Articles labeled: South Carolina

We can’t believe this is the second type of this story in so many days. Sometimes the world really sucks.

A 14-year-old South Carolina boy accused of raping and killing an 8-year-old girl is due in court.

Master Deputy Mike Hildebrand says a hearing is scheduled in Family Court in Greenville at noon Thursday.

Dymia Janae Woody was reported missing Monday evening. Deputies found her body early Tuesday in a nearby mobile home that had no electricity. An autopsy showed she died of asphyxia after being sexually assaulted.

We seem to recall a similar story last graduation season. Sheesh, it’s supposed to be a celebration of accomplishment, not a funeral.

When school officials in Rock Hill, South Carolina, tell graduation ceremony crowds to hold their applause until the end, they mean it — Police arrested seven people after they were accused of loud cheering during the ceremonies.

Six people at Fort Mill High School’s graduation were charged Saturday and a seventh at the graduation for York Comprehensive High School was charged Friday with disorderly conduct, authorities said. Police said the seven yelled after students’ names were called.

“I just thought they were going to escort me out,” Jonathan Orr told The Herald of Rock Hill. “I had no idea they were going to put handcuffs on me and take me to jail.”

Orr, 21, spent two hours in jail after he was arrested when he yelled for his cousin at York’s commencement at the Winthrop University Coliseum.

Rock Hill police began patrolling commencements several years ago at the request of school districts who complained of increasing disruption. Those attending graduations are told they can be prosecuted for bad behavior and letters are sent home with students, said Rock Hill police spokesman Lt. Jerry Waldrop.

We would say a story like this falls firmly on the plus side for those who argue against allowing people to carry concealed weapons.

A 4-year-old girl shot herself in the chest this morning after taking a small-caliber handgun from her grandmother’s purse at a Sam’s Club in Columbia, S.C.

The child, who was not identified, was rushed to a hospital and underwent surgery. Doctors said this afternoon the bullet caused “no major damage,” the The State newspaper reports.

The girl’s grandmother was identified as Donna Hutto Williamson, 47. She has a permit to carry a concealed weapon. No charges were filed.

A 10 year old boy experienced a very rare and tragic death when, hours after he had gone swimming, he drowned from an occurance called “dry drowning”. Apparently, the lungs fill up with water at some point and slowly causes a lack of oxygen. Tiredness, behavior changes and difficulty breathing.

On Sunday, Jackson had taken her son, Johnny, to a pool near their home in Goose Creek, S.C. It was the first time he’d ever gone swimming — and, tragically, it would be his last.

At some point during his swim, Johnny got some water in his lungs. He didn’t show any immediate signs of respiratory distress, but the boy had an accident in the pool and soiled himself. Still, Johnny, his sister and their mother walked home together.

“We physically walked home. He walked with me,” Jackson said, still trying to understand how her son could have died. “I bathed him, and he told me that he was sleepy.”

How devastating. A 2-year-old boy hiking with his parents slipped under a railing on the slide of a trail and fell to his death.

Through an interpreter, the boy’s mother told police she was holding her child’s hand while walking between him and the rail overlooking the cliff when he suddenly pulled away from her, said Charlie Peek, spokesman for the N.C. Division of Parks and Recreation, which manages the park.

The boy ran, then slipped under the rail of the boardwalk along the Skyline Trail and fell more than 100 feet to the Cliff Trail below, Peek said.

Park officials don’t recommend those trails for families with small children because of the cliffs, a caution that is spelled out on trail maps given to visitors. But many families still take children on the trail.

An 18 year old teenager, shot and killed his entire family. The most heartbreaking was the report that his 14 year old brother tried to hide behind a clothes dryer, but was eventually found by the gun toting murderer and subsequently shot and killed.

What a jerk.

EASLEY, S.C. (AP) — An 18-year-old man gunned down his father, stepmother and two siblings at the home they shared in suburban South Carolina, authorities said Saturday.

Nathaniel Dickson, 18, was arrested 8:30 p.m. Saturday at a home in Belton about 20 miles from where the bodies of his family members were found, Anderson County Sheriff’s spokeswoman Susann Griffin said. He was charged with four counts of murder.

Less than 12 hours earlier, a 911 call led paramedics to find the father dead in the yard. Inside the home they found the other three victims, all shot to death.

Well this is a new one — while we’ve covered stories before about teachers being attacked, it’s usually by one of their students, not another teacher:

Eighth grade teachers Tawana Horton, 30, and Cambrella Pinckney, 28, bumped into each other during a hallway class change Friday afternoon at St. Andrews Middle School and began fighting, according to a report by the Richland County sheriff’s department.

The two teachers told an officer that they had an ongoing personal dispute, the report said.

The teachers were charged with disturbing schools and have been placed on administrative leave, deputies said.

“This occurred with students on the scene and they witnessed what happened,” Richland School District 1 spokeswoman Karen York. “Teachers are looked at as role models. That doesn’t set a good example.”

Oh, really? You think teachers punching each other in the school hall sends a bad message to the kids? We’re guessing the two might soon find themselves “ex-eighth grade teachers”.

A school bus carrying 32 kindergarten students and 9 adults was headed to Charleston for a field trip collided with an SUV in Dorchester County, South Carolina. Again, not helping with our school bus phobia, guys!

A highway patrol spokesman says a Chevy Blazer traveling westbound on Highway 78 crossed the center line, sideswiped a car and then hit the bus head on.

Dorchester County Sheriff’s Sergeant Mike Miller told The Post and Courier that the driver of the county-owned SUV was airlifted to the Medical University of South Carolina and was in serious condition.

Miller said the county vehicle crossed the center line on US Highway 78 shortly after 9am and hit the bus.

There were 32 kindergarten students from Harleyville-Ridgeville Elementary and nine adults on the bus.

The children were all taken to Summerville Medical Center with bumps and bruises.

What’s with all the horny female teachers lately? A former teacher in South Carolina has been sentenced to six years in prison for having sex with her students. A forensic psychiatrist says the woman is not a pedophile, but “rather a childlike victim suffering from personality disorders and a repressed childhood.” Could you imagine trying to float that excuse out there if the teacher was male? There would be cries for public hangings.

Authorities said Allenna Ward, 24, met 14- and 15-year-old boys at the school where she taught as well as at a motel, a park and behind a restaurant.

“I apologize from the depths of my heart,” Ward said in court.

Police began investigating last year after school officials found a note believed to have been written by Ward to one of the boys. Some of the victims were students at Bell Street Middle School in Clinton, where Ward taught. She was fired about a year ago.

Ward pleaded guilty in September to three counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct with a minor and three lewd acts on a minor.

Well, they were really good chips:

Dillon County deputies say an argument between a brother and a sister over a bag of potato chips led to a shooting.

WBTW-TV reports that the incident happened Tuesday night. According to deputies, a 10-year-old boy shot his nine-year-old sister in the face with a shotgun.

Investigators say the two were arguing over the chips. Authorities say at some point, the boy left the room, got a shotgun out of his father’s room, and shot the girl in the face.

I will never understand why a mother would hurt her child, let alone, murder their little boy.

COLUMBIA, S.C. - The young mother called police with a story out of any parent‘s nightmares. Amanda Reagan Smith says a knife-wielding carjacker forced her to drive to a secluded, wooded area in Greenville, S.C. Once there, he pushed her out, locked the car doors and pressed a pillow to the face of her 7-year-old son.

Now, more than a month after the Aug. 12 killing, the case remains unsolved. And the worry that once filled Greenville has sharpened into questions about his mother‘s account. The case has also revived vivid memories of another mother named Smith — Susan Smith — who told a similar tale.

Justice served…

BEAUFORT, S.C. — A man who pleaded guilty to kidnapping a 14-year-old girl and raping her for more than a week in an underground bunker was sentenced Wednesday to the maximum 421 years in prison.

“I have a strong belief you have forfeited your right to be a member of this society,” Judge G. Thomas Cooper said before handing down the sentence. “I can think of no crimes short of murder more repulsive than these.”