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Tag: investigations

  • ‘I lost several layers of skin.’ Woman attacked by stranger while walking her dog in Fairfax

    ‘I lost several layers of skin.’ Woman attacked by stranger while walking her dog in Fairfax

    A Los Angeles woman raised concerns about public safety after she was violently assaulted while walking her dog in the middle of a day in the Fairfax neighborhood.

    The victim, Sigal Engelberg, said she noticed an apparently unhoused person across the street at around 4:30 p.m. on June 24.

    She attempted to avoid him as she thought the man looked “mentally unstable and deranged,” but he crossed the street, approached her from behind and attacked her. 

    “He punched me on the cheek just from behind so hard that he knocked me to the ground,” Engelberg recounted, explaining the attack left her with scrapes and bleeding from her knee and arms. 

    “I lost several layers of skin,” Engelberg said, as her dog was also knocked down and injured in the incident.

    Two female passersby stopped to call police, but it took an hour for LAPD officers to arrive, Engelberg said. 

    The LAPD confirmed the assault but added that shortly after responding to the incident, its officers were called away to respond to a stolen car report. Instead, West Hollywood Sheriff’s deputies, who happened to be passing by, stopped to assist and took a courtesy report for the LAPD.

    Engelberg expressed her concern for more potential victims. 

    “I was told by other people in the neighborhood that he has been attacking other women,” she said, adding that another woman in the area saw the same man throwing rocks at other women. 

    “I’ve been living here for 10 years, and we never had anything like this happen before. I really hope that they can control the area more,” she said.

    Engelberg, who described the man to be approximately 6 feet tall with a muscular build, urged anyone who sees him to contact the authorities immediately to prevent further attacks.

    Helen Jeong and Xuanjie Coco Huang

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  • 2-year-old injured by fallen tree in Montgomery County, police say

    2-year-old injured by fallen tree in Montgomery County, police say

    A two-year-old was injured by a fallen tree in Montgomery County on Saturday, authorities say.

    The toddler was playing in a residential driveway with a group of children on the 7900 block of Chandler Road in the Glenside section of Cheltenham Township just after 6 p.m. when the tree fell, police said on Facebook. Police, EMS and the fire department were called to the scene and found the 2-year-old with injuries including an amputated arm from a large branch that fell about 50 feet, authorities say.

    MORE: Philly homeless advocates fear Supreme Court’s ruling encourages ‘criminalizing poverty’

    The boy’s arm was trapped under the fallen branch when first responders arrived, 6ABC reported. Authorities say the two-year-old was attending a birthday party when the incident took place.

    The injured toddler was flown to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia for treatment, authorities say. No update has been provided on his condition.



    Cheltenham Township police said on Facebook that the injury is believed to be a “tragic accident,” but their investigation is ongoing and they are looking for witnesses. Anyone with information can call Cheltenham Police at 215-885-1600 or send an email to PoliceTips@CheltenhamPA.gov.

    Franki Rudnesky

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  • Two killed in North Philly fiery car crash, police say

    Two killed in North Philly fiery car crash, police say

    The drivers of two cars are dead after a Tuesday morning crash that left one of the vehicles a charred husk.

    Around 2 a.m., the two vehicles collided near the intersection of East Hunting Park Avenue and Broad Street, according to police. One of the cars struck the front of the other. The driver of the car that was hit was ejected from their vehicle, police say.

    MORE: Suspects in custody after Philadelphia police officer shot and injured in Kensington, authorities say

    The vehicle that struck the other one caught fire after the collision. Both drivers, who police have not publicly identified, were pronounced dead at the scene.

    Officials have not yet provided any possible causes for the crash. Witnesses told CBS Philadelphia that one of the drivers lost control of their vehicle and sped on the wrong side of Broad Street before hitting the other car head-on.

    Another witness told NBC10 that the scene was so chaotic that it was difficult to tell who was at fault. Police said that the incident remains under investigation.

    Chris Compendio

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  • Son who fled after allegedly killing his mother, 82, transported back to Bucks County to face charges

    Son who fled after allegedly killing his mother, 82, transported back to Bucks County to face charges

    The Bucks County man accused of killing his 82-year-old mother over the weekend arrived back in the area Thursday from Washington, D.C. — where he had been arrested on unrelated offenses.

    Willam Ingram, 49, allegedly killed Dolores Ingram on Saturday inside the condo they shared in Northampton Township, police said. He then took off in his mother’s car, a white 2015 Honda Civic. Eventually Ingram arrived in D.C, and he was arrested on Sunday after he allegedly assaulted a police officer and damaged a police vehicle.

    MORE: SEPTA toughens penalties for smoking, public urination and other quality-of-life offenses

    According to investigators, while in the custody of the Metro D.C. police Ingram admitted to killing his mother. Metro Police  then contacted authorities in Bucks County who found Dolores Ingram dead Sunday inside her home, police said.

    Her body was found under a pile of debris — items that included 60 pound geodesic rock, a shattered aquarium that had been the habitat for two reptiles, a television, lamps, furniture and other items, police said. Also piled upon Dolores Ingram was a laundry bag filled with 6 pounds of marijuana, a bag of psychedelic mushrooms and $53,500 in cash plastic bags, the bills bundled and wrapped with rubber bands, authorities said.

    Police also found other drugs in the Ingrams’ Northampton condo, and blood had been splattered in every room of the residence, investigators said.

    Ingram is charged with homicide, aggravated assault, theft and related offenses, the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office said Thursday.

    An autopsy conducted Tuesday showed Dolores Ingram had sustained blunt force trauma injuries and lacerations, authorities said.

    Dolores Ingram’s Honda Civic has not been found, police said. It has the Pennsylvania license plate KTV-2098. Police said anyone with information about the car can contact Northampton Township police at (215) 322-6111 or Bucks County Detectives at (215) 348-6354. Information also can be provided using the the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office’s website and clicking “submit a tip.”

    Michaela Althouse

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  • New developments in Rensselaer County cold case

    New developments in Rensselaer County cold case

    JOHNSONVILLE, N.Y. (NEWS10)– Police are asking the public for help in the six-year-long cold case of Megan Dyer-Maclean. Dyer-Maclean was last seen alive on June 2, 2018, before she was found dead along an old railroad track near her home two days later.

    “We are working with a firm that specializes in Cold Case homicides they came in a couple weeks ago to do a full review of the case,” said Rensselaer County Sheriff, Kyle Bourgault. 

    The sheriff’s office took the NEWS10 crew behind the scenes to a never-before-seen murder investigation room to get a feel for that work and the work that continues to be done. “I have four and a half years left of my career to make my 20, but I plan on not leaving until this case is solved,” said Investigations Sargeant, Jamie Panichi.

    They said that two years after Megan’s death they began investigating her death as a homicide. The sheriff’s office confirmed a toxicology report found high levels of strychnine in Megan’s system. The sheriff’s investigations team described the scene as the body being tossed and discarded somewhere along a trail behind their home in Johnsonville.

    The sheriff’s office revealed there was a bruise on the top of Megan’s head that was about the size of a quarter or the head of a hammer.

    While investigating her death they said they uncovered that her husband, Duncan Maclean, was involved in a 2017 assault with a hammer. Maclean was sentenced to eight and a half years in state prison with five years of post-release supervision.

    The sheriff is certain that the public has the answer his team is looking for. “Somebody knows something about where that strychnine came from. Whether it came from an old barn, or where it came from an old outhouse or garage, somebody knows where that came from and we’re looking to talk to that person,” said the sheriff.

    Investigations Sergeant Jamie Panichi, who has been on this case from day one, refuses to give up.

    “We visit her, we just let her know that she hasn’t been forgotten about. We’re still working on it, it’s an open case and we’re going to do everything we can to solve it,” explained Panichi.

    The sheriff’s office is asking that anyone with information on this case to call investigators at (518) 270-0128 through a confidential crime tip line.

    Caton Deuso

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  • Shooting in Delaware County leaves one juvenile killed, another injured

    Shooting in Delaware County leaves one juvenile killed, another injured

    A Friday afternoon shooting in Delaware County resulted in the death of one juvenile boy and another being injured.

    MORE: Demonstration erupts at Penn after pro-Palestinian protesters attempt to occupy academic building

    Officers from the Collingdale Police Department responded to a report of a shooting at the 100 block of Lafayette Avenue around 4:20 p.m. Upon their arrival, they found the two victims.

    One had received a gunshot wound in the torso, while the other was shot in the foot. EMS units took the two victims to Crozer-Chester Medical Center for their injuries.

    The victim suffering a gunshot wound in the torso was pronounced dead by emergency department staff shortly after his arrival. Police have not commented on the status of the other victim.

    Police also have not released the names of either of the victims nor have they commented on any suspects or potential motivations.

    Local officials urge anyone with information on the matter to contact Collingdale Police Department Sergeant Patrick Crozier at (610) 586-0502 or Delaware County Criminal Investigative Division Detective Michael Jay at (610) 891-4161.

    Chris Compendio

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  • Houston police chief retires after questions about 260,000-plus suspended investigations

    Houston police chief retires after questions about 260,000-plus suspended investigations

    Houston’s police chief unexpectedly retired from the force Tuesday night amid questions about a department policy that allowed hundreds of thousands of cases to be suspended, including sexual abuse cases, according to the mayor’s office.Troy Finner had served as the chief of the Houston Police Department since 2021, capping off a 34-year career with the department.”I consider Troy Finner a friend. It was tough to accept his retirement, but it was in the best interest of Houstonians,” Houston Mayor John Whitmire said in an impromptu news conference Wednesday.The retirement announcement came hours after an internal email obtained by CNN affiliate KHOU showed Finner referring to an investigation being suspended due to “lack of personnel,” in 2018, three years before he had said he was aware of the policy. Finner was executive assistant chief over patrol operations at the time the email was written.At a February news conference, Finner said he didn’t know about the practice until 2021, the year he became chief, when he ordered the department’s Special Victims Division to stop using the “lack of personnel” code to suspended investigations.Finner said in April the police department had made progress reviewing about 264,000 investigations that were suspended since 2016 citing only lack of personnel. More than 4,000 of those cases involved allegations of adult sex crimes. An independent review committee is also investigating.In a statement issued Tuesday night after the KHOU report aired, Finner said, “I have always been truthful and have never set out to mislead anyone about anything, including this investigation.”The outgoing chief said he did not know about the “suspended lack of personnel” codes used by Houston police at the time, despite it being mentioned in the email.Finner’s statement promised he would “address the media and the public” once the investigation was complete. The mayor informed the city council of Finner’s retirement later that night.Larry Satterwhite was appointed acting police chief by Whitmire Wednesday. Satterwhite served as executive assistant chief under Finner. The mayor declined to say whether he had asked for Finner’s retirement.”It was affecting operations at HPD. That’s the bottom line,” Whitmire told reporters Wednesday. “I dealt with it because it was a distraction to the mission of the men and women in HPD.”Finner did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CNN.As of Wednesday afternoon, the police department had not officially announced the change of leadership.

    Houston’s police chief unexpectedly retired from the force Tuesday night amid questions about a department policy that allowed hundreds of thousands of cases to be suspended, including sexual abuse cases, according to the mayor’s office.

    Troy Finner had served as the chief of the Houston Police Department since 2021, capping off a 34-year career with the department.

    “I consider Troy Finner a friend. It was tough to accept his retirement, but it was in the best interest of Houstonians,” Houston Mayor John Whitmire said in an impromptu news conference Wednesday.

    The retirement announcement came hours after an internal email obtained by CNN affiliate KHOU showed Finner referring to an investigation being suspended due to “lack of personnel,” in 2018, three years before he had said he was aware of the policy.

    Finner was executive assistant chief over patrol operations at the time the email was written.

    At a February news conference, Finner said he didn’t know about the practice until 2021, the year he became chief, when he ordered the department’s Special Victims Division to stop using the “lack of personnel” code to suspended investigations.

    Finner said in April the police department had made progress reviewing about 264,000 investigations that were suspended since 2016 citing only lack of personnel. More than 4,000 of those cases involved allegations of adult sex crimes. An independent review committee is also investigating.

    In a statement issued Tuesday night after the KHOU report aired, Finner said, “I have always been truthful and have never set out to mislead anyone about anything, including this investigation.”

    The outgoing chief said he did not know about the “suspended lack of personnel” codes used by Houston police at the time, despite it being mentioned in the email.

    Finner’s statement promised he would “address the media and the public” once the investigation was complete. The mayor informed the city council of Finner’s retirement later that night.

    Larry Satterwhite was appointed acting police chief by Whitmire Wednesday. Satterwhite served as executive assistant chief under Finner. The mayor declined to say whether he had asked for Finner’s retirement.

    “It was affecting operations at HPD. That’s the bottom line,” Whitmire told reporters Wednesday. “I dealt with it because it was a distraction to the mission of the men and women in HPD.”

    Finner did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CNN.

    As of Wednesday afternoon, the police department had not officially announced the change of leadership.

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  • For-profit beauty school settles class-action lawsuit – The Hechinger Report

    For-profit beauty school settles class-action lawsuit – The Hechinger Report

    After four years battling a chain of for-profit cosmetology schools in court, and many more years struggling with debts caused by those schools, about 150 students will receive some financial relief.

    As part of a settlement finalized this week in a class action lawsuit, La’ James International College, which is based in Iowa, will pay current and former students who joined the lawsuit $1,500 each. It will also discharge debts those students owed to the school and make changes in how it communicates about financial aid.

    The suit was brought against La’ James International College in 2020 following a Hechinger Report investigation into cosmetology schools in Iowa. Our reporting showed how the business model of beauty schools can help for-profit schools rake in profits while pushing students deep into debt for an ultimately low-paying career.

    Related: Become a lifelong learner. Subscribe to our free weekly newsletter to receive our comprehensive reporting directly in your inbox.

    The lawsuit, which was brought on behalf of current and former students by the nonprofit legal and advocacy organization Student Defense, accused La’ James of delaying financial aid payments and causing them financial hardship in violation of the Iowa Consumer Fraud Act.

    “Students rely on their financial aid to stay afloat while they pursue their goals – and La’ James pulled that out from under them,” Student Defense’s litigation director, Eric Rothschild, said in a statement. “When for-profit colleges engage in such practices, hard-working students pay the price.”

    La’ James did not respond to request for comment.

    Most colleges disburse financial aid each semester, but beauty schools work differently. Students are required to clock a certain number of hours either in class or working in the school’s salon practicing their skills on paying customers. Financial aid payments are supposed to be made after students hit certain hour benchmarks, but students said La’ James often delayed those payments for months, so that they had to take out other loans to meet daily living expenses.

    Cosmetology students in Iowa must complete more hours of training than those in any other state: 2,100 hours. (Most states require 1,500 hours.) Many for-profit beauty schools in Iowa have fought fiercely to keep it this way, lobbying hard against proposed changes. The state cosmetology school association has also protected its monopoly in this educational market, suing a community college that wanted to open a cosmetology program in 2005.

    Related: Tangled up in debt

    Many Iowa cosmetologists told Hechinger reporters that they spent a significant portion of their clock hours sitting around waiting for customers, not learning or practicing anything.

    A Hechinger analysis showed that the more time a state requires for cosmetology training, the more debt aspiring hairdressers tend to take on. Yet the median annual pay for a cosmetologist is $35,000. 

    According to the most recent federal data, La’ James programs cost up to $20,000, while graduates from their schools make anywhere from $23,000 to $30,000 annually.

    The Student Defense lawsuit is not the first time the school has found itself in legal jeopardy. The chain was sued in 2014 by the Iowa attorney general’s office, which accused it of deceptive marketing and enrollment practices. That suit resulted in a settlement in which La’ James forgave more than $2 million in student debt, paid a $500,000 fine and agreed to not make false or misleading statements about financial aid disbursements.

    In 2021, however, the attorney general’s office found that the school was misleading students about financial aid, and once again entered into a settlement where the school forgave more than $460,000 in institutional debt.

    This story about cosmetology schools was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter.

    The Hechinger Report provides in-depth, fact-based, unbiased reporting on education that is free to all readers. But that doesn’t mean it’s free to produce. Our work keeps educators and the public informed about pressing issues at schools and on campuses throughout the country. We tell the whole story, even when the details are inconvenient. Help us keep doing that.

    Join us today.

    Sarah Butrymowicz and Meredith Kolodner

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  • More than $300,000 in designer handbags stolen from Cape May shop during smash-and-grab burglary

    More than $300,000 in designer handbags stolen from Cape May shop during smash-and-grab burglary

    Burglars broke into a Cape May jeweler early Sunday morning and made off with vintage Chanel, Christian Dior and Louis Vuitton handbags valued at more than $300,000, the store said.

    Queen May Jewelry, which sells designer purses in addition to rings and necklaces, posted surveillance video on Instagram of three people in hooded sweatshirts smashing the glass of the shop’s front door and then climbing through to grab armfuls of merchandise.

    MORE: Dave & Buster’s plan to allow gambling on arcade games raises questions about its legality

    The jeweler said the burglary occurred at 2:59 a.m. Sunday, and is asking for the public’s help in identifying the thieves. On Monday, an employee said there had been no updates in the case, but that Cape May Police are investigating.

    A dispatcher for Cape May County Communications added that officers are asking nearby businesses for surveillance footage as part of their investigation.

    The stolen items include a 1961 Gucci tote, a vintage Chanel camera bag and a Louis Vuitton soccer ball made for France’s 1998 World Cup victory. Queen May Jewelry also mentioned a “rare” Louis Vuitton trunk, inscribed with the name Jenny Hecht, in its Instagram post. The store provided the serial numbers of the roughly 40 stolen items in its post and asked customers to forward the information to pawn shops and secondhand sellers. 

    A couple of the stolen pieces are pictured below: 

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    Kristin Hunt

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  • Colorado lawmakers’ latest police oversight bill would protect whistleblowers from retaliation

    Colorado lawmakers’ latest police oversight bill would protect whistleblowers from retaliation

    Former Edgewater police officer McKinzie Rees hopes to serve and protect again, but first she must get her name removed from a so-called “bad cops list” maintained by the Colorado Attorney General’s Office. It landed there, she said, as retaliation after she reported sexual assaults by a supervising sergeant.

    That sergeant went on to work for another police department until this year, when he pleaded guilty to unlawful sexual contact and misconduct and was sentenced, more than four years after the assaults and retaliation against Rees.

    She testified to the state’s House Judiciary Committee this week that, even after her attacker was exposed, her complaint about still being listed as a problem police officer “is falling on deaf ears every time.”

    Rees’ testimony, echoed by other frontline police officers from Colorado Springs and Denver about retaliation they faced after reporting misconduct, is driving state lawmakers’ latest effort at police oversight. Fresh legislation would require investigations of all alleged misconduct and increase protection for whistleblowers.

    But the bill, titled “Law Enforcement Misconduct,” faces resistance from police chiefs, sheriffs, district attorneys and the Fraternal Order of Police who contend it would complicate police work and lead to unnecessary prosecutions.

    While state leaders “are committed to addressing police misconduct,” the requirement that all allegations must be investigated could create “a caustic culture” within police agencies, said Colorado Department of Public Safety executive director Stan Hilkey in testimony to lawmakers during a hearing Tuesday.

    “This bill is harmful to the mission of public safety,” Hilkey said, raising concerns it would lead to police “watching each other … instead of going out and responding to and preventing crime.”

    The legislation, House Bill 1460, won approval on a 6-5 vote in the House Judiciary Committee. It would require investigations of all alleged misconduct by police, correctional officers and others who enforce the law in Colorado. Officers who report misconduct would gain the ability to file lawsuits if complaints aren’t investigated or they face retaliation.

    Key elements under discussion include a provision bolstering the attorney general’s power to add and remove names from the Police Officer Standards and Training database, which bars future employment, and to compel police agencies to provide information for managing that list.

    Other provisions would require longer retention of police records and prohibit government agencies from charging fees for making unedited police body-worn camera videos available for public scrutiny.

    Investigating all alleged misconduct is projected to cost millions of dollars as state agencies face increased workloads, requiring more employees in some agencies, and increased litigation and liability expenses.

    Lawmakers sponsoring the bill have agreed to remove a provision that would have established a new misdemeanor crime for officers who fail to report misconduct by their peers.

    But the increased protection for whistleblowers is essential, said Rep. Leslie Herod, a Denver Democrat, in an interview.

    “People need those protections now. This would ensure good officers can be good officers and bad officers who cover up for bad officers no longer can be on the force,” said Herod, who introduced the legislation on April 17.

    Most police officers “do great work,” sponsor says

    The bill would build on police accountability laws passed following the 2020 Minneapolis police murder of George Floyd, which sparked street protests, Herod said.

    “We still have more work to do. There’s no one-shot bill that will fix police accountability in the state,” she said.

    “The majority of police officers in Colorado do great work. We need to make sure we have protections in place when that doesn’t happen. This is just as important as any other issue we are debating in Colorado.”

    The late-in-the-session legislation would affect the 246 police agencies and 12,000 sworn officers around Colorado. It began when Rees and other police whistleblowers who had faced retaliation approached lawmakers.

    For Rees, 30, who now supports herself by pet-sitting, the feeling of still being punished — and prevented from continuing a career she worked toward since childhood — “is horrible,” said in an interview.

    “There should always be checks and balances,” she said. “It is exhausting trying to figure this out. You just get this runaround. There’s no way out.”

    Rees told lawmakers that she reported two sexual assaults in 2019 by the sergeant to colleagues, seeking protection under internal agency protocols and as a whistleblower under existing state laws.

    “Instead, I got served the ultimate sentence of no protection,” she said.

    This year, after his dismissal from the Black Hawk Police Department, former Edgewater police Sgt. Nathan Geerdes, who was indicted by a grand jury in 2022 on four counts of unlawful sexual contact and one count of witness retaliation, pleaded guilty to unlawful sexual contact, first-degree official misconduct and forgery as part of a plea deal. He was sentenced in Jefferson County District Court to four years of probation.

    Edgewater police officer Ed McCallin also testified, describing the retaliation he faced after he became aware “that a senior officer had sexually assaulted a junior officer” — referring to Rees — and then “weaponized” the state’s database against her.

    “I was asked to cover that up by my police chief,” he said. “I was threatened with internal investigations twice” and “had to meet with a city council member to save my job for doing the right thing.”

    When he went to the Fraternal Order of Police for guidance in the case, McCallin said, a contract attorney advised him “to look the other way.”

    “We just need more time,” sheriff says

    Colorado law enforcement group leaders and police advocates said their main concern was that they weren’t consulted by sponsors of this legislation.

    “We just need more time to dive into this,” Arapahoe County Sheriff Tyler Brown, representing the County Sheriffs of Colorado, told lawmakers.

    Herod acknowledged “miscalculation” in not consulting with law enforcement brass in advance.

    She and co-sponsor Rep. Jennifer Bacon, a Denver Democrat serving as vice chair of the House Judiciary Committee, said they lined up meetings this week to hash out language and amendments before the bill advances.

    Rep. Mike Weissman, who chairs the committee, agreed that support from law enforcement leaders would be crucial but added that he understood the “guardedness” of the bill sponsors, “given how these issues can go in this building.”

    District attorneys from Jefferson and El Paso counties objected to the proposed requirement that every misconduct claim must be investigated, saying it would create conflicts in carrying out their professional duties.

    Several lawmakers raised concerns about language in the bill, such as “unlawful behavior.” Rep. Matt Soper, a Delta Republican, said a police officer who was sexually assaulted and chose not to report the crime “could become caught up in the system” for failing to report misconduct. Or police who might have to make an illegal U-turn while chasing a suspect, hypothetically, would have to be investigated, he said.

    But the lawmakers broadly supported the efforts aimed at making sure the Attorney General’s Office manages the database of police transgressors properly.

    The committee’s bill supporters said the compelling testimony from the Edgewater officers and other whistleblowers persuaded them that there’s an undeniable problem to address.

    Bruce Finley

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  • Penn State Scandal Fast Facts | CNN

    Penn State Scandal Fast Facts | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    Here’s a look at the Penn State sexual abuse scandal. On November 4, 2011, a grand jury report was released containing testimony that former Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky sexually abused eight young boys over a period of at least 15 years. Officials at Penn State purportedly failed to notify law enforcement after learning about some of these incidents. On December 7, 2011, the number of victims increased to 10. Sandusky was found guilty in 2012.

    Included is a timeline of accusations, lists of the charges against Sandusky, a list of involved parties, a post grand jury report timeline, information about The Second Mile charity and Sandusky with links to the grand jury investigation.

    Jerry Sandusky

    Birth date: January 26, 1944

    Birth place: Washington, Pennsylvania

    Birth name: Gerald Arthur Sandusky

    Marriage: Dorothy “Dottie” (Gross) Sandusky (1966-present)

    Children: (all adopted) E.J., Kara, Jon, Jeff, Ray and Matt. The Sanduskys also fostered several children.

    Occupation: Assistant football coach at Penn State for 32 years before his retirement, including 23 years as defensive coordinator.

    Initially founded by Sandusky in 1977 as a group foster home for troubled boys, but grew into a non-profit organization that “helps young people to achieve their potential as individuals and community members.”

    May 25, 2012 – The Second Mile requests court approval in Centre County, Pennsylvania, to transfer its programs to Arrow Child & Family Ministries and shut down.

    August 27, 2012 – The Second Mile requests a stay in their petition to transfer its programs to Arrow Child & Family Ministries saying, “this action will allow any pending or future claims filed by Sandusky’s victims to be resolved before key programs or assets are considered for transfer.”

    March 2016 – After years of dismantling and distributing assets to Arrow Child & Family Ministries and any remaining funds to the Pennsylvania Attorney General to hold in escrow, the organization is dissolved.

    Source: Grand Jury Report

    1994-1997 – Sandusky engages in inappropriate conduct with different boys he met separately through The Second Mile program.

    1998 – Penn State police and the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare investigate an incident in which the mother of an 11-year-old boy reported that Sandusky showered with her son.

    1998 – Psychologist Alycia Chambers tells Penn State police that Sandusky acted the way a pedophile might in her assessment of a case in which the mother of a young boy reported that Sandusky showered with her son and may have had inappropriate contact with him. A second psychologist, John Seasock, reported he found no indication of child abuse.

    June 1, 1998 – In an interview, Sandusky admits to showering naked with the boy, saying it was wrong and promising not to do it again. The district attorney advises investigators that no charges will be filed, and the university police chief instructs that the case be closed.

    June 1999 – Sandusky retires from Penn State after coaching there for 32 years, but receives emeritus status, with full access to the campus and football facilities.

    2000 – James Calhoun, a janitor at Penn State, tells his supervisor and another janitor that he saw Sandusky sexually abusing a young boy in the Lasch Building showers. No one reports the incident to university officials or law enforcement.

    March 2, 2002 – Graduate Assistant Mike McQueary tells Coach Joe Paterno that on March 1, he witnessed Sandusky sexually abusing a 10-year-old boy in the Lasch Building showers. On May 7, 2012, prosecutors file court documents to change the date of the assault to on or around February 9, 2001.

    March 3, 2002 – Paterno reports the incident to Athletic Director Tim Curley. Later, McQueary meets with Curley and Senior Vice President for Finance and Business Gary Schultz. McQueary testifies that he told Curley and Schultz that he saw Sandusky and the boy engage in anal sex; Curley and Schultz testify they were not told of any such allegation. No law enforcement investigation is launched.

    2005 or 2006 – Sandusky befriends another Second Mile participant whose allegations would form the foundation of the multi-year grand jury investigation.

    2006 or 2007 – Sandusky begins to spend more time with the boy, taking him to sporting events and giving him gifts. During this period, Sandusky performs oral sex on the boy more than 20 times and the boy performs oral sex on him once.

    2008 – The boy breaks off contact with Sandusky. Later, his mother calls the boy’s high school to report her son had been sexually assaulted and the principal bans Sandusky from campus and reports the incident to police. The ensuing investigation reveals 118 calls from Sandusky’s home and cell phone numbers to the boy’s home.

    November 2008 – Sandusky informs The Second Mile that he is under investigation. He is removed from all program activities involving children, according to the group.

    November 4, 2011 – The grand jury report is released.

    November 5, 2011 – Sandusky is arraigned on 40 criminal counts. He is released on $100,000 bail. Curley and Schultz are each charged with one count of felony perjury and one count of failure to report abuse allegations.

    November 7, 2011 – Curley and Schultz are both arraigned and resign from their positions.

    November 9, 2011 – Paterno announces that he intends to retire at the end of the 2011 football season. Hours later, university trustees announce that President Graham Spanier and Coach Paterno are fired, effective immediately.

    November 11, 2011 – McQueary, now a Penn State receivers’ coach, is placed on indefinite administrative leave.

    November 14, 2011 – In a phone interview with NBC’s Bob Costas, Sandusky states that he is “innocent” of the charges and claims that the only thing he did wrong was “showering with those kids.”

    November 15, 2011 – The Morning Call reports that in a November 8, 2011, email to a former classmate, McQueary says he did stop the 2002 assault he witnessed and talked with police about it.

    November 16, 2011 – Representatives of Penn State’s campus police and State College police say they have no record of having received any report from McQueary about his having witnessed the rape of a boy by Sandusky.

    November 16, 2011 – A new judge is assigned to the Sandusky case after it is discovered that Leslie Dutchcot, the judge who freed Sandusky on $100,000 bail, volunteered at The Second Mile charity.

    November 21, 2011 – It is announced that former FBI Director Louis Freeh will lead an independent inquiry for Penn State into the school’s response to allegations of child sex abuse.

    November 22, 2011 – The Patriot-News reports that Children and Youth Services in Pennsylvania has two open cases of child sex abuse against Sandusky. The cases were reported less than two months ago and are in the initial stages of investigation.

    November 22, 2011 – The Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts announces that all Centre County Common Pleas Court judges have recused themselves from the Sandusky case. This is to avoid any conflicts of interest due to connections with Sandusky, The Second Mile charity, or Penn State.

    November 30, 2011 – The first lawsuit is filed on behalf of a person listed in the complaint as “John Doe,” who says he was 10 years-old when he met Sandusky through The Second Mile charity. His attorneys say Sandusky sexually abused the victim “over one hundred times” and threatened to harm the victim and his family if he alerted anyone to the abuse.

    December 2, 2011 – A victim’s attorneys say they have reached a settlement with The Second Mile that allows it to stay in operation but requires it to obtain court approval before transferring assets or closing.

    December 3, 2011 – In an interview with The New York Times, Sandusky says, “If I say, ‘No, I’m not attracted to young boys,’ that’s not the truth. Because I’m attracted to young people – boys, girls – I …” His lawyer speaks up at that point to note that Sandusky is not “sexually” attracted to them.

    December 7, 2011 – Sandusky is arrested on additional child rape charges, which raises the number of victims from eight to 10 people. He is charged with four counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and two counts of unlawful contact with a minor. He also faces one new count of indecent assault and two counts of endangering a child’s welfare, in addition to a single new count of indecent assault and two counts of corruption of minors.

    December 8, 2011 – Sandusky is released on $250,000 bail. He is placed under house arrest and is required to wear an electronic monitoring device. He is also restricted from contacting the victims and possible witnesses, and he must be supervised during any interactions with minors.

    December 13, 2011 – Sandusky enters a plea of not guilty and waives his right to a preliminary hearing.

    December 16, 2011 – A hearing is held for Curley and Schultz. McQueary testifies he told university officials that he saw Sandusky possibly sexually assaulting a boy in 2002. Following the testimony, the judge rules that the perjury case against Curley and Schultz will go to trial. The incident is later said to have happened in 2001.

    January 13, 2012 – Curley and Schultz enter pleas of not guilty for their failure to report child sex abuse.

    January 22, 2012 – Paterno dies at the age of 85.

    February 14, 2012 – Penn State says that the Sandusky case has cost the university $3.2 million thus far in combined legal, consultant and public relations fees.

    June 11, 2012 – The Sandusky trial begins. On June 22, Sandusky is found guilty on 45 counts after jurors deliberate for almost 21 hours. His bail is immediately revoked, and he is taken to jail.

    June 30, 2012 – McQueary’s contract as assistant football coach ends.

    July 12, 2012 – Freeh announces the findings of the investigation into Penn State’s actions concerning Sandusky. The report accuses the former leaders at Penn State of showing “total and consistent disregard” for child sex abuse victims, while covering up the attacks of a longtime sexual predator.

    July 23, 2012 – The NCAA announces a $60 million fine against Penn State and bans the team from the postseason for four years. Additionally, the school must vacate all wins from 1998-2011 and will lose 20 football scholarships a year for four seasons.
    – The Big Ten Conference rules that Penn State’s share of bowl revenues for the next four seasons – roughly $13 million will be donated to charities working to prevent child abuse.

    August 24, 2012 – “Victim 1” files a lawsuit against Penn State.

    September 20, 2012 – Penn State hires Feinberg Rozen LLP (headed by Kenneth Feinberg who oversaw the 9/11 and BP oil spill victim funds).

    October 2, 2012 – McQueary files a whistleblower lawsuit against Penn State.

    October 8, 2012 – An audio statement from Sandusky airs in which he protests his innocence and says he is falsely accused.

    October 9, 2012 – Sandusky is sentenced to no less than 30 years and no more than 60 years in prison. During the hearing, Sandusky is designated a violent sexual offender.

    October 15, 2012 – Plaintiff “John Doe,” a 21-year-old male, files a lawsuit against Sandusky, Penn State, The Second Mile, Spanier, Curley and Schultz. Doe alleges that he would not have been assaulted by Sandusky if officials, who were aware he was molesting boys, had not covered up his misconduct.

    November 1, 2012 – The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania files eight charges against former Penn State President Spanier. The charges include perjury and endangering the welfare of a child. Former university Vice President Schultz and former Athletic Director Curley face the same charges, according to Attorney General Linda Kelly.

    November 15, 2012 – The Middle States Commission on Higher Education lifts its warning and reaffirms Penn State’s accreditation.

    January 30, 2013 – Judge John M. Cleland denies Sandusky’s appeal for a new trial.

    July 30, 2013 – A judge rules that Spanier, Curley and Schultz will face trial on obstruction of justice and other charges.

    August 26, 2013 – Attorneys announce Sandusky’s adopted son and six other victims have finalized settlement agreements.

    October 2, 2013 – The Superior Court of Pennsylvania denies Sandusky’s appeal.

    October 28, 2013 – Penn State announces it has reached settlements with 26 victims of Sandusky. The amount paid by the university totals $59.7 million.

    April 2, 2014 – The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania also denies Sandusky’s appeal.

    September 8, 2014 – NCAA ends Penn State’s postseason ban and scholarship limits. The $60 million fine and the 13 years of vacated wins for Paterno remain in place.

    January 16, 2015 – The NCAA agrees to restore 111 of Paterno’s wins as part of a settlement of the lawsuit brought by State Senator Jake Corman and Treasurer Rob McCord. Also, as part of the settlement, Penn State agrees to commit $60 million to the prevention and treatment of child sexual abuse.

    December 23, 2015 – A spokeswoman for the State of Pennsylvania employee retirement system says Sandusky will receive $211,000 in back payments and his regular pension payments will resume. This is the result of a November 13 court ruling that reversed a 2012 decision to terminate Sandusky’s pension under a state law that allows the termination of pensions of public employees convicted of a “disqualifying crime.” The judge said in his ruling that Sandusky was not employed at the time of the crimes he was convicted of committing.

    January 22, 2016 – A three-judge panel reverses the obstruction of justice and conspiracy charges against Spanier, Curley and Schultz, and the perjury charges against Spanier and Curley.

    May 4, 2016 – A new allegation purports Paterno knew that his assistant coach Sandusky was sexually abusing a child as early as 1976, according to a new court filing. The ongoing lawsuit, filed in 2013, seeks to determine whether Penn State or its insurance policy is liable for paying Sandusky’s victims. At least 30 men were involved in a civil settlement with Penn State, and the number of victims could be higher.

    May 6, 2016 – CNN reports the story of another alleged victim who explains how he was a troubled young kid in 1971 when Sandusky raped him in a Penn State bathroom. He says his complaint about it was ignored by Paterno.

    July 12, 2016 – Newly unsealed court documents allege that Paterno knew about Sandusky’s abuse and that he dismissed a victim’s complaint.

    August 12, 2016 – In a bid for a new trial, Sandusky testifies at a post-conviction hearing claiming his lawyers bungled his 2012 trial. On the stand, Sandusky describes what he said as bad media and legal advice given to him by his former lawyer, Joseph Amendola.

    November 3, 2016 – The Department of Education fines Penn State $2.4 million for violating the Clery Act, a law that requires universities to report crime on campuses. It’s the largest fine in the history of the act.

    March 13, 2017 – Curley and Schultz plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge of endangering the welfare of children in exchange for the dismissal of felony charges.

    March 24, 2017 – Spanier is found guilty on one misdemeanor count of endangering the welfare of a child. Spanier was acquitted of more serious allegations, including conspiracy charges and a felony count of child endangerment.

    June 2, 2017 – Spanier and two other former administrators are sentenced to jail terms for failing to report a 2001 allegation that Sandusky was molesting young boys. Spanier whose total sentence is four to 12 months incarceration, will be on probation for two years and must pay a $7,500 fine, according to Joe Grace, a spokesman for Pennsylvania’s attorney general’s office.

    – Curley is sentenced to seven to 23 months’ incarceration and two years’ probation, Grace said. He will serve three months in jail followed by house arrest and pay a $5,000 fine.

    – Schultz is sentenced to six to 23 months’ incarceration and two years’ probation. He will serve two months in jail, followed by house arrest and pay a $5,000 fine, according to Grace.

    January 9, 2018 – Penn State reports that the total amount of settlement awards paid to Sandusky’s victims is now over $109 million.

    February 5, 2019 – In response to an appeal for a new trial that also questions the validity of mandatory minimum sentencing, the Superior Court of Pennsylvania orders Sandusky to be re-sentenced. The request for a new trial is denied.

    April 30, 2019 – US Magistrate Judge Karoline Mehalchick vacates Spanier’s 2017 conviction for endangering the welfare of a child. Spanier was set to be sentenced on the one count conviction, instead, the court ordered the conviction be vacated because it was based on a criminal statute that did not go into effect until after the conduct in question. The state has 90 days to retry him, according to court documents. The following month, Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro appeals the judge’s decision to throw out the conviction.

    November 22, 2019 – Sandusky is resentenced to 30 to 60 years in prison, the same penalty that was previously overturned. The initial sentence of at least 30 years in prison was overturned by the Pennsylvania Superior Court, which found that mandatory minimum sentences were illegally imposed.

    March 26, 2020 – The US Office for Civil Rights finds that Penn State failed to protect students who filed sexual harassment complaints. OCR completed the compliance review after it was initially launched in 2014, and found that the University violated Title IX for several years, in various ways. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos announces that the US Department of Education and the university have entered into a resolution agreement that compels Penn State to address deficiencies in their complaint process, reporting policy requirements, record keeping, and training of staff, university police and other persons who work with students.

    December 1, 2020 – Spanier’s conviction is restored by a federal appeals court.

    May 26, 2021 – A judge rules that Spanier will start his two month prison sentence on July 9. Spanier reports to jail early and is released on August 4 after serving 58 days.

    Sandusky Verdict

    Victim 1
    Count 1 – guilty: Involuntary Deviate Sexual Intercourse (Felony 1)
    Count 2 – guilty: Involuntary Deviate Sexual Intercourse (Felony 1)
    Count 3 – guilty: Indecent Assault (Felony 3)
    Count 4 – guilty: Unlawful Contact with Minors (Felony 1)
    Count 5 – guilty: Corruption of Minors (Misdemeanor 1)
    Count 6 – guilty: Endangering Welfare of Children (Felony 3)

    Victim 2
    Count 7 – not guilty: Involuntary Deviate Sexual Intercourse (Felony 1)
    Count 8 – guilty: Indecent Assault (Misdemeanor 2)
    Count 9 – guilty: Unlawful Contact with Minors (Felony 1)
    Count 10 – guilty: Corruption of Minors (Misdemeanor 1)
    Count 11 – guilty: Endangering Welfare of Children (Misdemeanor 1)

    Victim 3
    Count 12 – guilty: Indecent Assault (Misdemeanor 2)
    Count 13 – guilty: Unlawful Contact with Minors (Felony 3)
    Count 14 – guilty: Corruption of Minors (Misdemeanor 1)
    Count 15 – guilty: Endangering Welfare of Children (Felony 3)

    Victim 4
    Count 16 – ****DROPPED****: Involuntary Deviate Sexual Intercourse (Felony 1)
    Count 17 – guilty: Involuntary Deviate Sexual Intercourse (Felony 1)
    Count 18 – ****DROPPED*****: Involuntary Deviate Sexual Intercourse (Felony 1)
    Count 19 – ****DROPPED*****: Aggravated Indecent Assault (Felony 2)
    Count 20 – guilty: Indecent Assault (Misdemeanor 2)
    Count 21 – guilty: Unlawful Contact with Minors (Felony 1)
    Count 22 – guilty: Corruption of Minors (Misdemeanor 1)
    Count 23 – guilty” Endangering Welfare of Children (Felony 3)

    Victim 5
    Count 24 – not guilty: Indecent Assault (Misdemeanor 1)
    Count 25 – guilty: Unlawful Contact with Minors (Felony 3)
    Count 26 – guilty: Corruption of Minors (Misdemeanor 1)
    Count 27 – guilty: Endangering Welfare of Children (Felony 3)

    Victim 6
    Count 28 – not guilty: Indecent Assault (Misdemeanor 1)
    Count 29 – guilty: Unlawful Contact with Minors (Felony 3)
    Count 30 – guilty: Corruption of Minors (Misdemeanor 1)
    Count 31 – guilty: Endangering Welfare of Children (Misdemeanor 1)

    Victim 7
    Count 32 – guilty: Criminal Attempt to Commit Indecent Assault (Misdemeanor 2)
    Count 33 – ****DROPPED****: WITHDRAWN BY PROSECUTORS (unlawful contact with minors)
    Count 34 – guilty: Corruption of Minors (Misdemeanor 1)
    Count 35 – guilty: Endangering Welfare of Children (Misdemeanor 1)

    Victim 8
    Count 36 – guilty: Involuntary Deviate Sexual Intercourse (Felony 1)
    Count 37 – guilty: Indecent Assault (Misdemeanor 2)
    Count 38 – guilty: Unlawful Contact with Minors (Felony 1)
    Count 39 – guilty: Corruption of Minors (Misdemeanor 1)
    Count 40 – guilty: Endangering Welfare of Children (Misdemeanor 1)

    (Due to 2nd indictment, counts start over with Victims 9 and 10)

    Victim 9
    Count 1 – guilty: Involuntary Deviate Sexual Intercourse (Felony 1)
    Count 2 – guilty: Involuntary Deviate Sexual Intercourse (Felony 1)
    Count 3 – guilty: Indecent Assault (Felony 3)
    Count 4 – guilty: Unlawful Contact with Minors (Felony 1)
    Count 5 – guilty: Corruption of Minors (Misdemeanor 1)
    Count 6 – guilty: Endangering Welfare of Children (Felony 3)

    Victim 10
    Count 7 – guilty: Involuntary Deviate Sexual Intercourse (Felony 1)
    Count 8 – guilty: Involuntary Deviate Sexual Intercourse (Felony 1)
    Count 9 – guilty: Indecent Assault (Misdemeanor 1)
    Count 10 – guilty: Unlawful Contact with Minors (Felony 1)
    Count 11 – guilty: Corruption of Minors (Misdemeanor 1)
    Count 12 – guilty: Endangering Welfare of Children (Felony 3)

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  • Separate shootings across Philly result in 3 deaths and 3 injuries

    Separate shootings across Philly result in 3 deaths and 3 injuries

    Three separate deadly shootings occurred in different locations on Friday, with a total of three individuals killed and three others hospitalized for injuries.

    The first shooting took place in the Kensington neighborhood after 4:30 p.m. on the 2300 block of East Harold Street, killing one man and wounding another.

    Surveillance footage obtained by CBS Philadelphia shows multiple masked men holding two men at gunpoint. The two men were shot inside a residence. 

    One of the victims, age 20, was shot in the head and neck, and the other, age 19, was shot in the leg. Both were taken to Temple University Hospital where the 20-year-old victim was declared dead at 5:06 p.m. Police have reportedly not made any arrests related to the shooting.

    At around 5:25 p.m., police responded to the 5400 block of Chester Avenue, where three individuals were shot. A 20-year-old man suffered gunshot wounds to the neck and back. He was driven to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center and declared dead before 6 p.m., police say.

    The other two victims, a 33-year-old man shot in the leg and a 15-year-old boy shot in the left buttock, were both hospitalized and are expected to recover, according to police, as reported by CBS Philadelphia. Police have not made any arrests and have not recovered any weapons.

    In the Wynnefield neighborhood around 7:40 p.m., a 31-year-old man was shot multiple times on the 2200 block of Bryn Mawr Avenue, 6ABC reports. The victim was taken to Lankenau Medical Center and pronounced dead at 8:04 p.m. Similarly, police reportedly have not made any arrests so far.

    As of April 13, Philadelphia Police recorded 77 homicides in the city in 2024, which is a 35% decrease year-to-date compared to last year.

    Chris Compendio

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  • 4.8-magnitude earthquake rattles Philly and surrounding region

    4.8-magnitude earthquake rattles Philly and surrounding region

    People throughout the Philadelphia region felt their homes and office buildings rumble Friday morning due to an earthquake centered near Califon, New Jersey. The Hunterdon County borough is about 70 miles north of Philly.

    The earthquake had a preliminary magnitude of 4.8, the U.S. Geological Survey said. The USGS initially reported that the quake occurred near Whitehouse Station at 10:23 a.m., but later amended the location. As of 1:40 p.m., no significant damage tied to the earthquake has been reported in the Philadelphia region.

    MORE: Philly bans license plate flippers, which allow drivers to evade tolls, parking tickets and police

    Preliminary data released by USGC indicates the earthquake had a depth of 4.7 kilometers — about 3 miles — putting it in the shallow range of such events. The instruments used to measure the magnitude of earthquakes put it at the upper end of the “light” range, which causes “noticeable shaking of indoor objects and rattling noises” but does not typically result in much damage, if any.

    The earthquake was felt widely from Maine to Washington, D.C., according to the USGS, which based that info on community reports. People who felt the quake can share their experiences with the USGS on this form.

    Jonathan Nyquist, a professor of earth and environmental science at Temple University, said East Coast earthquakes are not unusual, but they tend to be smaller than Friday’s quake. 

    “It’s not the biggest the East Coast ever felt, that’s for sure,” Nyquist said. “But it’s just not common that we get one that people feel all the way from New York down to here.

    “But that’s in part because the crust in the eastern part of the United States is older and colder, and the faults are more healed than out in the western part of the (country). So the crust tends to ring like a bell here. The feelings of a small quake are felt over a larger area than maybe felt in some place like California.”

    The New Jersey Geological & Water Survey, that agency responsible for monitoring seismic activity, reported that Friday’s earthquake did not surpass the strongest ever recorded in the state: a 5.3-magnitude quake that struck in Rockaway Township, Morris County in 1783.

    Aftershocks are likely for one week

    About an hour after the initial earthquake, at 11:20 a.m., the USGS recorded a much weaker 2.0-magnitude tremor 4.3 miles west of Bedminster, New Jersey. That location is not far from where the initial earthquake originated. 

    The USGS aftershock forecast said there is the potential for at least one aftershock during the next week, though any aftershocks are likely to be much weaker than Friday morning’s earthquake and would be contained to a several-mile radius around the epicenter in North Jersey. 

    Nyquist said the initial quake likely was not large enough to produce aftershocks that many people will feel – an assessment supported by the USGS aftershock forecast. 

    “If you have a really big quake, like 6, 7 or 8, something like that, then aftershocks are guaranteed,” Nyquist said. “It’s like crinkling up wrapping paper and then letting your hand go.”

    According to the USGS, there is a 3% chance that a subsequent tremors could register a magnitude greater than 5. In total, the USGS predicts there could be as many as 27 aftershocks with 3-magnitudes or greater, which would be strong enough to be felt near where they originated but unlikely to cause much damage. 

    There is a 45% chance of a 3-magnitude aftershock during the next week, and there is a 0.3% chance a subsequent quake will register more than a 6-magnitude, the agency said.

    The USGS aftershock forecast changes over time, particularly during the 72 hours after the first earthquake. This is because aftershocks decrease as time goes on, but also strong aftershocks can trigger more seismic activity and result in additional aftershocks.

    Should an aftershock occur, people should stay inside, according to Dominick Mireles, director of the city’s Office of Emergency Management. Staying indoors protects people from dangerous debris, falling trees, downed power lines and crumbling buildings. Compared to the earthquake in 2011, fewer people rushed outside on Friday, he said.

    The largest earthquake to be felt in Philadelphia in recent memory was in 2011, when a 5.8 magnitude quake centered outside Richmond, Virginia sent tremors through the city and was felt from Georgia to Canada. More recently, a 4.1-magnitude earthquake occurred in 2017 at a coastal site along the Delaware Bay, about 53 miles south of Philly, and was widely felt in the Mid-Atlantic region and the Northeast.

    Still, Friday’s earthquake was large enough to fuel reactions across the region. Some people reported feeling the ground shake for varying amounts of time.

    “It depends on the ground below your house,” said David Wunsch, Delaware’s state geologist and a professor at the University of Delaware. “If your foundation is on or pretty close to the solid bedrock, that energy is going to transfer a lot more efficiently and it might shake for a lot longer. But if your house is built on sand or the rocks below ground are not solidified, that kind of filters that energy. It depends on the construction of your house, too.”

    Though earthquakes aren’t uncommon in the Northeast, Wunsch said their frequency is best understood when thinking in geological time. 

    “The earth is an active planet and large plates of the earth’s crust are moving around,” he said. “Most of these crustal plates are moving about the rate of our fingernail growth — a couple centimeters per year. But over thousands of years, it equates to a significant amount of movement and that stress builds up.”

    The earthquake in New Jersey happened two days after a 7.2-magnitude earthquake hit Taiwan, killing at least 12 people and leaving hundreds more trapped and injured. It was the biggest earthquake to hit the island in 25 years. It caused extensive damage to Taiwan’s infrastructure and sent tremors through the region — including a tsunami in Japan. The rescue effort in Taiwan continued amid multiple aftershocks as first responders braved the threat of landslides. 

    Wunsch said there’s no basis to assume the earthquake in Taiwan is connected to the one in New Jersey.

    “I don’t think there’s ever been any really good scientific studies that document that one big event spurs on other ones, especially around the globe,” he said. “There will be more research on that. We learn new things all the time as we get better sensitive instruments and satellites that register gravity at very small levels. You never know, we may find correlations like that.”

    The USGS is still collecting data to determine more exact measurements of Friday’s earthquake. Nyquist, who is not part of the USGS, said the exact magnitude likely will be determined by the end of the day. 

    “There’s a whole bunch of seismic monitors all around the place and they all feel at different distances and they use that to triangulate that to get a source,” Nyquist said. “And then they come up with an instant solution for roughly estimating the magnitude, but it takes a while for them to go back and check the records and come up with the final number.”

    Friday’s quake caused little damage

    State and local officials were quick to post information on Friday’s earthquake – in some cases even before the USGS confirmed the quake. 

    By early afternoon, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy had spoken to President Joe Biden about the earthquake. The White House is maintaining contact with federal, state and local officials in the aftermath. 

    Hunterdon County, New Jersey did not report any damage. A county alert said it was closing public libraries and its Division of Public Health Nursing, but all other county buildings remain open. The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities said there was no damage to the state’s gas infrastructure or electric grid.

    PATCO temporarily suspended its service until crews could inspect its system. Service was fully restored by 12:19 p.m.

    Amtrak has enacted speed restrictions in the Northeast while workers inspect its tracks for damage. Riders should expect delays, Amtrak said, but it will waive change and cancellation fees.

    In Pennsylvania, SEPTA said the earthquake did not damage its transit system, or cause any injuries to its riders and employees. All service is continuing to operate on a normal schedule as SEPTA inspects its tunnels, bridges, power facilities and other infrastructure.

    PennDOT said there were no bridges or road closures related to the earthquake. Staffers will be inspecting infrastructure within a 50-mile radius from the epicenter. 

    Philadelphia Police said they received more than 200 calls about the earthquake within 20 minutes, but there was only one report of property damage to a home. Shortly after the earthquake, police had asked people to avoid calling 911 unless they had an emergency to report. 

    At a briefing, Mayor Cherelle Parker said there were no reported injuries or damage to the municipal complex. The Office of Emergency Management said 25 public safety, infrastructure and governmental agencies each reported no significant issues.

    “The city of Philadelphia has come through this earthquake in very good shape,” said Parker, who added that she was not among those to feel it.

    City officials advised people to check the city’s website for updated information and subscribe to ReadyPhiladelphia alerts. Homeowners are advised to regularly take pictures of their property and monitor issues. Doing so can strengthen insurance claims during natural disasters.

    The School District of Philadelphia said the earthquake did not result in any injuries or obvious damage to its buildings. District engineers are inspecting the structural integrity of all school buildings. Students had a half-day on Friday due to previously scheduled parent-teacher conferences. 

    “We’re urging caution due to anticipated aftershocks, but no sporting events or after school events have been cancelled,” district spokesperson Monique Braxton said in an email.

    PhillyVoice staff members Kristin Hunt, Michaela Althouse, Chris Compendio and Jon Tuleya contributed to this article.

    Michael Tanenbaum and John Kopp

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  • Students with disabilities often snared by subjective discipline rules

    Students with disabilities often snared by subjective discipline rules

    For the first 57 minutes of the basketball game between two Bend, Oregon, high school rivals, Kyra Rice stood at the edges of the court taking yearbook photos. With just minutes before the end of the game, she was told she had to move.

    Kyra pushed back: She had permission to stand near the court. The athletic director got involved, Kyra recalled. She let a swear word or two slip. 

    Kyra has anxiety as well as ADHD, which can make her impulsive. Following years of poor  experiences at school, she sometimes became defensive when she felt overwhelmed, said her mom, Jules Rice. 

    But at the game, Kyra said she kept her cool overall. Both she and her mother were shocked to learn the next day that she’d been suspended from school. 

    “OK, maybe she said some bad words, but it’s not enough to suspend her,” Rice said. 

    The incident’s discipline record, provided by Rice, lists a series of categories to explain the suspension: insubordination, disobedience, disrespectful/minor disruption, inappropriate language, non-compliance. 

    Broad and subjective categories like these are cited hundreds of thousands of times a year to justify removing students from school, a Hechinger Report investigation found. The data show that students with disabilities, like Kyra, are more likely than their peers to be punished for such violations. In fact, they’re often more likely to be suspended for these reasons than for other infractions.

    For example, between 2017-18 and 2021-22, Rhode Island students with disabilities were, on average, two and a half times more likely than their peers to be suspended for any reason, but nearly three times more likely to be suspended for insubordination and almost four times more likely to be suspended for disorderly conduct. Similar patterns played out in other states with available data including Massachusetts, Montana and Vermont. 

    Federal law should offer students protections from being suspended for behavior that results from their disability, even if they are being disruptive or insubordinate. But those protections have significant limitations. At the same time, these subjective categories are almost tailor-made to trap students with disabilities, who might have trouble expressing or regulating themselves appropriately.

    Districts have wide discretion in setting their own rules and many students with disabilities quickly earn reputations at school as troublemakers. “Unfortunately, who gets caught up in a lot of the vagueness in the codes of conduct are students with disabilities,” said attorney Robert Tudisco, an expert with Understood.org, a nonprofit that provides resources and support to people with learning and attention disabilities.

    Related: When your disability gets you sent home from school

    Students on the autism spectrum often have a hard time communicating with words and might yell or become aggressive if something upsets them. A student with oppositional defiant disorder is likely to be openly insubordinate to authority, while one with dyslexia might act out when frustrated with schoolwork. Students with ADHD typically have a hard time controlling their impulses.

    Kyra’s disability created challenges throughout her school career in the Bend-La Pine School District. “Nobody really understood her,” Rice said. “She’s a big personality and she’s very impulsive. And impulsivity is what gets kids in trouble and gets kids suspended.” 

    Suspended for…what?

    Students miss hundreds of thousands of school days each year for subjective infractions like defiance and disorderly conduct, a Hechinger investigation revealed. 

    Kyra, now 17, said that too few teachers cared about her individualized education program, or IEP, a document that details the accommodations a student in special education is granted. She’d regularly butt heads with teachers or skip class altogether to avoid them. Her favorite teacher was her special ed teacher. 

    “She understood my ADHD and my other special needs,” Kyra said. “My other teachers didn’t.”

    Scott Maben, district spokesperson, said in an email he could not comment on specific disciplinary matters because of privacy concerns, but that the district had a range of responses to deal with student misconduct and that administrators “carefully consider a response that is commensurate with the violation.” 

    In Oregon, “disruptive conduct” accounted for more than half of all suspensions from 2017-18 to 2021-22. The state department of education includes in that category insubordination and disorderly conduct, as well as harassment, obscene behavior, minor physical altercations, and “other” rule violations. 

    Disruptive behavior is the leading cause of suspensions because of its “inherently subjective nature,” the state department of education’s spokesperson, Marc Siegal, said in an email. He added that the department monitors discipline data for special education disparities and works with school districts on the issue. 

    The primary protections for students with disabilities come from the federal government, through the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA. But that law only requires districts to examine whether a student’s behavior stems from their disability after they have missed 10 total days of school through suspension. 

    At that point, districts are required to hold a manifestation hearing, in which officials must determine whether a student’s behavior was the result of their disability. “That’s where it gets very gray,” Tudisco said. “What happens in the determination of manifestation is very subjective.”

    In his experience, he added, the behavior is almost always connected to a student’s disability, but school districts often don’t see it that way. 

    “Manifestation is not about giving Johnny or Susie a free pass because they have a disability,” Tudisco said. “It’s a process to understand why this behavior occurred so we can do something to prevent it tomorrow.” 

    Related: Senators call for stronger rules to reduce off-the-books suspensions

    The connections are often much clearer to parents. 

    A Rhode Island mother, Pearl, said her daughter was easily overwhelmed in her elementary school classroom in the Bristol Warren Regional School District. (Pearl is being referred to by her middle name because she is still a district parent and fears retaliation.) 

    Her child has autism and easily experiences a sensory overload. If the classroom was too loud or someone new walked in, she might start screaming and get out of her seat, Pearl said. Teachers struggled to calm her down, as other students were escorted out of the room. 

    Sometimes, Pearl was called to pick up her daughter early, in an unrecorded informal removal. A few times, though, she was suspended for disorderly conduct, Pearl recalled. 

    Between 2017-18 and 2020-21, students with disabilities in the Bristol Warren Regional School District made up about 13 percent of the student body, but accounted for 21 percent of suspensions for insubordination and 30 percent of all disorderly conduct suspensions. 

    The district did not respond to repeated requests for comment. 

    The Rhode Island Department of Education collects data on school discipline from districts, but special education and discipline reform advocates in the state say that the agency rarely acts on these numbers. 

    Department spokesperson Victor Morente said in an email that the agency monitors discipline data and is “very clear that suspension should be the last option considered.” He added that the department has published resources about alternatives to suspension and discipline specifically for students with disabilities. 

    A 2016 state law that limits the overall use of out-of-school suspensions also requires that districts examine their data for inequities. Districts that find such disparities are supposed to submit a report to the department of education, said Hannah Stern, a policy associate at the Rhode Island American Civil Liberties Union.

    Her group submits public records requests for copies of their reports every year, but has never received one, she said, “even though almost every single school district exhibits disparities.”

    Related: Sent home early: Lost learning in special education

    Pearl said that her daughter needed one-on-one support in the classroom instead of punishment. “She’s autistic. She’s not going to learn her lesson by suspending her,” Pearl said. “She actually got more scared to go back. She actually felt very unwelcome and very sad.”

    Students with autism often have a hard time connecting their actions to the punishment, said Joanne Quinn, executive director of The Autism Project, a Rhode Island-based group that offers support to family members of people with autism. With suspension, “there’s no learning going on and they’re going to do the same thing incorrectly.”

    Quinn’s group provides training for schools throughout Rhode Island and beyond, aimed at helping teachers understand how the brain functions in people with autism and offering strategies on how to effectively respond to behavior challenges that could easily be labeled disobedient or disorderly. 

    Federal law provides a road map for schools to improve how they respond to misconduct related to a student’s disability. Schools should identify a student’s triggers and create a behavior intervention plan aimed at preventing problems before they start, it says. 

    Related: How a disgraced method of diagnosing learning disabilities persists in our nation’s schools

    But, doing these things well requires time, resources and training that can be in short supply, leaving teachers feeling alone, struggling to maintain order in their classrooms, said Christine Levy, a former special education teacher and administrator who works as an advocate for individual special education students in the Northeast, including Rhode Island. 

    Levy recently worked with a student with disabilities who was suspended after he tickled a peer at a locker on five straight days. But, she said, the situation should have never reached the point of suspension: Educators should have quickly identified what the boy was struggling with and set a plan in motion to help him, including modeling appropriate locker conduct. 

    Had this boy’s teachers done that, the suspension could have been avoided. “The repair of that is so much longer and so much harder to do versus, let’s catch it right away,” she said.

    Cranston Public School officials would regularly call Michelle Gomes and tell her to come get her daughter for misbehaving in class, she said. Credit: Sarah Butrymowicz/The Hechinger Report

    Many parents described similar situations, though, in which a child routinely got in trouble for repeated behavior. When Michelle Gomes’s daughter became upset in her kindergarten classroom, she’d often run out and refuse to come back in. Sometimes, she’d tear things off the walls.

    “Whenever she gets like that, it’s hard to see,” Gomes said. “I hurt for her. It’s like she’s not in control.”

    Gomes received regular calls from Cranston Public School officials to come pick her daughter up. A couple of times, the child was formally suspended, Gomes said. The school described her as a safety risk, Gomes recalled.

    “She obviously doesn’t feel safe herself,” she said. 

    Cranston Public Schools did not respond to requests for comment. 

    Gomes’s daughter had a speech delay and anxiety and qualified for special education services. A private neurological evaluation concluded that she was compensating for that delay with her physical responses, Gomes said. 

    This can be a common cause of behavior challenges for students with disabilities, experts say.

    “Behavior is communication,” said Julian Saavandra, an assistant principal and an expert at Understood.org. “The behavior is trying to tell us something. We as the IEP team, the school team, have to dig deeper.” 

    On her own, Gomes found strategies that helped. Gomes’ child struggled with transitions, so they’d go over her day in advance to prepare her for what to expect. A play therapist taught both her and her daughter breathing exercises. 

    Her daughter was switched to another district school where a social worker would sometimes walk the girl to class. When the child got worked up, she’d sometimes be allowed to sit with that social worker or in the nurse’s office to calm down. That helped, but sometimes, those staff members weren’t available. 

    In the end, Gomes moved her daughter to a school outside the district that was better equipped to help the girl deescalate. Her behavior problems lessened and she started enjoying going to school, Gomes said.

    But Gomes still can’t understand why more teachers weren’t able to help her child regulate herself. “Do we need retraining or do we need new training?” she said. “Because this is mindblowing to me, not one of you can do that.”

    Note: The Hechinger Report’s Fazil Khan had nearly completed the data analysis and reporting for this project when he died in a fire in his apartment building. USA TODAY Senior Data Editor Doug Caruso completed data visualizations for this project based on Khan’s work.

    This story about suspension of students with disabilities was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter.

    The Hechinger Report provides in-depth, fact-based, unbiased reporting on education that is free to all readers. But that doesn’t mean it’s free to produce. Our work keeps educators and the public informed about pressing issues at schools and on campuses throughout the country. We tell the whole story, even when the details are inconvenient. Help us keep doing that.

    Join us today.

    Sarah Butrymowicz, Fazil Khan and Sara Hutchinson

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  • Young children misbehave. Some are suspended for acting their age

    Young children misbehave. Some are suspended for acting their age

    JOHNSBURG, Ill. — A group of fifth grade boys trailed into the conference room in the front office of Johnsburg Elementary School and sat at the table, their feet dangling from the chairs.

    “It was brought to my attention yesterday that there was an incident at football,” Principal Bridget Belcastro said to the group.

    The students tried to explain: One boy pushed a kid, another jumped on the ball, and yet another jumped on the boy on the ball. It depended on who you asked.

    “I tripped — if I did jump on him, I didn’t mean to,” one student said. “Then I got up and turned around and these two were going at each other.”

    Belcastro, listening closely, had the unenviable job of making sense of the accounts and deciding on consequences.

    In elementary schools across the country, an incident as common as a playground fracas over a football could result in kids being suspended.

    A Hechinger analysis of school discipline data from 20 states found widespread use of suspensions for students of all ages for ill-defined, subjective categories of misbehavior, such as disorderly conduct, defiance and insubordination. From 2017 to 2022, state reports cited these categories as a reason for suspension or expulsion more than 2.8 million times.

    Signage throughout Johnsburg Elementary School in Illinois encourages students to regulate their emotions. The school primarily uses social emotional learning interventions instead of exclusionary discipline. Credit: Ariel Gilreath/The Hechinger Report

    In many cases, young students were removed from their classes for behavior that is common for kids their age, according to additional discipline records from half a dozen school districts obtained through public records requests.

    In Montana, students in K-5 made up almost 4,000 suspensions for disorderly conduct. In New Mexico, it was nearly 2,700.

    Elementary school students are often punished for conduct that experts say is developmentally typical of children who are still learning how to behave and appropriately express themselves in school. Even severe behaviors, like kicking or punching peers and teachers, can be a function of young children still figuring out how to regulate their emotions.

    In many other cases, the behavior does not appear serious. In Washington, a kindergarten student was suspended from school for two days for pulling his pants down at recess. A second grader in Rhode Island was suspended when he got mad and ran out of the school building. In Maryland, a third grader was suspended because she yelled when she wasn’t allowed to have cookies, disrupting class.

    At Johnsburg Elementary School, which serves about 350 third through fifth grade students on the northern outskirts of Chicago’s suburbs, administrators are trying to limit the use of suspensions. Student conferences, like the one after the fight during football, are just one piece of a much larger effort aimed at preventing and addressing misbehavior. In the end, the boys didn’t lose time in the classroom, but they were no longer allowed to play football at recess.

    Belcastro’s decision not to suspend the boys was based on research that consistently shows suspending students makes it more difficult for them to succeed academically and more likely they will enter the criminal justice system as adults.

    Suspension can be particularly damaging when doled out to younger students, said Iheoma Iruka, a professor of public policy at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Being kicked out of the classroom can fracture kids’ trust in their teachers and the institution early on. Those early impressions can stay with students and cause long-lasting harm, Iruka said, particularly to students for whom school is the most consistent part of their lives.

    “Over time, it erodes children’s sense of safety. It erodes their relationship with teachers,” said Iruka, who is also the founding director of the Equity Research Action Coalition at UNC, a group that researches and develops policies to address bias in the classroom.

    Classroom posters and signs emphasize how students should behave at Johnsburg Elementary School in Illinois. Credit: Ariel Gilreath/The Hechinger Report

    In part because of concerns like these, advocates and policymakers across the country often focus on the early grades when pushing for discipline reform. At least 17 states and D.C. have passed laws to limit the use of suspension and expulsion for younger children, typically students in pre-K through third or fifth grade. In Illinois, where Johnsburg Elementary School is located, schools are allowed to suspend young students, but legislators passed a law in 2015 that encourages using suspension as a last resort.

    Child development experts say that, ideally, suspensions should be used only in extremely rare circumstances, especially in elementary school.

    Suspended for…what?

    Students miss hundreds of thousands of school days each year for subjective infractions like defiance and disorderly conduct, a Hechinger investigation revealed. 

    Misbehavior at any age is often a symptom of deeper issues, experts say, but young children, especially, struggle to identify those issues and communicate them effectively. Students in the early grades are also still trying to figure out how to function in a school environment.

    “We can hold older students accountable to know the rules of behavior in their schools,” said Maurice Elias, a professor of psychology who researches social emotional learning at Rutgers University. “We certainly can’t expect younger children to know all of those things and to anticipate the consequences of all their actions.”

    And young students need to be specifically taught how to manage their emotions, added Sara Rimm-Kaufman, a professor of education at the University of Virginia.

    “Helping kids understand what’s OK at home might not be OK at school, or making kids feel appreciated, respected, understood — that’s a really important issue and it keeps kids engaged,” she said.

    Teachers at Johnsburg Elementary are trying to do just that.

    The school adopted a new program this year called Character Strong, which is aimed at helping students with coping, emotional regulation, self-management and relationships. A few weeks into the school year, teachers filled out a screener to identify students struggling in those areas.

    A booklet is flipped to a cartoon creature depicting “frustration,” the emotion of the day in school social worker Dawn Mendralla’s office at Johnsburg Elementary School in Illinois. Credit: Ariel Gilreath/The Hechinger Report

    On a Thursday morning in November, four third graders left class to meet with social worker Dawn Mendralla. Twinkling lights lined the ceiling of her office; a small flip book depicting various emotions was opened to a page with a purple creature gritting its teeth and holding up its fists in frustration. A poster on the cabinet said: All feelings are welcome here.

    “Regulation means we’re controlling ourselves, we’re controlling our behaviors, we’re controlling our emotions,” Mendralla said to the students. “Do we have trouble sometimes controlling our behaviors in class? Sometimes we have the urge to talk to our neighbor, or we have the urge to look out the window, or to not pay attention or to fidget with something?”

    Once a week, the identified students attend a group session with Mendralla focused on improving those skills. Children who need more help also briefly check in with Mendralla, individually, every day. Students who misbehave, like the group of boys who got into a fight at recess, are also sent to Belcastro’s office.

    Like other schools throughout the country, Johnsburg Elementary has been dealing with the ongoing impact of the pandemic on children’s behavior.

    “There’s an increase in emotional outbursts, frustration, and they don’t know how to manage their emotions effectively,” Belcastro said. “Secondly, would be social interaction changes, because they weren’t around other kids and other people for so long, they didn’t have that and now they’ve forgotten how or never learned how to make friends.”

    During the 2022-23 school year, Johnsburg Elementary had 687 referrals, or disciplinary write-ups, involving a student misbehaving, up from 222 referrals in 2021-22 and 276 referrals in 2018-19.

    Even with the rise in behavior challenges, the school has tried to limit student suspensions; Through February of this school year, only three students had been given an in-school suspension and one had been sent home.

    Elsewhere, though, the post-pandemic rise in misbehavior has caused some states to backtrack on policies limiting exclusionary discipline and instead made it easier for schools to kick students out of class.

    In Nevada last year, legislators lowered the age at which students can be suspended or expelled from 11 to 6 and made it easier for schools to suspend or expel students.

    In 2023, Kentucky lawmakers gave principals the ability to permanently kick students out of school if they believe the student will “chronically disrupt the education process for other students” and if they have been removed from class three times for being disruptive.

    “There’s just been more and more discipline problems across the nation, and definitely across the state. We’ve just gotta get things under control,” said Rep. Steve Rawlings, who was among the legislation’s sponsors. “We have to prioritize the safety of teachers in the classroom and fellow students so that the focus can be on academics and not be distracted by issues of discipline.”

    Elias and other experts say suspension should act more as a rare safety measure in extreme cases, rather than a disciplinary measure.

    A fourth grade student cuts out a paper turkey he colored in class at Johnsburg Elementary School in Illinois. Students at the school are almost never sent home from school for misbehavior. Credit: Ariel Gilreath/The Hechinger Report

    In the discipline records The Hechinger Report obtained, some school districts reported suspending young children under disruptive conduct for punching peers or throwing items at teachers.

    In such cases, suspension may make sense, experts say, while allowing educators time to develop a longer-term response to the misconduct. But schools should not expect that removing kids from class will magically improve their behavior. 

    “When a child comes back into a classroom after a situation like this, it’s often that there’s just going to be a continuation of what was happening before, unless the child is brought back into the community in a way that changes the direction and nature of the relationships between the child and the people around them,” Rimm-Kaufman said

    That’s something Belcastro has argued as well. Occasionally, there are tensions with parents who want to see other students punished when their own child has been harmed in some way. Belcastro doesn’t’t think that’s an effective approach.

    “Punishments do not change behavior. No kid at this age level considers what the potential consequences might be before they do an action,” Belcastro recalled telling one parent who was upset about a student at the school. “So it really serves no purpose, it’s not helpful. But instead, working to prevent the behavior is what we need to do, so it doesn’t’t happen again.”

    In Mendralla’s room, a small group of fourth grade boys showed up for a group session one day in November. The goal of this weekly session is for students to learn how to better regulate their emotions.

    “What happens when we keep things all to ourselves, things build up, and we keep things bottled up inside us?” Mendralla asked.

    “Then you explode,” a student said. “With emotions.”

    Mendralla asked the students to think of rules they would like to have for these group sessions. A couple of students threw out suggestions: no running around the room, no interrupting, no blaming others, nobody is better than anybody else.

    Another fourth grader raised his hand.

    “If there’s another person making fun of another person because of the way they look and act, don’t join in,” he said. “We don’t know what they’re going through.”

    This story about misbehavior in young children was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter.

    The Hechinger Report provides in-depth, fact-based, unbiased reporting on education that is free to all readers. But that doesn’t mean it’s free to produce. Our work keeps educators and the public informed about pressing issues at schools and on campuses throughout the country. We tell the whole story, even when the details are inconvenient. Help us keep doing that.

    Join us today.

    Ariel Gilreath

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  • Vague school rules at the root of millions of student suspensions

    Vague school rules at the root of millions of student suspensions

    A Rhode Island student smashed a ketchup packet with his fist, splattering an administrator. Another ripped up his school work. The district called it “destruction of school property.” A Washington student turned cartwheels while a PE teacher attempted to give instructions. 

    A pair of Colorado students slid down a dirt path despite a warning. An Ohio 12th grader refused to work while assigned to the in-school suspension room. Then there was the Maryland sixth grader who swore when his computer shut off and responded “my bad” when his teacher addressed his language. 

    Their transgressions all ended the same way: The students were suspended.

    Discipline records state the justification for their removals: These students were disorderly. Insubordinate. Disruptive. Disobedient. Defiant. Disrespectful. 

    At most U.S. public schools, students can be suspended, even expelled, for these ambiguous and highly subjective reasons. This type of punishment is pervasive nationwide, leading to hundreds of thousands of missed days of school every year, and is often doled out for misbehavior that doesn’t seriously hurt anyone or threaten school safety, a Hechinger Report investigation found. 

    Districts cited one of these vague violations as a reason for suspending or expelling students more than 2.8 million times from 2017-18 to 2021-22 across the 20 states that collect this data. That amounted to nearly a third of all punishments recorded by those states. Black students and students with disabilities were more likely than their peers to be disciplined for these reasons. 

    Many discipline reform advocates say that suspensions should be reserved for only the most serious, dangerous behaviors. Those, the analysis found, were much less common. Violations of rules involving alcohol, tobacco or drugs were cited as reasons for ejecting students from classes about 759,000 times, and incidents involving a weapon were cited 131,000 times. Even infractions involving physical violence — such as fighting, assault and battery — were less common, with about 2.3 million instances. (Learn more about the data and how we did our analysis.)

    Because categories like defiance and disorderly conduct are often defined broadly at the state level, teachers and administrators have wide latitude in interpreting them, according to interviews with dozens of researchers, educators, lawyers and discipline reform advocates. That opens the door to suspensions for low-level infractions.  

    “Those are citations you can drive a truck through,” said Jennifer Wood, executive director for the Rhode Island Center for Justice. 

    The Hechinger Report also obtained more than 7,000 discipline records from a dozen school districts across eight states through public records requests. They show a wide range of behavior that led to suspensions for things like disruptive conduct and insubordination. Much of the conduct posed little threat to safety. For instance, students were regularly suspended for being tardy, using a phone during class or swearing. 

    Decades of research have found that students who are suspended from school tend to perform worse academically and drop out at higher rates. Researchers have linked suspensions to lower college enrollment rates and increased involvement with the criminal justice system.

    These findings have spurred some policymakers to try to curtail suspensions by limiting their use to severe misbehavior that could harm others. Last year, California banned all suspensions for willful defiance. Other places, including Philadelphia and New York City, have similarly eliminated suspensions for low-level misconduct. 

    Elsewhere, though, as student behavior has worsened following the pandemic, legislators are calling for stricter discipline policies, concerned for educators who struggle to maintain order and students whose lessons are disrupted. These legislative proposals come despite warnings from experts and even classroom teachers who say more suspensions — particularly for minor, subjective offenses — are not the answer. 

    Roberto J. Rodríguez, assistant U.S. education secretary, said he was concerned by The Hechinger Report’s findings. “We need more tools in the toolkit for our educators and for our principals to be able to respond to some of the social and emotional needs,” he said. “Suspension and expulsion shouldn’t be the only tool that we pull out when we see behavioral issues.”

    Suspended for…what?

    Students miss hundreds of thousands of school days each year for subjective infractions like defiance and disorderly conduct, a Hechinger investigation revealed. 

    Read the series

    In Rhode Island, insubordination was the most common reason for a student to be suspended in the years analyzed. Disorderly conduct was third. 

    In the Cranston Public Schools, these two categories accounted for half of the Rhode Island district’s suspensions in 2021-22. Disorderly conduct alone made up about 38 percent. 

    Behavior that led to a such a suspension there in recent years included:

    • Getting a haircut in the bathroom;
    • Putting a finger through the middle of another student’s hamburger at lunch;
    • Writing swear words in an email exchange with another student;
    • Throwing cut up pieces of paper in the air;
    • Stabbing a juice bottle with a pencil and getting juice all over a table and peers; and
    • Leapfrogging over a peer and “almost” knocking down others.

    Cranston school officials did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

    Rhode Island Department of Education spokesperson Victor Morente said in an email that the agency could not comment on specific causes for suspension, but that the department “continues to underscore that all options need to be exhausted before schools move to suspension.” 

    The department defines disorderly conduct as “Any act which substantially disrupts the orderly conduct of a school function, [or] behavior which substantially disrupts the orderly learning environment or poses a threat to the health, safety, and/or welfare of students, staff, or others.”

    Related: In New York state, students can be suspended for up to an entire school year

    Many states use similarly unspecific language in their discipline codes, if they provide any guidance at all, a review of state policies found. 

    For education departments that do provide definitions to districts, subjectivity is frequently built in. In Louisiana’s state guidance, for instance, “treats authority with disrespect” includes “any act which demonstrates a disregard or interference with authority.”

    Ted Beasley, spokesperson for the Louisiana Department of Education, said in an email that discipline codes are not defined in state statutes and that “school discipline is a local school system issue.” 

    Officials in several other states said the same.

    The result, as demonstrated by a review of discipline records from eight states, is a broad interpretation of the categories: Students were suspended for shoving, yelling at peers, throwing objects, and violating dress codes. Some students were suspended for a single infraction; others broke several rules. 

    In fewer than 15 percent of cases, students got in trouble for using profanity, according to a Hechinger analysis of the records. The rate was similar for when they yelled at or talked back to administrators. In at least 20 percent of cases, students refused a direct order and in 6 percent, they were punished for misusing technology, including being on the cell phones during class or using school computers inappropriately. 

    “What is defiance to one is not defiance to all, and that becomes confusing, not just for the students, but also the adults,” said Harry Lawson, human and civil rights director for the National Education Association, the country’s largest teachers union. “Those terms that are littered throughout a lot of codes of conduct, depending on the relationship between people, can mean very different things.”

    But giving teachers discretion in how to assign discipline isn’t necessarily a problem, said Adam Tyner, national research director at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute. “The whole point of trusting, in this case, teachers, or anyone, to do their job is to be able to let them have responsibility and make some judgment calls,” he said.

    Tyner added that it’s important to think about all students when considering school discipline policies. “If a student is disrupting the class, it may not help them all that much to take them and put them in a different environment, but it sure might help the other students who are trying to learn,” he said. 

    Johanna Lacoe spent years trying to measure exactly that — the effect of discipline reforms on all students In Philadelphia, including those who hadn’t been previously suspended. The district banned out-of-school suspensions for many nonviolent offenses in 2012. 

    Critics of the policy shift warned that it would harm students who do behave in class; they’d learn less or even come to school less often. Lacoe’s research found that schools faithfully following the new rules saw no decrease in academic achievement or attendance for non-suspended students. 

    But, the policy wasn’t implemented consistently, the researchers found. The schools that complied already issued the fewest suspensions; it was easier for them to make the policy shift, Lacoe said. In schools that kept suspending students, despite the ban, test scores and student attendance fell slightly.

    Overall, though, students who had been previously suspended showed improvements. Lacoe called eliminating out-of-school suspensions for minor infractions a “no brainer.”

    “We know suspensions aren’t good for kids,” said Lacoe, the director of the California Policy Lab, a group that partners with government agencies to research the impact of policies. “Kicking kids out of school and providing them no services and no support and then returning them to the environment where nothing has changed is not a good solution.” 

    Related: Hidden expulsions? Schools kick students out but call it a ‘transfer’

    This fall, two high schoolers in Providence, Rhode Island, walked out of a classroom. They later learned they were being suspended for their action, because it was disrespectful to a teacher.

    On her first day back after the suspension, one of the students, Sara, said she went to her teacher to talk through the incident. It was something she wished she’d had the chance to do without missing a couple days of school.

    “Suspending someone, not talking to someone, that’s not helping,” said Sara, whose last name is being withheld to protect her privacy. “You’re not helping them to succeed. You’re making it worse.”

    In 2021-22, disorderly conduct and insubordination made up a third of all Providence Public School suspensions. 

    District spokesperson Jay Wegimont said in an email that the district uses many alternatives to suspension and out-of-school suspensions are only given to respond to “persistent conduct which substantially impedes the ability of other students to learn.”

    Some parents and students interviewed asked not to have their full names published, fearing retaliation from their school districts. But nearly all parents and students who have dealt with suspension for violations such as disrespect and disorderly conduct also said that the punishment often did nothing but leave the student frustrated with the school and damage the student’s relationships with teachers. 

    Following a suspension, Yousef Munir founded the Young Activists Coalition, which advocated for fair discipline and restorative practices at Cincinnati Public Schools. Credit: Albert Cesare/ Cincinnati Enquirer

    At a Cincinnati high school in 2019, Yousuf Munir led a peaceful protest about the impact of climate change, with about 50 fellow students. Munir, then a junior, planned to leave school and join a larger protest at City Hall. The principal said Munir couldn’t go and threatened to assign detention.

    Munir left anyway.

    That detention morphed into suspension for disobeying the principal, said Munir, who remembers thinking: “The only thing you’re doing is literally keeping me out of class.”

    The district told The Hechinger Report that Munir was suspended for leaving campus without written permission, a decision in line with the district’s code of conduct. 

    The whole incident left Munir feeling “so angry I didn’t know what to do with it.” They went on to start the Young Activists Coalition, which advocated for fair discipline and restorative practices at Cincinnati Public Schools.

    Now in college, Munir is a mentor to high school kids. “I can’t imagine ever treating a kid that way,” they said. 

    In 2021-22, 38 percent of suspensions and expulsions in Maryland’s Dorchester County Public Schools were assigned for disrespect and disruption. Credit: Sarah Butrymowicz/The Hechinger Report

    Parents and students around the country described underlying reasons for behavior problems that a suspension would do little to address: Struggles with anxiety. Frustration with not understanding classwork. Distraction by events in their personal lives. 

    Discipline records are also dotted with examples that indicate a deeper cause for the misbehavior.

    In one case, a student in Rhode Island was suspended for talking back to her teachers; the discipline record notes that her mother had recently died and the student might need counseling. A student in Minnesota “lost his cool” after having “his buttons pushed by a couple peers.” He cursed and argued back. A Maryland student who went to the main office to report being harassed cursed at administrators when asked to formally document it. 

    To be sure, discipline records disclose only part of a school’s response, and many places may simultaneously be working to address root causes. Even as they retain — and exercise — the right to suspend, many districts across the country have adopted alternative strategies aimed at building relationships and repairing harm caused by misconduct. 

    “There needs to be some kind of consequence for acting out, but 9 out of 10 times, it doesn’t need to be suspension,” said Judy Brown, a social worker in Minneapolis Public Schools.

    Related: Preventing suspensions: Tackle discipline problems with empathy first

    Some educators who have embraced alternatives say in the long run they’re more effective. Suspension temporarily removes kids; it rarely changes behavior when they return. 

    “It’s really about having the compassion and the time and patience to be able to have these conversations with students to see what the antecedent of the behavior is,” Brown said. “It’s often not personal; they’re overwhelmed.” 

    In some cases, students act out because they don’t want to be at school at all and know the quickest escape is misbehavior. 

    Records from Maryland’s Dorchester County Public Schools show that the main goal for some students who were suspended for defiance and disruption was getting sent home Credit: Sarah Butrymowicz/The Hechinger Report

    On Valentine’s day 2022, a Maryland seventh grader showed up to school late. She then refused to go to class or leave the hallway and, according to her Dorchester County discipline record, was disrespectful towards an educator. “These are the behaviors [the student] typically displays when she does not want to go to class,” her record reads. 

    By 8:30 she was suspended and sent home for three days.

    Dorchester County school officials declined to comment. In 2021-22, 38 percent of suspensions and expulsions in the district were assigned for disrespect and disruption.

    Last year, administrators in Minnesota’s Monticello School District spent the summer overhauling their discipline procedures and consequences, out of concern that students of color were being disproportionately disciplined. They developed clearer definitions for violation categories and instituted non-exclusionary tools to deal with isolated minor misbehaviors.

    Previously, the district suspended students for telling an “inappropriate joke” in class or cursing, records show. Those types of behavior will now be dealt with in schools, Superintendent Eric Olsen said, but repeated refusals and noncompliance could still lead to a suspension.

    “Would I ever want to see a school where we can’t suspend? I would not,” he said. “Life is always about balance.”

    Olsen wants his students — all students — to feel valued and be successful. But they’re not his only consideration. “You also have to think of your employees,” he said. “There’s also that fine line of making sure your staff feels safe.” 

    Related: Some kids have returned to in-person learning only to be kicked right back out

    Monticello, like most school districts across the country, has seen an increase in student misconduct since schools reopened after pandemic closures. A 2023 survey found that more than 40 percent of educators felt less safe in their schools compared with 2019 and, in some instances, teachers have been injured in violent incidents, including shootings. 

    And even before 2020, educators nationwide were warning that they lacked the appropriate mental health and social service supports to adequately deal with behavior challenges. Some nonviolent problems, like refusal to put phones away or stay in one’s seat, can make it difficult for teachers to effectively do their jobs. 

    And the discipline records reviewed by The Hechinger Report do capture a sampling of more severe misbehavior. In some cases, students were labeled defiant or disorderly for fighting, throwing chairs or even hitting a teacher. 

    Shatara Clark taught for 10 years in Alabama before feeling too disrespected and overextended to keep going. She recalled regular disobedience from students. 

    “Sometimes I look back like, ‘How did I make it?’” Clark said. “My blood pressure got high and everything.” 

    She became so familiar with the protocol for discipline referrals that she can still remember every step two years after leaving the classroom. In her schools, students were suspended for major incidents like fighting or threatening a teacher but also for repeated nonviolent behavior like interrupting or speaking out in class. 

    Clark said discipline records often don’t show the full context. “Say for instance, a boy got suspended for talking out of turn. Well, you’re not going to know that he’s done that five times, and I’ve called his parents,” she said. “Then you see someone that’s been suspended for fighting, and it looks like the same punishment for a lesser thing.”

    In many states, reform advocates and student activists pushing to ban harsh discipline policies have found a receptive audience in lawmakers. Many teachers are also sympathetic to their arguments; the National Education Association and American Federation of Teachers support discipline reform and alternatives to suspension. 

    In some instances, though, teachers have resisted efforts to curtail suspensions, saying they need to have the option to remove kids from school.

    Many experts say the largest hurdle to getting teachers to embrace discipline reforms is that new policies are often rolled out without training or adequate staffing and support. 

    Without those things, “the policy change is somewhat of a paper tiger,” said Richard Welsh, an associate professor of education and public policy at Vanderbilt University. “If we don’t think about the accompanying support, it’s almost as if some of these are unfunded mandates.”  

    In Monticello, Olsen has focused on professional development for teachers to promote alternatives to suspension. The district has created space for students to talk about their actions and how they can rebuild relationships. 

    It’s still a work in progress. Teacher training, Olsen says, is key. 

    “You can’t just do a policy change and expect everyone to magically do it.”

    Reporting contributed by Hadley Hitson of the Montgomery Advertiser and Madeline Mitchell of the Cincinnati Enquirer, members of the USA TODAY Network; and Amanda Chen, Tazbia Fatima, Sara Hutchinson, Tara García Mathewson, and Nirvi Shah, The Hechinger Report. 

    Editors’ note: The Hechinger Report’s Fazil Khan had nearly completed the data analysis and reporting for this project when he died in a fire in his apartment building. Read about the internship fund created to honor his legacy as a data reporter. USA TODAY Senior Data Editor Doug Caruso completed data visualizations for this project based on Khan’s work.

    This story about classroom discipline was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter.

    The Hechinger Report provides in-depth, fact-based, unbiased reporting on education that is free to all readers. But that doesn’t mean it’s free to produce. Our work keeps educators and the public informed about pressing issues at schools and on campuses throughout the country. We tell the whole story, even when the details are inconvenient. Help us keep doing that.

    Join us today.

    Sarah Butrymowicz, Fazil Khan and Meredith Kolodner

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  • Teenager charged for January SEPTA shooting released amid video evidence

    Teenager charged for January SEPTA shooting released amid video evidence

    A 16-year-old has been cleared of all charges related to a fatal shooting at 15th Street Station after an investigation showed that he was not involved.

    The shooting took place on Jan. 11 on the station’s Market-Frankford Line westbound platform. Tyshaun Welles, 16, was struck in the head by a stray bullet after a shooter opened fire at a crowd. Welles died of his injuries on Jan. 16. 

    Zaire Wilson, 16, and Quadir Humphrey, 18, were arrested separately at the scene for the shooting. Police at the time said that Wilson had pulled out a gun before Humphrey began firing.

    Wilson, however, maintained his innocence. Surveillance footage showed that Wilson was “clearly not involved” in the shooting and that Humphrey had acted alone, said Jane Roh from the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office in an email.

    According to Roh, the footage was not immediately available to the district attorney’s office after Wilson’s arrest.

    As a result, the office requested a hearing on the matter. On Feb. 29, the district attorney’s office dropped all charges against Wilson and Judge Joffie Pittman ordered his release. Wilson was reunited with his family soon after.

    “When presented with evolving or new information, the criminal legal system should move as quickly in the interest of justice,” said District Attorney Larry Krasner in the email. “…whether that means being prepared to meet the Commonwealth’s burden at trial or releasing from detention people who did not actually participate in a crime.”

    Meanwhile, the district attorney’s office is still prosecuting Humphrey for murder and other related charges. 

    Chris Compendio

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  • One teen killed, another injured in Germantown shooting, police say

    One teen killed, another injured in Germantown shooting, police say

    Police are investigating a shooting killed one teenager and injured another in Germantown on Wednesday night. 

    Police responded to reports of gunshots at Germantown Avenue and Wister Street at 6:37 p.m., investigators said. Semaj Fields, 16, was shot in the upper back was taken to Jefferson Einstein Philadelphia Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 6:47 p.m. A 17-year-old who was shot in the right hip was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries, police said. 

    A stray bullet struck nearly struck a 55-year-old man who was driving by at the time of the shooting, police said. The bullet struck his driver’s side window and passed through his sleeve, but did not strike the man. He is cooperating with the investigation, police said. 

    Police are looking for three suspects, including two shooters. Surveillance footage shows that the suspects are young and fled on foot, heading east on Wister Street, investigators said. They were wearing dark clothing at the time. No arrests have been made. 

    Investigators said they found seven spent shell casings from two semi-automatic weapons. The motive for the shooting remains under investigation.

    Chris Compendio

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  • Hillsborough Stadium Disaster Fast Facts | CNN

    Hillsborough Stadium Disaster Fast Facts | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    Here is a look at the Hillsborough Disaster, a 1989 tragedy at a British soccer stadium. Overcrowding in the stands led to the deaths of 97 fans in a crush. Another 162 were hospitalized with injuries. It was the worst sports disaster in British history, according to the BBC.

    On April 15, 1989, more than 50,000 people gathered at the Hillsborough Stadium in Sheffield, England, for the FA Cup Semi-Final football (soccer) match between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest. In order to relieve a bottleneck of Liverpool fans trying to enter the venue before kickoff, police opened an exit gate and people rushed to get inside. More than 3,000 fans were funneled into a standing-room-only area with a safe capacity of just 1,600. The obvious crush in the stands prompted organizers to stop the game after six minutes.

    Police initially concluded the crush was an attempt by rowdy fans to surge onto the field, according to the Taylor Interim Report, a 1989 government investigation led by Justice Peter Taylor. As officers approached the stands, it became apparent people were suffocating and trying to escape by climbing the fence.

    The Taylor Interim Report describes the scene: “The dead, the dying and the desperate became interwoven in the sump at the front of the pens, especially by the gates. Those with strength left clambered over others submerged in the human heap and tried to climb out over the fence…The victims were blue…incontinent; their mouths open, vomiting; their eyes staring. A pile of dead bodies lay and grew outside gate 3.”

    The emergency response was slow, according to the Hillsborough Independent Panel, a 2012 follow-up investigation. The problems were rooted in poor communication between police and ambulance dispatchers, according to the panel.

    Fans tried to help each other by tearing up pieces of advertising hoardings, creating improvised stretchers and carrying injured spectators away from the throngs, according to the Taylor Interim Report. People who had no first aid training attempted to revive the fallen. From the report: “Mouth to mouth respiration and cardiac massage were applied by the skilled and the unskilled but usually in vain. Those capable of survival mostly came round of their own accord. The rest were mostly doomed before they could be brought out and treated.” It took nearly 30 minutes for organizers to call for doctors and nurses via the public address system.

    South Yorkshire Police Supervisor David Duckenfield was in charge of public safety at the event. He was promoted to match commander weeks before the game and was unfamiliar with the venue, according to his testimony at a hearing in 2015. He acknowledged that he did not initiate the police department’s major incident plan for mass casualty disasters, even as the situation spiraled out of control. Duckenfield had originally blamed Liverpool fans for forcing the exit gate open, a crucial detail that he later admitted was a lie. He retired in 1990, conceding he was probably “not the best man for the job on the day.”

    August 1989 – The Taylor Interim Report is released, offering a detailed overview of how the tragedy unfolded. The report is named for Justice Peter Taylor, who is leading the investigation.

    January 1990 – The Taylor Final Report is published, proposing a number of reforms for soccer venues. Among the recommendations: football stadiums should replace standing room terraces with seated areas to prevent overcrowding.

    August 1990 – Although the Taylor Interim Report faulted police for poor planning and an inadequate response, the Director of Public Prosecutions announces that no officers will face criminal charges.

    1991 – The deaths of the fans are ruled accidental by a jury during an inquest. The members of the jury could have returned a verdict of unlawful killing, faulting the police for acting recklessly and compromising the safety of fans. Their other option was an open verdict, an inconclusive ruling.

    August 1998 – A group of victims’ families files civil manslaughter charges against South Yorkshire Police supervisors Duckenfield and Bernard Murray.

    2000 – The case goes to trial. The jury deadlocks on Duckenfield and finds Murray not guilty of manslaughter. Murray dies of cancer in 2006.

    April 2009 – As England observes the 20th anniversary of the tragedy, a new investigation is launched by a group called the Hillsborough Independent Panel.

    September 2012 – The panel releases its findings, detailing the numerous failings of authorities on the day of the tragedy and a subsequent cover up that shifted the blame from police to fans. The panel also proclaims that 41 of 96 victims could have been saved if police responded to the crisis more rapidly. The findings prompt Prime Minister David Cameron to issue an apology to the victims’ families.

    December 2012 – The High Court quashes the accidental death ruling for the victims, setting the stage for a new investigation and possible criminal charges.

    March 31, 2014 – A new round of inquests begins in a courtroom in Warrington, England, built specifically for the case. There are nine members of the jury. They will consider a number of issues relating to the incident, including whether Duckenfield was responsible for manslaughter by gross negligence.

    April 2016 – After hearing testimony from more than 800 witnesses, the jury retires to deliberate.

    April 26, 2016 – The verdict is delivered, in what is called the longest case heard by a jury in British legal history. The jury finds, by a 7-2 vote, 96 fans were unlawfully killed due to crushing, following the admission of a large number of fans through an exit gate. It is decided Duckenfield’s actions amounted to “gross negligence,” and both the police and the ambulance service caused or contributed to the loss of life by error or omission after the crush began. Criminal charges will now be considered.

    June 28, 2017 – Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service announces that it has charged six people, including Duckenfield, with criminal offenses related to the disaster.

    March 14, 2018 – The BBC and other British media report that police officers would not be charged who were alleged to have submitted a misleading or incomplete report on the disaster to prosecutors in 1990.

    September 10, 2018 – Duckenfield pleads not guilty to the charges of manslaughter by gross negligence.

    January 14, 2019 – Duckenfield’s trial begins. Graham Mackrell, a safety officer at the time of the disaster, also stands trial.

    March 13, 2019 – The BBC and other media report that Duckenfield will not be called to present evidence during his trial.

    November 28, 2019 – Duckenfield is found not guilty of gross negligence manslaughter.

    July 27, 2021 – Andrew Devine, a fan injured in the Hillsborough disaster, dies. A coroner confirms Devine as the 97th victim of the disaster and rules he was unlawfully killed.

    January 31, 2023 – Britain’s National Police Chiefs Council and College of Policing apologize to families of the victims of the Hillsborough disaster. They also publish a response to a report published in 2017 that detailed the experiences of the Hillsborough families.

    December 6, 2023 – UK Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden announces that the UK government has signed the Hillsborough Charter, acknowledging “multiple injustices” and vowing that no families will suffer the same fates as the relatives of the victims.

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  • Colorado public defender ransomware attack may have exposed Social Security numbers, personal data

    Colorado public defender ransomware attack may have exposed Social Security numbers, personal data

    The Office of the Colorado State Public Defender has acknowledged personal data may have been stolen during a ransomware attack that crippled the statewide agency in early February — but won’t say much else about the ongoing effort to restore its systems after the hack.

    Files “were copied without permission” during the cyberattack, which was discovered on Feb. 9, and those files may have included names, Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers, medical information and health insurance information, the agency said in a statement Friday.

    Officials from the public defender’s office are still investigating whose personal data may have been stolen, and whether the personal data of attorneys or their clients was compromised, they said. A statement on the agency’s website urges “individuals” to remain vigilant against identity theft and fraud.

    It’s been more than a month since public defenders across the state were locked out of their computers and files in the ransomware attack and hundreds of court hearings were delayed over the next week because public defenders couldn’t do their jobs.

    Officials this week refused to answer questions from The Denver Post about what particular parts of the agency’s systems remain inoperable. In a ransomware attack, hackers use malware to hold an organization’s data hostage then demand a payment in cryptocurrency in order for organizations to regain access to that data.

    The public defender’s office also would not disclose the amount of ransom demanded or whether a ransom was paid. A statement on the agency’s website says the office has “made progress in returning to full operations.”

    Heavily redacted emails and text messages released to The Post by the Governor’s Office of Information Technology this week in response to an open records request mention the cyberattack recovery law firm Mullen Coughlin. Chief Deputy Public Defender Zak Brown would not confirm whether the public defender’s office is working with the firm.

    “We have provided all the information we are able to at this time,” he said in an email.

    A message left with the Pennsylvania-based law firm was not returned Wednesday.

    Shelly Bradbury

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