In the moments after a young man detonated two pipe bombs at Hillsdale High School in San Mateo, English language development teacher Kennet Santana didn’t have time to think about what he should do.
As students crouched for cover in their classrooms, Santana, 34, moved toward the explosions shortly after 8 a.m. Monday. In the hallway outside the library, he saw a boy wearing a tactical vest with what turned out to be eight other pipe bombs.
Santana thought at first the youth was a student trying to run from whatever was happening. But when he noticed a pipe bomb sticking out of one of the boy’s pockets, he realized that the youth was a threat – and that he had to stop him.
Without hesitation, Santana tackled the boy in a bear hug, pinned his arms to his sides, flipped him to the ground and stayed on top of him while yelling at other teachers to call for help.
HASKELL, OK — 59 years at one job is inspiring, but 59 years teaching math and science to middle school students is impressive.
That’s the case for Sylvester Franklin, whose career started shortly after World War II came to an end. The only place he has ever taught is in Haskell, in Muskogee County.
I know the story is about a week old, but I wanted to post it nonetheless.
An 11-year-old Ohio boy is helping ease his family’s financial burdens, one toy at a time.
Zach McGuire is selling his toys to raise money for his family, which like others across the country, has bills piling up and a home in jeopardy.
The youth said the idea came up during a conversation with his father.
“You can’t live in toys, or eat toys,” he told CNN television affiliate WNWO. “Even though they are fun, you don’t need them.”
Zach plans to use the proceeds for a good cause: helping his unemployed father.
But it turns out the kid has had a big heart for a while . . .
It’s not the first time Zach has helped those in need. In 2005, he sold Kool-Aid for victims of Hurricane Katrina and raised $400. A few years later, it was “Cocoa for California,” which he sold to help wildfire victims.
BATON ROUGE, LA (WAFB) – After cancer took the life of a 15-year-old boy, his family dug the teen’s grave themselves to save on funeral costs and also received assistance from complete strangers to give him a proper burial.
On Saturday, amid the most violent clashes between security forces and protesters, Mr. Alipour was shot in the head as he stood at an intersection in downtown Tehran. He was returning from acting class and a week shy of becoming a groom, his family said.
The details of his death remain unclear. He had been alone. Neighbors and relatives think that he got trapped in the crossfire. He wasn’t politically active and hadn’t taken part in the turmoil that has rocked Iran for over a week, they said.
At the crack of dawn, his father began searching at police stations, then hospitals and then the morgue.
Upon learning of his son’s death, the elder Mr. Alipour was told the family had to pay an equivalent of $3,000 as a “bullet fee”—a fee for the bullet used by security forces—before taking the body back, relatives said.
Mr. Alipour told officials that his entire possessions wouldn’t amount to $3,000, arguing they should waive the fee because he is a veteran of the Iran-Iraq war. According to relatives, morgue officials finally agreed, but demanded that the family do no funeral or burial in Tehran. Kaveh Alipour’s body was quietly transported to the city of Rasht, where there is family.
HUNTINGTON BEACH – Colby Curtin, a 10-year-old with a rare form of cancer, was staying alive for one thing – a movie.
From the minute Colby saw the previews to the Disney-Pixar movie Up, she was desperate to see it. Colby had been diagnosed with vascular cancer about three years ago, said her mother, Lisa Curtin, and at the beginning of this month it became apparent that she would die soon and was too ill to be moved to a theater to see the film.
After a family friend made frantic calls to Pixar to help grant Colby her dying wish, Pixar came to the rescue.
The company flew an employee with a DVD of Up, which is only in theaters, to the Curtins’ Huntington Beach home on June 10 for a private viewing of the movie.
The animated movie begins with scenes showing the evolution of a relationship between a husband and wife. After losing his wife in old age, the now grumpy man deals with his loss by attaching thousands of balloons to his house, flying into the sky, and going on an adventure with a little boy.
Colby died about seven hours after seeing the film.
Two parts of this story of a sister (valedictorian) and brother (salutatorian) who graduate today stood out:
But when Karen, 19, first moved from Colombia to Irving 10 years ago, she spoke no English and had to repeat the third grade at J.O. Davis Elementary, where she started out in bilingual classes.
Both maintained high grades while working jobs to help their single father avoid foreclosure of their house. They haven’t seen their mother since leaving Colombia as children.
