Archive for the ‘Newsworthy’ Category

Jaycee Dugard releases statement on Ohio women: “Give them time to heal”

Tuesday, May 7, 2013 by:moms@sfgate.com (Amy Graff)
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Today, Jaycee Dugard released a statement to People magazine about the three Ohio women and one child who were rescued this week from captivity in Ohio.

“These individuals need the opportunity to heal and connect back into the world. This isn’t who they are. It is only what happened to them,” Dugard told People.

She added: “The human spirit is incredibly resilient. More then ever this reaffirms we should never give up hope.”

If anyone can understand the horror these three women and one child endured it’s Dugard. The California woman was kidnapped at age 11 while walking to a school bus stop in South Lake Tahoe. She was held captive by sex offender Philip Garrido and his wife, Nancy Garrido, for 18 years. “I hated every second of every day for 18 years,” Dugard said in a statement read in court.

Dugard is now committed to supporting the JAYC Foundation, an organization committed to helping families get treatment following an abduction or other traumatic event. Below is a PSA she created for JAYC.

Powerful image of Martin Richard surfaces on Facebook

Tuesday, April 16, 2013 by:moms@sfgate.com (Amy Graff)
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Martin-Richard
A heart-wrenching image of the third-grader who died Monday while watching the Boston Marathon surfaced on Facebook this morning.

Eight-year-old Martin Richard stands holding a hand-written sign reading “No more hurting people. Peace.”

In light of yesterday’s tragic bombings, the message Martin wrote for a project in class now carries new meaning and an important and powerful message. And many Facebook users are saying that his simple words best express the sentiment that people across America are feeling today.

Martin’s former teacher, Rachel Moo, took the photo last year in her second grade classroom at the Neighborhood House Charter School in Dorchester, Mass. Ms. Moo is an advocate for world peace and “she taught that message to her students by participating in marches and assigning art projects,” according to the Huffington Post. In the image, Martin holds up his work for one of those projects.

Ms. Moo’s friend, Lucia Brawley, posted the image on Facebook on the morning of April 16 with the message:

His message resonates powerfully today. My prayer is that we all live by Martin’s words, paying tribute to his too-brief, but immeasurably valuable life by following his example.

The photo has received over 93,000 likes and has been shared over 58,000 times.

One user’s comments reads:

There are no words that can express the sentiment that I’m feeling better than the poster in that sweet boy’s hands.

Bearded mom embraces her facial hair

Wednesday, April 10, 2013 by:moms@sfgate.com (Amy Graff)
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“My beard is sexy,” Mariam says. (This Morning / ITV)

Twenty eight years after developing facial hair, a 49-year-old mother decided to toss the tweezers and let her whiskers grow. The German-born woman who goes by Mariam appeared on the UK’s This Morning show today to show off her goatee and mustache and let the world know that a bearded woman can feel beautiful and confident.

Mariam started sprouting hair on her face after the birth of her son and she spent years plucking and tweezing her chin until the skin was red and raw. Before leaving the house every morning, she was faced with removing all the little hairs that would pop up over night.

She tried electrolysis three times but the hairs just kept coming back. Mariam also met with doctors who conducted tests determine if the hair growth was related to a medical problem, but nothing was found. She never waxed or shaved because she feared the hair would grow back thicker.

In 2008, while living at home alone and being unemployed, Mariam decided to give her laborious plucking routine a break and let the beard grow.

“I had no job so I had free time to give it a chance and see what happened, so I started a blog to inform other women about it, and to see what was happening every day and how I felt,” she said on This Morning.

Mariam found that she felt liberated and she grew comfortable with her facial hair.

With a full-blown natural beard, Mariam told the This Morning hosts, Holly Willoughby and Philip Schofield, “I’ve never felt sexier.”

But while Mariam has learned to embrace her appearance, she says many people, from her own mother to complete strangers, are critical.

“My mum said, ‘Do you have to shock people like this?’ Then she got used to it and thought that one day I’d finish it, and was patient, but now she’s getting nervous and wants me to stop and become ‘normal.’”

Readers of her blog have said terrible things like, “You should be sent to Russia…or shot.”

Despite the criticism and odd looks she receives at the grocery story, Mariam plans to keep her scruff and has found a job as a “Bearded Lady” in a traveling circus.

“I want to give people the opportunity to talk to a bearded lady, because usually they are too scared in the street,” she said on This Morning.

Chinese birth tourism booms in Southern California

Friday, March 15, 2013 by:moms@sfgate.com (Amy Graff)
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Any child born on U.S. soil  is granted citizenship. Hundreds of expecting moms from Mexico have been crossing the border into Arizona to deliver their babies for years as a result. Now, a growing number of pregnant Chinese women are flying to the U.S. to secure their child that prized U.S. birth certificate, and Southern California has become a hot bed of what’s called “birth tourism.”

The Santa Anita Inn in Arcadia, Calif., is operating as what some are calling a “baby factory.” (KTLA)

This week KTLA-TV reported on a motel in Arcadia where expectant women from China are checking in to give birth. Every three to four months a new group arrives. The hotel provides guests with a full-time nursing staff, meals and a nursery. The women are typically wealthy and pay a China-based agency about $25K in fees for travel, medical, visa and other related expenses.

After giving birth and receiving their newborn’s U.S. birth certificates and passports, the women and their babies fly back to China. As U.S. citizens the children can return when they’re older to attend school and take advantage of other benefits that go along with citizenship. Some women are also making the trip as a way to get around China’s one-child policy because the restriction doesn’t apply to those who deliver out of the country.

While hotel employees are denying that they’re running a “baby factory,” Arcadia Asst. City Manager Jason Kruckeberg told KTLA that the city is aware of the hotel’s underground operation. Even though some locals disapprove of the situation, Kruckeberg says the city has no power to stop it because nothing illegal is happening. Equipped with tourism or business visas, these women aren’t violating federal immigration laws.

Last month, the media covered a similar situation in Chino Hills where a residential home was transformed into a maternity hotel for women traveling from China. Some neighbors were so outraged by the the activity generated by the operation that they picketed outside the home.

Chino Hills resident Rossana Mitchell told CBS: “When people think of the American dream, they’re not thinking about birth tourism. They’re thinking about people who come here, immigrate here, work hard, pay their taxes, become citizens and become Americans.”

Authorities eventually shuttered the maternity hotel due to zoning issues, according to NBC.

The United States is one of many countries in the world where a child automatically receives citizenship at birth. “The U.S. law dates back to the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, ratified after the Civil War to ensure that all freed slaves and their children would be American citizens,” according to NBC.

Some lawmakers want to see an end to the practice. Representative Phil Gingrey (R-Ga) thinks the 14th Amendment should be reinterpreted so only children with at least one American parent receive citizenship. Earlier this year he introduced a legislation aimed at ending birth tourism.

But just how big is the birth tourism problem and is a new law really necessary?

NBC reports:

The most recent statistics from the National Center for Health Statistics show that births of babies on American soil to foreign mothers increased from 5,009 births in 2000 to 7,462 births in 2008.  This is a tiny percentage of the more than four million babies born in America each year.  There is no tracking system in place to record which countries the mothers are from or why they are in the United States.

Angela Kelley, the vice president of immigration policy and advocacy for the Center for American Progress, isn’t convinced that the birth tourism issue is big enough to warrant a reinterpretation of the Constitution.

“I don’t see this type of legislation having any traction, or being taken seriously,” Kelley told NBC. “I think something as really fundamental and integral to this nation’s character: that you’re born here, you belong here, that we’re not a country club that you apply to– that would be met with enormous resistance from all sorts of quarters…from left and from the right.”

How do you think our country should deal with birth tourism?

Did the mom who had the Peruvian government track down her son go too far?

Monday, March 4, 2013 by:moms@sfgate.com (Amy Graff)
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Garrett Hand and Jamie Neal were supposedly missing in Peru. (Courtesy)

If your son were biking around Peru with his girlfriend and keeping family updated on his adventures through social media and then suddenly stopped posting on Facebook, what would you do?

Would you contact Peruvian authorities and ask the government to search for your beloved son?

Francine Fitzgerald of Concord, Calif., did just that and now the world is laughing at her because it turns out that her son, Garrett Hand, and his girlfriend, Jamie Neal, were never really missing.

The couple from Oakland  changed up their itinerary and decided to hop on a boat and travel through the Amazon where they didn’t have a cell or Internet connection.

Over at Gawker a blog post covering the story ran with the headline: “World’s most embarrassing mom makes Peruvian government hunt down her son when he stops posting on Facebook.”

The story mocks the fact that our culture has become so dependent on Facebook that we assume something is catastrophically wrong when a regular user suddenly stops posting. We’ve all become used to having constant contact with our friends and family, through text messages, tweets, wall posts. When a friend who sends you daily texts doesn’t send a message, you worry: Is she mad at me? Was she in a car accident? Is she missing? The Gawker story also implies that Fitzgerald was the ultimate helicopter mom by contacting Peruvian authorities—but was she really overprotective?

If you were in this mother’s shoes what would you have done? You haven’t heard from your son in a month. He’s in some far-flung country. He’s not answering your phone calls, your emails, your tweets. Would you jump to the conclusion that he’s missing?

***

Hand and Neal, both 25, were touring Peru on their bicycles, planning to ride the 350-mile stretch between Cuzco and Lima.

The couple from Oakland was regularly posting photos from their journey on Facebook and family and friends were closely following along. Then, in late January their walls went dead silent. They stopped making calls back home.

Hand’s mom was concerned and contacted Peruvian authorities, and after a month without a word from her son she demanded a full-blown search. The country issued a nationwide alert.

International news media picked up the story, running images of the “missing” couple, who look like your typical happy-go-lucky backpackers. Days later headlines reported that the pair was never missing and simply went off the grid.

The U.S. Embassy contacted Fitzgerald to let her know her son and girlfriend were spotted on a boat on a remote jungle river.

The Peruvian tourism bureau issued a statement:

These two young people have fallen in love with Peru. They have visited off-the-beaten-path places and it seems like they’re having a blast — so much so that they have forgotten to communicate with their families.

Fitgerald wasn’t convinced and demanded photos of her son. According to Gawker, “The tourism ministry made plans to send in a hydroplane the next day to shoot video of them.”

The authorities got more than video footage. They transported the couple to a military base, housed and fed them, and gave them an online connection. After a month, Hand and Neal hopped back on Facebook to tell family and friends that they are alive and well.

Neal wrote that the amount of attention she and Hand received was insane and added “I may delete my Facebook when I get home.”

The mom issued a statement:

I am so happy today that my son is well. Now our family will have to process all of this, and I think this will take some time. I can’t wait to see Garrett and Jamie walking off the plane and into my arms.

Can we judge this mom for worrying about her son?

It’s a terrible shame the Peruvian authorities wasted time and money looking for people who weren’t even missing and that family and friends and the entire world were led to worry over this couple who was simply exploring the depths of the Amazon.  But I can’t judge, as I’m a mother of young kids and don’t have the experience parenting a 20-something. I hope that by the time my kids turn 18 I’m able to let go and give them the independence they need to explore the world on their own—without reporting back to me on a daily basis through social media. I certainly don’t want to be one of those moms who demands that her college kid call home every day. Kids need freedom to grow, fail, learn, discover, succeed.

But I also know the terrifying feeling when you think your child is missing. When my son was 3 years old, I took my eyes off him for two seconds while shopping at Target and he wandered off. He was “lost” for what seemed like an eternity though it was probably only 5 minutes. I quickly recruited everyone in line at a dressing room to look for him and notified a Target employee. I cried out his name, tears streaming down my face, until I found him underneath the rack where I was looking at clothes. The concern around losing a child is intense and overwhelming and I think that fear can probably be ignited easily whether your child is 3 or 25. If my son were traveling around Peru, sending me emails daily, and then suddenly the communication stopped, I’d probably be concerned too.

Girl takes sticks from Yosemite National Park, returns them with a cute note

Thursday, February 28, 2013 by:moms@sfgate.com (Amy Graff)
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When a little girl named Evie visited Yosemite National Park, she accidentally went home with two sticks in her pockets.

Evie was dismayed by her discovery. During her visit, she went through the Junior Park Ranger Program and learned that visitors shouldn’t take pieces of nature home with them.

Evie decided the twigs must return to their birthplace so she put them in an envelope along with the adorable note below and sent the package off to Yosemite National Park.

Yosemite National Park Evie Note Sticks Reddit

A Yosemite park ranger was touched by the letter and on February 27, 2013, he posted it on Reddit under the username Best Matt Ever with the message:

I am a ranger in Yosemite National Park and receive many letters from visitors. This is my favorite.

The posting received over 3500 comments from people who appreciated Evie’s warm and fuzzy note and who encouraged Best Matt Ever to respond to the girl.

Some users had a little fun coming up with snarky mock letters that Yosemite could have sent to Evie in return.

Dear Evie,

We really appreciate you doing the right thing and sending these sticks back. That being said, what you did was still wrong.

It would be easier on all parties involved if you would continue to do the right thing and turn yourself in to the authorities. If you fail to do so within 48 hours we will be forced to come down on you with the full power of the National Park Rangers.

Don’t think that your status as a Junior Ranger will grant you any leniency. Make no mistake – we will find you and you will pay for your crimes.

Sincerely,

Sincerely, Best Matt Ever

And here’s another one for those who appreciate dry humor:

Dear Evie,

Returning the sticks was the right thing to do. Unfortunately, at this point the sticks have been away for too long, and have become too domesticated to survive in the wild. They have lost their ability to be in nature. They unfortunately must be put down because of this, euthanized. Despite what your parents may have told you, animals and sticks don’t get sent to farms to play with other animals and sticks. They are brutally murdered and buried in mass graves.

Thank you for coming to Yosemite National Park and please come again soon. Also, try not to inadvertently ruin anything next time.

Sincerely, Best Matt Ever

But Park Ranger Best Matt Ever opted to not take his fellow Reddit users advice. In the comments the ranger later posted about how he planned to respond to Evie:

Reading all the responses below, I wanted to let you know what I decided: I’m going to take photos of the sticks in various places in the park, then send Evie the pictures and ask her which spot she wants the sticks in. (I’ve already been in touch with her parents by email, so this should actually be pretty easy to do.)

The letter has been picked up by media across the Internet, from the Huffington Post to the British Daily Mail.

Saudi cleric: “Babies should wear burqas”

Monday, February 4, 2013 by:moms@sfgate.com (Amy Graff)
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Women are required to cover their body and hair in Saudi Arabia. Should babies be too? (Shutterstock)

Last year, in an interview on an Islamic television station, a Saudi Arabian cleric said that baby girls should wear burqas, the full body tents covering everything except the eyes. These garments are often worn by Muslim women who are required to cover their hair and bodies in public.

Coming from a political leader in the only country that doesn’t allow women to drive, Sheikh Abdullah Daoud’s statement might not be surprising, but when it was picked up on twitter last week, his words stirred up controversy across the twitter-sphere.

Daoud’s intentions are good. On al-Majd TV, the former judge at the Saudi Board of Grievances mentioned instances when young children were molested and said the burqas would stop pedophiles.

Unfortunately, I don’t think a cloth barrier is enough and would only mislead parents into believing their children are safe. The only way to stop child molesters is by parents and communities rallying around kids, keeping a close eye on them, and speaking up when they notice unusual behavior. Plus, babies shouldn’t be punished for these tragic and horrific crimes.

In this Muslim country, women’s rights are unfairly limited and they’re required to cover their hair and bodies when out in public. They’re also forbidden from voting, driving, earning certain University degrees and traveling alone without a father or husband’s permission. Forcing babies to wear burqas would be yet another ridiculous law to add to this list.

[Daily Mail and Huffington Post]

Teacher slammed for posting photo on Facebook of students with mouths taped

Wednesday, January 23, 2013 by:moms@sfgate.com (Amy Graff)
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How to keep a teen quiet? Duct tape! (Andi Berger)

An Ohio middle school teacher has come under fire for posting a photo of her students with their mouths covered in duct tape on Facebook.

The Akron school board feels Melissa Cairns, who teaches math at Buchtel Community Learning Center, invaded her student’s privacy by sharing photos of them on a social media site. Administrators asked Cairns to take unpaid leave and now she might lose her job entirely, according to ABC News.

The fact that the kids mouths were sealed with duct tape might sound more alarming than the Facebook post, but the 33-year-old teacher’s account of the incident reveals that the whole thing was a joke.

Cairns says a student asked for some tape to repair her binder and the student placed it over her mouth to be funny. Other students joined in the fun, also taping their mouths, and asked their teacher to snap a photo. Cairns later posted it on Facebook with the caption: “Finally found a way to get them to be quiet!!!”

The issue here isn’t the duct tape. It’s the fact that the teacher shared images of her students on a social media site.

Jason Haas, president of the Akron Board of Education, told ABC that “students are protected under federal law and have certain protections. It would look like that potentially violates those protections.”

I agree that teachers should be forbidden from posting images of students on social media sites, but does Cairns deserve to lose her job? It sounds like she used poor judgement and made a moronic mistake. She should certainly be punished and the situation can be used as an example to educate other teachers about social media, but if she has a good track record, she might deserve another chance.

Cairns wants to keep her job. “Do I think that this one mistake should cost me the last 10 years of all the good I’ve done? Absolutely not,” Cairns told ABC. “When your emotions are involved, that’s when you learn things.”

On Jan. 22 Cairns requested a hearing where she can present her case to the Akron school board and its 14 members will decide in February whether she can continue to work as a teacher.

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