Student shot three times in Florida massacre ‘grateful to be here’
February 27, 2018 by admin
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A student who was shot at least three times in the Florida school massacre on Monday said she’s “so grateful to be here” – and thanked her medical team for saving her life, according to reports.
Junior Madeleine Wilford, 17, was unresponsive when she was rushed to Broward Health North Medical Center with wounds to her chest and abdomen.
“I’m just glad that I’m making a full recovery and everything’s been going so smoothly,” a smiling but tearful Wilford said as she sat near her parents at the hospital, ABC News reported.
Maddy thanked the first responders and “amazing doctors” who helped save her, as well as those who sent her letters and presents.
“I’d just like to say that I am so grateful to be here. And it wouldn’t be possible without the doctors and first responders and … all the love that everyone sent, I definitely wouldn’t be here without it,” she said.
“I’ve seen a lot of positive posts about what’s been going on at the school. I just love the fact we’re sticking together,” Wilford added about her classmates at Marjory Stoneman Douglas HS in Parkland, where 17 people were gunned down Feb. 14.
Lt. Laz Ojeda of Coral Springs Fire Rescue was in the ambulance when Maddy was rushed to the hospital.
“At first, I thought Maddy was dead,” he said, adding that she showed signs of life when an officer shook her, USA Today reported. A Broward County sheriff’s deputy put a “chest seal” on her to stop the bleeding.
Ojeda said he was originally told to take her to Broward Health Medical Center, but decided to go to Broward Health North, which is much closer.
“I gave her a sternal rub and said, ‘How old are you,’” Ojeda said, Local 10 News reported. “She told me she was 17. The rest of the story is pretty simple. I’ve never seen so many doctors, so many staff in an ER … and we went back to work.”
Maddy underwent three surgeries before being released Thursday.
The teen’s father, David Wilford, called her survival a “miracle” and said through tears that he was “very grateful to be sitting here next to my daughter, alive and well today.”
Maddy’s mom, Missy Wilford, said her daughter is an inspiration to her for her determination to move forward, Local 10 reported.
“She knows who she is and she knows where she wants to go and what she wants in life, and that strength and power is what helps you heal,” she said. “It makes you want to get up. It makes you want to keep going.”
Maddy’s parents also expressed their sympathy for the families who lost a loved one or whose children were wounded in the bloodbath.
“For those of the moms who I have not been able to visit that their children passed, I love you (and) I’m here for you,” Missy Wilford said.
“Those who are left in the hospital, I will come and visit with you. We have had so many visitors. I just have to say it helped her mentality, it helped her heal,” she added.
A few days ago, President Trump’s campaign sent out an email with a photo showing him and first lady Melania Trump visiting Maddy in the hospital.
“The president has made his intent very clear, making our schools and our children safer will be their top priority,” the email said in part and included a link to donate to his campaign.
Maddy and her parents didn’t take any questions at the news conference Monday and didn’t comment on the email.
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Civil Rights Act Protects Gay Workers, Appeals Court Rules
February 27, 2018 by admin
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The 10-3 ruling by the Second Circuit stemmed from Altitude Express’s dismissal of a Long Island sky-diving instructor, Donald Zarda, in 2010. As Mr. Zarda was preparing that year for a tandem sky-dive with a female student, he told her that he was “100 percent gay.” Her boyfriend later complained to the school about the comment.
Mr. Zarda said he had made the remark to soothe the woman, who seemed uncomfortable with being so tightly strapped to him during the dive. Mr. Zarda filed a lawsuit, eventually claiming that his firing violated Title VII. Two courts in New York, including a three-judge panel of the Second Circuit, initially ruled against him.
In 2015, Mr. Zarda died in a sky-diving accident. His appeal, however, continued, and the legal landscape started changing. The E.E.O.C., under President Barack Obama, issued a ruling in a separate matter, finding for the first time that “sexual orientation is inherently a ‘sex-based consideration’” and should be protected by the law.
In July, the Trump administration decided to weigh in on the Zarda case. On the same day that Mr. Trump suggested on Twitter that transgender people would be barred from serving in the military, Justice Department lawyers filed a friend of the court brief in Mr. Zarda’s case, arguing that Title VII protections did not extend to sexual orientation.
In its brief, the Justice Department said that the E.E.O.C. was “not speaking for the United States.”
The Justice Department’s intervention in Mr. Zarda’s case led to sharp criticism from groups like the American Civil Liberties Union, which called the brief a “gratuitous and extraordinary attack on L.G.B.T. people’s civil rights.”
The Second Circuit’s ruling on Monday rejected the Justice Department’s position.
In a majority opinion joined at least in part by eight other judges, Chief Judge Robert A. Katzmann wrote, “Since 1964, the legal framework for evaluating Title VII claims has evolved substantially,” adding that it now included expanded protections against discrimination based on factors like “sex stereotypes.” The opinion said that the law should be read to include sexual orientation.
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“Sexual orientation discrimination is a subset of sex discrimination because sexual orientation is defined by one’s sex in relation to the sex of those to whom one is attracted,” Judge Katzmann wrote, “making it impossible for an employer to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation without taking sex into account.”
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A 10th judge, José A. Cabranes, agreed with the outcome, but not Judge Katzmann’s reasoning. The appeals court rarely issues decisions through what is known as the en-banc court, in which all eligible judges participate. Typically, it issues decisions through three-judge panels.
Judge Gerard E. Lynch, one of the dissenting judges, said in an opinion that he came to his decision “regretfully,” but that Congress had not included sexual orientation on its list of grounds to outlaw bias in the workplace.
“When interpreting an act of Congress,” Judge Lynch wrote, “we need to respect the choices made by Congress about which social problems to address, and how to address them.” Many states, he noted, had “recognized the injustice of discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.”
“I hope that one day soon Congress will join them, and adopt that principle on a national basis,” he wrote. “But it has not done so yet.”
Justice Department officials have previously said that Congress, and not the courts, should decide who is protected under the law.
Following the ruling on Monday, Devin O’Malley, a Justice Department spokesman, adhered to that message, saying that while the department was “committed to protecting the civil and constitutional rights of all individuals,” it was also “committed to the fundamental principle that the courts cannot expand the law beyond what Congress has provided.”
In the past year or so, two separate federal appeals courts have issued conflicting rulings on Title VII. Last March, a divided three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta ruled that Title VII’s reference to sex did not encompass discrimination based on sexual orientation. One month later, however, the Seventh Circuit in Chicago, by an 8-to-3 vote, held that bias based on sexual orientation was in fact “a form of sex discrimination.”
In December, the Supreme Court denied a request to hear an appeal filed by the plaintiff in the Atlanta case. But with Monday’s ruling essentially in line with the finding by the Seventh Circuit in Chicago, the appeals courts’ varying viewpoints may be enough to prompt Supreme Court review.
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Saul Zabell, the lawyer for Altitude Express, said he was pleased that the ruling fixed “a glaring legislative gap in fundamental human rights,” but added that he was also “disappointed that the panel chose to ignore the facts of underlying matter” and “exceeded their judicial mandate.”
In a brief statement, Eric T. Schneiderman, the New York State attorney general, who filed an amicus brief in the case, said on Monday: “No one should face discrimination because of their sexual orientation — and I am pleased that the Second Circuit has sent a clear statement in support of equal justice today.”
Bill Moore, a co-executor of Mr. Zarda’s estate, also praised the ruling.
“Today’s victory is a wonderful step forward for the country as a growing number of Americans take a stand against anti-L.G.B.T.Q. employment discrimination,” Mr. Moore said in a statement. “I wish Don were here to see how he and his case have advanced the movement for L.G.B.T.Q. equality.”
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