Better Believe It......Because They Actually Happen(ed) Collection 41
India student dies after being pushed from roof in safety drill


N Logeswari died after she was forced to jump off a building as part of a safety drill

Indian police have arrested a training instructor in the southern state of Tamil Nadu after a 19-year-old college student died in a safety exercise.

Police said N Logeshwari died after she was forced to jump off a building into a safety net held by fellow students. They say the instructor pushed her as she was reluctant to jump.

She suffered injuries after hitting the roof of the first floor.

Police have also registered a case against the college.

"The college didn't apply for permission for any such training. This is against the law. Any school or college has to get prior permission from the government before conducting an exercise like this. Police are investigating the issue and the trainer has been arrested," senior government official Hariharan told BBC Tamil.

Full story at BBC News (July 2018)



New York and Virginia Become the First States to Require Mental Health Education in Schools




By Sy Mukherjee


For the first time, two U.S. states will require schools to provide mental health education in a bid to combat a rising tide of depression and psychological hurdles facing American youth.

New York and Virginia enacted their respective mental health education laws on Sunday. The states’ statutes differ on the specifics, as CNN reports. In Virginia, the basic premise is that physical education or health education curricula for ninth and 10th graders have a mental health component. In New York, elementary, middle, and high school curriculum will include mental health.

New York’s law doesn’t endorse a specific curriculum on the issue; Virginia’s will require the state’s Board of Education to update its “Standards of Learning” to spell out what should be taught.

Full story at Fortune (July 2018)



Harvard denies admissions bias in suit by Asian-Americans


Harvard, the wealthiest US university, has asked the judge throw out the case before trial, arguing that admissions data and pretrial witness testimony do not support the plaintiff’s claims




Harvard University assailed a group claiming the school intentionally discriminates against Asian-American applicants, saying in a court filing that the organisation offered a “misleading narrative” based on “cherry-picked” documents.

Students for Fair Admissions, which is suing the Ivy League school, claims Harvard ignored statistical evidence from its own researchers showing bias in admissions. The group asked a judge to decide the case in its favour before a trial scheduled for October in Boston, based on court filings.

Harvard on Friday responded aggressively, calling the written request “a 45-page press release”.

“The evidence fails to show – let alone beyond dispute – that Harvard intentionally discriminates against Asian-American applicants,” the school said.

Students for Fair Admissions, which sued in 2014, last month told the judge that it has “incontrovertible” evidence that the university has “engineered the admissions process to achieve” illegal goals.

The organisation says Asian-Americans are subject to the same kind of quotas that kept many Jews out of Ivy League colleges in the first half of the 20th century – and the Trump administration has indicated it’s sympathetic to their argument.



The US Justice Department weighed in on the case in April, urging the judge to publicly release years of admissions data provided by Harvard. The government said it has a “substantial interest” in the lawsuit because it is conducting a probe of similar allegations.

Harvard, the wealthiest US university, has asked the judge throw out the case before trial, arguing that admissions data and pretrial witness testimony do not support the plaintiff’s claims.

Full story at South China Morning Post (July 2018)



Parents should NOT give their children mobile phones before secondary school, top psychiatrist warns


• Dr Jon Goldin claimed parents are being forced into buying phones for children

• Vice chairman of the Royal College of Psychologists said government guidance on when to give smartphones to children would help parents stand their ground

• His comments came from the Royal College of Psychiatrists report which also found 92 per cent of parents think the internet negatively impacts their child


By Fionn Hargreaves


Parents should be given official advice warning them not to give their children smartphones before they reach secondary school, a leading psychiatrist has warned.

Dr Jon Goldin claimed parents are being forced into buying the devices for their young children so they aren’t left out at school.

The vice chairman of the Royal College of Psychologists said government guidance on when to give smartphones to children would help parents stand their ground.

Parents should be given official advice warning them not to give their children smartphones before they reach secondary school, a leading psychiatrist has warned (file photo)


Speaking to the Daily Telegraph, he said: ‘Children often say to their parents: “All my friends are [getting phones] and you are not allowing me to do that.”

‘In that situation, parents do need the support of national guidance.

‘I don’t think we can legislate [to restrict it to under 11s] but this guidance would back parents up when they were having conversations with their 10-year-olds.’ Dr Goldin also called on the government to recommend that children under 11 should be restricted to two hours a day on social media.

He said social media makes children anxious and depressed, and time spent online can leave them vulnerable to cyberbullying.

The psychiatrist called on social media giants such as Facebook and Twitter to make it more difficult for young people to lie about their age and create accounts before they turn 13.

Dr Goldin’s comments come ahead of the publication of a report by the Royal College of Psychiatrists, which assesses the damage caused by children spending too much time online.

It is believed almost four in ten children aged between eight and 11 own a smartphone.

Dr Jon Goldin claimed parents are being forced into buying the devices for their young children so they aren’t left out at school (file photo)


But more than 40 per cent of parents believe young people under the age of 16 should be banned from owning the devices, a poll for the Priory found.

The survey also revealed 67 per cent of parents wanted government to decide how old a child should be before they are given a smartphone.

Out of 1,000 parents polled, the rehabilitation centre found 92 per cent thought the internet was impacting their child in a bad way.

Full story at The Mail Online (August 2018)

Tokyo medical school said to alter tests to keep out women




By Mari Yamaguchi


TOKYO (AP) — A Japanese medical university has systematically discriminated against female applicants because women tend to quit as doctors after starting families, causing hospital staffing shortages, media reports said Thursday.

The Yomiuri newspaper said Tokyo Medical University has manipulated the entrance exam results of women since about 2011 to keep the female student population low. Quoting unidentified sources, it said the manipulation started after the share of successful female applicants reached 38 percent of the total in 2010.

Other Japanese media, including NHK public television and Kyodo News, also reported the exam manipulation. Quoting unnamed sources, NHK said female applicants’ scores were slashed by about 10 percent in some years.

The allegation surfaced during the school’s probe of a separate scandal in which its former director was accused of granting admission to the son of a top education bureaucrat in exchange for a favor.

The school’s public affairs department said officials were surprised by the Yomiuri report and had no knowledge of the reported manipulation. It promised to look into the matter.

Yoshiko Maeda, head of the Japan Medical Women’s Association, said it was astonishing that women in Japan are still being stripped of their right to seek entry to the medical profession.

“Instead of worrying about women quitting jobs, they should do more to create an environment where women can keep working,” Maeda said in a statement on the group’s Facebook page. “And we need working style reform, which is not just to prevent overwork deaths, but to create a workplace where everyone can perform to the best of their ability regardless of gender.”

Full story at AP News (August 2018)



Ethan Sonneborn Is Running For Vermont Governor & No, He's Not Yet Old Enough To Drive


Source: Washington Post / Youtube


By Mehreen Kasana


In a move that may surprise some observers, one 14-year-old has decided to run for governor's seat in Vermont. Meet Ethan Sonneborn, originally from Vermont's Bristol area, who has made media airwaves due to his young age and high political aspirations. In a video interview with The Washington Post uploaded on Aug. 9, Sonneborn said he was compelled to be more politically active after August 2017.

The Post reported that Sonneborn was compelled take a more active role in local politics after observing the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017. The deadly rally claimed the lives of three people, including an anti-racism protester named Heather Heyer. "I think what pushed me over the edge were the events in Charlottesville, [Virginia]," Sonneborn told The Post. "It was the first time I had this realization that a new generation of leaders would be better."

Some might think that Sonneborn is too young to be participating in gubernatorial politics. But under Vermont's state law, he is eligible to run on a gubernatorial seat and will appear on the state's primary ballot on Tuesday. In a recorded governor forum, Associated Press reported that Sonneborn said, "I think Vermonters should take me seriously because I have practical progressive ideas, and I happen to be 14, not the other way around. I think that my message and my platform transcend age."

The state law works in Sonneborn's favor. Sure, the teenager isn't legally permitted to drive yet but he can still run on a gubernatorial ticket in his state. After all, under the Vermont constitution, there is no age limit. The requisite for aspiring governors is that they must have lived in the state for more than four years.



On his website, Sonneborn articulated some of the issues that he would run his gubernatorial ticket on. In terms of youth engagement, a seemingly critical element of his campaign, Sonneborn wrote, “A major reason I decided to run was because I saw apathy from young people in my community. I decided that something had to be done about dismal voter participation rates. We need to encourage young people to get involved in politics, because today’s decisions are their tomorrow.”

Full story at Bustle (August 2018)

NYU makes tuition free for all medical students




By Katie Lobosco


(CNN) - New York University will offer a scholarship that covers tuition to every new, current and future medical student, it said Thursday.

All students enrolled in the MD degree program are eligible, regardless of their financial need or academic performance. The scholarship covers the full cost of tuition, which this year amounts to $55,018.

The NYU School of Medicine is the first top 10-ranked medical school to make tuition free, the school said. There are currently 442 students enrolled, including the 102 new students entering this fall semester. They learned they would be receiving the scholarship at Thursday's white coat ceremony, which marks the beginning of their careers in medicine.

The cost of medical school can keep some people from pursuing a career in the field. Addressing the affordability issue could help alleviate physician shortages, said Rafael Rivera, associate dean for admissions and financial aid.

About 75% of medical students across the country graduated with debt in 2017. They owed an average amount of $191,000, according to a survey by the Association of American Medical Colleges.

"The debt can scare people away. One of those individuals could be the one to find a cure for cancer. For us, it's important to have the best applicant pool possible and society deserves nothing less," Rivera said.

Full story at CNN (August 2018)



Australian boy who hacked into Apple network admired the group, court told


Company says no data compromised by 16-year-old although court hears he stored information’ in a folder called ‘hacky hack hack’

An Apple store in New York. A Melbourne boy has admitted to hacking files and accessing customer accounts from the company’s network. Photograph: Don Emmert/AFP/Getty Images


By Melissa Davey


A 16-year-old boy hacked into Apple’s mainframe, downloaded internal files and accessed customer accounts because he was a fan of the company and hoped to work there one day, a Melbourne court has heard.

According to The Age newspaper, the boy’s lawyer told the children’s court in Melbourne on Thursday that his client had hacked into the Apple network on multiple occasions over one year because he admired the company.

The boy, who studies in a private school, stored the saved information in a folder titled “hacky hack hack”, the newspaper said.

Despite the court being told that the teenager had downloaded 90GB of secure files and accessed customer accounts, Apple – the world’s most valuable company – has denied that customers were affected.

The company said it identified the security breach and notified the FBI, which in turn referred the matter to the Australian federal police.

“At Apple, we vigilantly protect our networks and have dedicated teams of information security professionals that work to detect and respond to threats,” a company spokesman told Guardian Australia in a statement.

“In this case, our teams discovered the unauthorised access, contained it, and reported the incident to law enforcement. We regard the data security of our users as one of our greatest responsibilities and want to assure our customers that at no point during this incident was their personal data compromised.”

Full story at The Guardian (August 2018)