The settlement comes after the ACLU sued the school district in Fulton, Mississippi, on behalf of Constance McMillen, a lesbian teen who was told by Itawamba Agricultural High School officials she and her girlfriend would be ejected if they attended the school-sponsored prom.
The agreement, which was filed Tuesday, ends the lawsuit.
"I'm so glad this is all over. I won't ever get my prom back, but it's worth it if it changes things at my school," McMillen said in a statement released Tuesday.
The prom, originally scheduled for April 2, was eventually canceled by school board officials who previously said they reached their decision based on "the education, safety and well-being of [its] students."
Officials at McMillen's former high school are not commenting at this time, and a call to the north Mississippi school district seeking comment Tuesday wasn't immediately returned.
According to the ACLU statement, McMillen "suffered humiliation and harassment after parents, students and school officials executed a cruel plan to put on a decoy prom for her while the rest of her classmates were at a private prom 30 miles away."
McMillen believes the alternative prom she was sent to was a sham because only a handful of people attended. "A lot of people were talking about how it was a joke just set up for me," she previously said.
In March, a federal judge ruled that McMillen's First Amendment rights were violated when her school district refused to let her attend her prom in a tux with a girl.
That was good news, said her attorney, Christine Sun, senior counsel with the ACLU's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender project. It set a precedent and helped broadcast an important statement, which was made stronger by virtue of where it came from, she said.
"We're in a conservative area of the country, where people tend to think we can do what we like," said Sun, who lives in New York but has traveled multiple times to Mississippi on McMillen's behalf. "This case sends a strong message that that's not going to fly anymore."
In 2004, the national gay rights group GLSEN -- the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network -- issued a report that said of all 50 states, Mississippi had the most hostile environment for gay youths.
"We hope this judgment sends a message to schools that they cannot get away with discriminating against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students," said Bear Atwood, interim legal director at the ACLU of Mississippi.
Since McMillen's name made national headlines, the lesbian teen advocate has served as the grand marshal for New York's Gay Pride Parade, she received a $30,000 college scholarship from an anonymous donor, and a Facebook page called "Let Constance Take Her Girlfriend to Prom!" had attracted nearly 410,000 fans as of Tuesday.
"It means a lot to me," McMillen said. "The amount of support helps me to continue with the fight."
Rice Lovers pay attention! A new study has taken a closer look at what our selections of rice means for our risk of diabetes. A group of researchers from the Harvard School of Public Heath evaluated three groups of participants and came back with some interesting results. They discovered that eating five or more servings of white rice per week increased a person’s risk for type 2 diabetes, the most common type of diabetes. They also found that replacing just one-third of a daily serving of brown rice would lower their risk. Additionally, including more whole grains such as wheat and barley would also reduce their risk.
Whole grain and whole wheat food products have become commonplace in most American supermarkets and restaurants, giving consumers healthier options with foods like pasta, flour and bread.
According to the American Diabetes Association (ADA), having diabetes affects more than just patients’ blood sugar levels, it also often results in various eye, foot and skin complications, and increases the risk of high blood pressure and heart disease.
The results reported in most cases, eating more brown than white rice was not based on ethnicity and more so on a health-conscious diet and life choices, but noted that participants who ate the most white rice were typically not of European origin and were more likely to have a family history that included diabetes.
The ADA reports that type 2 diabetes is more common in older adults as well as in African Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders.
The team of researchers explained that the superiority of brown rice is due to its high fibervitamins and minerals and the fact that it typically doesn’t cause a spike in blood sugar. Fiber is a significant fighter against the onset of diabetes because it slows the rush of sugar to the bloodstream. content,
Key potential influencers such as age, weight, smoking status, alcohol intake, family history of diabetes and other dietary habits were taken into consideration but, findings still held true.
Whole grains, rather than refined carbohydrates like white rice, should be the recommended primary source of carbohydrates for the U.S. population.
The most recent available data from the ADA reports that 23.6 million children and adults in the United States — that’s 7.8 percent of the entire population — have some form of diabetes. And 5.7 million people are living undiagnosed.
(NewsCore) - A Florida man was rescued from his recliner early Friday after a mounted animal head hanging on his wall fell into his lap and pinned him down, The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported.
The falling object was a stuffed water buffalo head and it trapped the man as he slept in his recliner, Becky Herrin, spokeswoman for the Monroe County Sheriff's Office said.
The man couldn't move but managed to reach his cell phone and call police.
"All the male caller could do is yell his address and tell them he was 'crushed,'" Herrin said in a statement.
The man was treated at a local hospital and released.
INDIANAPOLIS — The city’s police chief called Thursday for the firing of a white officer who he said repeatedly struck a 15-year-old biracial boy in the face during an arrest after the teen had been subdued by other officers.
Chief Paul Ciesielski said Officer Jerry Piland needlessly struck Brandon Johnson several times during the May 16 arrest near the boy’s home. Johnson was left with gaping wounds on his swollen face and a black eye.
“It was a difficult decision, but I know it was the right decision to terminate his employment because that certainly serves as an example that we have a zero-tolerance policy,” Ciesielski said at a news conference.
Ciesielski’s recommendation will go to the Civilian Police Merit Board, which ultimately will decide whether to fire Piland.
The teen’s family and black community leaders have called for a federal investigation into whether Johnson’s civil rights were violated. Piland, 36, and the other three officers directly involved in the arrest are white, while Johnson’s mother is black and his father is white.
“I’m grateful to have one bad cop off the streets, but there was a lot of wrongdoing here that day,” Johnson’s mother, Chantay Chandler, said at a news conference Thursday at the family’s home. Family representatives called on the department to fire the four officers directly involved in the arrest, but not a fifth officer who stood on the periphery.
“One token firing is not enough,” said the family’s attorney, Stephen Wagner.
Ciesielski said one of the other officers, Stacy Lettinga, received a reprimand for wrongfully arresting another youth at the scene, and that the three others had been exonerated. None of the five had any prior record of excessive force, and Piland has received several commendations.
Marion County Prosecutor Carl Brizzi said last week that he was investigating the matter and had not decided whether to bring charges against any of the officers. He said he decided not to charge Johnson because it wasn’t in the best interests of the teen or the community.
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While most sex-related injuries don't require a trip to the doctor, getting hurt in the heat of passion is a pretty common -- but seldom discussed -- problem, sex experts say.
Julieanne Smolinski, 26, a New Yorker and blogger for Lemondrop.com, had her own brush with carnal catastrophe when she was in college.
"I did a kind of accidental back handspring off my boyfriend and cracked myself on the head," she says.
"My boyfriend got the worst of it and 'fractured' his penis. We didn't seek medical attention, [but] later I read that penile fractures can be really serious," she says, wondering in retrospect if they should have taken him to the hospital.
Though they can be embarrassing to report to your doctor, sexual injuries are fairly run-of-the-mill in the emergency department, according to a U.K. poll of one thousand adults.
The study, commissioned by a phone-recycling firm, Phonepiggybank.com, found that a third of Brits reported having a sex-related injury -- five percent admitting that they had to stay home from work while on the mend from one of those bedroom blunders
Most often, these mishaps were sustained while having sex in non-traditional settings, such as on stairs, over kitchen tables, or in closets, or when trying new sexual positions.
ABCnews.com asked sex experts and emergency room doctors to weigh in on the kinds of sexual injuries they encounter most often and how to safeguard against them.
Not all sexual injuries involve the kind of sexual acrobatics that Smolinski tried. Most often, a simple muscle pull or stumble is enough to leaving you throbbing in a less-than-pleasurable way.
In the U.K. study, the most common sex injury was a pulled muscle, with back injuries, carpet burns, and cricked necks pulling in close behind. And perhaps surprisingly, the most dangerous spots for sex were also the most ordinary: the sofa, a chair, or the shower.
In the U.S., "we don't have a good handle on how common [these injuries] are, mainly because people do not admit that that is how they got injured," says Debby Herbenick, research scientist at Indiana University and author of "Because It Feels Good."
"Patients will say they slipped in the shower if it's something [particularly embarassing]," she says.
The most common issue she hears about is small tears or cuts in the vagina, which can occur when sex is more vigorous and there isn't enough lubrication.
Women will often not feel any pain until after sex, because the arousal raises pain tolerance, Herbenick says, but if the cuts are sizable and bleeding doesn't stop on its own, a woman should seek medical attention to prevent infection.
Irritation or tearing from vigorous sex can be minimized by using a lubricant, she says, "but aside from that, there isn't much you can do. If you want to have rough sex, it's going to be … rough."
Those working in the emergency room see the more serious cases of sexual injury, says Dr. Billy Goldberg, assistant professor of emergency medicine at the NYU School of Medicine, and "they're not an uncommon complaint." he says.
"People do some strange stuff."
Goldberg says he's seen "a lot of rectal foreign bodies," citing one case in which a man had to be brought to the hospital by his mother after a screwdriver became lodged in his rectum during a sexual act.
Penile fractures, like the one Smolinski's boyfriend may have sustained, are notorious copulation catastrophes, and ones that can cause permanent damage.
One patient of Goldberg's, a man in his sixties, suffered a fracture when he fell down while masturbating in an attempt to rush to the door to lock it when he heard his mother trying to get in.
Penile fractures are not actually fractures so much as tears in the tissue of the penis, Herbenick says. They occur when the erect penis is bent forcefully; there may be a popping or cracking sound.
Women don't escape the wrath of a romantic evening gone bad, says Dr. Gabe Wilson, associate medical director of St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital in New York. He had one woman who came in because her partner had performed oral sex on her too quickly after eating a spicy meal, and she sustained mild burns from the hot sauce.
Lost condoms are a more common affliction for women, Goldberg says, though one that is easily remedied.
These sexual hazards give new meaning to a desire for "safe sex," but does this mean that protection has to take the form of knee pads and a helmet?
Most of the safety tips are just common sense, says Dr. Mache Seibel, professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Massachusetts Medical school.
"If anything causes discomfort it should be discontinued," he says. "Just because something is supposed to be 'fun,' doesn't mean it works for you."
It's also wise not to push yourself past your own level of flexibility or cardiovascular health, Seibel says.
"Some people can't touch their toes…or have been advised by a doctor not to raise the heart rate [following a heart attack or stroke], so when it starts to get physical or acrobatic, they will have a problem."
Herbenick echoes this sentiment, noting that stretching isn't a bad idea if you're injury prone, and it may be wise to clear the area of pointy objects and keep lit candles a good distance from you.
Also, "keep pets out of the room," she say, citing a recent study she conducted on the subject. Cats have been known to jump on the bed and "scratch at genitals" when they see their owners getting frisky.
Ideally, with a little common sense, and maybe a little warmup, your romantic evening will stay between you and your loved one -- no medical intervention required.
What has the world come to? These are panties equipped with a hidden GPS and thermal sensor. It is a way to spy on your girlfriend or daughter. These panties can give you her location, and even her temperature and heart rate, and she will never even know it's there! I guess the thought is if her body temperature and heart rate rises she is up to no good. Who would buy these but and better yet do some of you have them on now? I can see some crazy guy bursting into the local gym looking for a fight and find his girlfriend harmlessly working out on the treadmill. I guess you can use the GPS to determine that she is at the gym and the rising body temperature and heart rate would be normal. But wait, there are guys there, she may be cheating still. Where is my gun. LOL. Ok this is crazy but in the United States these type of people can marry and some can not.
Get a pair here http://www.forgetmenotpanties.com/
I've been saying it all along. In fact, the words Fox and News will not easily escape from my lips one after the other. Faux (or fake - to make it easier for their viewers to understand) is a more apt description of the type of "news" they offer.Finally, White House Communications Director Anita Dunn made it official last week, while speaking with Howie Kurtz on CNN, and even took it a step further by saying that Fox is essentially the PR wing of the Republican Party!Media Matters' Eric Boehlert, who wrote a great piece about the reality of what the offending cable channel has become, "Memo to the media: Fox News is now the Opposition Party." will be my guest tonight in the first hour of my show on Air America radio.We'll also deal with the monster that is Rush Limbaugh and, now that he's out of the bidding, I want to get your thoughts on whether or not he should be allowed to purchase the St. Louis Rams.
Can you believe that this was a question in a resent Facebook poll? As some may already know that when it comes to terrorism I always ask the question, are their crazies crazier than our crazies? We gladly spend trillions under the lies of rescuing and saving other countries without concern, but when it comes to paying for health care for our citizens we ask who will pay for it? Bush never budgeted for two wars, funded it with emergency supplemental funding (how can a multi-year war be an unforeseen emergency?) and America never asked a question. Now some in America want President Obama killed. We really know why these people want harm to come to President Obama and the republican hate machine should be ashamed from encouraging our crazies in that direction. America, the world is watching! The full story below:
A poll was posted on Facebook asking users to vote "should Obama be killed?"
The responses include: "yes," "maybe," "if he cuts my health care," and "no."
Over 730 people had taken the poll, which was later removed from Facebook. The poll is now being probed by the Secret Service, reports the Associated Press. Read more about the investigation here.
Included on the list of the top 100 most popular polls on Facebook was a poll responding to the "should Obama be killed" query, and which asked users to vote, "Should the creator of 'should Obama be killed' be arrested?"
"This heavy baby made the surgery really tough, especially the process of taking him out of his mum's womb. His legs were so big," Binsar Sitanggang said.
The boy is in a healthy condition despite having to initially be given oxygen to overcome breathing problems, the gynaecologist said.
"He's got strong appetite, every minute, it's almost non-stop feeding," he said.
"This baby boy is extraordinary, the way he's crying is not like a usual baby. It's really loud."
The boy's massive size was likely the result of his mother, Ani, 41, having diabetes, Sitanggang said.
She had to be rushed to hospital due to complications with the pregnancy, which had reached nine months. The baby, her fourth, was the only child not delivered by a traditional midwife.
When a diabetic mother's glucose level is high during pregnancy, the baby can receive too much glucose and grow too large, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.
Indonesia's previous heaviest baby, weighing in at 6.9 kilos, was born in 2007 on the outskirts of the capital Jakarta, according to the Indonesian Museum of Records website.
America needs free higher education and fast. The world is watching us and I am ashamed. How can we free countries and help the world when these are the people we produce. Did they say Obama is in the bible and it means "The Anti-Christ"? These people can not even articulate what they have traveled many miles to protest. This is a true example of a "DITTO HEAD". They are told what to do and how to feel by the people who are causing them the most damage. This protest is 8 years too late. I will have to assume the reason for the protest from what the handlers have to say, because these people have absolutely no idea. They just know the canned catch phrases. According to them Bush handed a perfect country over to Obama and it was destroyed in a few months. According to these people Bush left the country with a lager surplus than Clinton did and no debt. According to these people Bush did not hand the country over to Obama on the verge of collapse because if that were the case these protest would have taken place 8 years ago. According to these people we would need another 8 years of Bush and all would be fine. The country is in recovery and these protest are too little too late. We know the real reason they are protesting?
Sarah Palin is to resign as the Alaskan governor. I my never to be humble opinion she is resigning to make a profit and that crap about helping people is just that, crap. It's no secret that she is constantly being investigated for possible ethics violations. Is there something legal problems coming down the pike that the powers that be instructed her to jump ship to benefit the party? Stay tuned because this is the more likely possibility. With the exception of President being a Governor of a state is the most powerful office in politics. In the Senate you are one or one hundred and in Congress you are one of more than 300. The Governor is the one and only boss of the state, top dog. We were hit over the head with that fact during the last presidential election concerning Obama's lack of experience. I hope she is resigning to make a buck (the republican way) and not running from pending legal problems. As I believe that the Republican Party is always wrong and should be destroyed we still need them around to keep the weak and cowardly Democratic Party in check until we (the people) find a better way. Before I say what I'm about to say I must state that Palin was put in an impossible position by Senator Mc Cain. There is no way anyone could be brought up to speed from Palin's position in time to become a viable candidate for the Vice Presidency. With that said, Palin is a joke! Properly a nice person but never can be a candidate for the highest office, hell most are not. During the election she had no clear answers to simple questions and the answers she did try to give were embarrassing even to me. There were times I was embarrassed for her. Her fans say she was unfairly treated and attacked. I say if you are Governor of a State, world politics should be at least a hobby and you should be able to answer a few questions. You should at least know what books and magazines you read. Also if you are able to attack the opposition of your opponents and claim you are a "PITBULL" there is no such thing as too harsh. We should want out leaders to have intelligence and natural curiosity and not be coached. The coaching and training of Palin during the election cost Mc Cain valuable time. Unfortunately we do not know when to cut bait and move on. Pailn will be given many opportunities to damage the Republican Party. Some one please take the shovel from the Republican Party's hands because the hole is getting deep!
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