A scrap between two girls near a Chester Bason school was captured on video and posted online. While perhaps that's really nothing new, the video does raise questions about the response of those who witnessed the fight. Apparently there was quite a crowd watching the pair go at each other. CTV's supper hour news showed the video last evening, taken from YouTube. As the two girls battled it out, a number of students simply stood by watching, or in one case, videotaping it. One student tells CTV, "Everyone does that when there's a fight." That response has school board officials concerned. Why didn't one of them intervene? It appears there was more fun involved in watching two girls scrap. The two have been dealt with though the school won't reveal the nature of their punishment.
The Halifax school board's planning on moving some grade 9 classes into high school next year. New Brunswick, Ontario, Manitoba and BC already include grade 9's at high school. The Halifax board plans to follow suit next year at JL Ilsley High, Sackville High, Millwood High and Eastern Shore District High with other high schools making the move in the following years. Grade 9 is already included in two or three Nova Scotia schools including Lockview High in Fall River. But one parent tells CBC she's concerned about the move suggesting alcohol's more prevalent in high school and there's more boy-girl inter-action. "You don't want to expose them to that if you can help it," she says. Really? Talk about bubble-wrapped kids.
Some dramatic testimony yesterday at the murder trial of Chaze Lamar in Nova Scotia Supreme Court. Lamar is charged with first degree murder in the shooting death of Dartmouth taxi driver Sergei Kostin in January 2009. Lamar's cousin Wayne McAvoy was on the stand yesterday. He was in the front seat of the cab when he says Lamar pointed a gun at Kostin's head and fired. McAvoy says the driver has "bood pouring out of his mouth, nose and ears, with a bullet hole in the back of his head." McAvoy's been given immunity from prosecution for his testimony. He told the court he had no idea Lamar planned to kill the cabbie. He told the court he "chose to do the right thing and say what he saw." McAvoy continues on the stand today.
It wasn't the flu that sidelined half the Halifax Mooseheads team last week, forcing the cancellation of two pre-season games Friday in Halifax and Sunday in Saint John. The Mooseheads intially thought the flu was responsible for the illnesses that swept through the team, but the Moosehead's doctor indicated it wasn't. He contacted an infectious disease expert who informed the team there was a virus making its way around Halifax and it will pass. Mooseheads GM Cam Russell says some of the sick players are now feeling better and he's confident they'll be ready for Friday's season-opener.
Have a great day. Get involved. And if you're not outraged, you're not paying attention.
Rick Howe
