NeverThat.com

A city of South Houston teacher was placed on administrative leave, accused of having an improper relationship with a student, KPRC Local 2 reported Monday.

Officials at South Houston High School said they began asking questions after the English teacher, Sean Eckman, 29, asked his principal if he could take a 17-year-old student to prom.

“He asked for permission to take her to the prom. He said he was a family friend and that the parents had agreed that it would be OK,” said Kirk Lewis, the Pasadena Independent School District superintendent.

“The culmination of those investigations led us to believe he had engaged in a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old student,” Lewis said.

The principal sent a letter home to parents letting them know about the allegations against Eckman.

Eckman resigned from his teaching position.

He remained jailed on a $100,000 bond!

Aboriginal culture was to blame for endemic levels of sexual violence against children in central Australia, according to a Northern Territory prosecutor who cited a case in which a four-year-old was drowned while being anally raped.

Alice Springs prosecutor Nanette Rogers said “men’s business” in remote Aboriginal communities often led to males freely breaking the law and committing appalling crimes.

“Men’s business is a predominant aspect of life in remote communities, and young men who are initiated are given a certain status in the community and feel they are not responsible for their actions,” Ms Rogers told ABC television’s Lateline last night.

“In other words, they can do whatever they like.

“Young women are not accorded the same status. Males are given a higher status.”

Ms Rogers detailed a range of “dreadful” cases she had prosecuted, which included a seven-month-old baby and a two-year-old toddler being raped and a four-year-old girl being drowned while being raped.

“While she was playing in the water he pulled her under and anally penetrated her and drowned her probably simultaneously,” she said.

A 14-year-old girl who ran away to avoid testifying against a man accused of molesting her has been jailed for a week and denied access to an attorney, officials and court records said.” … “Sanchez-Pesantes, of Akron, is accused of having unlawful sexual conduct with the teen in January. He is free on bond and had a pretrial hearing scheduled Tuesday.

The old circus trick of firing a person from a cannon is being considered by the US Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) as a way to get special forces, police officers and fire fighters onto the roofs of tall buildings in a hurry.

A ramp with side rails would be placed on the ground near the target building at an angle of about 80°. A (very brave) person would then sit in a chair, like a pilot’s ejection seat, attached to the ramp.

Compressed air from a cylinder underneath would be rapidly released to shoot the chair up the ramp’s guide rails. At the top the chair would come to an instant halt, leaving the person to fly up and over the edge of the roof, to hopefully land safely on top of the building.

People in the United States and Canada can make free calls from their computers to telephones in those countries using online communication service Skype, the company said.

Skype, a division of eBay in Northern California, announced that its SkypeOut service would be free in the United States and Canada through the end of the year as a promotion intended to lure new users.

Skype calls from computer-to-computer have been free since the service was launched slightly more than two years ago, but SkypeOut calls routed from computers to land-line or mobile telephones came with fees.

“Millions of consumers around the world are flocking to Skype every month, and we believe free SkypeOut calling will rapidly accelerate Skype adoption in the US and Canada,” said Henry Gomez, general manager of Skype North America.

According to Professional Builder, the first zero energy home costing less than $200,000 has been built in Oklahoma. This house produces as much energy as it consumes in a year and combines “renewable energy technologies with advanced energy-efficient construction.” This environmentally friendly house is just a prototype and not available for sale. But as it has created lots of interest, I would not be surprised if its builder decided to add it to its catalog. Read more…

This house has been built by Ideal Homes, based in Norman, Oklahoma, and is located in its Valencia community in Edmond, also in Oklahoma.

Missouri high school teacher apologized for asking students to write about who they would kill and how they would do it.

Michael Maxwell said it was a horrible mistake he regrets, according to an Associated Press report.

Maxwell said the request to describe how students would carry out a murder was merely a writing exercise. Maxwell teaches a beginning drafting class and it was not clear why he asked the class to write fiction.

ALBANY — With gangs moving into the drug trade and then needing treatment for their own addictions, gang members are causing problems at some state-financed drug-treatment facilities, the state agency that oversees the facilities confirmed.

“Gang membership has become an issue because of fights, robberies and intimidation of other patients and staff,” said Jennifer Farrell, a spokeswoman for the state Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services. “They are also known to be recruiting members from among the patients.”

Farrell said the office became aware of the problem last year and visited six drug-treatment sites, including two in Ulster County, where the problems were confirmed. Three others were in New York City and one in Albany. She wouldn’t further specify which sites were visited.

So far, no one has been injured by gang violence, she said.

The state office runs the largest chemical-dependence service system in the country, with an annual budget of close to $600 million. It is a conduit for state and federal money and an oversight agency for private and nonprofit treatment centers that sign contracts with the state to provide the services.

homeless man was sentenced Tuesday to 2 to 6 years in prison for robbing a priest in East Utica earlier this year.

After William Fancher, 35, was sentenced in Oneida County Court on a charge of third-degree robbery, Judge Michael L. Dwyer told Fancher he needed to get his drug problem under control.

“I’m definitely going to try,” Fancher said.

Fancher pleaded guilty in March to robbing a wallet from 88-year-old Rev. Julien Eliane Jan. 31 in the rectory of St. Basil’s Melkite Catholic Church on Sherman Drive.

When Fancher entered his plea, he wasn’t required to admit he used a knife during the robbery.

But at the time of Fancher’s arrest, city police said Fancher knocked on the front door of the rectory shortly before 4 p.m. that day and displayed a knife when Eliane answered.