A California teen, who last year set a world record by climbing Mount Everest has set his sights at another major challenge... Mount Vinson Massif in Antarctica! 

Jordan Romero is 15 years old and in a few weeks he will travel with his father to Antarctica in an attempt to conquer the tallest mountain on the continent.  His ultimate goal is to climb all of the "7 Summits"... the tallest mountains in the world...

The 7 Summits are:
1.  Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa
2.  Denali in Alaska
3.  Mount Elbrus in Europe
4.  Aconcagua in the South America
5.  Carstensz Pyramid in Indonesia
6.  Mount Vison Massif in Antarctica
7.  Mount Everest in Nepal

As many of you are aware, applying to colleges can be a difficult time.  Worries of grades, senior project, portfolio, SAT scores, and college essays can cause seniors extreme stress.  Some students in the Great Neck area of New York attempted to alleviate that stress by having other students take their SAT’s for them.

At least 20 current and former students from this affluent area of New York have been charged in a widening college entrance scandal.  According to authorities these students were hired by other students to take the exams for them… the offered payments ranged from $500 to $3600!

The students are being charged with scheming to defraud, falsifying business records, and criminal impersonation. 
For the students age 18 and older, they will be charged as adults and the charges are felonies… the minors will be charged with misdemeanors.

Some of the students who were paid to take the tests already attend college and face expulsion from those institutions, and the prospective college students may find it extremely difficult to find a college willing to accept them based on their lack of ethical conduct.

Many of you may have been motivated enough by the prospects of saving a few bucks to venture out in the early hours of Black Friday.  Some of you may even have been a tad aggressive in your attempts to get a discounted Xbox, iPod, or Tablet, but hopefully you refrained from committing armed assault in your quest for the
world’s greatest deal…

Reports began emerging late Friday afternoon concerning several acts of violence committed by people eager to get the best deal.  

In L.A. a women at Wal-Mart pepper-sprayed fellow customers as she made her way to the electronic department; she also sprayed a guard before fleeing… she eventually turned herself in.  There were reports of shots being fired at another California Wal-Mart and one in North Carolina as well.  At a New York Wal-Mart there was a stabbing outside the store.

There were over 4,000  “incidents” of Black Friday violence reported nationwide. 

Happy Holidays Everyone!

Earlier this week, a group of students associated with the Occupy Movement took over the quad area at the University of California's Davis Campus.  The students had the blessing of the University to have the protest, and the kids were protesting primarily high tuition fees.  The University simply asked that the students not camp out over night... when the students did just that, the University called campus police.

The video speaks for itself and can be viewed by clicking the link below. 

http://www.itn.co.uk/home/33821/US+student+protesters+maced

For most of the population, social networking sites are harmless forums of expression; even if we know that our lives are not interesting enough to necessitate an update every ten minutes.  However, each day there are examples of Twitter, FaceBook, or Tumblr, being used to harass or bully, and even as forums to air issues previously left for more private venues.

A growing concern has officials struggling to monitor these sites in an effort to stop victims of various crimes from being victimized all over again.  A prime example is Lisa Gesik.  Gesik gets constant “Friend” requests from her ex-husband, Michael Gladney, who is in prison for kidnapping her and her daughter… neither she nor prison officials can prove that that he is the one sending the messages.

Gesik is just one example of a growing epidemic.  Karen Carrisosa of Sacramento gets messages from Fredrick Garner who is serving a 22-year sentence for killing her husband. 

Recently Timothy Heaphy, U.S. attorney for the Western District of Virginia successfully prosecuted John Conner and Whitney Roberts after they set up a Facebook account to intimidate a witness preparing to testify against them, “How the hell can u b a gangsta when u snitchin and lien…” In this case officials were able to trace the source of the post.

I’m not sure this type of contact is what Mark Zuckerburg had in mind when developing FaceBook.

Heath and Deborah Campbell of New Jersey have lost custody of their fourth child hours after he was born. The Campbells made national news in December 2008 when a ShopRite grocery store declined to decorate a birthday cake for their son, Adolf Hitler Campbell.  All of the Campbell children have Nazi inspired names; there is Adolf of course, the newborn baby, Hons, and his sisters Honszlynn Himler Jeannie Campbell and JoyceLynn Aryan
Nation Campbell.

Heath Campbell issued a statement claiming that there is no legal binding court order, and that the state has basically kidnapped their children because of their political views and their names.  A spokesperson for DCYF told ABCNews.com that, “We would never remove a child simply based on their name”… there needs to be suspicion of abuse or neglect. That same spokesperson admitted that the children appear to be healthy and physically
unharmed.

A hearing is scheduled for Monday morning to determine the status of the Campbell children.  If it is determined that there is so abuse in the case, then full custody of the children will be returned to Heath and Deborah Campbell.

Some members of congress are fighting the Obama administration’s efforts to remove unhealthy foods from school lunch menus. According to reports, opponents of the spending bill state they want Pizza and French Fries
  listed as "vegetables" so they may remain as options in schools.

Pizza and fries!?!?! With the growing concerns of child-obesity and cases of diabetes being diagnosed earlier and earlier, one cannot help but wonder from where the motivation for such ideas come.

So... the next time your doctor or your parents ask you if you have eaten all your veggies, you can just tell them you had a large order of fries, and you wolfed down four slices... 

#healthyeating!!!

Most athletes and coaches would agree that sports is indeed about winning... however as a coach and a teacher, I also know that the role of an educator, whether on an athletic field or in the classroom, is to model appropriate behavior and practice, while teaching necessary skills. Sometimes the "adults" need to go back to school...

A high school football coach in Wyoming has resigned after his "Hurt Feelings Report" was leaked. The survey
forced players to select from a multitude of inappropriate choices to identify why they were upset. The coach, Pat Lynch, asked students to choose the reasons for their hurt feelings from choices such as:

"I want my mommy
I have woman like hormones
I am a cry baby"

... and these choices were far from the most offensive examples...

Though Lynch has resigned his position as the football coach, he is being allowed to retain his job as a
guidance counselor at the school.

Students will often invoke their First Amendment right of free speech when they face punishment for something they are accused of doing or saying... however, as students at Live Oak High School have learned, the First
Amendment is not unconditional.

California District Judge James Ware ruled this past week that school administrators were within their rights when
forcing students to either change or turn their shirts inside-out because they bore images of the American Flag. The students decided to wear the American t-shirts on Cinco de Mayo, a major Mexican Holiday. The students claim they were not wearing the shirts to antagonize the Mexican-American students at the school, just that they wanted to show support for their own country.

School administrators saw things differently and forced students to remove the "offending" clothing. School administrators did not however make students celebrating Cinco de Mayo remove any of their celebratory clothing...