Latest news with #Goldstone
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Del Mar Union sued for alleged abuse of special needs students
DEL MAR, Calif. (FOX 5/KUSI) — The Del Mar Union School District (DMUSD) is facing a lawsuit over allegations of abuse by staff at one of its schools tied to their use of so-called 'reset rooms' as a form of behavioral management for students enrolled in special needs programs. The suit, which was filed by a parent on Tuesday, contends that staff at Sage Canyon Elementary School, with the knowledge of the district, routinely mistreated students with behavioral disabilities by placing them in these isolated rooms, in violation of state and federal protections. These allegations were also the basis of a Title IX investigation into DMUSD launched by the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights last year, although the probe was reportedly stalled amid President Trump's efforts to hollow out and eventually dismantle the department. Homeowners sue San Diego over proposed trash collection fee According to the new lawsuit, the 'reset rooms' at Sage Canyon were used as a means of behavior adjustment for students enrolled in the district's Social Emotional Learning Foundations (SELF) Program, one of the special education services it offers to families. As the district describes the program, SELF is aimed at providing students 'therapeutic behavioral and emotional support to access curriculum.' The parent behind the suit, Genevieve Goldstone, contended in the complaint that her daughter had been secluded in the 'reset room' multiple times a week for months in response to relatively normal outbursts for SELF students — the first time being on her second day in the program. While in the room, Goldstone's daughter would allegedly be barricaded inside with a makeshift wall, preventing her from leaving on her own. According to the suit, her daughter and other students could be heard screaming and banging on the walls, pleading to be let out. This caused acute emotional distress in students who endured the treatment, the complaint alleges. In the case of Goldstone's daughter, she was later diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, allegedly developed as a result of the treatment. 'This isn't a case of a few rogue teachers ignoring legal requirements,' Kimberly Hutchinson, the attorney representing Goldstone, said in a statement. 'This is a case of broken systems, failed leadership, and normalized trauma.' 'Staff seem to have been following what they believed to be standard protocol, which means the district not only allowed but encouraged this treatment. That's unacceptable,' Hutchinson continued. New lawsuit filed as Aladdin Café salmonella outbreak nears 100 likely cases Leslie Montoro, executive director of student services for DMUSD, disputed the allegations detailed in the lawsuit in a statement to FOX 5/KUSI. She said, while the district cannot comment on the pending litigation, Goldstone has 'issued many claims in various forums against our District over the years and has not prevailed.' 'I want to stress that the Del Mar Union School District is deeply committed to ensuring a safe, supportive learning environment for all students. To this point, we take any allegation of mistreatment seriously and have robust procedures in place to investigate concerns thoroughly and in accordance with applicable laws,' Montoro said in the statement. 'In the unfortunate situations when families insist on dissention and false allegations, we remain resolute in our commitment to student well-being,' she continued. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Time of India
20-05-2025
- Science
- Time of India
NASA scientists find icy water on the most unexpected planet beyond the Earth, with the hottest temperatures
The search for water beyond Earth has always been an interesting area for scientists, driven by a simple yet important idea that where there is water, there may be life. The universe is filled with clues waiting to be uncovered, be it dry Martian riverbeds or icy moons orbiting gas planets. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now With the advancement in technology and every discovery, we're reminded that our solar system holds more surprises than we ever imagined. While Mars is often the most commonly discussed planet with water beyond the Earth, in 2012, NASA scientists discovered strong evidence of water ice on the most unexpected planet with one of the most extreme environments in the solar system. The most unlikely planet for water ice Finding water in the solar system usually involves looking for hospitable environments, places with mild temperatures, underground water reservoirs, or atmospheres thick enough to shield and preserve moisture. But this time it has been found on Mercury, which defies all these expectations. With an atmosphere so thin that it's barely there, a scorching surface, and a day that lasts nearly six Earth months, it seems like the last place water could survive. Yet, during NASA's MESSENGER mission in 2012, scientists detected areas on Mercury that were not only cold but permanently shielded from sunlight. These polar regions, inside deep craters, showed something unusual, which included strong radar reflections that were highly suggestive of ice. 'The radar signatures show high reflectivity and strong depolarization,' NASA reported, which were the classic signs of water ice on planetary surfaces. How was this discovery made? The discovery was made without setting foot on Mercury by using instruments like the Arecibo radio telescope, the Goldstone antenna, and the Very Large Array (VLA); researchers studied radio signals bouncing off Mercury's surface. The high reflectivity and depolarization effects, especially near the poles, were strong indicators of water ice, despite the hostile surroundings. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Why does ice stay frozen on a planet so close to the Sun? Well, that is all about geography; the craters on Mercury's poles never see sunlight. Without exposure to heat, temperatures in these shadows remain cold enough for ice to persist for possibly billions of years. But how did ice get there? NASA offers two possible theories. One is that water was delivered via meteorites and comets, especially during the chaotic early years of the solar system. The second is that Mercury may have once released water vapor from within, which later froze in the cold, shadowy craters. This discovery significantly changed how scientists view planetary water sources. It proves that temperature and atmosphere aren't the only deciding factors; specific geological and orbital conditions matter, too.
Forbes
14-05-2025
- General
- Forbes
Building Communities Of Support For Foster Families
On a given day, 400,000 children in the U.S. are living in foster care, with more than 100,000 children awaiting permanent homes. And while about a one-third of American adults consider fostering, most don't—deterred by a broken system that offers little support to parents. Enter Susan Silverman and Second Nurture. Working with communities, mostly synagogues, she transforms fostering from an experience of isolation to one of belonging and shared responsibility, making the journey less daunting and creating ways for everyone to help. Her philosophy: "All of our children are all of our children." Ashoka's Danielle Goldstone caught up with Susan to learn more. Danielle Goldstone: Let's start at the beginning. How did you start thinking of this idea? Susan Silverman Second Nurture Susan Silverman: It was really about two emotional pulls. One was fostering—I grew up in a family that fostered, so it was up close and personal as I was a foster sister. The other was being a rabbi and understanding the power of community. What helped crystallize this was an experience in Israel around 2015 when the government was trying to deport asylum seekers. Some colleagues and I created a program asking fellow Israelis to sign up to hide families in their homes. Within a week, we had 2,000 families volunteering. It showed me the power of a household, the power of family and community. I realized that this could work for any vulnerable population, melding those two things—family and community. If you think about family values in an expansive and loving way, it's really powerful. Goldstone: So you started to apply this insight to foster care. Silverman: Yes. Initially, we planned to partner with synagogues and churches to encourage them to foster, but that was a big lift. But we discovered people coming to our cohort meetings were mostly already fostering. We learned there's a 30-50% drop-off rate of foster families within a year, so we shifted focus. Now we support existing foster families so they can succeed with help from their Second Nurture 'host community.' Since returning to in-person meetings after Covid, none of our families has stopped fostering. Goldstone: Remarkable. What kind of support do you offer? Silverman: Practical support. We reach out to the community members saying, "We need a tutor, we need this or that," and people volunteer. So many people want to support foster kids and families, but it feels overwhelming and amorphous. But when there's something specific they can do, they step up. Goldstone: Why are faith communities good partners? Silverman: They're already gathering with a sense of purpose and values. No community is like, "Oh, screw the orphan." Most, at least in theory, want to help. Our partners, mostly synagogues, are already engaged with issues like homelessness, mass incarceration, drug abuse, human trafficking—and the foster experience is the number one feeder into all those problems. If you went to a soup kitchen and asked how many people were raised in foster care to any extent, maybe 80% would raise their hands. That's because when you 'age out' of foster care at 18 or 21 with no safety net, no one to say "come live at home and save money," you're vulnerable. If foster families are successful—whether through adoption or helping biological families get back on their feet—children don't age out without support. Goldstone: Are all your host communities faith communities? Silverman: Currently, yes. But we're just starting to work with an LGBTQ center. Right now, they're referring people our way, but my hope is they'll become a host community formally because they have many foster and adoptive families and a strong centralized community. Goldstone: What needs to be in place in a host community for Second Nurture to agree to partner? Silverman: Well, our approach has evolved. Initially, we approached synagogues saying, 'We will provide lots of stuff.' Now we are more open source, more an AA kind of model where they have to find the people from the community to run the program. Our most successful community started from its members reaching out to me saying, 'Hey, we heard about Second Nurture. We want to do it in our synagogue.' Goldstone: How does your approach affect foster kids and parents and host communities? Silverman: For the kids, the most magical part is being in a space where they don't have to explain their lives—why they're new to a family or why they have other parents they visit. They just get to be themselves. As for foster families, Second Nurture creates a sense of belonging. They're often the only foster family in their neighborhood or school. Research by iFoster found that a sense of belonging is crucial. During our community meetings, practical solutions emerge organically. When someone mentions a challenge, others often have solutions. We've also partnered with Change Reaction for one-time financial assistance—like when someone is about to lose their car insurance. We partner with A Home Within for free therapy for foster kids so families. We bring in volunteer massage therapists, organize parents' nights out with childcare and restaurant gift certificates. The nice thing is parents choose to go to dinner together. For faith communities, participating is empowering and builds multigenerational connections. You'll see 80-year-old women and teenagers playing with the kids. One rabbi said it's his favorite part of being a rabbi, that Sunday every month when the cohort gets together. For Jewish communities facing rising antisemitism, there's been an unintended positive outcome—a beautiful merging of worlds. Goldstone: And your bigger goal is integrating into the foster care system as a whole, no? Tell us more. Silverman: That's right. If this approach could be taken up by the system overall, that would be best—making it less siloed and incorporating communities throughout the U.S. We work closely with child services in LA and Boston. I'd love to grow this outward, put ourselves out of business if the system could take it over with the same love and support. Goldstone: Susan, your work draws out the power of relationships, which feels so hard in our digital lives. How do you create strong relationships? Silverman: I wish we could take credit for that but it just happens. It's not a genius idea, right? It's really very basic. These communities exist. People need community, peanut butter and chocolate, it just works. So, I feel like our job is to convene, to support. You know, a teenager was just doing his school volunteer hours with us and then planned to be done when one of the foster kids said, 'I'll see you next month, right?' He said, 'Yeah, you'll see me next month,' and he hasn't stopped volunteering. Because there's a little kid saying to him, I like you and I want to see you next time. The teen responded to that love, that connection. In a sense, there's only one thing we need to do. We need to respond. Susan Silverman, an Ashoka Fellow, is the founder of Second Nurture that operates in the U.S. and Israel. Danielle Goldstone, an Ashoka interviewer, is the founder of innoFaith. This interview was condensed for length and clarity by Ashoka.
Yahoo
08-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Australian director Ivan Sen, actor Aaron Pedersen bring Indigenous perspectives to Aussie films, TV
This article was originally published in the Houston Chronicle and is reprinted here with DarlingHouston ChronicleJay Swan is a he wouldn't see it that way, but he is. The fictional creation of Australian filmmaker/writer Ivan Sen, Swan is an Aboriginal police detective who investigates homicides and missing persons cases in his country's sprawling and sun-scorched Outback. Like the American cop and cowboy archetypes on which he's based, he's a taciturn loner who wrecked his marriage, failed at fatherhood and hit the bottle way too though he might stagger, he manages to remain upright on issues of right and why he has become the hero of what's turned into an unlikely hit franchise in Australia, appearing first in the 2013 film "Mystery Road," then the 2016 sequel "Goldstone," which had a screening at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston on April 4, and three seasons of the "Mystery Road" mini-series, with a fourth due to be released this year. Each of the movies and seasons of the TV series is self-contained though Swan's character arc acts as a through-line. Sometimes compared to "True Detective" and the early works of Taylor Sheridan (most notably "Wind River"), "Mystery Road" straddles the worlds of White and Black Australia, with Swan torn between as familiar a trope as Swan the detective/cowboy might be to American eyes, he also represents something new, a glimpse into an Indigenous Australian world that remains invisible in most of Australia's cinematic exports. In many films set in Outback, rural and small-town Australia — think the "Mad Max" "Wolf Creek" and "Wyrmwood" franchises, "Walkabout," "Picnic at Hanging Rock," "Wake in Fright," and the self-explanatory "Beaten to Death" — nearly everything and everyone in the country wants you "Mystery Road," and the work of many Indigenous directors, the Outback may be a place of danger, but it's also home. In Sen's world, and especially in "Goldstone," the landscape is rendered in all of its breathtaking and colorful wide-screen splendor. (For his 2023 film, "Limbo," Sen flipped the script and shot the Outback in a luminous black and white.)All of it makes for a fascinating character study, one that has broken through to the wider Australian audience, won multiple awards at home and become the most globally popular example of what's known as "Outback Noir." And Swan is a direct reflection of Sen, the man who created him, and Aaron Pedersen, the actor who has portrayed him in the films and first two seasons of the series and was a producer on the "Mystery Road" film. (The third and fourth seasons, "Mystery Road: Origin," is an origin story with a younger actor, Mark Coles Smith, in the main role)."Jay Swan is someone who has a similar history to my own," said photographer-turned-filmmaker Sen in an interview with the Australian film site HeyUGuys. "I grew up in a little country town and had to move between my local Indigenous family and the White part of the town. I spent a lot of time going between the two of them and didn't feel like I belonged to either camp."'The thing about (Jay Swan) is that he has strong relevance to what this country's about and also who we are, how we represent ourselves and how we present ourselves to the world,' Pedersen told the Houston Chronicle in a phone interview from Sydney in 2018. 'His story could go on forever because it's such a complicated journey, not only as an individual but as a community of people.' "Mystery Road" is an ongoing passion project for Sen. With "Goldstone," for instance, he not only served as director and screenwriter but also film editor, cinematographer and composer. Meanwhile, the TV series, on which Sen is an executive producer, has become a canvas for other Indigenous directors/writers such as Wayne Blair ("The Sapphires," which enjoyed an American release), Rachel Perkins (the Indigenous musical "Bran Nue Dae") and Warwick Thornton ("Samson & Delilah," a Cannes award winner and one of the best Australian films of the 21st century). It should be noted that this wave of Indigenous directors corresponds with an increased Aboriginal presence in the world of popular music as Jay goes from here is an open question. Pedersen was set to continue in the TV series until he decided to take a break from acting, forcing Sen and company to pivot to an origin story, which will continue in season even if Pedersen, who has also declined to work in Hollywood partly because it would take him away from caring for his special-needs brother, decides not to saddle up again, Swan's story doesn't have to end. Sen has created an indelible character whose journey is worth the Darling is the arts and entertainment editor for the Houston Chronicle, overseeing coverage of movies, television, pop music and the fine arts. He can be reached at He oversees the coverage of movies, television, pop music and the fine arts.
Vox
25-03-2025
- Politics
- Vox
The invisible homeless crisis that official statistics miss
is a policy correspondent for Vox covering social policy. She focuses on housing, schools, homelessness, child care, and abortion rights, and has been reporting on these issues for more than a decade. 'The only thing worse than being homeless in America is not being considered homeless in America,' says Brian Goldstone, a journalist and ethnographer. America's homelessness crisis extends far beyond what we see on the streets, and Goldstone wants us to pay attention to those who are hidden from public view. In his new book, There Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America, Goldstone examines the lives of families caught in extended-stay motels, sleeping in cars, or shuffling between precarious arrangements — situations that often leave them uncounted in official homeless statistics despite housing instability. His reporting challenges the longstanding American narrative connecting homelessness with unemployment or an unwillingness to work. I spoke with Goldstone about the distinction between 'falling' and 'being pushed' into homelessness, the stigma attached to the homeless label, and his perspective on what meaningful solutions might require. Our conversation has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity. You note that many people with unstable housing situations resist identifying as 'homeless.' How does this reluctance to adopt the label affect both individuals' experiences and our collective understanding of the housing crisis? There is absolutely a stigma attached to the term 'homeless' and there's also a way in which HUD's prevailing definition of homelessness — where only those who are sleeping on the streets or in homeless shelters count — has filtered into the public narrative and the public imagination. The people I'm writing about in my book belong to that public — they themselves often don't recognize themselves as homeless when they're doubling up with friends or sleeping in motels. They're often surprised to learn, for example, that their kids' schools, and the Department of Education, do consider them homeless if they're in those situations. These official metrics and official ways of conceptualizing the problem absolutely impact the people experiencing it on a psychological level. One person in my book, Celeste, her house burns down and when she finds she can basically secure no other apartment because an eviction has been filed against her, she and her son wind up at this extended stay hotel. At some point a social worker at her son's elementary school gave her this homeless resource list. But Celeste was like, 'I'm not putting that homeless label on me and my kids.' Part of it was this idea that she didn't want to speak something into existence, she didn't want to make this homeless category her identity. But in practical terms, she also ignored those resources until she was later diagnosed with cancer and she realizes that she's in this hotel trap that's virtually impossible to get out of. So there was that tension of refusing the [homeless] category, but then realizing she needs the category. We have a measure of poverty in America and a lot of people who fall under the poverty threshold don't want to necessarily think of themselves as impoverished, but that that definition and threshold is absolutely essential for determining and parceling out resources. Most of the reporting for your book was done before homelessness really blew up post-pandemic as a political issue in the US, with encampments and then the Grants Pass v. Johnson Supreme Court case. Tell me about your decision to not bring that more recent history into the book. I didn't know a pandemic was coming, but in retrospect, I think it's really important to show that the emergency that we became more aware of during the pandemic — when we saw how absolutely threadbare the social safety net was — was already well on its way. The pandemic intensified rather than produced this housing catastrophe. As far as how all this relates to the encampment sweeps, the criminalization of homelessness, the war on unhoused people that has been unleashed and given the green light by the Grants Pass decision, I tried to not draw a clear line of demarcation between the kind of homelessness that has become the object of those sorts of crackdowns, and the more invisible or hidden population that I'm writing about, which are largely working families. By and large these tents on the street are like the tip of the iceberg, and that's the most extreme edge of homelessness in America. A lot of the people I'm writing about in the book are like what's under the water surface. But it's important to say that this is all one giant iceberg. The more extreme and acute this emergency gets, the more visible it becomes, because it simply pushes up to the surface. But until we address what's under that surface or or out of view, that visibility will continue. There just won't be enough places for it to hide, so to speak. Other countries have for-profit housing systems but don't experience our level of homelessness. Based on your reporting, do you see a way forward that could maintain aspects of our current system while meaningfully addressing homelessness, or does the solution require more fundamental change? I hesitate to enter directly into debates over market-rate housing and zoning reform and tenant rights and rent control. My own view is that we need everything like that, and nothing on its own is going to be sufficient. The only thing that might truly be sufficient is a massive investment at every level of government in social housing. I think that we can only convince ourselves that these kinds of half measures are adequate when we have narrowed the scope, magnitude and nature of the crisis. I don't think that a few tiny homes here or a couple of permanent supportive housing units over there are anywhere close to what we need to truly address the magnitude and severity of this problem. But it doesn't mean that we don't also need those things. So yes, something fundamental has to change in how we approach housing in America. Some of your characters developed a fairly cynical view of the homeless services industry, and we have a new Republican administration casting doubt on the idea of more subsidies to help. Certainly reading your book one could see a little bit how that might be true. What is your own view now? I think the current system is very much working within the constraints that have been imposed on this world of homeless services, and in many cases they're doing the best they can with what they have. Homeless service providers have been told to prioritize those who — according to certain scholars and experts on this issue — are most at immediate risk of dying on the street and so they're trying to ration out scarce resources. I think the problem is not the system itself. It's what has shaped that system. You focused a lot in your book on extended stay hotels and motels — which are these last-resort options where people pay a lot of money for pretty poor quality conditions, receive none of the traditional tenant protections, and are often not counted as officially homeless when staying there, even as they can't afford to go anywhere else. They exist in such a gray area of our housing conversation. How are you thinking about these places today? For the thousands and thousands of families and individuals living at these extended stay hotels, which are effectively for-profit homeless shelters, they're places where the casualties of America's housing crisis have been consigned and then people find it almost impossible to leave. The way I think about them often is like — the only thing worse than being homeless in America is not being considered homeless in America. The only thing worse than being a low-income tenant in America is not even having the 'privilege' of being considered a tenant. I think the people living in these hotels are at once the most vulnerable renters in America and the most vulnerable homeless people in America. And I know it sounds paradoxical that those two things can coexist, but I think that's what makes these places so important for us to reckon with. You write that families aren't falling into homelessness, they're being pushed. Who or what is doing this pushing, and how does that change how we think about addressing the problem? There's this language of 'falling into homelessness,' which almost makes it seem like someone tripped, or like they've been struck by a natural disaster. That there's something, unavoidable, beyond their control, beyond anyone's control, and it just kind of happened to them. I argue in my book that the immense wealth accumulating in cities across America, and the revitalization of urban space, isn't just sort of existing alongside this deprivation and precarity, but that it's actively producing it. And so when I talk about people being pushed into homelessness and this kind of insecurity, I'm really trying to insist on that causal relationship. You highlight the 'working homeless' throughout your book — people who have jobs yet still lack stable housing. How does this reality challenge the longstanding American narrative that connects homelessness with unemployment or unwillingness to work? Many people in this country, especially those who are not experiencing this precarity themselves, have needed to believe a story about poverty and homelessness that says if people just work harder, if they just get a job, they will be okay. Yet in some cases, certain jobs can actually make it even more likely that homelessness will be waiting for you and I think that's really, really hard for us to come to terms with. What was so shocking to me is just seeing people work and work and work and work some more and work some more after that and it's never enough. It's never enough to secure their most basic material needs, housing being the most essential, arguably, among them. That reality is not new, that didn't just happen in the last few years, but the scale is new. People across the political spectrum almost need to believe certain things about homelessness because acknowledging the reality calls into question too many of the fundamental assumptions that we in the United States hold dear, like the necessity for hard work. And I'm saying that hard work is not enough in this country.
