No, it's not something out of The Omen, but the new bollards outside an elementary school in England are downright eerie.
Plymouth City Council came up with a novel means to make sure cars slow down when driving past Compton Church of England Primary School.
At £350 each, the new life-sized child bollards have proved a controversial addition to the school entrance. Instead of getting parents to drive cautiously past the school, the bollards are freaking them out and scaring the very kids they're meant to protect.
Despite being a more affordable alternative to traffic cameras, the Council is already considering removing the bollards.
Although the Plymouth school has been deluged with complaints, the bollards have proved successful in other parts of the country, with cars tending to slow down when drivers think they see a child.
What do you think: creepy or effective?
Image Credit: http://www.dailymail.co.uk
"
First came the media storm surrounding the genderless baby. Then the Swedish preschool which banned the use of the words “him” and “her.” While we Westerners seem determined to obliterate the divide between genders, India has reared its (ugly) gender-biased head: by performing sex changes on babies.
As many as 300 in the city of Indore have reportedly been "surgically changed from girls to boys". At a cost of over $3,000 each, genitoplasty surgery (which involves creating a male penis from female sex organs) has been performed on girls at the ripe age of one year old. The girls are then injected with male hormones.
Officials in Madhya Pradesh are apparently investigating the controversial claims. Culturally, having a son in India improves a family’s prospects, since no wedding dowry is required.
Aborting a fetus just because it's a girl is, sadly, still commonplace in India. Something is gravely off kilter in a country where there are reportedly "7 million more boys under the age of six than girls", the effects of which will no doubt be far-reaching and devastating, from an increase in overall violence and sex-related crimes.
Notwithstanding that, India is not alone in its gender bias -- and whether you believe the sexes are created equal or not -- boys and girls are needed in equal measure. Like the ecosystem, you can't mess around with one species and not expect serious fallout.
Talk about the ultimate mom fail. After a brawl broke out on a Toronto streetcar, a thirty something woman allegedly used her 3-year-old girl "as a weapon”, said Police Const. Wendy Drummond.
The woman boarded the streetcar on Friday with her child who was seated in a stroller.
According to Drummond: “There was a verbal altercation with another passenger, and the suspect swung the child (who she was now holding) at the victim.”
At one point the suspect even pulled the hair of one of the passengers who tried to intervene. The victim, a 25-year-old female, was not seriously injured in the attack.
“It’s a very rare situation. Our concern is for the welfare of the child,” Drummond said. “The incident was enough to shock several of the passengers who witnessed it.
Needless to say, police are primarily concerned for the child's well-being. The woman reportedly got off the streetcar at Broadview Station, before officers arrived on the scene.
Police have since charged the woman with assault with a weapon, along with two other counts of assault. Child Services were contacted, and the little girl is now with her father.
The woman (who is not being identified in order to protect the identity of the child) turned herself in to police. She is scheduled to appear in court in early August.
Printer-friendly version