Category: Children
When you were in school, how often did you miss classes? If you were anything like me, you would probably have had a couple of weeks or so missed every school year. But dig this, Stefanie Zaner is only 18 years old but she is going on her 2,340th straight day of public school!
This girl has been dubbed the Iron Kid as in her 13 years of going to school, she has never once been absent. She has not gone missing due to a cold, a fever, or any other ailment. Neither has she been absent for a vacation, a trip, or anything else! Well, she went on a school trip to Shanghai for her marching band but prior to that, she got a written letter from the principal that the trip would not be counted as an absence.
As you may already know, this is quite a feat for any student. Perfect attendance even for a single school year is not that easy to achieve, especially in these days when all sorts of viruses and illnesses abound.
So what factors contributed to Stefanie’s excellent performance? For one, she said that she never really intended on making this record. It just sort of happened. I guess she has Darnestown Elementary School principal, Larry Chep, to thank as he gave out awards to those who had perfect attendance for each school year. This got Stefanie started out.
And mind you, all these years, she was not only present in school but she has gotten straight As as well!
Everyone loves Coke, or at least a ginormous number of people do. That, however, does not exempt the company from being reprimanded for less than honest ads, at least in the eyes of the advertising watchdogs in Australia. Last year, the soda giant ran an advertising campaign dubbed Motherhood & Myth-Busting. The main idea of the campaign was to promote Coca-cola as being safe for children. The claims include the ideas that Coke will not make children fat, and that it would not cause one’s teeth to rot – common concerns for children. The company even got popular Australian actress Kerry Armstrong to be its spokesperson.
This did not sit well with the consumer watchdogs, however, and the main governing body has commanded Coke to correct its advertisement. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, which is tasked with watching over cases like these, has declared that Coke should do something about it claims. According to Chairman Graeme Samuel, “Coke’s messages were totally unacceptable, creating an impression which is likely to mislead that Coca-Cola cannot contribute to weight gain, obesity and tooth decay.” He went on to say that “They also had the potential to mislead parents about the potential consequences of consuming Coca-Cola.”
While the Commission does have a point, I dare ask this question: What kind of parent will totally believe that drinking soda all the time is good for his or her child? Interestingly enough, Coke has agreed to publish corrective statements regarding their campaign. I guess there is no excuse for any parent to rely on Coke as his or her child’s refreshment of choice!
News about the woman giving birth to octuplets made the headlines about a week ago. Since then, people have been giving their own points of view regarding the matter. There have been supportive people while there have been people who criticized the woman for choosing be artificially inseminated with so many babies at once – especially since she already has 6 children. No matter how much noise was made about the multiple births, the mother kept mum for a while.
Now, she has come out into the open and spoken her piece. Nadya Suleman, the mother of 8 newborns and 6 other children, was interviewed today by Ann Curry of NBC. In the interview, she acknowledged that she had 6 embryos implanted – more than the standard recommendations of the fertility industry. However, she said that she was aware that multiple births were a possibility and that she wanted them all.
Nadya, together with the medical professionals involved, has been severely criticized for her decision. This is taking into consideration the fact that she is a single mother and unemployed at that. She stands by her decision however, and said that it has always been her dream to have a HUGE family, being an only child. She also said that her childhood was pretty dysfunctional and that she has always wanted to become a mom.
Octuplets being born – and living this long – are very very rare. In fact, multiple births are considered a rarity and usually attract a lot of attention, including sponsorships.
Photo courtesy of www.blahmerica.com/
14-year-old Gets The Best Of Chicago CopsPicture this. A 14-year-old boy walks into a police station in Chicago wearing a cop get up. He not only was not found out to be what he really was, he also managed to get an assignment – to patrol in a squad car for a whole 5 hours! It was not till the end of this period that he was found out to be a boy and not a cop.
So how was his real identity discovered? At the end of his “shift,” some officers noticed that the boy’s uniform lacked a star. Apparently, this star comes with the regulation police uniform. One thing led to another and the disguise was uncovered.
What happens to the boy now? He has been charged with impersonating a police officer – something that is as grave as grave can be, we all know that. However, since he is only 14 years old, he was charged as a juvenile and his name has not been released as well.
What do police officers have to say about the whole thing? First, that they are conducting an investigation as it is a serious security breach (Heck, yeah! A 14-year-old being able to pose as a police officer, you think?). Second, that the boy did it because he has aspirations of being a police officer and not because of malicious intent (I wonder, will he still have the chance of becoming a real one?).
At the end of the day, the responsibility falls back in the cops’ court – they have to make sure that they have proper authentication procedures in place.
Talk about having belated Christmas presents – not only multiplied twice but five times! First time parents Jamie and Kevin Ferrante gazed upon their first child, or rather, first children when the mother gave birth to the quintuplets on Saturday at the Staten Island University Hospital.
The Associated Press has this report:
The babies — all delivered within 6 minutes by Caesarean section — ranged in weight from 1 pound, 8 ounces, to about 2 pounds, 4 ounces, the newspaper said. It gave their names as Allesia Louise, Amanda Frances, Ella Lilliana, Emily Ann and Matthew Sabatino.
Fertility treatments have made multiple births more common in recent decades, but quintuplets remain rare. The federal government’s National Center for Health Statistics tallied 68 quintuplet and higher-order births in 2005, compared to more than 400 quadruplets, 133,000 twins and 4.1 million births overall.
Hospitals in Houston, Phoenix and Annapolis, Md., also reported quintuplet births this year.
Saturday’s quintuplet birth was a first for the Staten Island hospital, Preston said.
As you may already know, giving birth to quintuplets is not that common of an occurrence. Looking at those statistics presented above, isn’t it beyond amazing how many quintuplet births have occurred in this year alone? Think about it – I don’t think that I even know someone personally who has had triplets, much less quintuplets. One thing I know for sure – the family of these children are going to have a big celebration for the New Year and for many years to come.
