Heavy: Kids need more health and gym classes, a group of doctors and educators says. The group is led by the American Cancer Society. Member Charles Hennekens of Harvard med school says, “We have a generation of adolescents that is heavier, less physically active and, especially among girls, that is smoking more than its parents were.” The group says kids need 50 hours of health classes a year but get like 14 now. (Would that extra time come out of math class? Recess? Lunch?)
Time after time: Remember the two Alaskan Indian teens who were banished to remote islands after beating a guy up? A judge ruled last week that the teens still have to serve full prison sentences after they’ve served time on the islands. (Their Tlingit tribe banished them for 18 months in the 1993 beating – the teens, both 18, whaled on a guy with a bat.) One teen must still serve at least 2 1/2 years in prison; the other faces at least 4 1/2 years.
Ups and downs: First a portrait of Jesus was put up in a Bloomingdale, Mich., high school. Then a student complained that it violated the separation of church and state, a judge agreed, and it was covered. Then it was removed after an appeals court agreed with the first court. Finally, last week the U.S. Supreme Court let the appeals-court ruling stand, so the picture stays down. The school had said the portrait was simply art and had no religious meaning. But in the ruling that stands, Judge Benjamin Gibson said the portrait might make some people think the school pushes one religion over another, and the Constitution protects the religious rights of everyone.
Royal treatment: We told you earlier about the 10-year-old British girl with leukemia, who couldn’t get her treatment paid for (doctors and judges decided it was too costly and she would probably die anyway). Since we ran that story, an anonymous donor has been paying for her treatment. Also, the Duchess of York (yep, that’s Fergie) offered to take the girl to a health clinic in the mountains, where she would get support and “positive energy.”
No peeking: A Milwaukee teacher was accused last week of using a video camera to tape 4th-grade girls changing clothes for a play. He was arrested early Wednesday; school district officials said they would also investigate.
