Watercooler Stories

Red cups, contents unknown, spark protest

EDEN PRAIRIE, Minn., Jan. 11 (UPI) -- High school students in a Minneapolis suburb protested the administration's handling of students who allegedly drank something harder than water.

Administrators at Eden Prairie High School quizzed 42 students after photos of the students allegedly imbibing appeared on the Internet social networking site Facebook.com, The Star Tribune in Minneapolis reported. As many as 13 student-athletes were suspended for up to five weeks and some were stripped of their positions as team captains.

The students who walked out carried red cups as a show of support for the students who were disciplined, some of whom were shown holding red cups -- contents unknown -- in some of the Facebook pictures.

Students banged the cups together and chanted "Walkout, walkout," during a rally in the school's cafeteria, said junior Nick Laurent, who organized the protest on -- coincidentally -- a Facebook page. He said students packed the lunchroom to show support for the students who were disciplined.

"That stuff could have been apple juice," said protester Kayla Avery, a sophomore. "I drink milk out of a red cup at home."

Senior protesters admit to graffiti

EDINBURGH, Scotland, Jan. 11 (UPI) -- Police in Scotland arrested a pair of veteran peace campaigners after the two elderly women said they were responsible for tagging a court building.

Helen John, 69, and Georgina Smith, 77, were reportedly caught with paint in hand and freely admitted to painting slogans such as "No cluster bombs" and "UK values? What values?" on the walls of the High Court building in Edinburgh, The Scotsman reported.

The actions earned them a trip to Cornton Vale, Scotland's only all-female prison, for 40 and 45 days each. The women refused to say they did anything wrong, despite admitting to the graffiti that caused an estimated $7,200 in damage, the newspaper said.

The pair have been involved in protests since the early years of the Greenham Common peace camp. More recently, they participated in protests outside the Faslane naval base in Helensburgh.

Both have several convictions for other protest-related offenses.

Masseur's controversial method cleared

STOCKHOLM, Sweden, Jan. 11 (UPI) -- A doctor in Sweden who received a warning for a controversial massage technique got a reprieve from the Stockholm County Court.

The court revoked the warning after ruling the country's Medical Responsibility Board didn't prove its claims that the doctor's "anal massage" technique contradicted "scientific, tried and tested experience," The Local reported Thursday.

The physician was warned by the board on at least three occasions after using his method to treat an elderly woman's headaches and back pain. The woman described his treatment as "an incredibly offensive encroachment."

The board reviewed literature the doctor used to support his use of the anal massage method, but found his methods to be "dubious for a number of reasons," the Swedish newspaper said, including an observation that it was impossible to reach any of the affected muscles using the technique.

Parents irked substitute students in ad

SISSONVILLE, W.Va., Jan. 11 (UPI) -- Some parents are upset that their middle school was used in a West Virginia Lottery commercial, but substitutes were brought in for their children.

Sissonville parent Kimberly Parsons said she saw a film crew when she visited Sissonville Middle School for a parents meeting, The Charleston (W.Va.) Gazette reported. When she learned that the crew was filming John Adams Middle School students, she was upset.

"It didn't have to be my child, but it should have been some of the students that went to school there," she said of the student-actors.

Bill Hogan, the filmmaker for the public service announcement, said, "We were in an unusual situation," and had to get creative because of a snow-day shortened week.

He said he couldn't be assured that Sissonville students would have the needed permission slips in time for the filming. Students from John Adams had them, so he brought the kids to Sissonville as a "standby measure."

Sissonville students, however, were filmed later in some outdoor shots. The commercial was shot to show how lottery funds were spent.