Charles Oliver: Hands off the policy for human remains

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June 27, 2012

Charles Oliver: Hands off the policy for human remains

Charles Oliver charlesoliver@daltoncitizen.com The Dalton Daily Citizen Wed Jun 27, 2012, 07:09 AM EDT

— John Gross was returning home to Indiana from Florida, and he was carrying the ashes of his deceased father. Unfortunately for him, he chose to fly home. At the Orlando airport, a Transportation Security Administration screener opened the container with the ashes and began running her fingers through the ashes. Then she accidentally spilled them on the floor. Gross said that as he was down on his hands and knees trying to scoop the ashes back into the container she began laughing at him. Gross said he later found out she had no right to even open the container. TSA rules say that human remains are not to be opened and must be X-rayed instead.

New Jersey’s Marlboro Board of Education has agreed to stop asking students at Asher Holmes Elementary School to pledge allegiance to their teachers and their school. Students have been saying the pledge each morning for 10 years, but recently one parents found out about the practice and asked that it be stopped.

Janice Michener says she was horrified when her daughters Zoe, 9, and Violet, 11, returned home from a school field trip. The two were severely sunburned. The Tacoma, Wash., mother was even angrier when she found that school officials would not allow them to apply sunscreen. State law bars teachers and school officials from applying sunscreen to students, and it bars students from even carrying sunscreen with them unless they have a doctor’s note. According to several media reports, California is the only state to allow students to have sunscreen at school or school functions without a doctor’s note.

In most European nations, the law requires employers to give all employees four to six weeks vacation. Thanks to a recent ruling by the European Union Court of Justice, they may be forced to give employees much more time off. The court ruled that if a worker gets sick on vacation, the worker is legally entitled to take another vacation.

A study by economists at Harvard University and Yale University has found that sending food to poor countries actually increases violent conflict. Nancy Qian and Nathan Nunn found that for each 10 percent increase in food that the United States sends to a country violence increases 1.14 percent. They say that doesn’t mean the United States should stop sending food to poor countries but it should get more selective.

The Ontario provincial government is backing a bill that would require all schools, including religious schools, to host gay-straight alliances. “Schools need to be safe places for kids to be themselves,” said Education Minister Laurel Broten. Well, as long as being themselves doesn’t involve being part of a group that has the wrong beliefs.

Israel has banned companies from using models that are too thin in their advertising campaigns. The law requires models to carry a medical report no more than three months old showing their body mass index. The law also requires written notice on any ad where a model has been digitally altered to look thinner.

Trey Gainey wears a belt buckle that says “Redneck,” and his truck has a horn that blows “Dixie.” The truck also has a Confederate flag on the antenna. But when Gainey drove the truck to his Rockingham, N.C., high school, officials ordered him to remove the flag, saying it was disruptive and could cause violence. When he refused, they threatened to have it towed. Gainey’s mother eventually came to school and removed the flag. No word on whether school officials allowed him to keep the horn.

Charles Oliver is a staff writer for The Daily Citizen. Got a suggestion for “It Couldn’t Happen Here?” Email it to him at charlesoliver@daltoncitizen.com.

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Charles Oliver: Hands off the policy for human remains

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