Principal fixes insecure student’s hair instead of punishing him for wearing hat

A principal in Indiana, US is winning hearts for helping out one of his students by fixing his haircut instead of disciplining him for wearing a hat in violation of school dress code.

Jason Smith was asked to step in when student Anthony Moore refused to take his hat off after having a half-an-hour conversation with the school dean.

“I sat across from him and asked, ‘What’s wrong? Why are you being defiant? Why are you refusing to take your hat off? It’s a pretty simple request,” Smith said. “And he explained that his parents took him to get a haircut and he didn’t like the results.”

“I told him, ‘Look, I’ve been cutting hair since I was your age,’ and I showed him pictures of my son’s haircuts that I did and some of me cutting hair in college. And I said, ‘If I run home and get my clippers and fix your line, will you go back to class?’ He hesitated but then he said yes.”

Smith drove back home to get his stuff to the school and called up Anthony’s parents for consent to give his hair a trim.

“He didn’t say straight out, but I feel like he didn’t want to be laughed at. The barbershop and hair cuts as Black males is very important in the community and looking your best and being sharp — it’s just a cultural aspect. Just from my being a Black male myself and coming through that culture and you know, I really think girls matter at that age, which [means] appearance then could matter. He was scared he was going to be laughed at and we were pretty sure no one would notice, but he was looking through his lens,” he continued.

The principal gave the student’s hair a touch-up and checked on him throughout the day and found that he was studying and didn’t have his hat on.

“All behavior is communication and when a student is struggling, we need to ask ourselves what happened to this child instead of what’s wrong with the child. What need is the child trying to get met and really, the future of urban education rests on that question,” he said.

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Pakistan reports 23 fresh coronavirus deaths

ISLAMABAD: Coronavirus has claimed 23 more lives in Pakistan in the past 24 hours, surging the overall death toll to 12,860, ARY News reported on Sunday.

According to the latest statistics of the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), the COVID-19 has claimed 23 more lives and 1,176 fresh infections were reported.

The total count of active cases is 21,836.

In the past 24 hours, as many as 871 patients have recovered from the virus in a day and 1,562 patients are still in critical condition.

According to the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), with the fresh inclusion of the infections in the country the national tally of cases now currently stands at 579,973.

A total of 38,920 tests were conducted across the country during this period. Overall 545,277 people have recovered from the deadly disease so far while 8,951,838 samples have been tested thus far.

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LG&CD dept establishes accountability board

Punjab Local Government and Community Development (LG&CD) department has set up an accountability board for the first time. Reportedly, the LG&CD department has taken the step to ensure proper use of government land and to prevent corruption in projects. In addition to this, the department has sought a report on the master plan from its subsidiaries. The officers have been directed to submit their report on the master plan to the accountability board by March 1. A letter has been written in this regard. The institutions concerned will be required to submit a report regarding steps from the preparation of the master plan to its final form. Punjab LG&CD Secretary Noorul Amin Mengal said, “Proper use of the land must be considered according to future needs in the master plan. In the absence of a master plan, there is a possibility of irregularities in maps and other matters.” The LG&CD accountability board will keep a close watch on projects across the province to prevent abuse of power, he added. The accountability board had been set up to prevent corruption. Read Pakistan has effectively avoided FATF’s blacklist, assures Azhar According to the LG&CD secretary, as per the directives of Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar, the resources of the people would be protected. The accountability board will consist of seven members, while the chairperson will be LG&CD additional secretary establishment. Among the members are LG&CD deputy secretary implementation and deputy secretary establishment. LG&CD director admin, director general inspection and monitoring, director C&I Punjab LG Board and one member will be included on the chairperson's nomination. The terms of reference of this board have also been prepared. Attendance of two-thirds of the members in a meeting of the board is required so that they can exercise their voting rights. An inquiry board can be sent by the chairperson for any project. In addition, SOPs can be made when required. The board has to report directly to the LG secretary. Suggestions and follow-up will be considered to improve service delivery. In addition, steps will be taken for research and training to make the organisation functional. The secretary of the accountability board may also create a database centrally, inquire into reports from the chairperson and the board, and obtain written statements from the parties concerned. Published in The Express Tribune, February 28th, 2021.

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Action to prevent air traffic mishaps

District administration finalised a plan to prevent presence of birds in surroundings of the airport to avoid any air traffic mishap due to them. A meeting held in this regard on Saturday was presided over by Additional Deputy Commissioner General (ADCG) Qamaruz Zaman Qaisrani. A ban would be imposed on throwing leftover food or garbage from marriage halls and hotels in surroundings of the airport. The officers concerned have also sought approval of the additional chief secretary home for imposing section 144 against throwing waste food items around the airports and airbases. The ADCG directed the forest department to ensure trimming of big trees from suburbs of the airport jurisdiction, while the wildlife department was asked to remove nests of birds from the trees. Published in The Express Tribune, February 28th, 2021.

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Seven-year-old girl sells lemonade to fund her own brain surgeries

Instead of saving up for a new toy or a trip to Disney World, a 7-year-old girl from Alabama has set up a lemonade stand to fund her upcoming brain surgeries.

Liza Scott, the seven-year-old daughter of owner Elizabeth Scott, has set up a lemonade stand inside the bakery in Homewood.

Savage’s Bakery in Alabama is serving a cool, thirst-quenching treat. For Liza, it is a sign of hope and perseverance in the face of difficulties because the proceeds from each glass of lemonade will help fund her upcoming brain surgeries.

Also, @idotvnews and I may have been a little sidetracked with just how cute Liza is. If I miss deadline, it’s because we were making a music videos pic.twitter.com/rdqhbW45EZ

— Malique (@MaliqueRankin) February 25, 2021

“She has three cerebral malformations,” Elizabeth Scott said. “One is what they call a schizencephaly. So it’s a cleft in the frontal lobe in the right side of her brain, and we think that’s what’s causing the seizures.”

According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, schizencephaly is ‘an extremely rare developmental birth defect characterized by abnormal slits, or clefts, in the cerebral hemispheres of the brain.’

Less than a month ago, Liza began to have grand mal seizures which caused unconsciousness and violent muscle contractions. 

Later, doctors discovered that she has an “extra special brain.”

Liza and her mother will fly to Boston Children’s Hospital for the first of a series of surgeries next week. 

“You know, in the moments that I feel like I can’t breathe, or I’m awake in the night and I can’t sleep, I pray,” Liza said. “I’m on my hands and knees, literally, praying.”

Elizabeth also purchased additional insurance to help pay for Liza’s brain surgeries. But with travel and hotel costs along with medical expenses, the family is already struggling financially.

“As a single mom and the financial supporter of both of my children, this is not something you can budget for,” Elizabeth Scott said.

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Domestic abuse survivor becomes 1st person ever to undergo second face transplant

The life of Carmen Tarleton was changed forever in 2007 after her ex-husband broke into her home, hit her with a baseball bat, and sprayed her with a chemical called lye.

The attack left the former nurse badly disfigured, blind in one eye and legally blind in the other. She had her first face transplant in 2013, when the procedure was quite new. It lasted seven years, but her body began to reject it slowly.

“When my first face transplant failed, I basically went back to looking disfigured,” she said. “I didn’t have eyelids anymore. I lost my lips.”

The decision for her to go through the process again — she’s had 73 reconstructive surgeries in total — was an easy one, she said.

The second face transplant took a team of 40 at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston about 20 hours over two days. Fortunately, it was less risky than the initial surgery because her immune system was less sensitive the second time around.

But it was still a challenge, Tarleton’s plastic surgeon, Dr Bohdan Pomahac, who’s been treating her since she was airlifted to the hospital over a decade ago, said. There were concerns about a possible rejection, again.

The donor for Tarleton’s second surgery was a woman named Casey Harrington Labrie, who struggled with heroin addiction and died last July at age 36 from a fentanyl overdose. She had a 15-year-old daughter.

“We were incredibly lucky and found by pure luck a donor that had a lot of characteristics common with Carmen’s own body, something that you would hope for a sibling to have,” Pomahac added.

Harrington Labrie had told her sister-in-law Bobbi Sue Harrington that she wanted to be an organ donor. Her organs saved five lives, but her family was initially hesitant about donating her face.

“Our initial emotion was, ‘No. That’s not gonna be OK. We can’t live with that,’” Bobbi Sue Harrington said. “The more research we did (on) recipients and how their lives had changed, the better we felt about it.”

“It was a godsend for us as a family,” she added. “It gave us hope in what would otherwise appear to be a completely hopeless time, especially for (Casey’s) daughter.”

Tarleton got the opportunity to meet Harrington Labrie’s family over video chat.

“In the most difficult time, you gave me the biggest gift anybody could have given me,” Tarleton said.

Now, seven months after her second face transplant, Tarleton said she’s “very happy,” explaining that everything on her face is donated except for one ear.

“This is my face. It was given to me. It’s not the original face I was born with, but it’s my face. And every time I look in the mirror, I think of Casey,” Tarleton said.

Her positive attitude has been an inspiration to the donor’s family — and everyone who meets her.

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Biden scores legislative win as House passes $1.9 trillion COVID relief plan

WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden scored his first legislative win as the House of Representatives passed his $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package early Saturday, though Democrats face challenges to their hopes of using the bill to raise the minimum wage.

Democrats who control the chamber passed the sweeping measure by a mostly party-line vote of 219 to 212 and sent it on to the Senate, where Democrats planned a legislative maneuver to allow them to pass it without the support of Republicans.

The American Rescue Plan would pay for vaccines and medical supplies and send a new round of emergency financial aid to households, small businesses and state and local governments. The bill’s big-ticket items include $1,400 direct payments to individuals, a $400-per-week federal unemployment benefit through Aug. 29, and help for those in difficulty paying rents and home mortgages during the pandemic.

In brief remarks on Saturday from the White House’s Roosevelt Room, Biden said he called House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to thank her for her support and urged the Senate to take up the bill quickly.

“I hope it will receive quick action. We have no time to waste,” Biden said, without taking questions. “The people of this country have suffered far too much for far too long.”

Democrats said the package was needed to fight a pandemic that has killed more than 500,000 Americans and thrown millions out of work.

“The American people need to know that their government is there for them,” Pelosi said in a debate on the House floor.

Republicans, who have broadly backed previous COVID-19 spending, said much of the current package was not necessary, highlighting elements such as a subway near Pelosi’s San Francisco district. Only 9% of the total would go directly toward fighting the virus, they said.

“It just throws out money without accountability,” House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy said.

FATE OF MINIMUM WAGE HIKE UNCLEAR

Democrats will have to sort out how to handle a proposed minimum-wage increase, which may have to be stripped from the bill due to the complicated rules that govern the Senate.

The House-passed bill would raise the national hourly minimum wage for the first time since 2009, to $15 from $7.25. The increase is a top priority for progressive Democrats.

However, the Senate’s rules expert said on Thursday that the wage hike did not qualify for special treatment that allows the rest of the bill to be passed with a simple majority, rather than the 60 votes needed to advance most legislation in the 100-seat chamber.

Pelosi predicted the relief bill will pass Congress with or without the increase, and said Democrats would not give up on the matter.

It is not clear whether the minimum-wage hike would have survived the Senate even if it were to be kept in the bill. At least two Senate Democrats oppose it, along with most Republicans.

Some senators are floating a smaller increase, to the range of $10 to $12 per hour, while Democrats are considering a penalty for large corporations that do not voluntarily pay a $15 wage, according to a Democratic aide.

Efforts to craft a bipartisan coronavirus aid bill fizzled early on, shortly after Biden was sworn in as president on Jan. 20, following a series of bipartisan bills enacted in 2020.

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