When we send our kids to school, we tend to believe that they are well taken care of as these institutions are supposed to be safe places for our little ones. The sad reality is that this is not always the case. Many times, educational institutions is where most of the bullying takes place, and not much is done regarding this issue which affects a huge number of young students.
However, when the assault and the bullying comes from a teacher, it is even more concerning, just as in the case of a 7-year-old girl named Jurnee whose hair was cut at school without her parents’ permission.
Jimmy Hoffmeyer, from Mount Pleasant, Michigan, is still looking for answers as to what truly happened on the day his daughter came home crying and saying her hair was cut. “After that teacher cut her hair, she was so embarrassed. So embarrassed. Because she had to go back to class like that,” Hoffmeyer said. To make things worse, this was the third time for the girl’s hair to be cut in a week.
The first time, one of the students did it, and Jimmy wasn’t particularly angry because he understood kids do such things. However, he was forced to take her to a hairdresser to make it more symmetrical. But now that the girl in distress told him she had a teacher cut it, he was left furious.
“Our kind of hair, you can’t just wet down and cut it because and that’s when I feel like they should have, even if they were trying to do it in the kindest of their heart, once they seen the outcome, they should have been like, yeah we messed up,” he told ABC12 News.
Once Jurnee’s story reached us, we leaned in to help get #JusticeForJurnee. We are currently seeking a civil rights attorney for the Hoffmeyer family and have sent formal requests to the district for evidence from the incident. @TheBWSTimeshttps://t.co/phx0XFHIIE
— National Parents Union (@NationalParents) April 16, 2021
Hoffmeyer tried contacting the school multiple times, but no one wanted to tell him what happened. “I would like them to own up to their responsibilities,” he said. “Like, we’ve been asking as a public apology for the most part to let Jurnee know that yes they acknowledge that it was wrong and that it should have never been done and that she should never have been through something like this.”
In the meantime, while he’s still waiting for answers some four months after the incident, the girl is transferred to another school.
Jenny and Stephen Madkour from Oregon had been planning on opening the doors to their home to an older child from the foster system after they learned there was a shortage of foster families in the region.
Shortly after they came up with this decision, they stumbled upon the life story of a 15-year-old boy named Alex who shared how he lost faith in the system after being forced to live with fifteen different families over the course of 11 years. The touching words he uttered on Jeff Gianola’s Wednesday Child convinced the Madkours that Alex was the boy they were looking for.
Source: YouTube Screenshot/ BoysandGirlsAid
“Anybody who’s seen that video of Alex, his core awesome comes out in that video,” Jenny said. “It was such a great thing, the way Jeff Gianola talked to him and Alex’s interaction with him, it really gave us a glimpse of who Alex is.”
In no time, they contacted Alex’s caseworkers at Boys and Girls Aid and told them they wanted Alex to be part of their family. Once the organization delivered the news to Alex, his initial thought was “this is not going to happen, you guys are just trying to fool me.”
Source: YouTube Screenshot/ BoysandGirlsAid
However, this time is was different. He met with Jenny and Stephen before Thanksgiving and started living with them before Christmas. They started working on the adoption papers right away.
Finally, after years of uncertainty, Alex found his forever home with people who love him unconditionally. He’s now happy, fulfilled, and thriving. “I didn’t think I was going to find a forever home this good,” he said.
Source: YouTube Screenshot/ BoysandGirlsAid
According to Boys and Girls Aid, the number of children who live in foster care in Oregon is around 8,000. The organization’s mission is building lifelong connections.
We honestly hope every child out there will find a loving home to call theirs just like Alex did.
Source: YouTube Screenshot/ BoysandGirlsAid
If you want to learn more of his story, check out the video below.
Mira, the pit bull, is just one of the many dogs abandoned by their owners. She was simply dropped off at the nearby shelter, without remorse. As she was trying to figure out what was going on and where her dad was going without her, he didn’t even turn his head to look at her or hug her one last time.
Many of these dogs can’t cope with the fact their owners are gone and they can’t get used to the life at the noisy shelters, so they easily get depressed and lead an unhappy and miserable lives.
However, this particular story shared by Chicago’s Trio Animal Foundation speaks about the losses and the new beginnings the shelter dogs go through. Those who are lucky get a second chance for a better life and end up in a loving forever home. Luckily, that is what happened to Mira.
Photo: Trio Animal Foundation/ This photo was taken as Mira watched her dad walk out the front door and out of her life.
Below is her story:
“This girl’s heart broke the moment her dad walked out the door.
“Yesterday, while at an open access shelter, a man walked in with his dog named Mira. He said that he was moving and no longer had time for her.
“Mira was wagging her tail and was so proud and happy to be walking with her dad. It was not until they were removing her collar and replacing it with a slip lead that she started to realize that something was up. It was then that her dad turned around and walked out the door.
“As Mira watched her dad walk away, she started to whimper. Once he made it outside, she began to cry for him. Mira did everything that she could to get out the door to be reunited with her dad and her stress level quickly went through the roof… she just cried and cried.
“At this point, I knew that she would have a complete meltdown if she were put in the general population with the other homeless dogs.
“I asked if she could stay out by the front desk with me so that she could be calmed down. Needless to say, I didn’t have the heart to bring her to the back room and so she ended up in my car.
“Mira will be adopted out through TAF’s rescue division, Project Rescue Chicago. This beautiful girl is 3 years old, potty trained, dog friendly and good with kids (she has never been tested with cats).”
Photo: Trio Animal Foundation
After the details of her life were shared online, on November 1st, Mira’s new daddy walked into her life and made a change. This is what happened next:
“INTO THE LOVING ARMS OF HER NEW DAD…
“Just this past week, Mira sat frantically crying at the front door of an open access shelter as her former dad walked out and left her behind… for the days to come, she cried and found it hard to eat. Mira’s heart was shattered into a million pieces.
“We at TAF knew that it would take a caring and gentle man to mend Mira’s emotional wounds and make her happy, again.
“Well, as fate would have it, that man was about to walk into Mira’s life and help to ease her pain and show her that she was loved.
“A while back, Mira’s new dad lost his senior pittie girl to cancer and the thought of bringing a new pup into his life was just too painful… after caring for his baby girl until the end, his heart was broken.
“It was not until he saw Mira’s story and the look of despair in her eyes that he knew they were meant to be together. That very same day he filled out an adoption application and the rest is history.
“As of today, Mira has a new dad and two broken hearts are happy once more.”
The man who adopted loving Mira has lost his dog and now the two can be happy again because they have each other. This all tells us what a difference we can make in an animal’s life if we decide to adopt them from the shelters.
How many people you know can say they did things ahead of time? Not many, I guess. Because being a progressive force and doing things your way takes a lot of courage, especially when you are surrounded by people who hold on to conservative beliefs and are resistant to change.
Jackie Stallone, the famous mother of Sylvester Stallone, lived quite a life.
She was considered a socialite and a pioneer, but above all, she attracted a lot of attention because of her obsession with plastic surgery.
Born Jacqueline Frances Labofish in Washington D.C. in November 1921, to a father who was a well-known lawyer and a mother of French descent, Jackie was expected to follow into her father’s footsteps. She, however, had imagined her life quite differently, away from the courtroom, so when she turned 15 she ran away from home and joined the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailly Circus for the Flying Wallenda’s act.
”My father, who was a wealthy lawyer, wanted me to go to law school. But I wanted to be onstage,” Jackie told The Times ofLondon in 2005.
Cornelia Guest and Jackie Stallone (Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images)
After working as a trapeze artist and singing in a choir on Broadway, Jackie returned home to Washington D.C. and did something no one has done it there before. She started her own TV show where she practiced exercise and weightlifting, something everyone believed was not for women during the 1950’s. One thing was certain; Jackie broke barriers and her show became a hot topic back in the day.
One day, she tried entering a gym because she wanted to weight lift but was told she didn’t belong there only because she was a woman. Men were convinced women belonged in the kitchen, and that infuriated Jackie who decided to open a women-only gym, Barbella’s, next door to the men’s gym.
“Of course, the city tried to close me down every week because I had this big wooden statue of a woman saying ’Barbella’s’ – a woman with about a 56-inch bust – lifting weights, you know? That was my inducement… because for some reason o another, everyone was flatchested in Washington, D.C., in the ’50s,” Jackie shared with the Sun Herald in 1988.
In 1945, Jackie met her future husband, Frank Stallone. The following year, Sylvester Stallone was born.
The news of his birth was welcomed with mixed emotions. He was perfectly healthy while in the womb, but during delivery, doctors used ice-picks in order to get him out and damaged half of his body and face. Sly, as his mom called him, was left partially paralyzed.
“During the delivery to speed things up, they grabbed these ice-picks [forceps] and yanked the baby out paralyzing his whole head and face and part of his body. His body was so deformed it was pathetic,” Jackie said.
“The doctors told me ‘He’s so crippled you ought to put him away.’ But I decided he was going to walk, he was going to talk,” she added.
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Her sons were the center of Jackie’s world. She was considered a very devoted mother who did so much for her boys. She divorced Frank in 1957.
In 1989, Jackie appeared in the wrestling program GLOW: Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling, and turned to astrology, which became her permanent career. She published a book and did TV shows where she would give people advice for money.
However, she would probably be most remembered for her appearance and the many plastic surgeries she had over the years.
She couldn’t put her addiction under control even after turning 90. In fact, she never stopped “improving” her face, and although it looked like she was happy with the way she looked, she regretted changing her appearance so drastically.
“I do and actually I’ve got too much, I look like I’ve got a mouth full of nuts, it’s Juvederm (a cosmetic filler), too much of it. I feel as though I look like a chipmunk,” she told Daily Mail in 2013, adding that she had over 50 injections and three chemical peels.
“It plumps [you] up here (pointing at her cheeks) but it looks like you have a mouth full of walnuts.”
She was aware people were talking about her. “I know it isn’t normal. The papers in London are the worst. They say, ’She’s the world’s worst’, that I look like a pet bulldog. I really do. I’ve seen too much bad work,” she said. At the same time, she denied ever using botox. “No Botox, I don’t need that, what I want Botox wouldn’t help. I don’t have wrinkles in my forehead, I genetically don’t have that, that’s something I can be thankful for,” she said.
Jackie was a woman who took great care of herself. She was very fit even when she turned 97. Very often, she posted photos of her at the gym wanting to raise awareness of the importance of exercise and to encourage everyone to lead a healthy life.
Unfortunately, she passed away just two years before reaching 100.
The news of her passing was shared by her son Frank who posted a heartbreaking tribute to the woman who meant the world to him and his brother.
”It was hard not to like her, she was very eccentric and flamboyant person.
”Her mind was as sharp as a razor till the day she died. She never wore a mask a true revolutionary gal. My brother Sylvester took care of her like a Queen for all of her life. I will never be able to call my mom again or have her yell at me why I never got married. But we all loved her and her spirit to survive and prevail . I’ll miss you always mommy.”
The cause of death remains unknown until this day. What we know is that she died in her sleep.
Rest in peace, Jackie Stallone. You are dearly missed.
When the news about the relationship between Prince Charles and Camilla spread around, the entire country was in a complete shock. It looked like everyone was angry at the heir to the throne for cheating on Diana, the princess who stole millions of hearts because of her groundbreaking humanitarian work and the care she showed for her people.
Why many turn back to this turbulent period for the Royal Family is the series Crown, which reminded everyone once again just how special Lady Di was.
Although her marriage to Prince Charles resembled picture-perfect, there was always this other woman who made things hard for the young princess and who reminded her over and over again how unhappy she was with the union. That woman, of course, is Prince Charles’ current wife, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall.
Shutterstock/mark reinstein
Diana Spencer met Charles back in 1980, and a year later, the two announced their engagement. However, it looked like his heart belonged to Camilla from the beginning and Charles was “forced” to get married.
According to Prince Charles’ authorized biography, as quoted by Town & Country, his affair with Camilla started in 1986, just a few years after he tied the knot. Camilla was also married at the time.
Allegedly, Diana couldn’t put up pretending she didn’t know what was going on behind her back, so she confronted Camilla in 1898.
“I know what’s going on between you and Charles and I just want you to know that,” Diana told her biographer Andrew Morton.
“She said to me: ‘You’ve got everything you ever wanted. You’ve got all the men in the world fall in love with you and you’ve got two beautiful children, what more do you want?’ So I said, ‘I want my husband’. And I said, ‘I’m sorry I’m in the way … and it must be hell for both of you. But I do know what’s going on. Don’t treat me like an idiot.’”
Tim Graham Photo Library via Getty Images
Former royal security guard Ken Wharfe exposed on Robert Jobson’s Royal Podcast that Diana was well aware of the affair and it was something she learned to “live with,” as reported by MamaMia.
Diana and Charles announced they were splitting in 1992, and their divorce was finalized in 1996. She was allowed to retain her “Princess of Wales” title, but gave up her title of “Royal Highness.”
Besides Diana and the Britons, another person who didn’t approve of Charles’ relationship with Camilla was Queen Elizabeth. She was very angry at her son for having an affair and even angrier with Camilla, who was the reason he divorced Diana.
Shutterstock/360b
According to author and journalist Tom Bower, The Queen avoided meeting Camilla or even being at the same place as her for many years. That was the reason why she missed the birthday celebration of Charles’ 50th birthday.
“For years, both the Queen and her mother had refused to have anything to do with Charles’ mistress,” Bower said in 2018.
“Not only did they not want her present at any royal function, either formal or informal; they actively disapproved of her, and of Charles’ relationship with her.”
Shutterstock/ComposedPix
Bower revealed that Charles couldn’t stand his girlfriend to be treated with such disrespect so he confronted his mother.
“He asked that she soften her antagonism so he could live openly with Camilla,” he said. “His hope was that the Queen, who rarely interfered, would at least not directly forbid it.
“But on that evening she’d had several martinis, and to Charles’ surprise, she replied forcefully: she would not condone his adultery, nor forgive Camilla for not leaving Charles alone to allow his marriage to recover. [Queen Elizabeth] vented her anger that he had lied about his relationship with what she called ‘that wicked woman,’ and added: ‘I want nothing to do with her.’”
Apparently, that made Charles angry and he was left in tears.
Chris Jackson/Getty Images
As it looked like Queen Elizabeth would never approve of Charles and Camilla’s relationship, everyone became aware that things could change when she attended the 60th birthday party of the King of Greece although she was aware Camilla would be there.
Over time, everyone understood that there was nothing to be done and that what Charles and Camilla had was truly something special.
They got married in 2005 and are still going strong. As for The Queen, she and her daughter-in-law are now in good terms, and even more than that.
“Those two ladies [Camilla and Sophie, Countess of Wessex], the Queen absolutely adores them,” Royal expert Howard Hodgson told Express.
“The Queen gets on very well with Camilla. She didn’t really understand, and was probably guilty of believing what she might not have read, but had been told.”
It takes a big heart to give struggling children a home to call their own.
Kim Lacefield, a mom of three, always knew she wanted to adopt a child who didn’t have a family. He husband is a pastor and they know just how much it would mean for a child without anyone to take care of to feel safe and loved.
One day, Kim received a call that changed her life forever. Police officers told her that three ‘God children’ needed a home badly. Kim was confused at first, but the officers explained that the mom of the children was part of the church where Kim’s husband worked.
Without giving it a second thought, she agreed to take the boys in for as long as they needed.
“Thirty minutes later, I had three little faces at my door. They had no clothes other than what was on their back, no toothbrush, no blanket or favorite pillow,” Kim shared with Love What Matters about the first encounter with the boys aged 6, 8, and 10.
The following day, the older children reunited with their father and the 6-year-old stayed with Kim’s family for little over a year.
“Oh, how I loved him. I knew he had a dad who had just been released from prison and he loved his son. I helped him get his son back. I know that might seem strange for some, but the best gift you can give a child is a healthy bio parent who loves them and wants them. If anyone deserved a second chance, it was this father, who was holding a job down and willing to drive 10 hours for his visits.”
Having these children in her home opened new horizons for this mother. She knew she could do the same for other kids in similar position.
A few days after the boy got reunited with his dad, Kim got a call about a 5-year-old girl.
“Later that day, she walked into my house with a trash bag with her clothes in it. I had to take it back outside and leave on the porch. She had head lice, body lice, and pinworms. She had come from a dirty foster home where she said she was made to lay on the floor. In fact, she had been in over five homes in 6 weeks.”
It took some time before Kim was able to get to the girl who refused to communicate. When she started school, the teachers were worried because she was behind her peers. “It wasn’t long before I was getting calls from the school asking me what was going on. She was in first grade and couldn’t trace the letter ‘L.’ She would mess in her pants and wouldn’t change them,” Kim explained.
Both Kim and the girl’s teacher went the extra mile to help the little one get on track. After a year at school, the girl showed incredible progress and was even dubbed a “miracle child.”
“Teachers and school social workers couldn’t believe how far she came in a year. A lot of kids who come into care are 5 or more years emotionally behind their actual age,” Kim said.
Kim was over the moon she gave the girl a new lease on life.
Days passed by and Kim got a call about the girl’s 2-year-old sister. Not wanting the siblings to be raised in different families, she agreed to take this other girl too.
“She had been living with a relative. She had a broken arm and big sores on her skin. She came to me during the day while her sister was at school,” Kim recalled.
“She seemed so scared but after a while, she looked up at my wall of pictures and said, ‘Addy.’ That was her sister she recognized. I will never forget that moment. It has made me passionate about keeping sibling groups together.”
A year later, the girls’ biological mom signed her rights over to Kim and her husband. She couldn’t take care of her daughters because she was in and out of rehab most of the time. But she loved them and wanted to be involved in their lives so Kim offered her to visit her daughters whenever she wanted. Eventually, the mother decided to give her daughters up for adoption and they officially became part of Kim’s family.
“Ever since I was a little girl, I wanted to adopt. The thought of kids not being loved caused sleepless nights even as a child,” Kim said.
“The courts made it happen and both girls were adopted last week on (on the younger sister’s) seventh birthday, 5 years after coming to me with her broken arm.”
Although they now have five daughters, Kim and her husband’s home is always filled with kids because whenever they hear of a child no one wants to foster, they step in.
“I hear this a lot, ‘I could never do what you do, I would get too attached.’ My response to that is, ‘That’s what the kids need. If you don’t get attached, then you are doing it wrong.’ Kids deserve love. It is better for me to hurt than them to keep being hurt.”
On February 6, 2018, baby Aiden was welcomed into the world. What came along with his arrival was a continuation of one stunning and faithful tradition that left the nurses in awe.
Aiden’s mom, Kyrsten Moreno, was born on the same date. Quite a coincidence, we’d say, but what is even more incredible is that Kyrsten’s mom, Aiden’s grandma, was born on February 6 as well. That made the sweet baby boy the third person in their southwest suburban family’s home to be welcomed on that same date.
When Dr. Diane Leonard noticed that these mother and son share the same birthday, she felt it was a great thing, but when they told her about the grandmother, she realized that she had never heard of something like that before. It was a reason for a huge celebration, so she and the nurses bought a cake and sang “Happy Birthday”
It turns out that the chances of a child, parent, and a grandparent to be born on the same date is one in 48 million.
CBS Chicago got in touch with Kyrsten who was still at the hospital and asked her for a comment. The thrilled mother said that she felt like this was a payback for all the birthdays she stole from her mother when she was a child.
“Well, I definitely stole it from my mom,” she said jokingly. “So I have a feeling this is my payback.”
“I’m like, there’s no way he’s going to be born on my birthday,” Kyrsten added.
As for the grandma, Nadine, she believes nothing is a coincidence, “I think it was meant to be,” she said.
For more on the story go to the video below.
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When it comes to teaching, many people say how teachers have it easy only because they get to spend a couple of months off during the summer. But no one really speaks of the fact that they are underpaid and that their job is really demanding. After all, they help shape the students into the adults they become and do their best to prepare them for the world that awaits them after they graduate.
So whenever you have difficulties making your child behave, just imagine how teachers have around 20 and even more kids in their classroom that they have to put up with every single day.
Julie Marburger, a sixth-grade teacher at Cedar Creek Intermediate School in Texas had it enough from all the kids who weren’t taught proper behavior by their parents and made her lessons a real hell. She’s now sharing what she experienced during those two years she spent teaching and says how she considers quitting the school and being a teacher in general.
In a post she shared on Facebook and vent viral, she wrote, “Parents have become far too disrespectful, and their children are even worse. One parent today thought it was wrong of me to hold her son accountable for his behavior and decided to very rudely tell me so, in front of her son.”
Marburger shared photos of some of the things the misbehaving students do on a daily basis. They don’t respect neither the school’s, nor their teachers’ belongings. The photos showed torn books, destroyed electronics, and even a chewing gum stuck on a window sill.
“Keep in mind that many of the items damaged or destroyed by my students are my personal possessions or I purchased myself, because I have NO classroom budget,” she wrote. “I have finally had enough of the disregard for personal and school property and am drawing a line in the sand on a myriad of behaviors that I am through tolerating.”
She also said that neither her students nor their parents care for all the missed assignment.
She ended her post with a message she wants the parents to hear.
“People absolutely HAVE to stop coddling and enabling their children,” she stated. “It’s not fair to society, and more importantly, is not fair to the children to teach them this is okay. It will not serve them towards a successful and happy life.”
“Any passion for this work I once had has been wrung completely out of me. Maybe I can be the voice of reason. THIS HAS TO STOP!”
Marburger has later deleted the post and the photos, but it was already seen by more than 350,000 people who took their time to share it and comment on it. Most of them said how she had all the right to be mad and frustrated because children really are crazily spoiled by their moms and dads.
What are your thoughts on this? Do you think parents should be more strict?
