Posts tagged children

Tasmanian police have confirmed they twice strip-searched a 12-year-old girl during a drug raid on Hobart’s eastern shore.

Police arrived at a house in Rokeby on Wednesday morning with a warrant to search for methylamphetamines.

Inspector Glenn Lathey says that during the raid the girl was twice searched by female officers in a bedroom in the presence of her mother.

Police say the law allows for children to be strip-searched.

Inspector Lathey confirmed the occupants of the house were known to police.

No charges will be laid against the girl, but several adults in the house will be charged.

(Source: abc.net.au)

EU ‘propaganda’ is being handed out to teachers to indoctrinate pupils at a young age, it has emerged.

A Brussels official responsible for providing classroom material to UK schools admitted a desire to teach youngsters about the ‘values of EU membership’ from a young age, before they are ‘misinformed’.

The revelation that aggressively pro-European leaflets were being handed out at an education fair to ‘brainwash’ pupils has been heavily criticised.

UKIP deputy leader and education spokesman Paul Nuttall MEP told the Express: ‘It is what we always suspected but could never prove. Now we can. They [the EU] are effectively using our cash to brainwash our children. And it has to stop.’

A video has emerged of Judith Schilling, the European Commission’s publication manager, handing out EU-focused leaflets at the Education Show in Birmingham.

She tells an interviewer: ‘Everybody has now picked up on the idea that we will never succeed to convince people about the value of being a member of the European Union if we do not start early enough with the young people before they form prejudices and are misinformed by other sources.’

Mr Nuttall said he has written to Education Secretary Michael Gove and Schools Minister Nick Gibb saying the teaching programme appears to breach the law banning promotion of ‘partisan political views’ in schools.

Pupils must be given a balanced presentation of issues, he said.

Mr Nuttall has also called for the European Commission to be made to halt its schools programme pending an inquiry and to order schools to stop using such aids.

Ukip leader Nigel Farage said: ‘It is vital that such an important issue, which is essentially the deliberate political indoctrination of our children, be dealt with in as open and as transparent a way as possible.’

It comes after the EU was accused of trying to ‘brainwash’ children after pupils all over the country were given pencil cases with its logo emblazoned across it.

The brightly-coloured pencil cases featuring the EU’s 12-star logo were handed out to schoolchildren following an event encouraging teachers to forge links with the Commission.

The one-day conference was staged by Staffordshire County Council and was attended by 50 teachers to raise awareness of the EU in schools, it was reported.

On the Commission London HQ website, visitors can click ‘to enjoy our little movie’ about its free educational publications.

The video shows Ms Schilling speaking about the various teaching tools being provided by the Commission.

The free material includes the ‘Passport to the EU’, containing ‘fun’ information about the 27 member states. ‘I’ve been told by many teachers that they love it and the children love it,’ says Ms Schilling.

There is also a ‘mini language guide’ with samples of the EU’s 23 official languages, which she said was useful for primary schools.

For ‘slightly older’ readers is ‘The EU: What’s in it for me?’ explaining ‘how we benefit from membership of the EU in our daily life, everything between lower roaming charges and cleaner bathing water’.

Both booklets are still available in British schools, the Express found.
Mark English, a spokesman for the EU Commission in the UK, told the Express: ‘The Commission distributes information to teachers and schools only when invited. Some material refers to benefits that the EU brings and gives evidence for this. Others have different views and schools are free to invite them, too.

‘The Commission does not seek to mislead and invites those who systematically promote an anti-EU agenda through the media also to make their arguments based on the facts.’

Tory MEP Emma McClarkin said: ‘This looks like a licence to force-feed pupils a very one-sided, starry-eyed version of what the EU is and does for its people. We fear it will be a carte blanche to push the federalist agenda that is so close to the hearts of the Eurocrats.’

(Source: Daily Mail)

Gender-bending chemical that ‘makes girls as young as three aggressive and hyperactive’

A common chemical used in products ranging from baby bottles to CD cases could be causing girls as young as three to become hyperactive and aggressive, researchers have claimed.

A study by leading U.S. scientists has found that those exposed to high levels of bisphenol A (BPA) in the womb are more likely to suffer from behavioural problems.

BPA, which is used to harden plastics, can be found in the lining of tins and bottles and the ends of knives and forks.

Some scientists think that even relatively low doses can interfere with our behaviour, bodily  functions and fertility. While some research has suggested that BPA is perfectly safe, other experiments have linked it to breast cancer, liver damage, obesity and diabetes.

Campaigners have called for a Europe-wide ban, and say the most recent findings are ‘yet another nail in the coffin’ for BPA.

The new research saw a team at the Harvard University School of Public Health compare levels of the chemical in 244 pregnant women. Each one provided three urine samples during pregnancy, and another at birth, which were all tested for BPA.

When the children reached the age of one the scientists measured their levels of BPA, and did so again over the next two years.

Once the children turned three, their mothers all filled in a survey about their behaviour. The researchers found that girls  were more likely to be hyper-active, aggressive, anxious, and depressed and unable to control themselves if their mothers had recorded higher levels of BPA during pregnancy.

The study, published in the journal Pediatrics, found no such link among boys.

The scientists think that girls’ hormones may make them more sensitive to BPA.

They said doctors should advise worried women to reduce their exposure to the chemical during pregnancy by cutting back on tinned and packaged foods.

Joe Braun, a research fellow at the university, said: ‘None of the children had clinically abnormal behaviour, but some had more behaviour problems than others. Thus, we examined the relationship between the mothers’ and children’s BPA concentrations and the different behaviours.’

He added: ‘Gestational, but not childhood, BPA exposures may impact neurobehavioural function, and girls appear to be more sensitive to BPA than boys.’

Elizabeth Salter Green, director of CHEM Trust, a charity that aims to protect humans from harmful chemicals, said: ‘This is what should be yet another nail in the coffin for BPA.

‘Our exposure through consumer products is ubiquitous, and where there are links between in-utero exposures and subsequent health problems we must take steps to reduce that exposure to BPA.

‘The EU needs to take action now in order to protect future generations from health risks. Pregnant women and people of reproductive age must be the greatest priority.

‘The ever-growing weight of evidence says BPA must go.’

Last year, Denmark was the first EU country to ban the chemical from containers for children under three, and the EU has barred manufacturers from using it in baby bottles since June. Canada and several U.S. states have also introduced bans.

(Source: Daily Mail)