Grieving parents in Tennessee are urging everyone to get educated about bullying after their 12-year-old son, Eli Fritchley, took his own life.
His mother, Debbey, told WKRN-TV last week that her son wore his beloved SpongeBob sweatshirt nearly every day.
“I think probably because he was in the same clothes every single day that they used that as a weapon,” she said. “He was told because he didn’t necessarily have a religion and that he said he was gay that he was going to go to hell. They told him that quite often.”
His father, Steve, said the bullying was “really abusive.”
“I don’t think it was ever physical. I think it was just words, but words hurt. They really hurt,” he explained.
The Fritchleys now hope to launch a foundation to fight bullying and promote suicide awareness. Their GoFundMe page has received more than $12,000 donations so far.
“I don’t want a baby” is as good of a reason to have an abortion as “I am a rape survivor.” Similarly, “I have no desire to procreate” is as good of a reason to take birth control as “I have endometriosis.” It’s an ob/gyn office not a church.
Conservative SCOTUS’ can’t connect all their beliefs because they are all bullshit religious opinions. Right to privacy? Not this time. Freedom from religion? Not this time.
Christofascism is here. ACB proves it
The misogyny of patriarchy.
Trump was against masks because it would mess with his orange make-up.
The right wing has nothing new to offer so they keep trying to scare their viewers, the cult base, with misleading cartoons. It has been pointed out that tRump added nearly 8 trillion to the debt with not a complaint from the right nor care of base. The plans of the Biden administration have been vetted to add to the income of the treasury and the increase the economy unlike tax breaks for the wealthy. When the GOP is running the show, not one Conservative cartoonists brings up “debt, big government (Trump did make the Government bigger during is term), or any “noise” about reckless spending”. And yet this Congress hasn’t come any where near the debt levels created by the GOP sponsored 2017 tax cuts that benefited no one but the wealthy. Now change ‘big government’ to ‘big military’ and see if it flies better. Hugs
Lisa must not have had anything worthwhile to draw to day, so she filled it with this. VPs tend to not do much unless you think of Dick Cheney and his highly profitable manipulation of Shrub. She is perceived as a real threat, that’s while all the attacks. They amount to a good recommendation. The media is already trying to stir up a nomination fight between her and Buttigieg for the ratings they hope to get. It is all about the click, the money, for corporate media. Hugs
Wow the projection is stunning. It has become a game for the right now to just blame everything their side / tRump did on Biden. It is a complete denial of reality. It is kid stuff with the rubber glue chant. Fingers in ears I don’t want to believe you shit. It gets tiring to respond. But I keep trying. Hugs
Here is the comment I left on the cartoon site. Every time I do this I get some clown tRump cult member with limited vocabulary and lack mental agility attacking me with the most tiresome fake right wing media talking points, at least the ones they can remember. Hugs
The unity problem is more the result of unrelenting nonsense attacks by right wing media, often simply made up stuff they know their base will not check. Law and order is actually better as the tRump admin used unidentified illegal squads to kidnap people off the streets who were using their constitutional right to protest. These people were taken to hidden locations, illegally questioned, detained, their items searched with out permission, never charged with a crime and then released often with out their phones or other property. Reporters protected by law and the 1st amendment were attacked and their equipment destroyed all to please the wannabe strongman dictator, tRump. The US has far more world respect now with Biden president than when tRump (also known as TFG, the former guy) was in office. TFG destroyed long running friendships with democracies and tried to start friendships with only authoritarian governments. The world reacted badly to that. The laws and people enforcing the borders have not changed despite Biden and the people want them too. The US is still violating the rights of those seeking refuge status as they did before. We still have freedom and some of us are still sane. Talk about nonsense phrases meaning nothing and everything. And before someone shouts Covid as a loss of freedom fact is the SCOTUS found a century ago the government had a right to enforce health laws / requirements. And lastly fuel prices. Fuel prices started coming down right after TFG approved selling the Saudi’s weaponry that every other US president refused, for good reason. But the Saudi’s put lots of money in both tRump’s and his son-in-law’s pockets so who cares about indiscriminate killing, right. Then came the pandemic with Covid ended a lot of need for fuel, travel mostly stopped, office buildings were empty, prices of fuel fell from lack of demand and over supply. Now that demand is rising and the OPEC nations throttling the supply to make up the profits they lost prices of fuel were rising. That is no more. For the last three weeks fuel prices, the cost per barrel of oil has fallen. If you are not seeing it at the pump it is because of price gouging and profit taking. Facts matter. These are the facts. Scottie
Not even close but nice to see the right wing trying hard to demonize those they disagree with. In case you don’t know the story Toobin He exposed himself during a Zoom call with colleagues in what he says was an accident. Toobin claimed “I didn’t think other people could see me,” and it seems that he was masturbating.
People familiar with the matter said that Toobin exposed himself when he began masturbating during the Zoom, apparently as part of a different video call. The people said that they did not believe he intended his colleagues to witness it.
It seemed to me to be an accident he did not intend to expose his sexual activity to others, he was removed from his jobs, he under went reviews and The New Yorker did not find any other forms of misconduct by him during its probe of his 27 years at the magazine.
It is well known that what Chris Cuomo did was completely different. Cuomo did try to deliberately deceive his co-workers, his bosses, and the viewers. He was doing things he knew his contract forbid and were against the company polices. But having said that why is the right wing so upset with Cuomo and Toobin but ignoring the many violations of rules by Fox News hosts? Fox news hosts go on stage at tRump rallies to promote tRump, and have since tRump was president. Cuomo was trying to help his brother, but Fox hosts were doing far more for tRump. When these cartoonist show the same outrage over that I will listen to their fake outrage over CNN. Hugs
This old drunk needs to sober up. To blame this on liberals or even the school is denying reality. The parents gave the kid the gun, bought the ammo, took him shooting inspired his love of guns / shooting and convinced the kid that others deserved to die. Hugs
The road to fascism is lined with people telling you to stop overreacting.
A member of Congress thinks that cancer is contagious.
Republicans love the ignorance. Rather than cast out the idiots, they become the idiots.
So kind of the WSJournal opinion editors, Misters Gigot and Heninninger, to find 3 other Misters to respond to their editorial advising the Supremes strike down Roe v Wade. pic.twitter.com/3iFnHNZp2X
Who needs science or data when you only follow predetermined narratives?
Great article on a great injustice. Anthony Broadwater was wrongfully convicted of raping Alice Sebold four decades ago — and fought to get his life back https://t.co/JD6xHPQO99
This all comes just as the DOJ has determined that Alabama prisons have not improved over the past two years despite the ongoing lawsuit against them – and frankly it seems like rodents are the least of their problems. https://t.co/6komO9Dlcl
Why does the right wing media blame Biden for what the Republicans are doing. Oh yes they are the misleading lying right wing media. The Build Back Better bill had money to help people buy electric vehicles that Republicans wouldn’t support. Same with the infrastructure bill that again Republicans fought. So electric cars too expensive for most people, blame Republicans. Hugs
This cartoonist is one of the most rabid right wing I have the displeasure to read. In order to slam a Democrat elected governor he insinuates that crime only happens where and when a Democrat is in charge. This is false. Any life experience and a quick google search will show that. Crime is driven not by politics but by other factors such a poverty, income inequality, housing, and other basic needs being unmet. Hugs
So are school shootings and every other goddam kind of shootings. Only the Boys in Blue matter. the rest are collateral damage or the fault of the ’libs”. I noticed he wasn’t as compassionate towards the Capital Police that were injured during the Insurrection. It is a tragedy when any officer loses their life when on the job. Also tragic, and likely more preventable, is how many have lost their lives due to Covid:https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/16/us/police-vaccine-covid-deaths/index.html COVID-19 killed more police officers in the last 18 months than guns. That was 100% preventable if they would get vaccinated and wear masks. Perhaps there would be fewer shootings if the gun makers and their propaganda puppets in the NRA worked on promoting proper gun safety, responsibility, and use instead of telling gullible Americans that a handgun under the Christmas tree is a great gift for children. Hugs
He said he was pulling the hammer back at the direction of Halyna Hutchins, and when they had the angle right, he let the hammer go and the gun went off. You need to work on your comprehension skills, and if you believe there is no such thing as an accidental discharge of a gun, your history of gun accidents. No one has shown any motive he may have had to murder anyone, and witnesses agree it was an accident. What is really disgusting is the way neocons are gleefully dancing on Halyna Hutchins’ grave because it advances their narrative. Alec Baldwin mocked the God Emperor tRump on a TV comedy show. That’s really all you need to know here. Hugs
For around $150, plexiglass, water, lenses, and ordinary mirrors, professor of Physics at the University of Rochester John Howell built an uni-directional optical cloaking device: This video shows one of the devices and two of his sons… sometimes: https://t.co/H1NPb6RPjApic.twitter.com/4lupYhLejI
Selfish bastards. They did not care about the other children in the classroom, the other kids parents, grandparents, adults in their lives, they did not care about the teachers. Just what they wanted and what they believed was good for them. They did not even tell the school, why were they hiding it? Are they above the rules? I am sick of these people. Hugs
Northern California parents knowingly sent their COVID-19 positive child and a sibling to school last month in violation of isolation and quarantine rules, causing a coronavirus outbreak in an elementary school, officials said Saturday.
The parents could face a fine or a misdemeanor charge for violating Marin County’s health order, under which people who test positive for the virus must isolate themselves for at least 10 days.
Dr. Matt Willis, the county’s public health officer, told The Associated Press that a decision will be made early next week whether the family will face a penalty.
“It’s a violation of the law that we’ve put in place,” he said. “More importantly it’s also a violation of just basic ethics of community responsibility.”
The child tested positive for the virus during the week of Nov. 8, according to Brett Geithman, superintendent of the Larkspur-Corte Madera School District. Both children continued to attend school the rest of that week and into the following week.
The child and their sibling, who later tested positive as well, are students in the district’s Neil Cummins Elementary School in Corte Madera, a town in Marin County that’s 15 miles (24.14 kilometers) north of San Francisco.
The parents did not notify the school of the positive test or return multiple calls from public health contract tracers, Geithman told AP.
“Our enforcement team is evaluating the circumstances and will respond accordingly,” Marin County Public Health said in a statement. “Thankfully, this is the only known occurrence of a household knowingly sending a COVID-19 positive student to school.”
Willis said when the school’s principal spoke to the family, “they had cited that they were not clear on the protocol” to isolate the child after the positive test.
Willis said language barriers or economic factors — meaning the parents could not take time off from work when the kids needed to isolate at home — did not appear to be a factor for the family.
He also said it was “quite simple” for people to know not to send their children to school if they test positive for the virus.
On Nov. 18, public health officials contacted the school district after they noticed a discrepancy in records, according to Geithman.
“We noticed you didn’t enter student X into the database” of students with COVID-19, Geithman said district officials were told.
The district immediately contacted the families of students who were exposed and told them to report to the school for rapid testing the next morning.
A total of eight students tested positive: The original student, their sibling, three classmates of theirs who are suspected school-based transmissions and three students who are suspected household transmissions. None of the students experienced serious illness or had to be hospitalized.
About 75 students were exposed to the virus from the eight cases, the superintendent said. No staff members tested positive.
Schools have an indoor mask mandate.
“Had those children been unmasked, we would have seen a lot more transmission,” Willis said. “We depend on one another to prevent spread and this is kind of a stark and unfortunate lesson in what happens when we don’t follow the protocols.”
Geithman said he did not know whether the original student and their sibling had received any doses of the vaccine.
The district issued a “corrective action” to the family but Geithman said he could not discuss what that was. The superintendent said the family caused a “safety risk” to students, staff and the school community that easily could have spread further over the Thanksgiving break if the exposed families had not been informed.
“This highlights that we are all in this together,” he said. “This is something where, to get through COVID-19, we all have to do our part. Our actions impact the health and safety and wellbeing of others.”
The district reopened for in-person instruction in October 2020 and this is its first case of classroom-based transmission, Geithman
“This one family, as troubling as it’s been, this is not the norm,” he said.
In May there was an outbreak at Our Lady of Loretto School, a private parochial elementary school also in Marin County, linked to an unvaccinated teacher. The teacher would unmask while reading aloud to students — despite an indoor mask mandate — and worked at the school despite a cough, fever and headache until testing positive later.
Altogether 26 other people — including students and their parents — were infected. A report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, released in August, identified the virus in that outbreak as the delta variant.
Scottie's Playtime 