When a toddler let himself out of his house, unbeknownst to his family, he was hit by a truck and died.

So sad….

A toddler who left his house without his parents’ knowledge was hit and killed by a pick-up truck in southeast Houston Saturday afternoon .

Alejandro Perez, who was 18 months old, got out of his house in the 700 block of Gober around 1:30 p.m. and crossed the street, authorities said.

Sarah Green, an English teacher at Stockport Grammar School in England was suspended last January when a “raunchy” video she made wound up on YouTube. But it wasn’t some illicit sex tape, but rather a risque promotional film for a corporate client:

The clip was a promotional video for a construction-wear company and was never shown on television but was distributed round building firms.

It was shot two years before Miss Green joined the school and governors decided there was no reason to take disciplinary action.

But they are worried that the scandal may affect how she is treated when she returns to work, and a meeting has been set up with the school’s headmaster, Andrew Chicken. Dozens of comments from pupils were left on the video-sharing website.

A statement released by the school read: “In accordance with Stockport Grammar School’s disciplinary procedures, the circumstances of Sarah Green’s appearance in a promotional film before she became a teacher have now been fully investigated by a panel of governors.

Eh, it’s incredibly tacky but we don’t see what the big deal is. Green appears for mere seconds and there is no graphic nudity. The offending video is below (definitely NSFW). What would you think if your kid’s teacher turned up in something like this?

We’ve grown rather resentful of the whole “teaching towards the test” mentality ourselves in recent years, so we certainly understand a Seattle teacher’s frustration when he refused to administer the Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL) to his students, and he made an admirable stand. But unfortunately, rules are rules and now he’s suffering the consequences.

[Science teacher Carl Chew] said he spent some of the first few days of WASL testing working at district’s Science Materials Center, preparing student science kits.

He then was suspended without pay from today through May 2.

“He failed to follow his duties as teacher,” said Seattle Public Schools Spokeswoman Patti Spencer.

The district, she said, expects its teachers to fulfill all their responsibilities, which include giving state-mandated exams such as the WASL.

The district, she added, understands that there are debates over standardized tests such as the WASL, but sees value in the WASL as one way to reflect on what students are learning, and how instruction might need to change for an individual, a school or the district as a whole.

Texas state authorities are going to begin DNA tests on the children rescued from the Warren Jeff’s polygamist sect a few weeks ago, in order to determine who their mothers are, and more importantly, to then determine if those women were underage when they gave birth.

“It is a cheek swab and it is very non-invasive,” said Patrick Crimmins of the Texas Department of Children and Family Services of the tests.

A judge on Friday ordered the tests to determine parentage and relationships within the community. Meanwhile, the children must remain in the department’s custody.

Crimmins said the DNA testing will continue for several days. For the tests to be useful, the adults would also have to give DNA samples. However they can legally refuse to do so which could complicate matters further and delay legal decisions about the fate of the children.

Apparently forcing children into servitude is big business in Senegal, Africa. One school actually forces their children to beg in the streets for hours and hours each day. If they don’t bring in enough money, they are beaten. Count your blessings for what you have, folks.

Most of the boys — 90 percent, the study found — are sent out to beg under the cover of Islam, placing the problem at the complicated intersection of greed and tradition. For among the cruelest facts of Coli’s life is that he was not stolen from his family. He was brought to Dakar with their blessing to learn Islam’s holy book.

In the name of religion, Coli spent two hours a day memorizing verses from the Quran and over nine hours begging to pad the pockets of the man he called his teacher.

It was getting dark. Coli had less than half the 72 cents he was told to bring back. He was afraid. He knew what happened to children who failed to meet their daily quotas.

They were stripped and doused in cold water. The older boys picked them up like hammocks by their ankles and wrists. Then the teacher whipped them with an electrical cord until the cord ate their skin.

Man, this kid can’t catch a break. We wish her the best, and a speedy recovery.

Emily Miller was diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia in 2002, overcame it in 2005 and was in remission until April of last year when she was diagnosed with T-cell lymphoma.

She was excited to finish chemotherapy this August.

But after recent routine labs, doctors told the family that Emily has acute myeloid leukemia. It’s a cancer that starts inside bone marrow and develops quickly.

Her father Cory Miller says Emily told him she didn’t want to die. She says she has about 10 fights left in her.

Brianna Jeffries, a 4-year-old with a “rare cancerlike condition”, is amongst the thousands of people in Illinois alone that is waiting for an organ transplant. She’s been hoping to receive a liver transplant for 6 months now, and without one her health is likely to continue to deteriorate. That’s why we here at MT urge people and their families to become organ donors — someday you might be able to save a life like Brianna’s, and provide a “miracle”.

Brianna has a rare cancerlike condition that ultimately destroyed the bile ducts in her liver. Without them, Brianna’s liver can’t absorb fat from the food she eats, leaving her chronically malnourished.

A liver transplant would allow her to grow to a normal height and weight. But Brianna can’t get one until complications from her illness — Langerhans cell histiocytosis — can be brought under control.

As sick as she is, it’s hard to see Brianna as anything other than a lively preschooler who likes “Dora the Explorer,” drawing pictures and singing “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” to all who will listen.

“She’s definitely the life of the floor,” Brianna’s mom, Veronica Jeffries, said while watching her daughter chat with nurses at the University of Chicago’s Comer Children’s Hospital.

Minor Topics HQ sits along a river, and we’re ultra-paranoid whenever our children go anywhere near it. Stories like this doesn’t help. Poor kid.

Divers have recovered the body of a 12-year-old boy who fell into the Saco River and was swept away by the current.
more stories like this

The Maine Marine Patrol said the body of Raymond Rivera of Saco was found Sunday 14 feet below the surface, trapped in debris that had accumulated on a sandbar.