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Thirteen high school students in Calgary have been suspended after a red-headed teen was beaten because of the colour of his hair.

The Grade 10 boy was attacked in the locker room of St. Francis High School after gym class Thursday, students told CBC News.

The victim was taken to hospital for examination, and a spokeswoman for the Calgary Catholic School District said Friday he sustained “some minor bruising” to his upper body.

Calgary police are looking into the assault as a possible hate crime.

“The fact of the matter is from a policing perspective, it is a hate crime, and this individual was targeted because of the fact they have red hair,” said police spokesman Kevin Brookwell.

CBC News has also learned that two red-haired, Grade 7 girls at St. Alphonsus Elementary/Junior High School were swarmed and kicked repeatedly by older girls on Thursday. Board spokeswoman Janet Sutherland said two students have been suspended in that case.

The attacks came on a day promoted by a Facebook group as Kick a Ginger Day. The Facebook group urged members to kick people with red hair – referred to as ginger kids – on Nov. 20.

The phenomenon originated with South Park, an animated TV show. An episode of the satirical show that originally aired in 2005 presented red-haired people as evil and soulless.

Calgary police said they were aware of the campaign but decided not to issue any warnings.

“We didn’t want to bring any more profile to this campaign to the city or the students and so the decision was that we would just see what happened,” said Brookwell.

Ken Logel, a Grade 12 student at the northwest St. Francis High School, admitted kicking some classmates had been a running joke all day.

“I have a few buddies with red hair. You just kind of kick them lightly just as a joke. But when it gets carried way, that’s not cool,” he said Friday.

His friend, Simon Burke, added: “Some kids took it too far in the locker room yesterday and ended up really hurting one of the kids at our school. It’s really hard to hear about it and I’m pretty disappointed in the kids that did it.

“Mostly, kids at the school are pretty good people and don’t really expect people to be hurting other ones just for having red hair. It’s just pretty ridiculous.”

The high school is also investigating.

“From what I understand, he was targeted based on the colour of his hair,” said Sutherland. “Regardless of why the incident happened, I think it’s important to note that violence in school is never tolerated.”

This week, schools in Manitoba and Newfoundland and Labrador sent warnings to students and parents about the prank.

Twenty students from a Vancouver Island middle school were sent home Thursday after they kicked red-haired schoolmates.

Music.

Music says a lot about your person. In many ways, it is a way of someone to define you and who you are and want to be. I think that it starts with each person choosing what appeals to them based on existing predilections, personality traits and desires. The kind of music you choose to listen to can reinforce and deepen these qualities. So, in that sense I wouldn’t say it defines you because we choose the kind of music we want to listen to based on our own attitudes but I would say that it is an important clue as to what other values might define you.

It is tricky, though. It isn’t always as obvious as you might think. You might assume that someone who looks goth probably listens to post industrial or black metal and you might be right in most cases. But there are quite a few people who listen to music that you wouldn’t expect them to like. So the influence that music can have on people goes far deeper than mere outside trappings. You can dress a certain way and it may give people a certain impression that you like certain kinds of music but if they don’t bother to look any deeper or think differently they can be easily fooled.

How can music help define you? Often we find ourselves attracted to certain kinds of music because of our lifestyle, personality and moods. Music has a profound influence on our attitudes and outlook on life and can either change our attitudes or reinforced the ones we already hold. People who don’t trust authority, government and have a libertarian bent tend to like rock music. They may or may not dress the part. The inner person is what we’re concerned with. What about classical music? Sensitive perhaps? A love for history? Educated, and loving complexity in music? Could be many things. There are many different kinds of western art music, or classical music, that fits many different people. Some music, like Wagner, Strauss and Shostakovich appeals to very different tastes and even political persuasions than Tchaikovsky or Handel. Shoenberg and Stravinsky even still can appeal to those of a certain philosophical bent. Even so, these composers have admirers that cross all boundaries. So music is only one part of the many things that define a person.

While I don’t believe that music is the first definition of what defines a person it does help define who we are. Others can get a glimpse of how we view the world, what our attitudes towards certain values might be like, even get an idea of what our politics are. It is one of the most interesting ways to get to know more about a person.

LONDON, England (CNN) — A British couple who married in a lavish Second Life wedding ceremony are to divorce after one of them had an alleged “affair” in the online world.

Second Life users can interact and form relationships with other players’ avatars.

Amy Taylor, 28, said she had caught husband David Pollard, 40, having sex with an animated woman. The couple, who met in an Internet chatroom in 2003, are now separated.

“I went mad — I was so hurt. I just couldn’t believe what he’d done,” Taylor told the Western Morning News. “It may have started online, but it existed entirely in the real world and it hurts just as much now it is over.”

Second Life allows users to create alter egos known as “avatars” and interact with other players, forming relationships, holding down jobs and trading products and services for a virtual currency convertible into real life dollars.

Taylor said she had caught Pollard’s avatar having sex with a virtual prostitute: “I looked at the computer screen and could see his character having sex with a female character. It’s cheating as far as I’m concerned.”

But Taylor told the Western Morning News she had subsequently hired an online private detective to track his activities: “He never did anything in real life, but I had my suspicions about what he was doing in Second Life.” iReport.com: Anger in a virtual world

Pollard admitted having an online relationship with a “girl in America” but denied wrongdoing. “We weren’t even having cyber sex or anything like that, we were just chatting and hanging out together,” he told the Western Morning News.

Taylor is now in a new relationship with a man she met in the online roleplaying game World of Warcraft.

Danbury karaoke dispute leads to Main Street melee
Three arrested, including one man who was previously deported
By Eugene Driscoll
Staff Writer
Article Last Updated: 11/16/2008 07:46:17 AM EST

DANBURY — Police said a man claiming a karaoke disc jockey skipped his song triggered a brawl outside a Main Street restaurant early Saturday.

Police said they responded to a report of a large fight outside Terra Brasilis Restaurant at 59 Main St. at 1:30 a.m.

According to police, the fracas started when Jefferson Gomez, 31, apparently drunk, began arguing with the karaoke DJ, insisting the DJ skipped a song Gomez wanted to sing.

Bouncers threw Gomez out of the restaurant.

However, police said one of Gomez’s angry friends, identified as Marcio DaSilva, 25, of Danbury, smashed a beer bottle over the DJ’s head.

Bouncers then threw DaSilva out, police said, but the two men, along with a third friend, identified as Jose Burges, continued the fight outside.

When police arrived, a group of people pointed to a convenience store across the street, where the men allegedly responsible for the violence had fled.

Police quickly apprehended DaSilva and Burges.

However, Gomez allegedly got into his car and sped off.

Police pursued and Gomez stopped his car at the intersection of Town Hill Avenue and E. Liberty Street.

Gomez allegedly tried to put the car in reverse and drive away again, but two officers were able to drag him out of the vehicle.

He then allegedly started fighting with police. As officers wrestled him to the ground, Gomez hit his head on the pavement, prompting a trip to Danbury Hospital, where he allegedly continued to struggle with the emergency room personnel.

Gomez was charged with reckless driving, interfering with a police officer, disobeying the signal of a police officer and breach of peace. He was released from jail Saturday afternoon after posting a $10,000 bond.

DaSilva, meanwhile, was charged with second-degree assault, threatening and interfering with a police officer. His name was checked against a federal computer database, which revealed he had previously been deported from the U.S.

DaSilva was being held Saturday on a detainer from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Burges, who was charged with misdemeanor breach of peace, may also be in the country illegally, police said, as a federal database showed a person with his name had also been previously deported. Police were waiting to hear back from immigration agents Saturday.

Fuck Fresher’s Week.

Identify something about you. Hair color, eye color, whatever. Say you’re a redhead, hypothetically. In fact, a redhead works well here because they are technically minorities. Basically I want you to picture yourself as a minority. Now imagine that for more than sixteen centuries there have been laws in place to limit your rights. For even longer there have been people who have hated you and everything you stand for because of the fact that you have red hair. Now imagine that suddenly there has been a break in the darkness and you have been granted rights that you have been denied for centuries. It doesn’t matter what right it is, be it marriage or whatever. It’s a fundamental right that everyone else has.

Now imagine that suddenly it’s taken away from you for no logical reason, and the only reasons are because other people think you’re disgusting or are a sinner. Basically, religious reasons or personal bigotry.

How would you feel?

Marriage isn’t a Christian invention. It was around in Jewish times, well before the life of Jesus and everything after that.

Paul lays out certain guidelines for Christian marriage in the bible which is stuff for practicing Christians to adhere to. It’s not rules for everyone, indeed Paul goes to great pains to say that some stuff for Christians in marriage will be different to other marriages / relationships. It’s the way we roll and we can’t expect people who don’t believe in what the bible says to follow some of these guidelines, in fact they’re ours.

So gays, lesbians, marry away. Go for it. I think it’s respectable though not to ask for Christian blessings from church leaders who are uncomfortable to give it though.

It entertains me how both sides of the argument get so so aggressive about it. In theory I should be right on the “Christian” side of things but unlike the hateful, blind, disgusting excuse of what passes for “Christianity” in some twisted minds, I’m actually aware of the importance of love and support of others who we share this earth with.

If you want to follow the Christian faith and happily stand up and announce it, then yeah, reading about some good ways for Christians to do stuff in the bible is a good idea…It’s not the easiest of lives. If you don’t wanna follow Christianity, why should Christian beliefs be forced upon you.

I have no problems with gays, as long as they leave me alone.

Well maybe now I should just say goodbye
You used to be my friend
But I never felt I really was yours
So maybe this is the end.

I’m different from you, all of you
Each other we’ve never understood
I hope that if I do tell you goodbye
That it won’t be for good.

Whenever I’m mad it hurts me so bad
And you don’t even care
I don’t know why, I just want to cry
And someday I won’t be there.

The streaks on my arm they’ve done me no harm
They’re only made of pen
But once they are blood that turns brown like mud
They’ll be there again and again.

If I’m mad at you I’ll hurt myself too
But that doesn’t really matter
Although when I hurt I feel like dirt
And my spirit’s bruised and battered.

I do not know why it has to be so
I really wish it did not
But the way this has been going
it is basically shot.

You don’t need me and we don’t need we
And that’s how I think I know why
These words are the ones I have to speak-
I love you, but goodbye.

OK, so after watching High School Musical 3 (brother wanted to go see and Mom wouldn’t let me go to any other movie) and wondering why nobody from my high school was that hot or classically trained at every art form known to god and man, I feel obliged to wax poetic about the goods and bad of the sequel. Now with a sequel you can go one of two routes; either build upon the original and make an amazing flick that adds to your emotional involvement with the original like The Dark Knight or Empire Strikes Back, or you can make films that tear down any love and adoration you had for a once amazing movie, my main example being The Matrix 2: Electric Boogaloo.

Some sequels just don’t count because if you’re trying to build a horror franchise all you need is a hot blonde who fills out a tank top and needs something to do while her CW series is on break and presto! you’ve got yourself at least 4 solid movies right there. Looking at you, Saw 5.

Honestly, if a movie can make enough money to keep studios happy, we’re all more than likely to see them again which is why the first sign of the apocalypse shall be Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2 coming our way by at least 2010. Movies such as 300 and the Watchmen already having sequel rumors prove that as long as somebody thinks they can make an easy buck there’s always a chance you can see Top Gun 2, although I do think that would be an awesome movie.

Just picture Tom Cruise flying some red-eye out of Omaha freaking out when he sees Goose’s ghost in his copilot’s chair; guaranteed box office gold people. I just don’t see why Hollywood refuses to sequelize some of my favorites. Who wouldn’t want to see High Fidelity 2, or Almost Famouser where we see a present day Stillwater playing state fair gigs and that kid growing up to be the editor of Rolling Stone, having gone from writing about Led Zeppellin to the new Jonas Brothers single.

I guess that as long as people will pay a billion dollars to see a new Lord of the Rings where, surprise surprise, people walk around for 3 hours, then maybe present day sequel land just isn’t for me. But until the day comes when the Brat Pack crawl out of their respective A&E miniseries to make the Breakfast Club 2, I shall be forced to live in a land where Indiana Jones is on a quest to find his AARP coupons and George Lucas is chomping at the bit to further ruin my beloved Star Wars franchise.