Police in St. Petersburg, Florida, have arrested a popular teacher in a bizarre alleged crime. Danielle Harkins, 35, is accused of telling students that they have demons inside them and that the only way to be rid of them is to cut themselves and then burn the wounds. They proceeded to do so and she is now charged with child abuse.
Police allege that Harkins met six boys and one girl in a park near the St. Petersburg Pier where they built a fire and started to chant and dance around it. She then allegedly started the cutting and burning. In one case, she is accused of pouring perfume on a kid when the lighter went out in the wind and then lighting the perfume on fire. He suffered second degree burns. Harkins was a teacher at the Lealman Asian Neighborhood Family Center. She is recently divorced in June and has two children, a four-year-old daughter and a three-year-old son. (I am going to go out on the limb and predict that the ex-husband is likely to have no problem on custody in the future).
She is reportedly as having taken a recent interest in extreme religions and referred to this process as how to “get rid of an evil tick.”
If convicted without a plea agreement, sentencing could be particularly harsh given her position of authority.
Source: Daily Mail
Dear DOC
You are not worth answering, for you can’t comprehend the truth of what I said. But I will, for the fun of it.
Religion is believing in something for which no proof can be offered. To believe in such things in spite of they’re nay-saying of proofs offered for events in reality, qualifies as fanaticism.
To offer respect to people is one thing, to offer to respect their fanaticism or mental disorders is another. I was not referring to the lady, but “folks”.
Faith in religion versus faith in government. You are really confused. Are you a member of the RWA? Obviously.. Democrat. Naw, they stink to, they just talk the talk, and don’t walk the walk. Same old bull.
Your diapprobation is noted and discarded with full disdain. Get that?
And thanks for the encouragement. Must be doing something right—a favorite phrase well remembered.
Idealist, thanks for that fantasy rant. I do enjoy listening to mental patients now and then; and some, like you, can be very entertaining to listen to as you babble your nonsense. You remind me of so many delusional patients of mine, who don’t have a grasp with reality. Seek treatment. We DO have medications that, when combined with therapy, can help you separate your fantasies from reality. No charge for that advice. Now, call your local Mental Health center for an initial appointment. It’ll help put you on your long road to recovery.
Doctor-Bob,
It seems you’re implying you’re psychiatrist. One of the qualifications needed to be a good psychiatrist is the ability to try to view the patient without the filter of your particular political partisanship, or prejudice. By your initial comment you seem to lack those abilities. Without them a psychiatrist is merely a drug pusher.
Not a Psychiatrist, Cardiology. But I still recognize schizophrenics when I see them. I also recognize that you don’t have the foggiest idea what you’re babbling about. All I said was that the she almost certainly has schizophrenia. That was not a diagnosis; it was an impression. Then, here came the nut jobs like Idealist popping out of their dens with their insults. They need to go back to school before they flap their ignorant mouths and make threats. He’s lucky I don’t turn him over to the FBI for his threat to my family. In fact, I may yet do that.
DocBob,
Unfortunately too many MD’s think that their training, rigorous as it may be, gives them the right to pontificate in areas outside their area of expertise. You arrived on the scene in attack mode and then purposely gave the impression that you had some expertise. When you talked of “so many delusional patients of mine” that was pure deception. The other “tell” was your implication that Democrats hate religion.
Were I not so familiar with both the good and bad side of medicine, I’d be shocked that a Physician had such a weak hold on logic as you do. That was both an ignorant and ridiculous statement. Many Republicans and conservatives eschew and ridicule religion. However, with ignorance and arrogance you basically were getting off on pet peeves of yours. Thank God with my long history of heart disease I’ve only run into the likes of you a few times. Had I not fired those arrogant fools I’d be dead by now.
Now regarding your dismissal of OS’ s information that was merely more of your arrogant ignorance.
He is not just a MH professional, he’s a distinguished one. Now I too have some expertise in MH myself, especially with treating schizophrenics and your blithe pronouncement of Schizophrenia was not an example of evidence based thought in practice. There are many other possibilties, one being that she’s just a religious fanatic, like many others prominent in Republican Politics, some who are even physicians.
Rafflaw,
Not picking on you, but it’s fun making jokes (with a little truth mixed in). Feel free.
So permit me:
Where is the borderline between religious and fanatic?
I am not sure that there is one either.
AY,
Gene Lyons doesn’t represent me.
I have to agree with Swarthmore Mom. Mespo did not lump all Muslims into his article about drone attacks.
This teacher may be mentally ill, or she may just be a religious fanatic. I am ot sure if there is a difference.
Idealist, I DID see ample evidence that she is mentally ill. So, WHY do you gratuitously and offensively take a swipe at the religious, equating religion with fanatacism? Obviously you’re a Democrat. And that makes YOU the fanatic. Your kind is taking lots of uncalled-for potshots at religion lately, as you seek to replace faith in religion with faith in government. Your offensiveness is NOT going unnoticed, and I’m calling you down on it.
When I compare what happened here between her and the students; and that between the students in NC and the teacher who said Obama as President MUST be respected, I say I prefer the latter group.
Although teach overruled them, they fought against her nonsense. They did not build altars to Obama.
And they certainly did not burn themselves for their sins and devils within.
How different students (and people) are.
Some people who say “terrorist lover”, can they be
the same ones that said “N—-r lover”?
Time changes, but some are always the same.
I wonder what the called those who said the Nazis should get tried at Nurenburg. And of course, the Republicans are calling Obama supporters similar names.
When arguments end, hatred comes out. Another variant.
There you go again, picking on the religiously afflicted. Sheesh.
Correction to my above post. I meant to say “almost certainly Schizophrenia.”
Clearly this woman is mentally ill, almost Schizophrenia. If she gets on meds – and STAYS on them – she can be a productive and functional citizen. I hope she is treated as a mental patient, and not a criminal. To prosecute her would be to throw her away. This is a medical problem, not a crime.
If convicted without a plea agreement, sentencing could be particularly harsh given her position of authority.
—————————————–
which means that despite whether or not she is mentally ill or distressed, the ultimate decision comes down to whether or not her counsel is competant.
welcome to the new inquisition.
and what is her political affiliation?….and what is her husbands current power base and have there been unaddressed threats against her civil liberties?
and wow….she obviously decompensated were there no other warning signs before this breach? curiouser and curiouser…..
Whatever Gene Lyons puts up on wiki I doubt he represents many democrats….. none that i know of. Palin, Rove and Bush in one way or another represent nearly all of the republican party. Have a lunch meeting and need to go.
Swarthmore mom: “Gene Lyons writes for the Arkansas Gazette, anonymous.Is he really that prominent of a democrat? Looks like Glenn is reaching again.”
Is he? I guess it depends on how one views things.
From Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_Lyons
“Gene Lyons is a liberal political columnist and co-author with Joe Conason of The Hunting of the President: The 10 Year Campaign to Destroy Bill and Hillary Clinton, a documentary book published in 2000, with a supporting film. The book outlines a purported right wing campaign waged against President of the United States Bill Clinton leading eventually to the president’s impeachment. It extends the discussion in Lyons’ 1996 book Fools for Scandal: How the Media Invented Whitewater.
A winner of the 1980 National Magazine Award for Public Service for the Texas Monthly article “Why Teachers Can’t Teach,” he was an Associate Editor at Texas Monthly in 1981, and General Editor at Newsweek from 1982-86. He has written hundreds of articles, essays and reviews for such magazines as Harper’s, The New York Times Magazine, The New York Review of Books, Washington Monthly, The Nation, Esquire, Slate, and Salon. His other books include The Higher Illiteracy (University of Arkansas, 1988), Widow’s Web (Simon & Schuster, 1993). Lyons writes a column for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that is syndicated nationally by United Media. He lives on a cattle farm in Perry County, Arkansas.
Lyons is a native of Elizabeth, New Jersey. He graduated from Rutgers in 1965, and earned a Ph.D. in English from the University of Virginia in 1969. He taught at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, University of Arkansas and University of Texas before becoming a full-time writer in 1976.”
Gene Lyons writes for the Arkansas Gazette, anonymous.Is he really that prominent of a democrat? Looks like Glenn is reaching again.
“There is a tendency on this blog among certain posters to demonize those that happen to hold a different opinion.” (Swarthmore mom)
Related to postings by Jill and Swarthmore mom:
FRIDAY, JUN 15, 2012 08:33 AM EDT
GOP/Dem rhetorical convergence
A Democratic columnist channels Bush, Rove and Palin to malign Obama’s critics as Terrorist-lovers
BY GLENN GREENWALD
http://www.salon.com/2012/06/15/gopdem_rhetorical_convergence/singleton/
“Scorning critics of the U.S. Government’s militarism as law-obsessed, Enemy-enabling, Terrorist-coddling weaklings was once the defining rhetorical rot of America’s Right. As Lyons’ column reflects, that is precisely what is now routinely spewed by Democratic loyalists at those who criticize Obama’s militarism and civil liberties assaults. The notion that Terrorists should be treated the way accused Nazi war criminals were — with evidence presented of their guilt in a duly constituted tribunal, with oversight, transparency and in accordance with legal process — was once the standard mainstream Democratic view (the imperative of due process for accused Terrorists was once even Obama’s professed view). That view is now maligned by that same Party’s loyalists with precisely the smears that George Bush, Karl Rove and Sarah Palin so infamously perfected. That revealing shift is as vital a component of Obama’s legacy as anything else.”
“UPDATE: Twenty-six House members — mostly progressives along with a couple of Republicans — have written letter to President Obama objecting to his newly ordered “signature strikes”: targeting people whose names aren’t known based on “patterns of behavior.” The letter notes that the policy “is in stark contrast to what your Administration has previously claimed regarding its drone program”; complains that the drone programs in general is carried out without “transparency, accountability or oversight”; and notes that these attacks “cause civilian deaths” and “generate powerful and enduring anti-American sentiment.” Isn’t it amazing that so many members of Congress want to give therapy and send flowers to The Terrorists instead?”
The article states that these were teenagers and one of them was listed as being 17.
When I was 17, I would have knocked the crap out of a teacher if they tried to burn or cut me. Actually, at just about any age I would have gone orbital if a teacher tried to burn or cut me. I once went to a school where corporal punishment was allowed and I recall a rather lengthy office visit that involved my parents when I told a teacher she could hit me with a paddle as long as she didn’t mind that as soon as she was done, I was going to take it from her and return the favor. I think there is something even stranger going on beneath the surface of this already weird story than is readily apparent.
Exorcism camp.
Hej, not to quibble with MikeS (well a little), I thought the idea of devil possession long preceded Jesus time.
But then must admit that I did not see any rabbis in the “Exorcist”. So it is the Jesus followers who still believe in this idea.
Convenient explanations are just that, as any god believer will tell you.
This case would seem to be, in terms of occurence, a minor problem in comparison to religious belief in general.
I disagree with your assessment of Mark’s argument. He clearly differentiated al qaeda from the majority of the Muslims in the world. Whether one agrees with him or not about the use of drones, he clearly made no attempt to demonize all Muslims. There is a tendency on this blog among certain posters to demonize those that happen to hold a different opinion.
“If convicted without a plea agreement, sentencing could be particularly harsh given her position of authority.”
That statement did not seem to be effective with the pedophile priests.
That statement contradicts the facts of Dick Cheney manufacturing the WMDs fantasy. It was his position of authority that allowed him the abuse of our entire country, and a slice of the younger generation to severe abuse.
Why even today, “some people”, consider him to be The Cats Meow.
I consider him to be the other end.
This strain of seeing others as demonic and doing grotesquely evil things in the name of exorcizing their demons runs deep in this society. This is the same thinking which underlies Mark’s argument in his postings about drones. For him and other supporters of the drone program, the people of Pakistan and other Muslim nations are so different from us that we must annihilate them to “save” ourselves.
Their is a dangerous religiosity among those who identify as traditional religious fundamentalists and those who are political fundamentalists. The mentality of scorched earth for the cause underlies both.
Surely she has been instructed personally by Jesus.
sounds to me like she is extremely mentally ill.