to teach him is right and now he questions them after they stripped him of his clothes and dignity,” she said. “His trust is broken.”
Just went to the Huffington Post and guess what showed up on their homepage??
I read this article about Boners BBQ in Atlanta and my jaw dropped to the floor. I don’t think I’ve ever read an article about a company’s customer service quite like this. Absolutely appalling.
Believe me, I worked at the same restaurant off and on for more than seven years, and this is absolutely the worst story I’ve ever heard. There is no excuse for the way this BBQ joint acted. You can click the link above to take you to the article on UnMarketing.com, or you can read the pasted article below:
Wow. All I have to say is that I will never eat at this restaurant after reading that.
Bahahahahaha
He’s no Santa: Burglary suspect stuck 10 hours in chimney
Atlanta-area teen arrested after escape from house goes awry; ‘I’m stupid,’ he tells neighbor
ATLANTA — A person found in the chimney of an Atlanta-area home was not Santa Claus arriving early but a 17-year-old alleged burglar who got stuck as he tried to leave the house.
The teen spent about 10 hours lodged inside the chimney on Tuesday before firefighters climbed on the roof and lowered ropes to rescue him.
Police were alerted after a neighbor heard someone calling for help early in the afternoon, said Corporal Jake Smith, spokesman for the Gwinnett County Police Department.
Ranaldo Montez Jack, 17, who was not injured, was arrested on one count of burglary and another of providing a false name to police. The owner of the house was not at home during the incident, authorities said.
“We heard someone yelling for help,” neighbor Laura Chaparro told WGCL-TV.
“We were talking to him, ‘What are you doing down there?’ He just said, ‘Ah, I’m stupid,’” said Chaparro.
Edyn Rodriguez, told WSB-TVthat he was standing in his driveway when he heard cries coming from across the street.
“He said, ‘Help me! Help me!” Rodriguez said. “Man, never in my life! … I called 911.”
Owner returns home
The station reported that the the home’s owner, Tsehainesh Kidane, came home from work during the rescue, saying that she had no idea someone was stuck in her chimney until a TV crew told her.WGCL-TV said the accused thief threw clothes on the ground and allegedly stole $500 out of her safe.
“I was going to use it to pay my taxes,” said Kidane.
According to the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Jack told rescuers with the Gwinnett County Fire Department that he had been stuck in the chimney since about 3 a.m. Firefighters pulled him from the stack, and police brought him down a ladder and placed him under arrest on the ground.
WSB-TV reported that the teen allegedly gave police a false name, but that an officer who had dealt with him before recognized him.
AJC.com article:
Woman: I was arrested for sitting outside in chair | ajc.com.
Great. Another story about a cop on a power trip. Officer Thomas seems to be doing a bang-up job as a police officer… pshh.
My favorite portion of the story? This little nugget:
“[...] the review board found that during a five-month period, Thomas had made 38 arrests, 27 of which were for disorderly conduct. The total of 27 arrests for disorderly conduct was three times the amount made by two other officers that patrol the same area, during the same shift [...]“
Hmmm… yeah, sounds a little strange to me. He should probably move to Athens, GA where he can just go crazy arresting UGA students as much as he pleases. He’d fit right in.
