Wednesday, February 22, 2012


National News

Chicago School Nets $190,000 in Student Fines

Creatas/Thinkstock(CHICAGO) -- Forget watching the clock, chewing gum, or slouching. At the Noble Network of Charter Schools' 10 Chicago campuses students are on their best behavior-- otherwise it will cost them.

"Students tell us by and large they don't like the whole system as most teenagers would, but the proof is in the pudding," said Michael Milkie, CEO and superintendent of the Noble Network of Charter Schools.

Last year, the schools collected an estimated $190,000 to help defray the cost of having teachers stay after school to supervise detention. Students earn demerits for everything from having flaming hot chips, which Milkie said have been shown to being addictive, to having their shirts untucked.

After earning four demerits, the student is sent to a three-hour detention. Admission fee: $5.

"These are schools of choice. We have thousands on the wait list and we do communicate [this policy] really well with parents," Milkie said.

But Noble's unique approach, which it has relied on for the past 13 years, has drawn scrutiny from some parents and eduction advocacy groups who said it's being used to push out students.

"These extremely punitive, nitpicky programs are not the ones that really work," said Julie Woestehoff, executive director of the Chicago-based advocacy group Parents United For Responsible Education. "The students need to feel they're not like dogs or 2 year olds. They're actually maturing human beings who need some guidance and not someone to jump on top of them."

Donna Moore said her son, who is a second-year freshman, has been hounded at the school for everything from not having his eyes on the teacher at a given moment to having his shoe untied.

"He was retained because of detention. He was told his first year that at that time he had hit 33 detentions and had to retake his freshman year," Moore said, adding that it was impossible for students to keep up on school work when they keep being punished.

But Milkie said the school's unique system of fees -- he doesn't call them fines -- has yielded dividends.

Not only is more money now spent on education and less on paying teachers overtime to supervise detention, but test scores have also improved.

The average ACT score across Noble's 10 campuses last year was 20.3. Chicago Public Schools students scored an average of 17.2. The school's scores have consistently climbed since 2003.

Even though Donna Moore isn't happy with the way her son has been treated, she said she plans to keep him in the Noble school system.

"I send him there because there are not really many choices," she said. "It's the decision to deal with the devil I didn't know versus the devil I did know. Now I want to stay and make it better for all students."

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

 

Dunwoody Day Care Killing: Trial Begins for Georgia Engineer Charged With Murder

Dunwoody Police Dept(ATLANTA) -- The murder trial of a Georgia engineer charged with killing his colleague and alleged lover's husband began Tuesday in Atlanta with starkly different tales of romance, betrayal and insanity in attorneys' opening statements.

Hemy Neuman, 48, was a high-level operations manager at General Electric when he shot and killed Andrea Sneiderman's husband Rusty Sneiderman, 36, in the parking lot of Sneiderman's son's preschool.

Andrea Sneiderman worked for Neuman at General Electric and they were allegedly involved in a hot-and-cold affair.

Neither the defense nor the prosecution denies that Neuman pulled the trigger and killed Rusty Sneiderman, but they tell divergent stories of what led to the killing.

Neuman pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.

Neuman's defense attorney Doug Peters said in his opening statements that Neuman believed he had been visited by an angel and demon in the forms of Olivia Newton-John and Barry White, respectively, that told him that Sneiderman's children were his and that he needed to protect them by killing her husband.

Peters said mental illness runs in Neuman's family and his troubled past could be traced back to his family being taken to Auschwitz by the Nazis, a violent father and boarding school.

Neuman eventually married and became the father of three children -- 21-year-old twins and an 18-year-old daughter.

Andrea Sneiderman worked for Neuman at GE and in May 2010, they took their first business trip together and began having conversations about their personal lives. Peters went on to describe numerous romantic business trips, hours spent on the phone and hundreds of personal text messages exchanged between the two.

The defense contends that although Andrea Sneiderman at times said she would never leave her husband, she encouraged Neuman to envision a life with her and her children. These messages and his troubled background, the defense said, were what led Neuman to hear demons and angels that commanded him to murder Rusty Sneiderman.

Andrea Sneiderman was in court and shook her head and let out sporadic sobs as Peters spoke.

"Marry me," Neuman wrote in a text message read by Peters. "You think I'm crazy and your intentions are clear. Sleep on it. I will give you, Sophia and Ian the world. Together we can make it all work. Marry me."

In an email, Andrea Sneiderman wrote to Neuman, "Desire versus reality is a world I'm trying to ignore because I have to. So sorry, not fair to you, I have other thoughts but not the time right now."

"We know what happened; this case is about why. ... How could this have ever possibly taken place?" Peters asked the jurors. "This man should not be released, he should be confined as the law provides, and held as the law provides. This man is not guilty by reason of insanity."

The prosecution told a very different story.

"It's a case of violence where a man wanted someone else's wife, so he killed her husband," DeKalb County Chief Assistant District Attorney Don Geary said in opening statements Tuesday. "He got caught."

The prosecution painted Neuman as a calculating killer who planned Sneiderman's shooting for months -- going to gun shows, taking a gun safety course, going to target practice, renting a car for the shooting and wearing a disguise.

Geary also painted a picture of Rusty Sneiderman's last morning and how unsuspecting he was as he dropped his 2-year-old son Ian at a Dunwoody day care.

"Ian enjoyed spending time with his father and spending time with his friends at day care, didn't know that shortly his loving father, his hero, would be gunned down," Geary said. "Ian didn't know that he was about to see his father for the last time. Ian didn't know that there would be gunshots and that would be the end."

"As Rusty walks to car, Hemy Neuman approaches him, walking towards him, and shoots him three times -- here, here, and here," Geary said as he demonstrated the motions. "As Rusty falls in the parking lot, dying, Hemy Neuman isn't satisfied. He walks up and at contact puts the 40 caliber on Rusty's neck and fires one last time."

Geary expressed his skepticism at the idea that Neuman, an engineer who managed more than 5,000 engineers and an $800 million budget, decided to kill a man without question after being visited by angels and demons resembling celebrities.

Geary said Neuman "doesn't come close" to meeting the requirements for legal insanity.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

   

Jilted Boyfriend Accused of Killing Girlfriend in Hit-and-Run

Photodisc/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) -- A spurned boyfriend planned to flee the country after allegedly running over his girlfriend three times and killing her, Bergen County, N.J., prosecutors said Tuesday.

Charles Ann, 26, was arrested at a friend’s apartment in Flushing, N.Y., early Tuesday morning with a passport and a large sum of cash.

Prosecutors said Ann allegedly ran over his girlfriend, Aena Hong, 25, three times on a Fort Lee, N.J., road Monday evening and left her for dead at the scene. Hong died an hour later from her injuries.

Hong was seen walking next to Ann’s Hyundai Sonata while the two were embroiled in an argument, Bergen County prosecutor John Molinelli said in a statement. He described the pair’s relationship as “tumultuous.”

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“Just before the incident, the vehicle was observed to drive away from Ms. Hong and turn around. As the victim was crossing the road, [Ann] rapidly accelerated his motor vehicle, striking Ms. Hong,” Molinelli wrote.

Ann put the car in reverse, driving over Hong’s body, then drove forward over it for a third time, prosecutors said.

Ann, a native of Korea, has been in the United States since 2009.

He is being held on $3 million bail while he awaits an extradition hearing from Queens, N.Y., to New Jersey.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

   

Disabled Teen Falls 46 Stories in Trash Chute to His Death

Comstock/Thinkstock(CHICAGO) -- A 17-year-old boy with Down syndrome and autism fell to his death down a garbage chute Monday night in a high-rise Chicago apartment building. Police discovered the body of Charlie Manley inside the building’s trash compacter.

He apparently climbed into the trash chute and fell 46 floors to his death, according to police. Residents say the chutes are about four feet off the ground and covered with a metal door.

Police say the boy’s parents were awakened by an alarm in their apartment -- set off when the boy left -- but then could not find him during a frantic search.

Neighbors described the teenager as a friendly, upbeat boy who was well known in the building located in Chicago’s Gold Coast neighborhood just north of downtown.  "He was always out, talking to everybody in the building," said Carolyn Licata, a building resident.

Neighbor Barbara Georgans wondered how he was able to climb into such a small opening, estimated at less than two square feet. “Maybe they should have had some kind of a shield to prevent something like that.”

The Chicago medical examiner’s officer conducted an autopsy on the boy and ruled his death an accident.

The boy’s father, John Manley, is a Chicago hedge fund investor who has supported the Special Olympics over many years.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

   

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