Showing posts with label Cleveland. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cleveland. Show all posts

Monday, March 03, 2008

It's Definitely Not Eddie Murphy's "The P.J's"

'FAMILY GUY'S' CLEVELAND GETS SPINOFF: Black character to star in own animated series.

Cleveland Brown
Cleveland Brown from Fox Series, "Family Guy"

*Producers of Fox's animated series "Family Guy" will create a new spinoff series centered on Cleveland Brown, the slow-talking, accident-prone neighbor of main character Peter Griffin.

Tentatively titled "Cleveland," the new show will revolve around the Brown family, with "Family Guy" writer-producer Mike Henry continuing to voice the Cleveland character, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

The most level-headed of Peter's friends, Cleveland is a 40-something deli owner who was previously married to Loretta Brown, whom he divorced in season four after discovering she was having an affair with one of his friends.

A Wikipedia entry notes: "Cleveland displays a political and cultural interest in promoting his fellow African Americans. While Cleveland's race seldom causes conflicts with his entirely white neighbors, and while he serves as President of the local Chamber of Commerce, he remains subject to different treatment by the local police.

An example was seen in the episode "Stuck Together, Torn Apart," where the machinery in a police car labels him as a minority suspect. Another episode, titled "Blind Ambition," showed Cleveland disagreeing with policeman neighbor Joe Swanson on how black strangers should be viewed in white neighborhoods (all in a symbolic, friendly discussion about a black bowling ball amidst white bowling pins).

"Cleveland" will be produced by "Family Guy" creator Seth MacFarlane, former "Simpsons" writer and "American Dad" executive producer Rich Appel and "Family Guy" writer-producer Henry – who will also pen the series. There's no word on when "Cleveland" is scheduled to debut.
source

***
I'm not a regular viewer of Family Guy-I am familiar with Cleveland, though.
For some reason-not sure why-I'm uneasy.
Nooo, i'm not saying it's a conspiracy of the white man tryin ta keep us down yada yada yada...
but for some reason-shoot maybe it's a foreboding feeling of...Cleveland will probably end up getting cancelled.

I hope not.
What say u fam??
That is quite a coup though :)




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Thursday, October 11, 2007

UPDATE: DUHHH, TELL US SOMETHING WE DON'T KNOW! "HE WAS ONLY 14 YRS OLD!"

Ohio Student Gunman Had Mental Problems
credit: AOL news, AP


CLEVELAND (AP) - A 14-year-old student who opened fire at his high school, wounding four people before killing himself, had a history of mental problems and was known for cussing at teachers and bickering with students.



Asa H. Coon, who had been suspended for fighting, warned classmates of an attack - but none took him seriously. "When he got suspended, he was like `I got something for you all,"' said student Frances Henderson, who said she often got into arguments with Coon. "I guess this is what he had."



Police believe Coon targeted the two teachers he shot Wednesday. He also shot two students while others hid in closets and bathrooms or ran out of SuccessTech Academy alternative school. Students gathered outside, many in tears, hugging one another and talking on cell phones.



Parents were angry that firearms got into a school equipped with metal detectors that students said were intermittently used.

Coon's troubles seemed to come to a tipping point this week when he was suspended for fighting outside with a classmate. Students said Monday's fight was over God - Coon told his classmates he didn't believe in God and instead worshipped rocker Marilyn Manson .



Armed with two revolvers Wednesday, Coon fired eight shots, Police Chief Michael McGrath said. Police found a duffel bag stocked with ammunition and three knives in a bathroom, but no suicide note, he said.



Math teacher David Kachadourian, who was treated at a hospital for a minor wound to the back of one shoulder, knew of no reason why Coon might target him. Coon was a student in his beginning algebra class. "I never felt personally threatened or personally at risk," Kachadourian said. "I had concerns about him, yes. He seemed like an angry young man. I did not fear for my own safety."



Coon had mental health problems, spent time in two juvenile facilities and threatened to commit suicide while in a mental health facility, according to juvenile court records obtained by The Plain Dealer newspaper. The Department of Children and Family Services was called to Coon's home in 2000 because he had burns on his arms and scratches on his forehead, the newspaper said.



When he was 12, Coon was charged in juvenile court with domestic violence. His mother, Lori, had called police and told them her son slapped her and called her a vulgar name. She had been trying to intervene in a fight between Coon and his twin sister, The Plain Dealer reported. He was also suspended from school last year for attempting to hurt a student, the newspaper said. "He used to cuss all the teachers out," said Henderson, 14.



Coon, who is white, stood out in the predominantly black school for dressing in a goth style, wearing a black trench coat, black boots, a dog collar and chains, she said. Henderson, who is black, she said she didn't believe race played a role in the shootings. "He's crazy. He threatened to blow up our school. He threatened to stab everybody," said Doneisha LeVert, 14. "We didn't think nothing of it."



People at Coon's home late Wednesday declined to comment. All classes in the city school district were canceled Thursday, and school officials said counseling would be available for students at recreation centers throughout Cleveland.



Witnesses said the shooter moved through SuccessTech, a converted downtown office building, working his way up through the first two floors of administrative offices to the third floor of classrooms. He was wearing a Manson shirt, black jeans and black-painted finger nails, police said. Charles Blackwell, president of SuccessTech's student-parent organization, said he did not know how Coon got into the building.



Blackwell said there was a security guard on the first floor, but that the position of another guard on the third floor had been eliminated. The first person shot, 14-year-old Michael Peek, had punched Coon in the face right before the shootings began, student Rasheem Smith said. Coon "came out of the bathroom and bumped Mike and he (Mike) punched him in his face. Mike started walking. He shot Mike in the side," said Smith, 15. Darnell Rodgers, 18, was walking up to another floor when the stairway suddenly became flooded with students. "They were screaming, and they were saying, `Oh my God! Oh my God!' I knew something was wrong, but thought that it was probably just a fight, so I just kept going," Rodgers said. He realized he had been shot when he felt his arm burning. Rodgers was released from a hospital after treatment for a graze wound to his right elbow.

The other student shot was taken to a children's hospital, which would not release the student's condition. Michael Grassie, a 42-year-old history teacher, was hospitalized in fair condition late Wednesday after about two hours of surgery. The hospital would not disclose the nature of the surgery. SuccessTech Academy, with about 240 students, is an alternative high school in the public school district that stresses technology and entrepreneurship.
****
Tragic.

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

UPDATE::He Was Only 14 Years Old!!!

Teen shoots 4, kills self at Cleveland High School
(Scenes from SuccessTech Academy's shooting aftermath, below at right)

credit: crunk & disorderly


It was only after a crowd of screaming students ran past Darnell Rodgers in a stairway at his Cleveland, Ohio, high school Wednesday afternoon that he realized he had been shot."They were screaming, 'Oh my God! Oh my God,'" said Rodgers, a senior at SuccessTech Academy near downtown Cleveland.At around 1:15 p.m., a 14-year-old gunman, reportedly upset about a school suspension, was walking the halls firing with a gun in each hand. He shot 57-year-old as teacher David Kachadourian in the back in addition to shooting a 42-year-old teacher, officials said.Rodgers suddenly felt his arm "burning," he said, and realized he had been shot in the elbow.
When it was all over, five people had been shot including the gunman who, according to Cleveland mayor Frank Jackson, killed himself.Students at SuccessTech Academy described the gunman as having an "odd" personality. Witnesses told WKYC the shooter had been suspended for fighting earlier this week.Edward Eckart, Commissioner of Cleveland EMS Cleveland said the 42-year-old was shot in the chest and is in critical condition at MetroHealth Medical Center.The 57-year-old, who MetroHealth identified to CNN as Kachadourian, is in stable condition. Rodgers was treated and released from the hospital. The 14-year-old male with a gunshot wound to his side was transported to Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital where he is in stable condition, Eckart said.A 14-year-old female with a knee injury was also taken to Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital and is in stable condition.


(edited for content by Ivent)











Gunman dies, 5 injured at Ohio school
credit: AP, Yahoo! News (emphasis by Ivent)

CLEVELAND - A 14-year-old suspended student, dressed in black, opened fire in his downtown high school Wednesday, wounding four people as terrified schoolmates hid in closets and bathrooms and huddled under laboratory desks. He then killed himself.

A fellow student at SuccessTech Academy alternative school said Asa H. Coon, who was suspended for fighting two days earlier, had made threats in front of students and teachers last week.

"He's crazy. He threatened to blow up our school. He threatened to stab everybody," Doneisha LeVert said. "We didn't think nothing of it."
Coon was armed with two .38 caliber revolvers, and police found a duffel bag stocked with ammunition and three knives in a bathroom, officials said. Parents were angry that firearms got into a school equipped with metal detectors that students said were intermittently used.

Officials said two teachers and two students were shot, and that a 14-year-old girl fell and hurt her knee while running out of the school.
Witnesses said the shooter moved through the converted five-story downtown office building, working his way up through the first two floors of administrative offices to the third floor of classrooms. Officials said he was wearing a black Marilyn Manson concert shirt, black jeans and black-painted finger nails.

The first person shot, student Michael Peek, had punched Coon in the face right before the shootings began, said student Rasheem Smith, 15.
Coon "came out of the bathroom and bumped Mike and he (Mike) punched him in his face. Mike started walking. He shot Mike in the side." Peek, 14, didn't know Coon had a gun, Smith said.

Antonio Deberry, 17, said he and his classmates hid under laboratory tables and watched the shooter move down the hallway. "I saw him walking past. He didn't see us, we saw him." The shooter swore and shot several times, Deberry said.

LeVert said she hid in a closet with two other students after she heard a "Code Blue" alert over the loudspeaker. She said she heard about 10 shots.
Darnell Rodgers, 18, was walking up to another floor when the stairway suddenly became flooded with students.
"It took me a couple of minutes to realize that I was actually shot, when I felt my arm burning in the area, that's when I realized that I had got shot," Rodgers said.
"They were screaming, and they were saying, 'Oh my God, oh my God.' I knew something was wrong, but thought that it was probably just a fight, so I just kept going," Rodgers said.
Rodgers was released from a hospital after treatment for a graze wound to his right elbow.

Coon had been suspended since Monday for fighting near the school that day, said Charles Blackwell, president of SuccessTech's student-parent organization. He did not know how Coon got into the building Wednesday.
Blackwell said that there was a security guard on the first floor, but that the position of another guard on the third floor had been eliminated.

Student Frances Henderson, 14, said she often got into arguments with Coon, who once told her, "I got something for you all." He was a "gothic" who usually wore a trench coat, black boots and a dog collar, she said.

Students stood outside the building, many in tears, hugging one another and on cell phones. Others shouted at reporters with TV cameras to leave them alone. Family members also stood outside, waiting for their children to be released.

Math teacher David Kachadourian, 57, was in good condition; Michael Grassie, a 42-year-old teacher, was in surgery, but his condition was unavailable. The other two injured teens were taken to a children's hospital, which would not release their names, ages or conditions.
Deberry's mother, Lakisha Deberry, said she was upset that metal detectors at the school were not always in use.
"You never know what's going on in someone's mind," said Deberry, adding that she was required to go through a metal detector and present an identification card whenever she wanted to drop off something at school for her children.

The shooting occurred across the street from the FBI office in downtown Cleveland, and students were being sent to the FBI site.
Classes at all schools in the Cleveland Metropolitan School District will be canceled Thursday, said Eugene Sanders, chief executive officer of the district. Counseling will be available Thursday for students at recreation centers throughout the city, Sanders said.
SuccessTech Academy is an alternative high school in the public school district that stresses technology and entrepreneurship. It is housed on several floors of the district's downtown Cleveland Lakeside Avenue administration building.
"It's a shining beacon for the Cleveland Metropolitan School system," said John Zitzner, founder and president of E City Cleveland, a nonprofit group aimed at teaching business skills to inner-city teens. "It's orderly, it's disciplined, it's calm, it's focused."

The school has about 240 mainly black students with a small number of white and Hispanic students.

Coon was white and Henderson, the student who said she frequently argued with him, is black, but she said she didn't believe race played a role in the shootings.

The school, opened five years ago, ranks in the middle of the state's ratings for student performance. Its graduation rate is 94 percent, well above the district's rate of 55 percent.



********


I have told associates of mine's, 14yrs of age seems to be a critical year for youth. Whenever children have begun (began??) to lash out (as relayed to me by associates, friends and family) the onset usually manifests itself at 14. My son's friend hung himself at 14. My daughter's anger became pronounced at 14 etc. It is such a critical (do-or-die thinking), that it can have dire consequences with the most serious resulting in death.


For Asa to get to this point can only mean that he was unspeakable pain. Was it the fight that caused him to react in such a way??


Doubtable-I firmly believe the fight--was the straw that broke the camel's back.


Father, I just don't know what it is we can do for these hurting children. But you do. So Lord, I ask that you please...PLEASE...do something, in Jesus' name!


Ivent


God bless all those who are affected by this awful tragedy.