Urgent need!…fill this truck with food for Boles Children’s Home food drive at Toyota of Rockwall

(Click on the photo to enlarge)

Please help us to fill this pickup bed with non-perishable food items immediately and support the food drive for the Boles Children’s Home in Quinlan at Toyota of Rockwall.

The holidays are just around the corner and the 84-year-old Christian home for abused and troubled children and pregnant girls in Quinlan needs our help with donations of non-perishable foods, plus many other items.

Take as many packaged goods and cans of food as you can to Toyota of Rockwall, located on the I-30 feeder road, just East of the intersection of I-30 and Hwy. 205, where the Luv’s truck stop is located. You can call the dealership at 1-888-891-0356.

Many other items are also needed, including a 15-passenger van, long children’s tables, toddler chairs, infant swings, bath towels, blankets, quilts, TVs with DVD players, automatic defibulators and more!

For details, please read the Boles Children’s Home Wishlist on their website.

Bikers Against Child Abuse ride to young victim’s rescue

There’s a nice article in this morning’s Dallas Morning News about how an alert CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) caseworker in Ellis County brought in Bikers Against Child Abuse to help a 13-year-old child abuse victim.  The happy ending is that the boy has now been adopted by a loving family in Denton Co. His new father rides a cycle and is a member of Peacekeepers.

Read the story here.

Boles Children’s Home in Quinlan serves 100 youth each year

Today I spoke with Richard at the Boles Children’s Home in Quinlan and learned that the 84-year-old home for troubled and abused children, plus single mothers, serves about 100 youth each year.

Quinlan is about a 30-minute drive Southeast of Rockwall on Hwy. 276.

According to Richard, the home is a ministry of about 300 Churches of Christ and many others. It has cared for over 20,000 children during its long history.

The Home serves approximately 100 boys and girls (10-to 17-years old) per year from diverse economic and ethnic backgrounds, and is committed to serve children and families regardless of their religion, race or background.

Some of the children have suffered abuse. Some are orphans who have no parents or family members able to care for them. Still others are unmarried pregnant girls and single moms with nowhere else to live.

The Home is always in need of support. So are the children. Learn more about how you can make a difference in their lives by reading here.

Rockwall Toyota dealership conducting food drive for Quinlan children’s home

Yesterday I met Barbara Jackson at Toyota of Rockwall and learned that the dealership has started conducting a food drive for an 84-year-old Christian home for children and single mothers in Quinlan called the Boles Children’s Home.

Barbara and her husband are the owners of the year-old dealership, which has received numerous awards for their environmentally-friendly business.

I was most impressed with Barbara’s sincerity about using the dealership to make a real difference in the Rockwall County community. They don’t just want to sell cars. She said that she knows they were able to place their business in Rockwall for even greater purposes. She said she will try her best to become involved in the Rockwall County Coalition Against Family Violence.

Our coalition members are currently seeking additional resources for victims of family violence and the Boles Children’s Home could certainly be one of them.

I’ll contact them tomorrow to learn more.

Was Joshua Torres just defending himself when he stabbed Max Brustein?

Based upon the numerous comments being posted to the original story about Max being killed, numerous sources are claiming that Joshua Torres was just defending himself from being beaten up by Max and two or three other boys at about 3 am.

Do you know more about this story? Would you be willing to post or email more details to us?

We’d like to piece them together as best as we can so everyone reading these many comments will actually know what happened.

Clearly, there are at least two sides to this story…and apparently many more!

Ad in Dallas: “One day my husband will kill me.”

The Dallas-based Family Place women’s shelter has launched an advertising campaign on DART buses in hopes the ads will empower the community to ask how they can help stop abuse and help the abused get out of their situation before it harms them or their kids.

The ads are displayed on the outside of 45 busses and on the inside of 300 of them.

To see the ads, click on this CBS-11 TV news story.

The Family Place said they had hoped to place the ads on billboards, as well, but were told by Clear Channel Outdoor the nature of the ads could be misleading or disturbing since drivers might not have time to see enough of the ads to understand their meaning.

Stabbing over girl kills Plano teen adopted from Romania

(Editor’s note: The following article has been changed, since the original post was apparently not completely accurate. See “Comments.” We sincerely apologize for any errors we may have made. More details will be reported as they become public.)

A tragic dating violence incident occurred early Sunday when a 17-year-old boy and Plano High School student, who was adopted from Romania as an infant, was stabbed and killed by a girl’s boyfriend.

The victim was Max Brustein, son of Ron and Elizabeth Brustein.

Arrested and charged with murder was 19-year-old Joshua Torres, who is currently being held in the Plano jail.

Read the WFAA-TV Channel 8 news story here.

Research released in 2006 by the Texas Council On Family Violence revealed that 75% of 16 to 24-year-old Texans have either been personally involved in dating violence or know someone who has. Fifty percent have been involved personally. Females have been the victim more often than males, and the violence is more prevalent among Hispanics.

Rockwall ISD PTA president will begin scheduling dating violence dangers presentations for parents

The vice president of the Rockwall ISD PTA Council agreed today to begin scheduling Lillian Smith Foundation “Dating Violence Dangers” presentations for parents at each of Rockwall ISD’s three high schools, two middle schools and twelve elementary schools, in a meeting with Foundation leaders J.J. Smith and Tanya Pankz.

Denise Smith, who is currently the director of programs for the Rockwall ISD PTA (Parent-Teachers Association), as well as the PTA president at J.W. Williams Middle School, told Tanya and J.J. that she will immediately schedule a 45-minute presentation at Williams, Nov. 19.

Next, she said she will contact the other RISD school PTA leaders, plus the Texas state PTA Council, in hopes of arranging even more presentations statewide.

Denise said she had already heard so many good things about Tanya’s presentation from RISD officials that she agreed it’s a story that parents need and will want to hear. After listening to Tanya tell the story about the murder of her daughter, she said she was even more convinced of the importance of this message.

Tanya’s daughter, Jennifer Pankz, was murdered in 2002 by a boy she was trying to stop dating at UNT after graduating from Rockwall High School in 2001. Jennifer was also tormented by another boy whom she dated in high school when he became violent, which required the intervention of Tanya and her husband Brian Pankz.

According to a 2006 survey of 16 to 24-year-olds by the Texas Council On Family Violence, 75 percent of that age group has either been personally involved in dating violence or know someone who has. At least 50 percent of those interviewed also admitted to being personally involved in dating violence.

Parents angry they weren’t told of sexual assault at school sooner

Parents in Arlington, whose children attend James L. Coble Middle School, were finally told that a sexual assault happened at the school in a letter yesterday, two weeks after it allegedly happened.

According to the following WFAA-TV Channel 8 news report, many of them are outraged they weren’t told sooner. Should they have been told right after it happened? Administrators claim they were just following police instructions, and that notifying parents may have interfered with the investigation.

I think parents should have been notified, but told no other details until after the investigation was completed.

What do you think?

See the Channel 8 news report here.

Kaufman ISD Superintendent meets with Lillian Smith volunteers to discuss dating violence program

Kaufman ISD Superintendent Todd Williams met with survivors Tanya Pankz and Candi Banks today to learn more about the Lillian Smith Foundation’s program to help combat family violence and dating violence.

Tanya Pankz is the mother of 2001 Rockwall High School graduate Jennifer Pankz, who was murdered in 2002 by a boy she was trying to stop dating at UNT (University of North Texas).

Candi Banks is a survivor of a four-year marriage years ago to an abusive husband who threatened to kill her. Banks daughter, also a UNT student, experienced dating violence with a boy she dated but successfully broke up with him after receiving her mom’s help.

According to both women, Williams was very receptive to receiving the help of the Lillian Smith Foundation to develop a Kaufman ISD dating violence program, after seeing Pankz’ Fox 4 TV news video about her daughter’s murder. He plans to bring several of his administrative staff to witness her “Dating Violence Dangers” presentation Oct. 29 at the Rockwall ISD Administration building.

Williams is also friends with Rockwall ISD Superintendent Dr. Gene Burton, who is a strong supporter of the Lillian Smith Foundation’s Dating Violence Dangers presentation.  They will likely be speaking together about the subject soon.