Stabbing At John Tyler High School

KLTV Channel 7 News

http://www.kltv.com/global/story.asp?s=11182852

I am a level BEYOND pissed. I can’t believe something like this has happened to my state, my home town, my alma mater. A teacher was killed today at John Tyler High School in Tyler, Texas. Never heard of this place? Well it’s about 2 hours east of Dallas in the very heart of East Texas.
For some reason a regular student felt that it was right to pick on a special education student and preceded to stab him and in the process, math teacher, Todd Henry, was stabbed. He later died on the way to the hospital. My heart, soul and spirit, goes out to his family for healing.
I am enraged by all of this and the level keeps rising higher and higher. There is no way I’m going to sit here and believe that officials let it get THIS far. My sister is a teacher at the very school and every day I prayed that she would be okay and that where she worked was safe for her. This just proves to not only the Local officials but to the school and the community that this is not a safe zone for children as we have led our children believe. There was virtually NO security. No strong presence that ensured the safety of the students. So tell me, why in the hell could something like this get this far
Don’t get me wrong. The boy that did this should get prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. But he’s not the only blame. I blame the principal for not getting into the school, learning the students, and this is all coming first hand. I blame the district for not enforcing MANDATORY security to ensure that our family members are safe. I blame, especially, the board for allowing someone with the competency of a grape to come in and change things that had been in place for years to come and has made John Tyler a safe place for kids to learn. Not saying that everything was all roses and stars, but at least no one died. At least students learned. At least would not be in danger every day while at school.
It was brought to my attention that after Columbine that it was MANDATORY that ALL schools have security on detail to ensure the safety of the students. Trust me I don’t mind especially if it’s going to mean no one dies today. It is sad that it takes something as extreme as this to come into our lives and beg for change.
I’m laughing behind my tears because they wouldn’t even let the president talk to our kids and inspire them to do something different with their lives, be part of the change. It enrages me to the point of insanity and I want to yell and scream. I am a parent, I am a family member, I am former student and alumni of the school, I am a citizen of the city who DEMANDS better of its district. This was uncalled for and yes this was seen to happen if things didn’t change or even change BACK to security being present at the schools. Police officers being present on the campus. Hell I’m not above metal detectors, CORRECT searches procedures in order to gain the safety of school back.
The funny thing is that I’m not just speaking for John Tyler. I’m speaking for every student, faculty member, family member, community, city, state that has had this problem and it has NOT gone a way by just changing hands to someone else. We need leaders. Not pansy, push-overs, or political idols that think that the quickest solution is a quick buck. WE NEED SOME ONE THAT CARES FOR OUR CHILDREN TO GUIDE THEM. What had been done today was not a display of guidance.

Truly, John Tyler, and every school with this problem, has been left behind.

Too much woman for ya!!

I know I’ve been away but it has been with good reason. My happy life has hit another snag . . . well not really. My husband and I decided to call an end to our 10 year marriage. And though I should be really upset, I knew this was coming sooner or later. With me going to school and working, take care of everything on top of running around with my head cut off, it’s no wonder that he hasn’t left sooner. No tears though, and that leads me to my question.
Is there a such thing as “TOO strong of a woman?”
How many women have heard that the reason that a woman can’t either keep a man or find one is that she is too strong of a woman? I ask this question more to myself than anything else, but still it intrigues me to think that this may be the case. Today, 95% of all mothers today are supermoms. We are either single, married or wish we were either. Taking one or more children, house, career, school, all the while kicking but with our superpowers by staying on top of every school function, every cough, sneeze, cough, and discipline matter that comes along, and still manages at night to be the hottie in the bedroom. And you would think a man would appreciate a woman like that. A lot of the times that‘s not the case. We are taught, by nature, to be strong, and in a lot of ways, stronger than men. We can deal with screaming kids in a small car, become the disciplinarian, and even the bad-guy when it comes to teens, and even sometimes (I did say SOMETIMES) swallow our tongue when it comes to listening and not giving our opinion (Even though we REALLY REALLY REALLY want to).
Personally, I don’t feel that I need a man to take care of me. I can do that just fine, but I want one that respects me, supports me in what I do for the household, is MY backup and I his, and someone who can make me feel safe. Basically my equal. I haven’t found that person yet. And frankly have stopped looking because there few that measure up and none of them have crossed my path just yet.
I’m not in no way saying that I’m perfect and have to have the perfect guy. No. I’m saying my ass is picky and want someone strong enough to handle all this. LOL. And there is a big difference between strong, and a complete dickhead with all the trimmings. It’s like a told a friend of mine. “I’m crazy, and filled with all sorts of aggression 90% of the time. Ain’t no telling what I would do if someone was to hit me. But cowering in a corner ain’t it.”
I have no tolerance, patience, or otherwise for a man that hits his woman, and vice versa. I feel so strong about it. But it makes no sense to hit, call names, or even evil looks. The Mama look is okay, but other than that, looks of hatred are punishable by a muddy meal. LOL
I’m just ranting here, but I really wanted to know what you think? Is there a such thing as too strong of a woman?

Dazzling New Cover

Happy Weekend!!!

I have been in an uproar from school and work and kids and writing that I have been MIA for a while. But I have some really great to show off.

I finally got the cover for Captive Temptation. Not saying that they were slow or anything,but the wait waws killing me. I felt like sitting in front of the christmas tree at 3am when Mama said we can't open them till 8. AGGGGHHHH!! But the wait paid off and now I have a wonderful cover to be extremely proud of.

Just take a look! >>>>>>

And though my family always have wisecracks about my covers ESPECIALLY my bestfriend Chewie who says it looks like Thriller, they are really supportive and proud of me and push me to do more. I'm really excited about it.

Leah V.

So Sorry I've been AFK!!!

Hey Everyone!!

 

 

I am so sorry I've been AFK (Away from Keyboard) for a while.  I've had a lot of things going on this month that I've had to reprioitise my mental compacity because, let's face it, ain't much swimming around up there now days. LMAO!!

 

At the beinning of this month, I started school at Texas State Technical College in Marshall, Texas.  It's a 126 mile round trip drive starting at 6:30 in the morning but it's really worth it for a good degree in Software programming and web design.  Yeah, it's a pretty crazy idea to drive so far with gas being so high but I was like what the heck.  The school is great.  And it's OKAY to be geeky there!!!!!  Besides, why not get a degree in something I like doing and keep the money flowing in house as well as a steady income with a paid job.   It's all win win for me.

 

But that, unfortunately is not all.  I have decided I have stretched myself thin and have still been working on the website for my job.  I have finished to a point and put the critical points up,  but as you know, with wedesign, that ain't all. 

 

And with work, I have been traveling to different conferences, some of which I didn't expect.  Just recently I drove to Texarkana for a Conference on Geriatric Sensitivity.  It was really in lightneing, but As you know, I don't travel much.  Thought that's something that I want to do, but haven't done yet.  I'm really proud of myself.  I drove all by myself (okay me and my little GPS I got from my mom).  2 hours on the road, company milage, eating on the company credit card, free -to-me hotel with all the trimmings for a night and then the 2 and a half hour drive back home was an experience, that I would like to repeat, so long as I don't have to pay for it. LMAO!!!!!

 

We writers is poor, I like to say!!

 

Not to mention that but with as hot as it's been this start of the summer, my air conditioning, has been on the fritz.  I just had it charged in March and now here we go again.  Good thing I'm not paying for that to be done either. LMAO!!! The only bad thing is that it decided to go out the day I'm out of town and miles away from home.  Yet on monday it's getting fixed and my mom will have company all weekend. LMAO!!

 

But now I am resting at home finishing my home work and working on Book two of my Captive series "Captive Seduction"  and putting the thoughts from paper onto the computer form my trip.  Next month proves to be a pretty dull month.  No trips so I get to get a lot of writing done.

 

Talk to you soon.

 

 

Leah Vaughn
Romance Author

 

Coming Soon with Red Rose Publishing...
Captive Temptation
Read about it on www.freewebs.com/ladyofgrace25

 

www.freewebs.com/ladyofgrace25
www.myspace.com/leahvaughn
www.ladyofgrace26.blogspot.com

 

Come Visit My Store Today!!
www.cafepress.com/ladyofgrace25

Devon's Happy Update

I wanted to give a heads up on my son, Devon.  He's 5 years old with mid to mod Autism.  He's been in the PPCD program since he was 3 years old.  I have worked and worked with him and though they said that he would never be a verbal child, HE TALKS!!! and says all kinds of things, asks for all kinds of things.  I am so excited.  But that's not the best part.  I have been arguing with the school that he's in that he has improved intellectually past the point of being in the PPCD for another year.  He has surpassed their curriculum since he's been in there more than 2 years.  By the end of this year they were thinking of little BS goals just to keep him in there ( i think).  He knows all his colors, letters, shapes, numbers, can trace his name, Identifies his name, knows all of  his family and extended family members names, what kind of car they drive.  ALL sorts of things a 5 year old should know. 

 

To make a long story short, I, with the help of my mom-in-law, talked in an ARD meeting about him being transitioned out of PPCD and mainstreamed into the next grade.  The teacher thought that he should move to another grade up and that would put him behind. And My thought process was that if he stays at a certain level after he has learned everything he has to learn and not be pushed, then he would get comfortable and digress We had talked about this before, and with just being me, I felt that no one really listens to the mother alone.  Well, after the last 6 ARD meetings I brought out the big guns.  I let my mom-in-law have at them.  That woman, I swear would make the devil run for cover just to get what she wanted.

 

After talking to them, and getting the results of the test we were able to get Devon transitioned out of PPCD and into Kindergarten for a better push on learning.  I'm not one of these mothers who accepts her child's disability and that's it, no way to help them.  I want Devon to do better, to excel for better than any expectation that the school district had set aside for him. 

 

I just pray that hopefully that he would be willing to keep it going because the road ahead is not going to be an easy one.

 

 

 

Leah V.

AK Blackball Support!!!

I am writing on behalf of my favorite author Angela Knight and all the other authors who have had this happened to them.

I know that we shouldn’t pick favorites, but AK's characters have gotten me through some hard times (long story lol). She sent a letter to her group saying that she has been BLACKBALLED by Amazon!! A Bestselling Kensington Author?!!!!! and now her pre-order sales are ranking 1625 while her Kindle sales are best sellers. While I don't understand Amazon's antics lately or the need to blackball some of its most profitable authors, I do sympathize with the many authors out there.

If you love her books, like I do ESPECIALLY her Futuristic Novels, then by all means, pre-order your book at Amazon, or write a letter just showing your concern. Hell, even blogging about it like we have been doing for the past few weeks would do some good. It angers and sickens me as a writer and discourages the new and aspiring authors from producing their work if they are going to be blackballed by sellers who, for the love of me, have a screwed perception of porn. They must've never typed in 'sex toys' in their own search engines. If they have, they would find a whole myriad of things that need to be taken off.

It is a shame that the good ones, us authors, are being blamed for the pitiful downfall of society. The degradation of reading scores in our youth or of people in general. The point that I’m trying to make is that romance whether tangible or in word format, has been around since the beginning of time. It is a shame that some of us have to suffer because of the stupidity of prudes who have a warped way of trying to protect us from the bad things either on the internet or in print.

To be honest, some of the best sex I had was in books LMAO!!! My thing is that it is to take a person away from the dullness of society and poverty, to have it all for at least 300 plus pages and to come back from it with a sigh and a clearer head, a sense of purpose, or even a smile.

Now don’t get me wrong. I have read some books that should not have seen the light of day and wonder what in the hell they were thinking to publish this filth, but in return that is an author, that’s the voice they heard in their heads at the time screaming at them to listen. And if the voice was vulgar, then so is the story. But it takes a really good author to turn that around and make it one of the most tasteful delightful and intriguing stories that have ever been published.

I write smut with taste. I don’t write porn, indulge myself in writing it because it’s not what makes a story. The story, history, culture, the people, the environment, the life, the love between the characters, their differences, their likes, loves, hates, personalities, their entire world…..their hardships MAKE THE STORY!!! It sure as hell makes the romance. As an avid reader I’m not looking for the romance. I’m looking for the story, the believability, and the likeability, and if it doesn’t have that. I don’t need to be reading it. As an author, I make sure these things are in my work.

I could propose a ban on Amazon, and believe me, there are a lot of us hanging around to do it, but what good would that do if I’m just one person and no one listens to just one. It takes a group of people, a whole sea of people to change the thinking of one entity. If not, they are going to do this to someone else, and if they do it to me personally, there’s going to be hell to pay and believe me, it’s going to on every television station in the nation, just because they incited my rage.

Now I’m getting off my soap box and sitting down somewhere. This little woman is tired. LOL

Take care

Leah V.

After the Party!!

My RRP Author Day was a huge success!! It was perfect thing for me since I was pretty much stuck at home yesterday. The rains here were so bad you couldn’t even see the road. Good thing I had got enough of that on Friday. Lol. A lot of people came by and posted. A special thanks to all the authors in attendance. It was a lot of fun!!! I can’t wait to do it again . . . which would probably be next month. Now, it’s time to start back writing and finishing Warrior’s Heart and getting ready to promote Captive Temptation.

I actually thought about starting the second book to the Captive Series. “Captive Desire or Captive Seduction” whatever’s cleaver. I haven’t sat down and played with them just yet. I have thought about what I am going to do with each of them thought.

Captive Desire follows bounty hunter Remira Satari as she is ordered to take rouge pirate prince Xavien Madore into custody for more counts of thievery but the whole thing goes awry when they are taken captive by the very man that wants Xavien dead. ( I haven’t got out the full synopsis yet but I like the sound of this idea).

Captive Seduction follows Therica, the infamous rouge pirate Golden Scourge, as she pilfers and punders the transport ships of the Secoorian sector. Before her pirating days, Therica and her brother teamed together seduced and robbed a young transport merchant named Kiernan Cregor, stealing his shipment and leaving him dead in space. Kiernan, now a bounty hunter will stop at nothing to catch the Golden Scourge in an attempt to douse the fire that still burned for her. (Still playing around with this one too. Lol).

I’m hoping to get these officially out in the open to where I can write more clearly on them. Maybe this summer when I’m officially finished with Warrior’s Heart. Lol

Now it’s time for me to push myself into being productive. I actually have to clean up today. Lolol. I wanted to extend my thanks again for stopping by and having fun with me yesterday. It was a blast!!!

Take Care!!



Leah V.