By KERA News & Wire Services
Dallas, TX –
A juvenile accused in the 2009 stabbing death of a Tyler high school teacher will get mental health treatment after being declared currently unfit to proceed in the justice system.
The 16-year-old's attorney says a forensic psychologist and the state agreed Monday on the diagnosis of the youth.
Attorney Jim Huggler tells the Tyler Morning Telegraph that a hearing Friday will determine a facility for the teenager.The boy has been held in a juvenile detention facility since 50-year-old Todd R. Henry died after he was stabbed in his classroom at John Tyler High School in September.
Huggler said the youth will get 90 days of treatment before another hearing to determine his mental fitness for legal proceedings.
Texas school board keeps ban on boy's long hair
A Texas school board has agreed to adjust its grooming policy for a 4-year-old boy whose long, flowing hair got him suspended. But his parents say it isn't enough.
Pre-kindergartner Taylor Pugh has been under in-school suspension since November at Floyd Elementary School in Mesquite, a Dallas suburb. He sits alone with a teacher's aide in the school library.
After a closed-door meeting Monday, the Mesquite school board decided Taylor could wear his hair in tight braids but keep it no longer than his ears.
His parents plan to appeal. Taylor's mother, Elizabeth, says her son likes his hair long and braids would make his scalp bleed. She says she'll take Taylor to school in a ponytail Tuesday, acknowledging it will keep him suspended.
$4 million pledged for new Dallas SPCA shelter
The Rees-Jones Foundation has pledged up to $4 million to build a new animal shelter, clinic and adoption center in Dallas.
Details were announced Tuesday by the SPCA of Texas.
The pledge for the 39,000-square-foot facility will kick off the final phase of the group's $15 million capital campaign to build the new complex.
The planned shelter will replace the Dealey Animal Care Center, built in 1974 near downtown Dallas. The new larger facility will be in the Oak Cliff neighborhood.
Company sells BCS title game grass from Rose Bowl
Getting a piece of college football history will cost some green: $99 for a square of Rose Bowl grass. A New Jersey marketing company has bought about 10,000 square feet of turf from the Rose Bowl, where Alabama beat Texas on Thursday to win the BCS title.
Stadium Associates plans to freeze-dry the grass and sell 3-inch-by-3-inch squares in plastic cases.
Available will be bits of the end zones, the midfield logo and sections where important plays took place.
An executive for the sod company that removed the turf says the offer probably will appeal mostly to Crimson Tide fans. Jim DeLea of DeLea Sod Farms says Texas fans might not want to remember their 37-21 defeat.