When Migrant Children Turn 18 – the story doesn’t end with simply reaching America.
Migrant children who cross the border without their parents are sent to a federal shelter UNTIL their 18th birthday. After this date they are typically then sent to detention centers and treated like criminals. NPR reported this on their Morning Edition by Josh Burnett. They followed a young migrant, Lisseth* (name changed for confidentiality) on her story of going from El Salvador to the Texas border in an attempt to seek asylum. Her reason? Escaping sexual predators. When she reached the US, she was then sent to a Federal Youth Shelter. Upon her 18th birthday she was approached by immigration officers and put into handcuffs. She now is considered an adult detainee in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Femicide + Intimate Partner Violence – in the UK and beyond
Globally, as many as 38% of murders of women are committed by an intimate partner. That’s what the term femicide means: It’s gender-based violence that puts women at risk for being murdered because of their gender. In The Guardian article, it reported that 2/3 of women killed by men in the UK knew their perpetrator.
“Time and time again, we hear of cases where a woman has been killed by a man as an ‘isolated incident’; yet the latest Femicide Census report shows yet again that this is not the case,” – Katie Ghose, the chief executive of Women’s Aid
This is an issue that spans more than just one country or socioeconomic status. Though the Guardian article doesn’t look very much into this, many developing countries also face similar femicide issues. Gender related killings are prevalent in Latin America especially.
Paralympians visit JMU for Kin Skills Course
JMU Kinesiology Professor Cathy McKay organizes a Paralympic skill lab for students to attend and learn from medal winning paralympians. The adaptive sports included sitting volleyball, wheelchair basketball, and goal ball (a team sport developed for blind or visually impaired players, in which a ball containing bells which make a sound when in motion is thrown at a goal at the opposing team’s end of the court).
Contact theory is the idea that getting different people to work together as equals increases their understanding of one another. The goal of the lab is to focus on this and for students to find common ground with those who experience some form of disabilities.
Federal court rules the male-only draft unconstitutional
While there have been historical restrictions on women serving in combat, men and women may both fight in combat, after the Pentagon lifted all restrictions for women in military service in 2015.
America hasn’t had a military draft since 1973 but it is men, and not women, who are required to register with the Selective Service. All males are required to register for the draft on their 18th birthday, and men who fail to register can be denied public benefits such as federal employment and student loans.
The case was brought by the National Coalition For Men, and two men in particular who argued that an all-male draft was unfair. Grey Miller, one of the federal judges working on this case, said that Congress has never fully examined whether men are physically better able to serve than women. In fact, he noted that “the average woman could conceivably be better suited physically for some of today’s combat positions than the average man, depending on which skills the position required. Combat roles no longer uniformly require sheer size or muscle.”
Although the court ruled that a men-only draft is indeed unconstitutional, they stopped short of ordering the Selective Service System to register women.
103 year old woman becomes oldest National Park Junior Ranger
A 103-year-old woman has been named the National Park Service’s oldest Junior Ranger at a park she is older than.The Junior Ranger program is used to engage children and families in the preservation of national parks.
Rose Torphy, a mother of three and great-great-grandmother of 10, felt inspired to join the program after her second visit to the Grand Canyon National Park last month. Torphy was granted the “Scorpion” level of Junior Ranger, typically reserved for those aged 11 and older.
In an interview with Good Morning America, Rose said, “My parents taught me to care for the land but not all kids have that. I’m happy to protect [the Grand Canyon] for my great-great grandchildren to visit one day.”
A nun just read the riot act to Catholic bishops over clergy sex abuse
Sister Veronica Openibo (Awe pen EE boh) a Nigerian-born nun, is one of only three women to address the Vatican summit on sexual abuse in the Catholic church.
She challenged the church’s culture of silence on sexual issues and said priests are too often put on pedestals. Openibo also criticized the practice of letting elderly clergy who had abused children in the retire quietly with their pension and good names in place.
Openibo called for a policy of “zero tolerance” toward people of the catholic church who abuse children.
JMU Faculty Senate Motions to Add Lactation Rooms on campus
A mother and member of the JMU Faculty Senate is advocating that the university add more lactation rooms on campus. This motion is part of an extensive movement to minimize hurdles mothers face in the workplace and academia.
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that infants be exclusively breastfed for the first six months, considerably longer than the maternity leave time that is granted to JMU employees. When away from their children, breastfeeding mothers should pump every three hours to maintain milk supply — a 30-minute procedure.
Tara Parsons, assistant professor of justice studies, faculty senate representative and mother to an 18-month-old, said. “I’m pretty privileged in terms of having an office that has a door that shuts and locks, but even some faculty that do in SSC or HBS have glass walls. Even if they have a private office, they don’t have privacy.”
Of JMU’s and 138 buildings, there are five lactation rooms, located in four buildings: the University Health Center in SSC, Madison Hall, the Health and Behavioral Studies building and UREC.
Three of these buildings neighbor each other, with no lactation rooms on east campus or the Quad.
In SSC’s Health Center, the lactation rooms require an appointment and are closed daily from 12-1 p.m. If a mother wishes to pump during her lunch hour, she must exit the building and enter through the emergency entrance, then navigate through the building to get upstairs and find the lactation room. This is clearly inaccessible and there are barriers to the few lactation rooms that do exist on campus.
The motion was brought up at the last faculty senate meeting Jan. 31 and will be debated and voted on this Thursday, Feb. 28.
ShoutOut! James Madison University 