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Former Ohio teacher gives tearful testimony in court after recording herself laughing and mocking special education student duct-taped to chair

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A former Ohio teacher has been found guilty of multiple charges stemming from an incident in which she recorded herself tying a special needs student to a chair with duct tape and then laughing at him.

Rachel Smith, 27, and her former coworker Allison Vestring were charged with illegal restraint after Smith recorded Vestring duct-taping a 15-year-old child with Down syndrome and autism at West Clermont High School, prosecutors said.

Rachel Smith, 27, was found guilty of charges stemming from an incident at an Ohio highschool where she recorded herself tying a special needs student to a chair with duct tape and then laughing at him. (Photos: YouTube/Fox19)

Authorities launched an investigation after a CPS employee at the college immediately reported each teachers to police following the incident in March, Fox19 reported.

Only parts of the incident were captured in two separate videos, but investigators say the kid, who has limited ability to speak and move, was held in the chair for between two and five minutes.

One video shows Vestring duct-taping a boy to a chair and Smith asking him to “stand up” when he cannot move, prompting laughter from his classmates.

“OK, try to stand up,” Smith tells the teenager in the video. “Stand up.”

As other students laugh in the background, the teenager says, “That’s not funny,” which only sparks more laughter and mockery.

“It’s not funny,” Smith says, mocking the teenager. “Yes, it is. It is funny,” he says, laughing.

In one other video, the victim might be heard calling out to one other worker for help, to which Smith responds, “He’s not coming to help you. You’re trapped here.”

When the teachers were reported to the police, they said the incident was meant to be fun and not harmful.

Vestring pleaded guilty to a charge of illegal detention in April and was sentenced to five years of community service. She was also banned from working with students with special needs.

Smith pleaded not guilty.

Her trial began last month, and she tearfully testified in court.

“I honestly didn’t think about it at the time and I thought he was going to say something funny,” Smith said. “And he never said ‘stop.’ He never said ‘stop.’ He had said those words before in the past and it didn’t happen at the time.”

The student’s parents expressed disappointment with the teachers’ behaviour and said the teenager was in a state of mental and emotional breakdown after watching the footage of the incident.

“We were putting up birthday decorations and he saw the tape and said, ‘He’s afraid of the tape,’ so we had to take him and take him out of the room,” his father explained. “We sent him to school to make sure he wouldn’t be bullied and we didn’t expect that from the teachers.”

Smith was found guilty of illegal detention and two counts of kid endangerment. She will likely be sentenced in October.

This article was originally published on : atlantablackstar.com
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Politics and Current

8 times Kamala Harris gave us beauty inspiration – the essence

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Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

Preparing for work in an office can seem very limiting. We need to be sweet and never be considered over the top. Still, we shouldn’t surrender on our well-being simply because we’re up to this point. But for inspiration, we will turn to Kamala Harris, who seems to have all of it discovered in the beauty department. Her elegant sense of fashion, makeup and hairstyle never appear to wane. No matter how intense things get in the office, Harris will at all times be visible.

In the spirit of supporting our VP, below are our favourite office-ready looks from Harris.

No makeup Makeup

We’re used to Harris doing every part in her power to look glamorous. However, he often keeps every part to a minimum. The vice chairman’s face is nearly fresh, with some eyeliner and mascara.

Lip gloss

Who said lip gloss is just too much for the office? Harris gives us a unique perspective by rocking mocha gloss. The makeup stands out beautifully, but Harris’ smile will at all times be the better part of this makeup look.

Vintage Glam

Harris proves that she has at all times cared about her beauty. For example, her graduation look embodied ’80s chic with daring pink lipstick and blush.

Glam Pride

Harris made a loud and colourful appearance at the pride ceremony. She applied a peach blush to the tops of her cheeks, which is a rare occurrence as she often sticks to a neutral makeup palette. The updo with side-swept bangs also caught attention.

Explosion Queen

Can we take a moment to understand this explosion? Yes, beauty is all about makeup, but what brings all of it together is an incredible hairstyle. Highlights, layers and reflections are *chef’s kiss.*

Eyeliner goals

Eyeliner is at all times a key ingredient in Harris’ makeup. She often uses a skinny pencil to emphasise the shape of her eyes.

Signing in style

The vice chairman announced her run for president during the class. In addition to the all-black suit and fresh makeup, she also opted for neutral makeup with a touch of eye shadow. This is her signature makeup that might be remembered for a lifetime.

Mocha makeup

As Harris gazed out at the crowd of hundreds of Americans, she wore classic mocha makeup. The TikTok trend combines browns and neutral tones to create a balanced glow.

This article was originally published on : www.essence.com
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Stephen A. Smith fumes at Oprah and Michelle Obama, accusing them of making voters feel like they don’t ‘necessary’

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Stephen A. Smith Blames Oprah, Michelle Obama for Kamala Harris Loss; Did Celeb Endorsements Actually Hurt the Democrat?

Let the electoral blame game begin.

ESPN host Stephen A. Smith has he solid his vote within the post-election ritual of pointing to someone or something as the explanation a candidate lost, pointing to Oprah Winfrey and Michelle Obama.

On Wednesday on his podcast “The Stephen A. Smith Show,” Smith said the media mogul and former first lady set an exclusionary tone that turned off men (Trump’s most credible voting bloc).

Stephen A. Smith blames Oprah and Michelle Obama for the loss of Kamala Harris; Have celebrity endorsements actually hurt Democrats?
Left: Stephen A. Smith; Bottom right: Oprah Winfrey; Top right: Michelle Obama

“If we don’t agree with you, are we against you?” Smith said, referencing the media mogul and former first lady’s speeches. “What do you think the men thought about this? So we must do what you tell us; otherwise we are against you? Did you think it worked? Do you know anything about most men? Do you think this will work?”

Oprah and Michelle O. are among the many long list of celebrities who’ve endorsed Democrat Kamala Harris. She had on her side the most well-liked artists within the country (Beyonce and Taylor Swift), essentially the most famous athlete (LeBron James) and two of essentially the most famous actors (George Clooney and Harrison Ford). Stars from the past (Madonna and Bruce Springsteen) and current (Charli xcx and Lizzo) declared their support for Harris.

But together they were all fair sermon for the choirsaid Seth Abramovitch, senior author at the Hollywood Reporter.

“Oprah, Katy Perry, Beyoncé, Lady Gaga, Madonna, Ariana Grande – these are artists whose audiences (black, female, liberal, queer) were already willing to vote for Kamala,” he told The Guardian.

Swift, popular with each country and pop fans, appears to be an outlier, Abramovich said, but her influence was negligible amongst two demographic groups which have shifted significantly toward Trump.

Of course, the identical may be said about famous Trump supporters. Women of color, part of the demographic most proof against the previous and future commander-in-chief, weren’t about to be influenced by the likes of Hulk Hogan, Kid Rock and Lee Greenwood.

Left or right, famously, they rarely, if ever, move the counter together with voters.

“In the academic literature,” said Professor Margaretha Bentley of Arizona State University, who has studied Swift’s cultural impact, “research has shown that while celebrity endorsements can increase civic engagement and voter registration, it has not been proven to have a direct impact on the way people make voting decisions.”

When Swift endorsed Harris, she directed followers to this page voting.gov. The website was visited by 405,999 people in 24 hours. However, not everyone was convinced to vote for the previous prosecutor and current vice chairman.

In fact, Swift can have hurt Harris greater than helped. A poll conducted by YouGov shortly after her endorsement found that only 8 percent of voters can be “somewhat” or “much more” more likely to vote for Harris, well below the 20 percent of respondents who said supporting Swift would make them less more likely to vote for a Democrat.

Ashley Spillane of Harvard, who writer a study titled “Celebrities Strengthen Our Culture of Democracy” found that it’s unattainable to quantify whether a celeb endorsement translates into more votes for a candidate.

This is a change from the past. A 2008 poll conducted by Northwestern University found that Oprah’s endorsement of Barack Obama added roughly a million votes to his final tally.

But that was in less divisive times.

Smith argued that it was Oprah’s message, not Oprah herself, that turned off male voters. Her warning on the eve of the election was that a second Trump term would herald an antidemocratic takeover of the United States

“This is something that alienates the electorate, alienates the voter,” Smith said. “Because the freedom you tell them you have, you’re trying to morally confiscate it by letting them know you’re worth nothing if you don’t vote the way we think you should vote.”

“Who will decide on this in the general election?” Smith asked. “In an economy full of inflation, with over 12 million people crossing the border?”

The high-power recommendations also served to substantiate Republicans’ findings that Democrats were an elite party.

“Ultimately, stars price lots of of tens of millions, if not billions, who most American residents imagine are incredibly out of touch with their lifestyle and the standard of it, weren’t going to run away and blame them for doing something different than what their experience says and what they should do with it do,” Smith said.

The people almost certainly to learn from a celeb’s endorsement are the celebrity themselves, says Laurence F. Maslon, an art professor at New York University.

“I think sometimes it’s a way of tying your star to someone who seems to be good for you, and maybe there’s some kind of reflected glory in that,” Maslon said.

British comedian Ricky Gervais probably said it best video – he posted in June wherein he ridiculed overly serious stars who imagine that their political beliefs really matter.

“As a celebrity, I know everything about science and politics, so trust me when I tell you who you should vote for,” Gervais said. “If you don’t vote the right way it will be like a hate crime and it makes me sad and angry so I will leave the country and you don’t want that.”


This article was originally published on : atlantablackstar.com
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Politics and Current

Monique Worrell, one of two Democratic prosecutors ousted by DeSantis in Florida, gets her old job back

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Monique Worrell, Florida, theGrio.com

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — One of two Democratic state attorneys in Florida who’re Republicans Governor Ron DeSantis removed from office in what opponents said was a political move and won him his old job back from voters.

In the Orlando area, Democrat Monique Worrell on Tuesday defeated Andrew Bain, the candidate DeSantis replaced Worrell with last 12 months and who ran without party affiliation. In the Tampa area, Andrew Warren, who was ousted by DeSantis in 2022, gave approach to Suzy Lopez, a Republican DeSantis selected to exchange a Democrat.

DeSantis said Worrell didn’t prosecute crimes committed by minors and didn’t seek mandatory minimum sentences for gun crimes, putting the general public in her Central Florida district in danger. She disputed his claims as false and politically motivated.

Speaking before fans Tuesday night, Worrell dedicated the win to her father, who died unexpectedly last June. “Before he took his last breath, he told me, ‘Go back to your seat,’” she said.

“I want to thank the voters for standing with me and saying, ‘We don’t believe you, Ron DeSantis,’” Worrell said.

DeSantis removed Warren over his signing of the guarantees that it is going to not bring criminal charges against individuals in search of abortion or gender reassignment services or individuals providing abortion or sex reassignment therapy services, and its policy of not prosecuting certain minor offenses.

“I am proud of the race we ran,” Warren said in an announcement Tuesday night. “The best candidate doesn’t always win, especially when the other side cheats by illegally suspending you and then spending millions of dollars lying about you.”

The governor’s office didn’t immediately reply to an emailed inquiry on Wednesday.

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This article was originally published on : thegrio.com
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