Page 20 - 6-16-15 Tuesday's Edition

National
Parents Go Viral With Ugly Hair Cut Videos Shaming Kids
(haircut)
NEW YORK – Russell
Fredrick's middle son was 12 when he wouldn't quit playing around in class and ignoring his homework, so the barber did what he does best. He picked up his clippers and cut off his son's fade.
But it wasn't just any cut. It was a complete shave intended as a form of discipline when other tactics like taking away gadgets failed to work.
"After I shaved him bald, I told him that if things contin- ued I would get more creative with each cut," said Fredrick, co-owner of A-1 Kutz in Snel- lville, Georgia. "But I never had to because he straightened up his act."
Fredrick and his son — one of three — are success stories in a social media trend: parents taking electric razors to the heads of their misbehaving tweens and teens to create ugly cuts as a form of punishment, then publicly posting the hand- iwork on YouTube, Facebook and elsewhere.
After Fredrick put a photo on Instagram of his son's shave late last year, parents began to approach him for embarrass- ing, old-man cuts dubbed Ben- jamin Button specials or the George Jefferson, named for their baldness up top and fringe left on the sides and around the base like the movie and TV characters they're named for.
He's done more than 20 since February, free of charge.
"Whenever people come in and ask for it we do it," said the 35-year-old Russell. "You've got to reach these kids before law enforcement has to do the punishing."
The spate of ugly-cut videos over the last six months or so has lit up debate over public shaming as discipline and fits into a broader trend of parents using social media video to hu- miliate their kids online, from yelling and screaming to smashing their computers or phones for infractions like bad grades or breaking curfew — to outright corporal punishment.
Chicago psychologist Clau- dia Shields, who has helped parents find healthy ways of disciplining their children based on behavioral research, is far from convinced that public shaming works.
San Antonio Elects
High School Senior Accepted
Its First Black Mayor
To 26 Universities, Offered
$3 Million In Scholarships
How did a Brooklyn-born city planner who has never run for partisan office beat a nearly lifelong San Antonio Democrat in the race for the top job in the liberal-leaning Alamo City?
On Sunday, the day after Ivy Taylor narrowly defeated for- mer state Sen. Leticia Van de Putte for a full term as mayor of San Antonio, an- swers to that question varied dramatically.
Taylor's side, meanwhile, was basking in the glow of a hard-fought victory it consid- ers representative of a sea change in city politics.
To be clear, Taylor — the interim mayor and former councilwoman — was never seen as a long shot.
Taylor's strength, mean- while, was expected to come from a Republican-leaning coalition of voters looking to move the city further away
It's no secret that getting into college is growing more com- petitive and the cost for a col- lege education is high.
But one graduating senior in Chicago doesn’t have to stress about it.
Arianna Alexander was ac- cepted into 26 colleges – in- cluding six Ivy League universities – and was awarded a combined total of more than $3 million in scholarships, ABC’s Chicago station WLS re- ported.
Arianna graduated as vale- dictorian of her class at Ken- wood Academy High School in Chicago, Illinois, and earned a 5.1 grade point average on a 4.0 scale.
"Itwasalottotakein.Ire- ceived emails, letters. It was just like, ‘Come here, come here!’ They were bombarding me with all this information,” Arianna told WLS.
Among all the acceptances were scholarship offers that mean Arianna can afford col- lege and not worry about the cost.
Arianna was inspired to aim high with encouragement from her parents and seeing a previ- ous Kenwood student awarded with about $1 million in schol- arships.
“I planted the seed in Ari- anna’s mind that you can do the same thing,” her father Pierre Alexander told WLS.
“So when the process got
ARIANNA ALEXANDER
started and a million was achieved, let’s go for two. I said let’s go for three and she did it,” he added.
Ultimately, Arianna sorted through her dozens of options and made the decision to at- tend the University of Pennsyl- vania this fall, thanks to the advice from one of her teach- ers, Paul Brush, WLS re- ported.
“He said, ‘Do you know about the Wharton School of Busi- ness? ‘I said, 'I have no idea what you’re talking about,’” she told WLS.
The Gates Scholarship recipi- ent plans to become an entre- preneur and told WLS she’s already starting the ground- work on the menus for the four restaurants she plans to own.
The Alexander family and Kenwood Academy did not im- mediately respond to ABC News’ request
IVY TAYLOR
from the era of her predeces- sor, Julián Castro, (now the Secretary of HUD), a period marked by an activist city gov- ernment and bright national spotlight.
The outcome was also his- toric: Taylor became the first Black person elected mayor in a city that is majority-His- panic. Van de Putte would have been the first Hispanic woman to win the job.
Controversy Surrounding NAACP Prexy Who Claims She’s Black Has Some Puzzled
Vigil Held For Young Suicide Victim Who Was Locked Up With No Charges For 1,000 Days
Flowers over a picture of Kalief Browder on the steps of the Manhattan Detention Center on Thursday June 11, 2015. Brow- der committed suicide this week after spending three years in jail without being convicted of a crime.
On Sunday, Spokane NAACP
President Rachel Dolezal
announced she was postponing a Monday meeting expected to include her first public state- ment regarding accusations she lied about her race.
“Due to the need to continue discussion with regional and national NAACP leaders, to- morrow’s meeting is postponed and will be rescheduled for a later date,” said Dolezal in a message to Spokane NAACP members. “We appreciate your patience and understanding at this time.”
Dolezal previously told members that she and the chapter’s executive committee would release statements ad- dressing the controversy at the meeting.
Shortly after Dolezal’s an- nouncement on Sunday, board member Lawrence Burnley wrote a response challenging her authority to delay the meet- ing:
I ’m puzzled by your decision to arbitrarily cancel/postpone the meeting without input from the executive committee which is scheduled to meet today. The Association’s by-laws provides specific guidelines concerning monthly general/branch meet- ings.
Burnley also objected to Dolezal attributing the an- nouncement to “Spokane NAACP Chapter.’’ According to The Spokesman-Review, chapter members currently planned to hold the meeting as scheduled.
Racheal Dolezal lied about being African American.
Ezra Dolezal says he didn't know how to respond the day his adopted sister took him aside and asked him "not to blow her cover" about having a Black father.
On that day three years ago, he said, Rachel Dolezal, 37, told him she was starting life anew in Spokane, Washington, where she's now head of the local chapter of the NAACP and chairwoman of a police over- sight committee.
Ezra Dolezal, 22, came to visit her from Montana, where their parents live. His adopted sister was on her way to be- coming one of the most promi- nent faces in Spokane's Black community.
Dolezal's race has come under question after her es- tranged mother claimed she is white but is "being dishonest and deceptive with her iden- tity."
Dolezal has identified her- self as at least partly African- American, but her Montana birth certificate states she was born to two parents who say they are Caucasian.
NEW YORK -- A vigil Thurs- day evening for Kalief Brow- der -- the young Bronx man who died by suicide this week after spending his teenage years in jail without a trial -- started with a prayer.
"We’re here for one reason
and one reason only," Rev. Jackie Lewis told a crowd of about 100 people from the steps the Manhattan Detention Complex. "We’re here to grieve. We’re here to grieve the loss of a particular life, Kalief Brow- der, who began to die the day he was arrested at 16, and in- carcerated and held for 1,000 days without due process."
Browder was 16 years old in 2010 when he was sent to New York's notorious Rikers Island jail for allegedly stealing a backpack. Browder always maintained his innocence. He was unable to make bail, and the Bronx district attorney’s of- fice repeatedly delayed his trial. Browder spent three birth- days at the facility. The charges against him were ultimately dismissed.
During his time on Rikers,
Browder spent an accumu- lated two years in solitary con- finement. For the other year he was there, he faced horrible vi- olence at the hands of guards and fellow inmates. Browder attempted suicide multiple times during his incarceration.
Upon his release, Browder struggled with mental health problems that his lawyer claims were caused by his time in jail. And last Saturday, after nearly two years of struggling to cope in the outside world, Browder killed himself. He was 22.
Mourners laid flowers and photos of Kalief on the steps of the Manhattan jail complex, as officers from the Depart- ment of Corrections looked on. The vigil was organized by the advocacy group Gathering for Justice, which is against the in- carceration of minors.
Currently the group is wag- ing a campaign to raise the age of criminal responsibility in New York, which is one of two states in the country that pros- ecutes 16- and 17-year-olds as adults.
PAGE 20 FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY TUESDAY, JUNE 16, 2015