Free Republic

An independent investigation into the suicide of 10-year-old Isabella "Izzy" Tichenor last November found "no direct evidence to support the allegations that Izzy was bullied on the basis of race and/or disability," according to a Davis School District report released Friday. The district announced its investigation in December 2021 following the T​​ichenor family's claim that Izzy, who was Black and the family has said had autism, died by suicide after facing discrimination and bullying at Foxboro Elementary in North Salt Lake and that school officials "knew of the bullying and failed to respond." A summary of the investigative team's findings...

Dostoevsky once said, "If God didn't exist, everything is possible." There is wisdom in his observation since, without God, there would be nothing to serve as the ultimate reference for human acts. The eternal law that God established in the universe is inscribed on the human heart. Thus, everyone at all times and places knows right and wrong. Take away God, and all will fall into the most barbaric savagery. Modern secular society officially denies that God exists. Thus, society comes to accept the cruelest practices by breaking down the natural repugnance that comes from transgressing God’s law. Abortion and...

Sometimes it’s appropriate to speak ill of the dead. Playboy founder Hugh Hefner died Wednesday, aged 91. But his work of mainstreaming porn will likely live on—and continue to hurt men and women—for many years to come. Playboy helped usher in an era of porn addiction, decreased happiness, and strained relationships between men and women. Porn did of course exist before Hefner, and the internet—a technological innovation Hefner had nothing to do with—greatly accelerated the use of porn. But what Hefner did was to bring porn out of the shadows, to make it something that could be discussed openly and...

A constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage, backed by President Bush and conservative groups, was soundly defeated in the Senate yesterday after proponents failed to persuade a bare majority of all senators to support the measure. Although most states have acted to prevent same-sex partners from marrying, seven Senate Republicans were wary of wading into the politically risky issue and voted against bringing the proposed amendment to a final vote. ..... Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (Tenn.) and other GOP leaders had sought the vote as a way to help galvanize their party's conservative base at a time of flagging...

Anti-Semitism may not yet be a litmus test for social acceptability in the US, but it has certainly become acceptable. Proof of this dismal state of affairs came this week with the publication of a supportive profile of University of Chicago professor John Mearsheimer in The Atlantic monthly written by the magazine’s in-house foreign policy guru Robert Kaplan. Mearsheimer is the author, together with Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government’s Prof. Stephen Walt, of the infamous 2007 book The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy. Since the book’s publication, Mearsheimer has become one of the most high-profile anti-Semites in America.

PORT ST. LUCIE — Melissa Barton said she is considering legal action after her son's kindergarten teacher led his classmates to vote him out of class. After each classmate was allowed to say what they didn't like about Barton's 5-year-old son, Alex, his Morningside Elementary teacher Wendy Portillo said they were going to take a vote, Barton said. By a 14 to 2 margin, the students voted Alex — who is in the process of being diagnosed with autism — out of the class. Melissa Barton filed a complaint with Morningside's school resource officer, who investigated the matter, Port St....

A family that moved to Sudbury to put their kids in a “safe” school lost their straight-A son to a knife-slashing teen misfit yesterday in a crime that turned a haven for learning into a scene of numbing horror, officials said. Prosecutors say the death of James F. Alenson, 15, allegedly at the hands of John Odgren, 16, in a bathroom at Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School yesterday before the first bell, was a premeditated act by a troubled teen who will be tried as an adult. “They had just moved there in September - they moved there to be in...

Sixth grade was a trying time for Karen Singer's autistic son, who spent recess wandering the periphery of the playground by himself and sometimes hid in the school bathroom when he needed a safe place to cry. He knew he was doing something wrong as he reached the social crucible of middle school, but he did not know how to fix it. At home he begged his mother to explain: "Why am I like this? What's wrong with me?" Intensive behavioral treatment, popularized over the last 10 years, prepared him academically and helped him get by in regular classes for...

Mainstreaming deviancy Having seen the ratings bonanza of the reality dating shows "The Bachelor," "Joe Millionaire" and "The Bachelorette," the NBC-owned cable channel Bravo is getting in on the action. And to lure a perhaps jaded audience, it has come up with a new twist. In July, Bravo begins airing "Boy Meets Boy," a six-episode series starring a bachelor who chooses, from 15 male contestants, a lover with whom he wishes to share a vacation, paid for by Bravo. To spice up the series, several contestants are straight males, who hide their orientation. The prizes? According to Lisa de Moraes...