The Daily Moth 4-19-19 (Full Story)
Updates on Notre Dame fire; Journalist killed during riots in Northern Ireland; California parents who tortured kids gets 25 to life; Officials say 5th grader in fight died from natural causes; Parents of deaf students sue San Antonio school district; Don’t walk and FaceTime at the same time
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Hello, welcome to the Daily Moth! It is Friday, April 19. Ready for news?
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Updates on Notre Dame fire
Yesterday, Paris police investigators said they think the fire was an accident caused by an electrical short-circuit, either by a computer glitch or from temporary elevators.
They still haven’t entered the cathedral for safety reasons. The cathedral’s walls are being supported by wooden planks so they don’t cave in.
They have questioned at least 40 staff and workers who were renovating the cathedral.
Over $1 billion has been raised to rebuild the cathedral. French President Emmanuel Macron announced that it is his goal to rebuild it within 5 years.
Also, yesterday, beekeepers using drones posted pictures on Instagram showing that all three beehives living on the cathedral have survived the fire. The pictures showed bees flying in and out.
The beehives were not burned up because they are about a hundred feet below the main roof where the fire was and smoke doesn’t affect bees like they do for people.
The cathedral’s beekeeper said there are a total of about 180,000 bees in these hives and that he will check to see if all of the bees survived.
The bees have been there since 2013 and the church says they have a great relationship with them.
There have been many comments saying that it’s a miracle that those bees survived.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BwU6vtoHqoU/
https://nypost.com/2019/04/18/bees-living-in-notre-dame-cathedral-roof-survived-fire/
https://edition.cnn.com/2019/04/19/europe/notre-dame-bees-fire-intl-scli/index.html
https://www.cbsnews.com/live-news/electrical-short-eyed-as-possible-notre-dame-blaze-cause-report-says-live-updates/
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/notre-dame-cathedral-fire-billion-dollars-pledges-donations/
https://www.9news.com/article/news/nation-world/notre-dame-fire-cathedral-rector-points-to-computer-glitch-as-possible-cause/73-9de60bc5-7910-4543-af92-2e35094f1f96
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Journalist killed during riots in Northern Ireland
Last night in Northern Ireland, a journalist, Lyra McKee (29), was shot and killed. Police are blaming the New Irish Republican Army (NIRA). The U.K. and the U.S. consider NIRA a terrorist organization.
Yesterday before the shooting, police searched an area for guns and explosives because they were concerned about an attack during the Easter weekend.
During the searches, there was a riot with about 50 gasoline bombs thrown.
A gunman started firing toward the police and hit McKee, who was killed.
McKee wrote blogs and a book about growing up gay in Northern Ireland. She was an activist for LGBT rights. She is also an investigative journalist and wrote a book, to be published next year, about the history of IRA and disappearances of young people during the Troubles.
The NIRA is a small group of people in Northern Ireland who use violence to try and force their country to break away from the U.K. and join the Republic of Ireland.
The “old” IRA fought with violence for decades during an era known as “The Troubles” where more than 3,500 people died.
The conflicts were mainly between Catholic nationalists, who wanted independence from the UK, and Protestant unionists, who agreed with staying within the UK. In 1998, they agreed to a peace deal with the British-controlled government called the Good Friday Agreement.
The New IRA is made up of a group of people who didn’t agree with the peace deal and have been more active the last few years, especially after the Northern Ireland government stopped functioning two years ago and during the Brexit process.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/19/world/europe/lyra-mckee-northern-ireland-violence.html
https://twitter.com/PSNIDCSDistrict/status/1119023697594068992
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Irish-Republican-Army
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-47985469
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2019/04/19/lyra-mckee-journalist-shot-dead-northern-ireland-new-ira/3517762002/
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California parents who tortured kids gets 25 to life; Officials say 5th grader in fight died from natural causes
Here are two top news briefs.
The first — the California parents who pleaded guilty to torturing and holding captive their 13 children in their home were sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.
The couple was arrested last year. Their children at the time were between 2 to 29 years old. One of the children escaped and called police.
The children were found malnourished with some of them chained.
One of the children said in court that her parents took her whole life from her, but that she is taking her life back.
The second news — the 5th grader who died after a fight in a classroom in South Carolina is said to have died from a brain condition, not from the fight. Her name was Raniya Wright and she was 10.
A state official said there was was a rupture in her brain but that there was no sign of trauma that contributed to her death — no bruises, cuts, or scrapes. They said she had a birth defect and it just happened after the fight. They said it was a “slap fight” that lasted for a few seconds.
The girl’s mother said while she respects the investigation, the story doesn’t end here. She said her daughter was bullied and that the school did not do enough.
The girl who fought with Wright was transferred to an alternative school.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/19/us/turpin-parents-sentencing-friday/index.html
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/south-carolina-fifth-grader-school-fight-died-natural-causes-no-n996351
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Parents of deaf students sue San Antonio school district
Spectrum News reported that families of deaf students in San Antonio, Texas have filed a federal class action lawsuit against a school district, Northside Independent School District.
The lawsuit, filed on Monday, said NISD has failed to provide services to deaf students, excluded them from programs at NISD, and is discriminating agains them.
The lawsuit said NISD is violating federal regulations and laws under the IDEA, ADA, and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act.
The lawsuit said they are representing all deaf students in the district. It said NISD failed to provide IEPs by a “Certified Deaf Education Instructor” and failed to provide deaf students socialization services with other members fo the Deaf community.
The Daily Moth did a report about this in December. There were rallies at Braun Station Elementary School led by one of the parents in the lawsuit, Regina Johnson, who is hearing and has a deaf daughter.
She and a community activist, Mayda Garcia, told me through VRS interviews in December that there were negative changes in the school’s auditory impairment (AI) classrooms. She said deaf students used to be placed together and learned in ASL, but that school staff changed by discouraging ASL, promoted oralism, and separated deaf children from one other.
The lawsuit outlined the same complaints made in my previous report. Johnson said in the lawsuit that her daughter’s IEP requires her AI teacher to use ASL at all times and Visual Phonics, but that her daughter’s AI teacher prefers to orally communicate with her and that she and other deaf students are not socialized with other members of the Deaf community.
[Image of an excerpt of the lawsuit: “M.K. is a student at the School District. She is deaf/hearing impaired. As such, she is entitled to special education services pursuant to the IDEA. Her IEP requires her to receive an Auditory Impairment (AI) teacher that signs to her at all times. It also requires that M.K.’s AI teacher uses Visual Phonics with her. Instead, M.K. had an AI teacher that preferred to orally communicate with M.K. As a result, M.K. has less of a desire to communicate via sign language. M.K. Does not receive direct services from a Certified Deaf Education Instructor. In addition each student who is Deaf and Hearing Impaired should receive socialization services with other members of the Deaf community and does not.”]
Another parent said his teacher has refused to sign to him and refused to allow him to be with his deaf peers.
[Image of an excerpt of the lawsuit: “J.C. is a student at Stevenson Middle School at the School District. He is deaf. As such, he is entitled to special education services pursuant to the IDEA. According to his IEP, he is supposed to receive daily, in class sign language interpreting support and an AI teacher, but at time he goes without his AI teacher. J.C. Does not receive direct services from a Certified Deaf Education Instructor. In addition each student who is Deaf and Hearing Impaired should receive socialization services with other members of the Deaf community and does not.”]
Another parent said her child’s IEP requires interpreting services, but that NISD did not provide it.
The parents said the students’ education and grades have suffered. The lawsuit wants the NISD to make changes and to pay attorney’s fees.
One of the attorneys representing the families, Matthew Finch, told Spectrum News that most instructors for deaf students were uncertified, that his clients don’t want monetary damages but for an equal opportunity for education with certified instructors.
NISD did not provide Spectrum a comment as of two days ago, saying they need time to review the lawsuit.
https://spectrumlocalnews.com/tx/austin/news/2019/04/18/five-families-suing-nisd-in-class-action-lawsuit?fbclid=IwAR0knZKVp6U7MsvrOOs03cpPk1g5Vu8GWykeACcde3eD0RBjvPa-6FeQ5Yw
Moth Report in December: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Up5ZsFQpLMk
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Don’t walk and FaceTime at the same time
A Deaf man from Manhattan, Michael Kaufer, was severely injured when he walked and FaceTimed at the same time. He will share his story. I have to warn you, there are some graphic images.
MICHAEL KAUFER: Yesterday, I was on my phone signing on FaceTime while I was walking outside. I didn’t see this metal thing. I tripped over it, fell and smashed my face onto the sidewalk. Hit me square in the face.
I was in shock lying there with blood gushing from my face. My friend on the phone could only see multiple people circling around me.
BRANDON HENRY: The phone was on the sidewalk with me on FaceTime.
I thought he just dropped his phone, so I waited and waited for him to pick it up.
After awhile, still nothing and that confused me.
Then a woman picked up the phone and spoke through the FaceTime and tried to listen to it.
She was surrounded by people.
I was so confused. I was just chatting and then the phone was dropped.
I didn’t understand.
She kept moving the phone around, speaking then she pointed it towards my friend who I saw was lying on the sidewalk.
That shocked me. He fell and I felt so helpless.
MICHAEL: I was transported to the hospital on an ambulance.
CLARE CASSIDY: That’s fine…
MICHAEL: I fell in front of a firehouse, some cute guys here.
CLARE: Yummy.
My god. Please…you need to be in a bubble wrap.
MICHAEL: I ended up with a total of about 15 stitches.
I really need glasses, but it hurts when I wear my glasses. I can see better now. My recommendation to you all…please do not FaceTime while you walk. Thank you.
BRANDON: Chatting on FaceTime while walking is a bad idea.
Alex: I’m glad you’re recovering! I think we’ll keep in mind to not walk and FT at the same time.
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That is all for this week. Thank you for watching “The Daily Moth.” If you have any feedback about the new look and the subtitles, please email me at alex@dailymoth.com. Have a wonderful weekend and… stay with the light!