Ottawa Valley teacher shot in Honduras

A former Ottawa Valley teacher is fighting for his life in a Honduras hospital after he was shot several times in a brazen drug-related carjacking on his way to a goodbye party for a former colleague.

Dennis Spencer, 58, the principal of a respected international school in northern Honduras for the past four years, was stopped at a traffic light in San Pedro Sula sometime between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. Friday when two armed men forced their way into his car.

They pushed a female colleague, also a principal, into the backseat and then at gunpoint ordered Spencer to drive. Within a few minutes, they were overtaken by two men in a second car who opened fire, striking Spencer in the arm, shoulder and skull, before speeding away. No one else was hit, and the two carjackers fled.

Spencer’s colleague, dazed and frightened, wandered through the neighbourhood knocking on doors to get help, eventually finding someone who called for an ambulance.

Spencer, a teacher for 25 years in Renfrew County, was rushed to Cemesa Hospital where he was placed in medically induced coma early Saturday after surgeons operated on his brain. It is believed he was hit in the head by shrapnel, possibly shards of glass sent flying by bullets.

Doctors often place head injury victims in comas to keep brain activity to a minimum while they assess the extent of the trauma.

Ron Vair, the Canadian who runs the Escuela Internacional Sampedrana where Spencer has worked since 2005, said Sunday that doctors hope to gradually ease him from the coma today. The brain has shown no abnormal swelling, and doctors remain “guardedly optimistic” he will recover.

Spencer’s wife Barb, who was in Pembroke visiting one of the couple’s two adult children when her husband was attacked, flew back to Honduras Sunday.

In the meantime, Spencer’s colleagues from school have been lining up to visit the popular principal in hospital.

“There has been anywhere from 10 to 50 people there at a time to see him,” Vair said. “He is a real good fellow. The staff really love him. I’ve never heard anyone say a bad word about him.”

Spencer was principal of Esceula Sampedrana’s smaller elementary school campus in La Lima, a mountain community about 30 kilometeres from San Pedro Sula, a city of half a million and the site of the school’s main campus.

In all, the school has about 2,000 students and 200 staff, more than 30 of them from Canada, according to David Schult, a Kitchener, Ont. native who is a vice-principal at the main campus.
© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen

Young Honduran activist and editor inspires children living with HIV

Education Week: No Effect on Comprehension Seen From 'Reading First'

Education Week: No Effect on Comprehension Seen From 'Reading First'

No Effect on Comprehension Seen From 'Reading First'
By Kathleen Kennedy Manzo
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The $6 billion funding for the federal Reading First program has helped more students “crack the code” to identify letters and words, but it has not had an impact on reading comprehension among 1st, 2nd, and 3rd graders in participating schools, according to one of the largest and most rigorous studies ever undertaken by the U.S. Department of Education.

While more time is spent on reading instruction and professional development in schools that received Reading First grants than in comparison schools, students in participating schools are no more likely to become proficient readers, even after several years with the extended instruction, the study found.

Among both the Reading First and comparison groups, reading achievement was low, with fewer than half of 1st graders, and fewer than 40 percent of 2nd and 3rd graders showing grade-level proficiency in their understanding of what they read. On a basic decoding test, however, 1st graders in Reading First schools scored significantly better than their peers in the comparison schools.

The final report of the Reading First Impact Study, released today by the Institute of Education Sciences, is part of the $40 million evaluation process for the program, which was rolled out in 2002 as part of the No Child Left Behind Act.

“Advocates for the program will be pleased that it’s shown a positive correlation on [improved] decoding skills ... the focus of the program,” said Grover J. “Russ” Whitehurst, the outgoing director of the institute, the Education Department’s research arm. “I don’t think anyone should be celebrating the fact that the federal government invested $6 billion in a reading program that has shown no effects on reading comprehension.”

Curriculum Matters: Evolution Debate Under Way in Texas

Evolution Debate Under Way in Texas

The Texas board of education is the latest state entity to begin debating the status of evolution in the state's science academic standards.

To provide a quick overview: The current version of Texas' science standards calls for students to understand the "strengths and weaknesses" of scientific theories. That language irks scientists, who see it as a way of falsely implying that evolution is riddled with flaws, as opposed to being one of the best-established principles in science. A draft produced by an expert committee recommended dropping that language, as part of a broader reworking of the standards. Then Texas' board of education appointed a separate, six-member panel to review that document (see their comments in the link above), some of whose members were critical of the first draft and recommended changes. Some scientists are worried that those appointees are interested in seeing evolution presented in a more critical light.

Technorati

Spanish parliament to extend rights to apes

By Martin Roberts
Wed Jun 25, 4:28 PM ET

MADRID (Reuters) -
Spain's parliament voiced its support on
Wednesday for the rights of great apes to life and freedom in
what will apparently be the first time any national legislature
has called for such rights for non-humans.

Parliament's environmental committee approved resolutions
urging Spain to comply with the Great Apes Project, devised by
scientists and philosophers who say our closest genetic
relatives deserve rights hitherto limited to humans.

"This is a historic day in the struggle for animal rights
and in defense of our evolutionary comrades, which will
doubtless go down in the history of humanity," said Pedro
Pozas, Spanish director of the Great Apes Project.

Spain may be better known abroad for bull-fighting than
animal rights but the new measures are the latest move turning
once-conservative Spain into a liberal trailblazer.

A Close Shave

We raised 400$ for Casa Alianza. For more information on Casa Alianza, click here.

More than 500 Honduran youths murdered in 2007 - swissinfo

More than 500 Honduran youths murdered in 2007 - swissinfo: "More than 500 Honduran youths murdered in 2007

TEGUCIGALPA (Reuters) - More than 500 children and youths were murdered in Honduras in 2007, a fifth more than last year, victims of gang violence, death squads, drug hit men and even police shootings, a rights group said on Friday.

Almost 4,000 children and youths under 22 have been murdered in the poor Central American country over the past decade, said rights group Casa Alianza, which works to protect minors in Mexico, Honduras, Nicaragua and Peru.

'Hit men, death squads and even police officers are killing the children and young people. State security forces are incapable of stopping these murders,' said Casa Alianza's Honduran representative, Manuel Capellin.

Many murdered youths, some as young as 12, are members of Honduras' violent gangs and are caught up in rival killings.

Some police officers are accused of killing youths after gangs attacked officers, Casa Alianza and other rights groups say. Honduran police deny the charges.

Some 40 percent of the 7.5 million people in Honduras are 14 or younger.

(Reporting by Gustavo Palencia, editing by Eric Walsh)"

Zero tolerance for the child gangs of Honduras - Telegraph

Zero tolerance for the child gangs of Honduras - Telegraph: "Family life has broken down. In a country of seven million people, half the population is under 18, and hundreds of thousands of children fend for themselves. Fathers are often away, working illegally in the US. Sixty per cent of children never finish primary school, and only one in every 100 will go to university. Child physical and sexual abuse is rife. Street children often have homes to go to, but choose not to. They spend their days scavenging for survival, and their nights high after sniffing glue and paint thinner. Barefoot Jose Antonio, 11, sleeps by the bins at a busy Esso garage. He said he knows how vulnerable he is, and fears that adults will come to rape and kill him, but he will not go home. Many Hondurans see children like Jose Antonio as little more than vermin, prime targets for execution because of public outrage over child crime. The country is awash with guns, with an average of six firearms per household, and Hondurans often have more faith in summary justice that the due process of the courts. Fear of child criminals may be justified. There are four times as many gang members as police officers, and youth gangs are responsible for extortion, rape and mass murder, with some gang leaders as young as 12."

Waiting for Felix

Twenty minutes before midnight, Monday, with more than apprehension hanging in the air. Everyone knows that a hurricane is to hit us soon: will it be a bigger or smaller brother of Mitch -- that is the question on everyone's mind.

I went to buy gas this afternoon at 3 pm. Waited for 30 minutes. Those after me waited much longer. Felix is not supposed to be here for another 36 hours. People are getting worried. The line in the pharmacy was longer than I have ever seen. A friend of mine waited an hour in line to buy some groceries. No one has panicked -- yet. But the air has a greasy feel to it, like some sort of used motor oil slathered through it like an arid vapour. I bet it has a low flashpoint.

But here at Casa Verde, we have our foodstuffs, 15 gallons of fresh drinking water, a BBQ and whisperlite stove, medicine, two stories and a concrete building. But for the first time in the six months that I have lived here, I am wondering what the roof looks like.

Photo Links

For the latest of photo links for Sophia, Darlene and I, take a look at the following two links. Both have different photos and since I am trying to determine which one I prefer, feel free to add your comments.
Flickr
Picassa