Page 8 - IAV Digital Magazine #510

iAV - Antelope Valley Digital Magazine
School Asks Parents To Stop Throwing Late Students Over Closed Gate
By Ben Hooper
Nov. 13 (UPI) -
- An elementary school in France putupapairof posters outside their fence with an unusual request for par- ents: Don't throw late students over the closed gate.
The Trillade school in Avignon put up signs outside its
gate showing a cartoon of a par- ent sending a small child air- borne to get over the fence. The text on the sign asks parents not to throw their children, and instead wait for the gates to be opened again at 10 a.m. or 3 p.m.
Principal Sanaa Meziane told La Provence that parents "literally
threw their chil- dren" over the gate when they arrived to find it closed.
Meziane said there were only a few scattered incidents, and no reported injuries, but there were enough tossed children to inspire school officials to take action and post the warnings as a "reminder."
Robot Wolves Protecting Japanese Town From Bears
By Ben Hooper
Nov. 12 (UPI) -- A Japanese town is protecting itself from wandering bears with a pair of unusual guardians: motion-detecting robot wolves.
Officials in Takikawa, on the island of Hokkaido,
said concern about an increase of bear incursions into residential neigh- borhoods this year led to their purchasing two Monster Wolves, robotic guard canines created by machinery firm
Ohta Seiki in partnership with a local university.
The Monster Wolves, which are made of metal and cov- ered in fake fur to make them appear real to other animals, are outfitted with motion
detectors that cause them to activate. The wolves then flash red lights in their eyes, move their heads back and forth and emit a series of howling and screeching noises.
"We want to let the bears know,
'human settle- ments aren't where you live,' and help with the coexistence of bears and peo- ple," Yuji Ota, head of Ohta Seiki,
told Japanese newspaper The Mainichi.
City officials said the wolves have thus far been effective in pre- venting bears from entering the town.
Wolves once lived in the wild in Japan, but went extinct in the country during the early 20th century.