This is absolutely ghetto craziness. This is a two day brawl and parents were seen, “waiting for action”: Wild cellphone videos captured by students show a crowd of as many as 60 students and parents brawling in the streets of Swissvale, Pa. on Monday and again on Tuesday. The two brawls took place at the same school bus stop in Swissvale, prompting police to increase patrols in the area. “I’d consider it a riot,” Swissvale Police Chief Greg Geppert said, adding that it was disturbing that the fights involved both students and adults. “We have the video. Anyone who’s viewed on that video as being involved, I’ll guarantee you they’re getting arrested,” Geppert added. Police say they have already arrested five adults and minors and may arrest nearly a dozen more soon. The students and parents were reportedly from the Woodland Hills School district, CBS Pittsburgh reports. Investigators believe the fights were planned because several people were seen “waiting for action” with cellphone cameras out. WTAE-TV provides some footage of the fights: One female witness described the mayhem to WTAE-TV: “The boys started taking their sweatshirts off, and the backpacks were thrown in the snow, and they went at it on my car, on the ground, in the snow,” said a woman who was driving through the area with her preschool-age child. “They were swinging at each other, and some of them landed on my car and just were continuing fighting while I was honking and I was screaming and I was trying to get them away.” “At one point in the first video, there are as many as five fights going on at a time. One fight moved into traffic while cars attempted to drive around two men punching each other,” WTAE-TV reports. “The second video showed a man in red pants walking toward another man who was trying to crawl up a hillside. The man on the ground was kicked in the head, sending him rolling backward down the hill,” the report adds. Woodland Hills School Superintendent called the brawls “appalling” and said she has been “very disappoints” per the incident. She said any students involved in the fights will be suspended and possibly expelled from school. But some people who witnessed the brawls in the neighborhood claim they are afraid to walk down the street now. “I’m afraid for my life. I won’t go for a walk anymore,” one woman said. WTAE KDKA
It’s been a violent year in Chicago , but long-time residents of Chatham are still fighting to keep their neighborhood safe after the death of one of their own rocked the community. And with the recession affecting small businesses, a once vibrant, middle-class neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side seems to be hanging on by a thread. Via The New York Times : The neighborhood’s best-known restaurants were failing, its crime rate was on the rise, and for the first time that anyone could remember there were foreclosures, with once tidy bungalows sitting empty and dark. For all that, the social scientists studying Chicago neighborhoods in 2010 were betting that the middle-class enclave of Chatham, on the city’s South Side, would remain stable through the recession. It had done so for decades, while surrounded by impoverished areas. It had somehow absorbed a wave of newcomers from recently demolished housing projects. And the researchers’ data suggested that its strong identity and scores of active block groups had helped protect residents from larger economic threats and offered clues about how to preserve threatened urban communities all over the country. Chatham should hold, barring some unforeseen cataclysm. The cataclysm hit on May 19 of that year. That night, a group of assailants jumped Thomas Wortham IV, an off-duty police officer and Iraq war veteran, as he was leaving his parents’ house. He resisted and was shot, bleeding to death on the street where he grew up. The entire city seemed to stop for breath, holding a memorial attended by hundreds of fellow police officers and citizens, Mayor Richard M. Daley and Gov. Pat Quinn of Illinois. “We were blindsided by this; blindsided by what happened to Tommy,” said his mother, Carolyn Wortham. “And yes, you begin to question everything.” In Chatham, it seemed, all bets were off. Many residents began to think the unthinkable, that maybe it was time to escape the place they had done so much to build. The community’s response to the crisis would test a theory emerging from an ambitious, nearly decade-long study of all of Chicago’s neighborhoods — that a neighborhood’s character shapes its economic future at least as much as more obvious factors like income levels and foreclosure rates. “If Chatham could maintain its relative stability despite such great challenges,” said William Julius Wilson, a professor of sociology and social policy at Harvard and the author of the 1987 classic, “The Truly Disadvantaged,” “then I think this concept of a neighborhood effect will be a landmark contribution, helping us understand how to prevent the out-migration of citizens and strengthen neighborhoods” at risk of falling into poverty. …Older residents, perpetually anxious that the younger generation is losing their values of tidiness and mutual respect, now had visible evidence of social erosion. They saw it in the habits of their new neighbors, many of them moving from the Robert Taylor Homes, which were torn down in the mid-2000s. “The big change going on is that the grandparents are moving out, and some of the younger kids coming in here are picking up behaviors that you would never have seen in Chatham before,” said Worlee Glover, a salesman who runs a blog called Concerned Citizens of Chatham. “Loitering out on 79th. Walking up and down the street, eating out of a bag. Eating out on the porch. Those kinds of things.” “Chatham and neighboring Avalon Park are both working class communities, not core ghetto areas, and both were hit hard by recession, particularly Chatham, which got hit economically and with incidents of violence.Twice in previous weeks, young men from outside the area had fired shots into the scrum around the basketball courts at Cole Park, just across the street from the Worthams’ house. Cole Park, all picnics and playgrounds when Thomas IV was growing up, now resembled a street party on most evenings, with teenagers coming just to hang out, Mrs. Wortham said. Seniors and parents of young children stayed away. “People came from all over the South Side to play at Cole Park for the very reason that it was a safe park,” said Thomas Wortham III, his father. “But it got to where no one was controlling it.” Chatham has more than a hundred block groups, citizen volunteers who monitor the tidiness of neighborhood lawns, garbage, and noise, as well as organize events, Mr. Tate said. The neighborhood has something else that many nearby areas do not: uniformly small buildings. Neat rows of one-story brick bungalows and ranch houses stand shoulder to shoulder, at attention, astride modest commercial strips, with few buildings more than three stories tall. …The ultimate verdict, for Chatham and for the neighborhood effect, may lie in what the Worthams and people like them do in historically cohesive urban communities threatened by creeping poverty and violence. “I sure did consider leaving when Tommy was killed,” Mrs. Wortham said. She took a deep breath. “But you know, whenever something like this happens, there’s plenty of blame to go around. People want to blame the city, the community organizations, the churches, all that. But nothing changes unless people look after their children, and the neighbors do, too. If people aren’t behaving, you say something. When I went to school, if I did something wrong, by the time I got home my mother knew about it.” Community involvement is key in any area. Do you think Chicago’s lack of racial integration on social, economic, and educational scales is a factor in part of the problem? Images via AP
Jesus take the wheel … NYC Boy Murdered After Refusing To Hand Over $600 Jacket A 16-year-old boy is dead, after being shot Friday night on the Lower East Side. Via NYPost reports: A Lower East Side teenager by the name of Raphael Ward was senselessly slaughtered after he refused to hand over his trendy Marmot winter parka to a gang of thugs, police sources said yesterday. The gunman, described as 5-foot-6, 120 to 140 pounds, was wearing a dark wool hat and a ski mask when he walked up to Ward in the 32 degree cold and shot him just minutes after the altercation over the jacket, police sources said. After he was shot, a dying Ward — still wearing his bloodied parka — stumbled across the street to the Tearedhan convenience store and told workers there he had been approached by a group of people who had wanted his jacket, police sources said. The Marmot parkas can sell for as much as $600. Police are looking at security-camera video that may have captured the coldblooded murder. The victim’s stunned friend Cynthia Nieves, 14, said she met Ward just before he was gunned down. Although he didn’t tell her what was wrong, he warned her: “Go home!” “He knew they were coming back,” she said. Nicholas Ramos, 18, said he and Ward went to get a slice of pizza across from the church, but Ward “stopped to talk to somebody and I went across the street to the pizza place, and that’s when he got shot,” said Ramos. Ramos said he heard several shots, but waited a minute before he ran out to help Ward. The victim was later declared dead at Beth Israel Hospital. A young life cut short because of a simple piece of clothing, how sad. Keep the Ward family in your prayers. Tajanae Brown
Many West Virginia residents are not fans of Buckwild, MTV’s new reality show – and replacement for the retiring Jersey Shore – which premiered last night. Set in Sissonville, W.V., the network’s latest “authentic comedic series” follows the antics of nine twenty-something cast members who are … a little bit country. Punches are thrown and words are exchanged. Turmoil brews among the roommates. Buckwild Season Preview MTV teases that the show follows “an outrageous group of childhood friends from the rural foothills of West Virginia who love to dodge grown-up responsibilities.” Sound familiar? Only in the backwoods and not the Garden State coastline? As we saw with New Jersey residents upset at the portrayal of their homeland by Snooki & Co., some West Virginians are angry about it feeding “redneck” stereotypes. Samantha Markos, a nearby waitress, said if MTV filmed a “real” show about the state, “You would find a lot of hardworking people that provide for their families.” Melissa Whitman, who lived across the street from where the Buckwild gang resided during shooting last year, witnessed more than she probably wanted to see. Especially as arguments and even some nasty fights broke out . “I watched producers actually talk to a lady and tell her exactly how he wanted her to come off on film,” she said. “I guess they thought we were all uneducated.” Danny Jones, mayor of Charleston, W.V., added, “You can find all kinds of people that live here and they’re not people that are going to be portrayed in Buckwild .” U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) also criticized the program. During the premiere, Cara, Katie and Anna moved in together in an attempt to trade country life for city life, but things quickly took a turn for the worse. Neighbors frequently called the police over noise violations, but the girls, with the help of Southern belle Shae, decided to throw a summer bash. This resulted in the first fight of the season, involving Anna. “I’ve known Anna since I was 4 years old. I know she has a horrible temper. And watching the footage back, that fight, I was surprised,” Shae recalled. “I was impressed because she usually snaps like that. I think she handled herself well. She was pushed to her limits and was just going to snap at anyone.” “If anyone gets in her face she’s going to snap at them.” Shain added, “I didn’t want to be around, I’m going the other way when she gets mad. I’m tucking my tail and running like a little puppy dog.” Sadly for the girls, the party ended … in eviction. “I thought it was pretty awesome that they got kicked out because it brought them to the country,” Shain said. “I didn’t have to go to the city to get my flirt on.” Good to know. What do you think of Buckwild?
GTFOHWTBS! Wall Street wins…again. We knew politicians were shady as hell but, to throw in perks for banks like Morgan Stanely, that have already been bailed out by US already, is just a cotdayum slap in the face! And according to The Huffington Post , there’s a loooong azz list of other tax breaks for that 1% that we couldn’t even try to pull with Uncle Sam: The 11th-hour deal to avert the so-called fiscal cliff preserved billions of dollars in corporate tax giveaways even as it slashed take-home pay for millions of American workers. Tucked inside the last-minute fiscal cliff package were more than a dozen tax loopholes, many of which will benefit Wall Street financial firms and some of the nation’s biggest corporations. These breaks will cost hundreds of billions of dollars in the coming year, underscoring the lobbying power of corporate interests. The deal was less kind to the middle class. Congress permitted a cut in the payroll tax to expire, meaning that the tax burden for the average worker will increase about $1,000 in 2013. “This shows that the lobbyists are able to get what they want even when everyone else is starving,” said Phineas Baxandall, senior analyst for tax and budget policy at the U.S. Public Interest Research Group. “It also shows they are best able to get what they want when no one else is paying attention.” The corporate loopholes were part of a package of so-called tax extenders tacked onto the main bill. The extenders package, first approved by the Senate in early August, mixes popular benefits, like a deduction for teachers who buy classroom supplies, with corporate-friendly carve-outs, such as the “active financing” exception that permits businesses earning interest on overseas lending to defer U.S. taxes on that income indefinitely. There is even a tax break for construction of new racetracks. The tax extenders were passed for only one year, and they still need to clear another potential hurdle: upcoming negotiations over mandated spending cuts and the debt ceiling. President Barack Obama and congressional leaders have indicated they’d like to see a “grand bargain” on taxes, which would feature lower overall rates but close a slew of loopholes. The financial services industry, whose leaders had earlier joined a group of other corporate executives pushing for a “fair” solution to the fiscal crisis, is one of the primary beneficiaries of special-interest tax breaks. The active-financing exception, for example, permits banks like Morgan Stanley to avoid the 35 percent U.S. corporate tax rate on interest income from money lent overseas. A handful of other U.S.-based multinational companies with financing arms, such as Ford Motor Co. and General Electric, also use that exemption to lower their tax bills. The two-year cost to taxpayers is an estimated $11.2 billion, according to the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation. U.S. financial institutions argue that the active-financing exemption is necessary for them to compete in overseas markets with foreign banks that carry a lower tax burden. The loophole was repealed in the Tax Reform Act of 1986, but was reinstated in 1997 as a temporary measure after fierce lobbying by multinational corporations. According to Citizens for Tax Justice, the financial services industry paid an average effective tax rate of 15.5 percent from 2008 to 2010, far lower than that of most other industries. As part of the fiscal cliff deal, Congress also extended another little-known tax break that benefits large multinationals selling products through overseas affiliates. This “pass-through” exemption permits a U.S.-based company to set up a new corporation in a tax haven like the Cayman Islands and sell it a patent owned by the U.S. parent company. Royalties on overseas licensing of that patent would then route to the tax-sheltered firm, instead of the U.S. parent company. The Joint Committee on Taxation says the two-year cost of extending this shelter is $1.5 billion. One of the more unusual tax benefits in the fiscal cliff legislation is a longstanding carve-out for racetracks used by NASCAR. Since 2004, Congress has passed a series of stopgap measures that allow owners of motorsports complexes to accelerate their depreciation expenses. This means that owners can deduct more in expenses, reducing the taxes they must pay. Track owners and NASCAR together have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars lobbying for the tax benefit over the past five years, according to lobbying disclosure forms. The International Speedway Corp., which owns and manages NASCAR race tracks, has spent more than $1.1 million lobbying Congress since 2008. Over the same period, NASCAR spent more than $300,000 on lobbying efforts, which included a push to “make permanent the depreciation classification.” Supporters in Congress and industry groups have argued that the tax break is necessary to “maintain the current standard expected by our competitors and fans.” According to estimates by the Joint Committee on Taxation, the so-called NASCAR loophole will cost taxpayers $46 million this year and an additional $95 million through 2017. A spokesman for the International Speedway Corp., Charles Talbert, said the industry is simply seeking to preserve a tax designation it has relied on for years. He said in an email that racetracks had always used the accelerated depreciation schedule, but Congress had specifically written it into law after the Internal Revenue Service argued that it was improper in the early 2000s. Though Congress was willing to sign off on all these business-friendly goodies, legislative leaders couldn’t muster enthusiasm for extending the payroll tax holiday, which had cost the federal government $120 billion each year in lost revenue. As a result, a worker who earns $50,000 a year will now pay at least $80 per month in taxes. The payroll tax increase will affect as many as 160 million people. These bullsh*t excuses corporations can throw around in order to get a tax break are inexcusable. The Senate, Congress, and The Pres should all be ashamed of themselves. Images via tumblr
Dear Bossip , I live in Nashville TN and I have a question for you. The answer may be what I already know but I need some help. I met a man on a dating website. He pursued me pretty hard and then eventually we started texting off the site, DAY and NIGHT. He was very receptive to me, asking me what I was looking for (we agreed we wanted to find a companion not necessarily marriage overnight or anything, but a commitment) and he was very talkative and sweet and funny. He even said he thought he was having some feelings for me even though we hadn’t yet met. We had exchanged pictures over the course of the 2 weeks. Well, after 2 weeks of this texting and calling each other we met. He revealed to me that he has only been in town for 5 months and he is working on securing a good job and a secure living situation. None of which I care about. I am not a gold digger at all. I care more that he is a good person. During the date he was GREAT, talkative, affectionate, polite, but after a good night we went back to my place, grabbed some beer and made a night of it (probably my 1st mistake). Well, we ended up being intimate and I feel like that was mistake # 2. We went to sleep around 4 am and woke up around 11 am, and I took him home. Now my question is: Are my chances of making this serious, DOOMED? I made it clear that I wasn’t going to be intimate, but I gave in after his very tempting advances. We have a lot in common and the conversation is great, but now that we met he isn’t sending any texts messages like he did up until we met. We had such a good time! This was Saturday and now its Monday, no word yet from him. Should I chuck it up as a loss and move on or am I judging it and him too soon? Will he call me on day 3? If not, what do I do: send him a text asking if he is done? I am lost. I need some help on what I need to do now. – Confused in Nashville Dear Ms. Confused in Nashville , Chile, I can’t believe we are starting the New Year off with this mess. SMDH! The hell! You folks and this online dating will learn one way or the other. Meeting folks online, then texting, calling, and sexting, which leads to sexing on the first night. Then, he disappears and you’re upset and wondering what happened and why he disappeared. Why is he not texting and calling like he used to. What happened to all the promises he made, and all the gooshy talk we did about being in a relationship and finding that special someone. It’s all a damn lie! Here’s the problem: You take a huge risk and chance when you meet an unknown person online. The chances are 1.) They are liar. 2.) They are not who they say they are. 3.) They lack social graces and are not good in public spaces. 4.) They are just out for a quick “hit it and quit it.” Ma’am, it’s only been two days since you haven’t heard from him. Slow your damn roll and pump your brakes. But, I get it. You’re having buyer’s remorse. You regret sleeping with him, and now that he hasn’t hit you up in two days you’re getting the suspicion that he is not going to call. LMBAO! Well, you’ll learn the next time won’t you. If you say you’re not going to be intimate, then don’t be intimate. If you want a man to call you the next day, then don’t sleep with him on the first night. When he revealed to you on your first date that he had just moved to your city within the past 5 months and had no job, and was trying to secure a living situation, then your red flags should have gone up. I don’t care if you’re not a gold digger. But, a man with no job and no permanent resident does not deserve any permanent p***y. The hell you giving up the goods to a bum for? That’s what he is. Would you go out in the streets and pick up a homeless man and take him home? Would you go on a date with a man you met on the street and he had no job or residence? Hell no! You would walk right past him. So, I don’t understand why you would lay down with a man you met on the internet, revealed to you that he has no job or permanent residence, then bought you a beer and you took him to your house and had sex with him, and then had to drop him off the next morning! You tricks have got the game all the way f****d up! Yes, you do deserve a no return call. You don’t deserve to be in a relationship with any real man who has his own –ish, and is about his business. You belong with the bums and tricks who ain’t about nothing because you ain’t about nothing. If your minimum requirement is that a man is good to you, yet, he doesn’t have a job or residence, then find yourself a trailer and park your car and live your life, boo! Next, you said to him that you would not be intimate on your first date, yet, you spread your legs wide and let him climb on top of you. And, you over there talkin’ ‘bout, “I gave in to his very tempting advances.” Girl, what advances? A can of beer and him saying, “You look pretty gal! Come over here and give me some sugar!” LMBAO! Then, you say that you have a lot in common and great conversation. What do you have in common? He doesn’t have a permanent home. He doesn’t have a job. Do you have a permanent residence? Do you have a job? He’s broke. You have money. You have car. He doesn’t. Again, what do you have in common? And, what great conversation? What did he say to blow your mind? Was he talking about politics, spirituality, philosophy, the state of world, bringing world peace, discussing poverty and hunger? Chile, that man was telling you what you wanted to hear. He knew you are weak, vulnerable, and desperate. He knew he could play on your low self-esteem, and that you hadn’t had any good d**k in a while, and he knew the right words to say to get what he wanted from you in two weeks. So, let’s wrap this up so others can get 2013 right and proper. He is not going to call or text, expect when he wants to hook up again. It will be in a few weeks. He’s going to have an excuse that he was busy looking for a job, or he was in the process of moving. Some lame excuse, but he will get horny again and hit you. Trust me. By the way, he is not into you. He is not feeling you, or being in a relationship. Especially not with a chick he met online, and he smashed on the first night. He thinks that’s how you get down. Even if you don’t, the fact that he smashed on the first night, he thinks you’re easy. He doesn’t want you for long-term relationship. You’re a jump-off. With that, I want you to stop meeting men off dating websites, chat lines, Facebook, Twitter, or any other social media outlet. It will not end well. If you do, then SKYPE with these men. It’s free. It’s doesn’t cost a thing. SKYPE with someone and you get to see them in real time before you meet. And, have some real and serious conversations. Ask about his employment. Ask for pay stubs from a job. Ask about his residence. Ask for a copy of his lease. Ask if he has a car. Ask to see the registration for the car in his name. Ask if he’s married. Does he have any children. How many. Is in presently in a relationship. Does he have many girlfriends. What is his take on monogamy. Hell, when was the last time he was checked for STDs, or had an HIV test. And, you want to see the results. In 2013 it’s time to do this right and do it your way. Don’t let anyone dictate to you how the relationship is going to go. You have a say in it. You’re just as much a part of what is going to happen as the other person. Have some standards and dignity about yourself. Have some respect. Have some integrity. And, please up your standards beyond those basic minimums. You looking real cheap and easy right about now. – Terrance Dean Hey Bossip Fam, what do you think? Share your opinions and thoughts below! Also, e-mail all your questions Terrance Dean : loveandrelationships@bossip.com Follow Terrance Dean on Twitter : @terrancedean “LIKE” Terrance Dean on Facebook , click HERE! Make sure to order my books Mogul: A Novel (Atria Books – June 2011; $15), and Straight From Your Gay Best Friend – The Straight Up Truth About Relationships, Love, And Having A Fabulous Life (Agate/Bolden Books – November 2010; $15). They are available in bookstores everywhere, and on Amazon, click HERE!
SMH. What’s wrong with people? According to CBS New York , authorities aren’t sure if the victim knew his attacker: New York City police said a man was shoved in front of a subway train and killed on Thursday evening. Investigators were looking for a woman who is believed to have pushed the victim, who was struck by a Queens-bound 7 Train at the 40th Street-Lowery Street station. Police told reporters Thursday night that the female suspect was seen mumbling and talking to herself before sitting down on a wooden bench by herself. Authorities said the woman waited until the train came before approaching a man from behind and pushing him. Witnesses said the victim didn’t notice the suspect, who police said was a heavyset Hispanic woman. The unidentified woman was described as wearing a blue, white, and gray ski jacket and Nike sneakers. She fled down stairs following the push, police said. The incident happened around 8 p.m. A heavy police presence remained outside the subway station where the fatality occurred as authorities continued their investigation. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority said 7 Train service was being disrupted as a result of the incident. We hope all these random acts of violence cool down soon. Images via tumblr
Ninja puh-lease ! Dr. Conrad Murray Wants To Be Released From Prison During Appeals Process According to TMZ reports : Dr. Conrad Murray wants out of the pokey immediately while he appeals his conviction … this according to court docs obtained by TMZ. Murray — who was found guilty of killing Michael Jackson — has been in jail since he was convicted 13 months ago. The Doc claims in the docs that he’s not a flight risk … partly because he has a small child who lives in L.A. Murray also says he doesn’t pose a danger to the community, and believes he was wrongly convicted. Dr. Murray has tried this before and was shut down, but he’s entitled to make his case for freedom once again. Man listen, you were convicted of killing the King of Pop. You’re probably safer in the whoscow as opposed to the street where a crazy Stan can get their hands on you. But hey, go ‘head and take your chances… R.I.P. Michael Jackson Image via WENN
The shooter killed his mother first before he ran rampant in the school. Via the Associated Press : Nancy Lanza’s body was found later at their home on Yoganda Street in Newtown – after the carnage at Sandy Hook Elementary School; after a quiet New England town was scarred forever by unthinkable tragedy; after a nation seemingly inured to violence found itself stunned by the slaughter of innocents. Nobody knows why 20-year-old Adam Lanza killed his mother, why he then took her guns to the school and murdered 20 children and six adults. But on Friday he drove his mother’s car through this 300-year-old town with its fine old churches and towering trees, and arrived at a school full of the season’s joy. Somehow, he got past a security door to a place where children should have been safe from harm. Theodore Varga and other fourth-grade teachers were meeting; the glow remained from the previous night’s fourth-grade concert. “It was a lovely day,” Varga said. “Everybody was joyful and cheerful. We were ending the week on a high note.” And then, suddenly and unfathomably, gunshots rang out. “I can’t even remember how many,” he said. The fourth-graders, the oldest kids in the school, were in specialty classes like gym and music. There was no lock on the meeting room door, so the teachers had to think about how to escape, knowing that their students were with other teachers. Someone turned the loudspeaker on, so everyone could hear what was happening in the office. “You could hear the hysteria that was going on,” Varga said. “Whoever did that saved a lot of people. Everyone in the school was listening to the terror that was transpiring.” Gathered in another room for a 9:30 meeting were principal Dawn Hochsprung and Diane Day, a school therapist, along with a school psychologist, other staff members and a parent. They were meeting to discuss a second-grader. “We were there for about five minutes chatting, and we heard Pop! Pop!, Pop!” Day told The Wall Street Journal. “I went under the table.” But Hochsprung and the psychologist leaped out of their seats and ran out of the room, Day recalled. “They didn’t think twice about confronting or seeing what was going on,” she said. Hochsprung was killed, and the psychologist was believed to have been killed as well. A custodian ran around, warning people there was a gunman, Varga said. “He said, `Guys! Get down! Hide!’” Varga said. “So he was actually a hero.” Did he survive? The teacher did not know. In a first-grade classroom, teacher Kaitlin Roig heard the shots. She immediately barricaded her 15 students into a tiny bathroom, sitting one of them on top of the toilet. She pulled a bookshelf across the door and locked it. She told the kids to be “absolutely quiet.” “I said, `There are bad guys out there now. We need to wait for the good guys,’” she told ABC News. “The kids were being so good,” she said. “They asked, `Can we go see if anyone is out there?’ `I just want Christmas. I don’t want to die, I just want to have Christmas.’ I said, `You’re going to have Christmas and Hanukkah.’” One student claimed to know karate. “It’s OK. I’ll lead the way out,” the student said. In the gym, crying fourth-graders huddled in a corner. One of them was 10-year-old Philip Makris. “He said he heard a lot of loud noises and then screaming,” said his mother, Melissa Makris. “Then the gym teachers immediately gathered the children in a corner and kept them safe.” Another girl who was in the gym recalled hearing “like, seven loud booms.” “The gym teacher told us to go in a corner, so we all huddled and I kept hearing these booming noises,” the girl, who was not identified by name, told NBC News. “We all started – well, we didn’t scream; we started crying, so all the gym teachers told us to go into the office where no one could find us.” An 8-year-old boy described how a teacher saved him. “I saw some of the bullets going past the hall that I was right next to, and then a teacher pulled me into her classroom,” said the boy, who was not identified by CBSNews.com. Robert Licata said his 6-year-old son was in class when the gunman burst in and shot the teacher. “That’s when my son grabbed a bunch of his friends and ran out the door,” he said. “He was very brave. He waited for his friends.” He said the shooter didn’t utter a word. “Then our teacher, somebody, yelled, `Get to a safe place.’ Then we went to a closet in the gym and we sat there for a little while, and then the police were, like, knocking on the door and they were, like, `We’re evacuating people, we’re evacuating people,’ so we ran out.” Children, warned to close their eyes so they could not see the product of his labors, were led away from their school. Parents rushed to the scene. Family members walked away from a firehouse that was being used as a staging area, some of them openly weeping. One man, wearing a T-shirt without a jacket, put his arms around a woman as they walked down the middle of the street, oblivious to everything around them. Gov. Dannel P. Malloy and other public officials came to the firehouse. So did clergymen like Monsignor Robert Weiss of Newtown’s St. Rose Roman Catholic Church. He watched as parents came to realize that they would never see their children alive again. “All of them were hoping their child would be found OK. But when they gave out the actual death toll, they realized their child was gone,” Weiss said. He recalled the reaction of the brother of one of the victims. “They told a little boy it was his sister who passed on,” Weiss said. “The boy’s response was, `I’m not going to have anyone to play with.” We’ll keep you updated on this developing story… Images via twitter
My Bieber Experience begins with joining the bieberfever.com fan-club. As a member we had access to the M&G contest they held! I snapped the best picture I could of all my Bieber gear and my friend Andrea did the same. We weren’t getting our hopes too high but we never lost them either. Our concert was November 21st in Detroit, Michigan and we were just planning on going and enjoying it. Andrea and I got a hotel the day before the show. I was getting my nails done for it at a shop down the street, they had to look good! While in the chair Andrea rushed over to me, showed me the ‘Congratulations!’ email she got from BieberFever telling us we’d won and inviting us to the photo Meet & Greet! I had to struggle not to scream and cry . Our dream had finally come true! We spent the rest of the night and the next day with our stomach in knots freaking out since it was hard to process. When we got to the arena they gave us the run-around bit before they finally found the envelope with Andrea’s name on it and two wristbands inside for us . We put them on and instantly freaked out, it was REAL! This was going to HAPPEN! We were in line for a bit, walking and queuing. Apparently Justin was a little late or something. I ain’t mad at him though. We organized our group going in and we were the last two in ours, but I was crazy excited anyway. Being in the same room and photo with Justin was gonna be incredible however it went down. Once the line began moving our nerves hit us big time! As we kept going down the steps to the room, people came out of the doorway shaking and breathing hard, freaking out. I knew they’d just gone in to meet him and my stomach was starting to turn. I kept trying to sneak glances over and between people. When I laid eyes on him, my breath hitched for a minute, he was beautiful . We were still moving unbelievably fast. We were in the room for our picture before I knew it. I couldn’t even process who was where, all I heard was a countdown so I smiled and the picture was snapped! I think everyone else left the room because before I knew it, I was right in front of him! I heard him say, “Thank you” to us before we were walking out to leave and I’m not sure anyone else heard him but his voice was so velvety. I couldn’t believe I was hearing it so close. I knew we had to get outta there quick, so as I walked by him I just opened up my arms and he hugged me! That five second hug made my life. He was so soft, yet strong at the same time. I didn’t get to take in his scent though, I couldn’t focus right. Andrea went in for a hug too but security were hella rude and dragged her off of him. But Justin grabbed her hand and squeezed it before she got pulled away. It was overall an incredible experience and everything I dreamed it would be. The best 15 seconds of my entire life happened at The Palace of Auburn Hills. Don’t ever give up on your dreams. If you want it bad enough, KEEP TRYING. Justin is waiting to meet you one day too. -Lauren G. Read more: My Bieber Experience begins with joining the bieberfever.com…
