Watercooler Stories

Girl, 3, drinks and smokes after coma

HUIZHOU, China, June 10 (UPI) -- A Chinese couple said their 3-year-old daughter's personality changed dramatically after a traffic accident and she now smokes cigarettes and drinks beer.

Gao Wen of Huizhou told the Yangcheng Evening Post, one of the largest Chinese-language newspapers, that toddler Ya Wen had a dramatic personality change after she was hit by a speeding van and left comatose for five days, the New York Daily News reported.

Wen and her husband said their daughter began displaying adult behavior, including taking up a smoking habit.

"The first time I found her smoking was in the toilet," Gao Wen said. "Before that I often saw cigarette butts in the toilet but thought they were my husband's, until I saw my daughter smoking there."

The parents discovered Ya Wen had been stealing cigarettes from a local store until the owner started giving her credit. The store owner, who said the child would take two packs at a time, said he assumed the smokes were for the girls' father.

The parents said Ya Wen has also taken up another adult habit, drinking beer.

"She likes drinking," Gao Wen said. "Three glasses of beer is no problem to her."

Suit: Teacher canned for premarital sex

ST. CLOUD, Fla., June 10 (UPI) -- A Florida teacher's lawsuit against her old school says she was fired because administrators found out her baby was conceived before her wedding.

Jarretta Hamilton, a former fourth-grade teacher at Southland Christian School in St. Cloud, said she approached administrators in April 2009, shortly after her wedding, to tell them she was pregnant and request maternity leave for the coming fall, WKMG-TV, Orlando, reported.

"That's when the question was posed to her, 'Did you conceive prior to marriage?'" said Edward Gay, Hamilton's lawyer.

He said Hamilton told administrators the truth, the baby was conceived about three weeks before the wedding, and she was fired one week later without being allowed to finish the school year.

Gay said he received a letter from Southland Christian School administrator Julie Ennis explaining the reasons for the termination.

"Jarretta was asked not to return because of a moral issue that was disregarded, namely fornication -- sex outside of marriage," Ennis wrote. "We request that Jarretta withdraw her complaint and consider the testimony of the Lord."

The letter said Hamilton was aware of the school's "standards, values, and purposes," but Gay said the morality clause does not override state and federal discrimination laws.

The lawsuit alleges violations of a federal pregnancy discrimination law and a state marital status discrimination law. The suit also alleges invasion of privacy for school officials disclosing the reason behind her termination to parents to students.

Poll: Premarital sex OK with Canadians

CONCORD, Ontario, June 10 (UPI) -- A Canadian survey indicates fewer than one in 10 engaged women in the country agrees with the statement "sex before marriage is not a good idea."

Weddingbells Magazine said its survey of 1,241 people found 8 percent of engaged women agreed with the statement, with only 4 percent saying their strongly agreed, CanWest News Service reported.

Experts said the results don't necessarily reflect a change in attitudes so much as a willingness to reveal those attitudes openly.

"There's no question that there's a gulf between the 'popular' perception of the appropriateness of waiting until marriage and the extent to which people actually wait until marriage to have sex," said Lawrence Finer, director of domestic research for the U.S. based Guttmacher Institute think tank. "There's much less of the latter."

Finer said his own organization's research found nine in 10 of the 38,000 studied, including 33,000 women, had engaged in premarital sex by the age of 44. He said the rate was nearly the same for people born in the 1940s.

Texas goes after alleged 'past due' scam

AUSTIN, Texas, June 10 (UPI) -- Texas is accusing Bally Total Fitness Corp. of "false, misleading and deceptive acts and practices" for allegedly mailing false "past due" notices to customers.

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott said he wants the company to repay the 1,000 Texans who paid the bogus fine, which was detailed on notices sent to more than 11,000 former members between summer 2009 and March 2010, as well as pay a fine of up to $20,000 for each violation of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act, The Dallas Morning News reported.

The notices received by the affected customers informed them they were 45 days late with payments and demanded immediate payment, with some of the letters saying the overdue fines would hurt the recipient's credit score.

Bally spokesman Pete Marino said officials are cooperating with the attorney general's office "to reach a swift and amicable resolution. Bally prides itself on being a consumer-centric organization, and we continue to implement new procedures that will enhance communications with our members."