Note: The following post is a quote:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1998419/posts
East Texas Teenager Attacked Over History Project (Illegal Immigration)
KLTV.com ^
Posted on April 8, 2008 6:57:06 AM PDT by mnehrling
Melanie Bowers, 13, and her parents walked into Athens High School Monday afternoon to talk to campus police. They were hoping to get some answers.
“It never should have happened in the first place. The whole assignment was a silly assignment and they should have contacted us immediately after it happened,” said J.R. Bowers, Melanie’s father.
It was an assignment for history class—to make a protest sign for or against an issue, and Melanie said she chose illegal immigration. Her sign read, “If you love our nation, stop illegal immigration.” Somehow, Melanie said the sign got passed around lunch and angered a group of Latino students.
“I didn’t know any of these people,” she said. One young, she claimed, jumped on her back and he put her in a choke hold. “We have brick walls in the middle school and he slammed my face on the bricks.”
Melanie said a group of boys also threatened to rape and kill her. Eventually, the boys let her go and when she went for help, she was ordered back to class, and told she could not call her parents, she said.
“They handled this wrong, you know, they put a child back in danger,” said J.R. Bowers. “It was a very racially motivated crime.”
Athens ISD gave KLTV 7 a statement, confirming there was a disturbance in the hallway, Friday between two to three students. “We have a camera system in the building,” said Louis DeRosa. “We are collecting other information and statements from witnesses and this is all the information we have at this time,” he said.
Melanie and her parents said they just hope the right thing is done...and quickly.
“I won’t be happy until the kids that did this are out of school,” Bowers said.
Note: The following text is a quote:
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=49507
Aircrews Kill Attackers, Destroy Mortar Launching Site in Baghdad
American Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON, April 8, 2008 – An Army Apache helicopter and an Air Force F-16 took out a mortar-launching team and their launch site yesterday after an observation team saw them emplacing mortars in the New Baghdad district, military officials reported.
A joint security station reported a mortar attack near its location in the New Baghdad district. After a second 82 mm round exploded near the station, an aerial surveillance team pinpointed the two mortars’ point of origin.
Iraqi security forces called in a U.S. Army Apache air weapons team that killed the mortar crew with a Hellfire missile. An F-16 then dropped a low-yield bomb on the mortar site.
Also yesterday, an Apache team destroyed a storage site for rails used to launch rocket attacks. Forces observed insurgents recovering rails after a rocket attack. An aerial weapons team was called in for support. The crew destroyed the structure and the rails with a Hellfire missile.
In other news in Iraq, coalition forces seized a weapons cache yesterday in eastern Baghdad. Soldiers found a small cache of armor-piercing explosively formed penetrators while patrolling. The cache was recovered.
(Compiled from Multinational Corps Iraq news releases.)