Autopsy Examination and Tracking Gun Ownership

Autopsy Examination and Tracking Gun Ownership A. Introduction â€Å"The Long Goodbye† is a film in 1973, which was critically acclaimed as a story of humans’ morality in a self-obsessed society. Not being a scientific film, it however comprises few murder scenes and forensic investigation, which provide us with very good examples to study and perform analysis with our knowledge. B. Synopsis The story consists of two concurrent story threads, which first appear to be unrelated, but generally become connected by the stories end. It began with a night when private investigator Philip Marlowe (the main character) was visited by his close friend, Terry Lennox, who asked for a drive to Mexico border at Tijuana. Philip was convinced that Terry was in a fight with his wife, Sylvia, and agreed to help. However, he later discovered that Lennox was wanted by police and being accused of murder of his wife. Having refused to co-operate and provide any information, Marlowe was arrested as an accomplice. However, three days later, he was released after it was found that Lennox had committed suicide. The case was closed with Lennox’s death. The story continued with another story thread which Eileen Wade hired Marlowe to find her missing husband. Her husband, Roger Wade, was an author with drinking problems. He had disappeared on previous occasions, usually to rehab institutions, but not this time. Marlowe took the case and surprisingly discovered the relationship between the Wade couple and Lennox couple throughout the search. The suspicious connection and clues motivated Marlowe to find out the truth behind the death of Lennox couple. He started to conduct a thorough investigation. To obtain more information and prove Lennox’s innocence, Marlowe encountered a doctor, a gangster boss and a guard. He followed the leads, but more and more signs of suspicion were disclosed. Integrating pieces and pieces of puzzles, he finally discovered that Lennox had faked his death to cover his murder and possession of dirty money. Being used and betrayed by his best friend, Marlowe shot Lennox by himself at the end of the story. C. Evidence Gathered With Lennox’s death, evidences were collected for examination and documentation by the police force. Black and white photographs of crime scene were taken to record essential information or clues, condition and position of the dead body, possible weapons and other physical evidences were recorded. Photographs of the dead body in a bathtub (Screenshot from â€Å"The Long Goodbye†) Fingerprints were also collected in the crime scene of Lennox’s death for further identification and comparison. They contain individual characteristics, the identity of the dead body and those who had access to the crime scene can be distinguished and known. Multiple fingerprints collected in the crime scene (Screenshot from â€Å"The Long Goodbye†) Meanwhile, the gun used in the Lennox’s suicidal death was claimed to be retrieved. It was found to be registered under Lennox’s name which proved a possible suicide. Further examinations can be conducted to determine whether the weapon was connected to the death of Lennox. The physical evidences were further sent to examine with different techniques. D. Techniques Moving on to the techniques, autopsy examination and gun tracing were employed to investigate Terry Lennox’s suicidal ‘death’. Results concluded that Terry’s death was instantaneous by a gunshot triggered by a gun registered under his name. Should the investigation be free from bribery and bureaucracy, a forged harmless gun wound should not fool the coroner. Subsequent specimen analysis should reveal a high degree of intoxication through Terry’s injection of drugs to fake his death. A toxicology examination should thereby be carried out to determine the kind and type of drug that caused his ‘death’. 1. Autopsy Examination An autopsy is a medical examination carried out on both external and internal surfaces of a dead body, to determine the cause of death and what caused the death. It is performed when someone dies suddenly and unexpectedly while in apparently good health. Thus, Terry’s instantaneous and suspicious death would surely be subjected to further autopsy investigation by a coroner. After proving the gun wound fake, Terry’s high degree of intoxication should deem suspicious enough for a toxicological analysis by a pathologist to confirm his cause of death. External examination Fingerprinting is carried out before any autopsy analysis of the dead body, for identification and the matching of the fingerprints found on weapons and other physical evidence. The method adopted in this process depends primarily on the condition of the dead body. If the body is in poor condition, like Terry’s body which has been soaked in water, fingerprints have to be recovered through first ‘degloving’ and removing the finger skin, placing them on the fingertip of one operator. Powdering will then be applied to the prints to enable their transpose onto paper for record and future comparison. After fingerprinting the body, the coroner will carry out systematic external examination of the body in terms of these few aspects. (i)Stature determination (height, gender etc.); (ii)Description of recent or old traumatic elements and congenital abnormalities; (iii)Phenotypic characteristics (hair color, axillar description etc.) The gunshot wound found on Terry’s body will therefore lie in the second category as a recent wound that directly contributed his death. However, had the coroner be free from bribery, he should be able to distinguish it as a harmless forged wound. This abnormality should create enough suspicion for internal examination to determine his real cause of death. Internal examination To reveal Terry’s high degree of intoxication, pathologists are responsible for collecting a variety of biological specimen necessary for toxicology tests. Conventional biological specimen includes blood, vitreous humour, urine, stomach and liver contents, which will be sent to toxicology laboratories for separation, identification and quantification. Lethality and toxicity in the concentration of drug molecules will thus serve as a determinant of one’s cause of death. 2. Gun ownership registration Gun ownership tracing has also been used to determine the ownership of the gun, which is suspected to be the weapon that directly caused Terry’s ‘death’. By tracing the serial number and registration record, the police officers confirmed that the gun is registered under Terry’s name in the counter of Los Angeles, thus, rendering Terry’s case as suicidal death. E. Addressing Toxicology in Autopsy in detail a) Specimen Collection (Postmortem Specimen some of them will be discussed below) According to The International Association of Forensic Toxicologists (TIAFT), a forensic toxicology organization founded in London in 1963, there are some recommendations on sample collection, which are listed below: i) Blood – According to the â€Å"Laboratory Guideline† provided by the Society of Forensic Toxicologists (2006), it mentions, â€Å"in majority of the postmortem cases, blood is always the most crucial and single specimen for the toxicology analysis†. However, it also suggests that experts should collect at least 2 blood specimens if it is possible in each case. Flanagan, Connally and Evans (2005) suggests the method and procedures for blood collection that firstlyâ€Å" 30 ml of central blood (from the right atrium of the heart, inferior vena cava, or another large vessel) should be collected for qualitative analysis and secondly â€Å"10 ml peripheral blood from the left and right femoral veins should be collected by direct vascular access.† ii) Urine – Levine (2006) mentions that most of the drugs and metabolites will still remain in a relatively higher concentration and for a longer period in urine than in blood. Therefore, it is important to collect all the urine available from the specimen for analysis. iii) Vitreous Humor – According to TIAFT, vitreous humor is a biological fluid that can be collected from the lens of the eye. Drummer (2002) mentions that it has a desirable characteristic of being so stable that can be more resistant to any putrefactive changes than other specimens. Therefore, for a better analysis, if possible, it is suggested that all vitreous fluid should be collected from each eye (Levine, 2006). Apart from the above specimens, others specimens including gastric contents, bile, cerebrospinal fluid, tissues (liver, lung) are also needed to collected for further testing. Limitations: Time is a major problem. It is important that all the specimens are collected as fast as possible being put in separate containers for accurate analysis. For most specimens, Skopp (2004) suggests disposable hard plastic or glass tubes should be used for the storage of specimens. Also, Flanagan, Connally and Evans (2005) suggest that samples should be stored at a maximum of 4 ºC when being analyzed after autopsy, if not, they should be stored at -20 ºC. b) Analytical Process According to Fitzgerald, Rivera and Herold (2010), most of the drugs molecules cannot be distinguished directly through the post-mortem specimens, thus they have to be separated from the biological matrix before they undergo the toxicology analysis. For the separation, there are few steps. Firstly, the specimens need to undergo heating at 60 80 degrees in a sealed container. Secondly, it is the protein precipitation that we need to concentrate the proteins and purify them from various contaminants. Then, it is the liquid-liquid extraction. Sapkale, Patil, Surwase and Bhatbhage (2010) mention that this process is used to â€Å"separate compounds based on their relative solubility in two different immiscible liquids, usually water and an organic solvent†. After that, the analysts can be identified and quantified by techniques, such as spectrophotometry, chromatography and immunoassay. 1) Spectrophotometry According to Watson (2008), she states that color tests can able to test an unknown drug with a chemical or mixture of chemicals. Therefore, the change of the colour of the test substance can help find out the type of the drug it belongs to (See Table 1). Drugs like Heroin, Morphine, Cocaine, Barbiturates and Marijuana can be screened by the color test. Other drug tests include ultraviolet spectrophotometry is used to identify other drug classes. Wilkinson, Dale, Wayne and Martin (2002) mention that ultraviolent spectrophotometry can analyzes â€Å"how the substance reacts to ultraviolet (UV) and infrared (IR) light.† The spectrophotometry machine will emit UV and IR rays, and then it will measure how the sample reflects or absorbs these rays so as to identify what type of substance is present in it (Watson, 2008). (Table 1: Source from Westchester Department of Laboratories and Research) 2) Chromatography According to Pervez (2001), this technique is widely used because â€Å"it can distinguish the presence of a certain chemical in a highly complex mixture.† There are 2 types of chromatography, including Gas Chromatography (GC) and Liquid Chromatography (LC). GC is usually used to identify volatile toxicants and those that contain carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and halogen-carrying molecules. Comparing with spectrophotometry, Pervez (2001) also mentions that GC is a highly sensitive toxicology test, which is good at identifying the drug molecule. For liquid chromatography (LC), it is used to identify non-volatile and/or thermally labile toxicants. 3) Immunoassay According to ImmunoChemisty Technologies, LLC, immunoassays are â€Å"quick and accurate tests that can be used onsite and in the laboratory to detect specific molecules†. It also mentions that it is dependent on the inherent ability of an antibody to â€Å"bind to the specific structure of a molecule† so as to detect the presence of drugs in the specimen. Analysts in biological liquids like serum or urine are frequently measured using this method for medical and research purposes. F. Mismatch In the film, Lennox fakes his death by drug injection and bribing the policeman (who acts as the coroner too), who, interesting, simply takes photos of the dead body and announces his death of intoxication, without any surgical procedure to determine and evaluate the cause and manner of the Lennox’s â€Å"death†. But it is quite a mismatch in reality since: 1) bribing not only one policeman, but all the police, coroners and other all officers to fake one’s death sounds unreasonable and impossible. Moreover, according to Laws of Hong Kong, medicate practitioner shall provide certificate where cause of death of certain deceased should be clearly stated with proof. 2) Forensic toxicology for autopsy was widely used (even already available in 1970s). That means in the film, coroners should carry out drug test to further obtain and interpret the cause of death. As for tracking gun ownership, according to Laws of Hong Kong, no person shall possess any firearms or ammunition unless one holds a license for possession of such items. So we should look into the situation in other countries, for example, the U.S. where the murder case happens in the film. While the Gun laws nowadays in the United States are dependent on different states, they require owners including sellers and buyers to have specific license to possess firearms. In crime science investigation, these license for sure are used to trace the registration and ownership of guns. Instead of saying it as a ‘mismatch’, it, as similar to the ways in the movie, is still a very useful way in nowadays to solve crimes. G. Conclusion By investigating this film, we have examined the use of autopsy examination and tracking gun ownership, which are used in the movie. We address forensic toxicology in autopsy like Spectrophotometry, Chromatography and Immunoassay in detail. Finally we come to a conclusion that faked death is almost impossible to happen nowadays in reality, but tracking gun ownership is still made possible and useful nowadays. Bibliography Beauthier, J.-P., LefeÃÅ'â‚ ¬vre, P., De Valck, E. (2011). Autopsy and Identification Techniques. In N.-A. M. (Ed.), The Tsunami Threat Research and Technology. InTech. Drummer OH and Gerostamoulos J (2002) Ther. Drug Monit. Flanagan RJ, Connally G, and Evans JM (2005) Toxicol. Rev. 24:63-71. Pervez. F (2001). Gas Chromatography / Mass Spectrometry. Bronx Science. Retrieved April 23, 2014 from http://www.bxscience.edu/publications/forensics/articles/toxicology/f-toxi01.htm Immunochemistry Technologies, LLC (2013). What is an Immunoassay? Retrieved April 23, 2014 from http://www.immunochemistry.com/what-immunoassay National Criminal Justice Information Center. Retrieved April 24, 2014, from http://www.ncjrs.org/DrugsandCrime.asp Levine B (2006) Principles of Forensic Toxicology. American Association for Clinical Chemistry, Washington, DC. Fitzgerald, Rivera and Herold (2010). Broad Spectrum Drug Identification Directly from Urine, Using Liquid Chromatography-Tandem Mass Spectrometry. Clinical Chemistry. Retrieved April 23, 2014 from http://www.clinchem.org/content/45/8/1224.long Skopp G (2004) Forensic Sci. Society of Forensic Toxicologists/American Academy of Forensic Sciences. Forensic Toxicology Laboratory Guidelines. (2006).Retrieved April 24, 2014, from www.soft-tox.org. The International Association of Forensic Toxicologists (2010). Retrieved April 23, 2014 from http://www.tiaft.org/abouttiaft Valdes, R. (2004, August 03). How Autopsies Work, HowStuffWorks.com. Watson, S. (2008). Forensic Drug Testing. HowStuffWorks.com. Retrieved April 25, 2014, from http://science.howstuffworks.com/forensic-lab-technique2.htm Westchester Department of Laboratories and Research. Forensic Chemistry. Retrieved April 25, 2014, from http://www.westchestergov.com/labsresearch/forensicandtox/forensic/ Wilkinson, Dale, Wayne and Martin, (2002). Physics and Forensics: Synchotron Radiation is helping to Identify Tiny Amounts of Paint, Drugs, and Fibers Found at Crime Scenes. Physics World. Sapkale, Patil, Surwase and Bhatbhage (2010). SUPERCRITICAL FLUID EXTRACTION. Sadguru Publication.

Assignment: Operations Decision Essay

Allentown Manufacturing Company is a family owned business that manufactures cardboard boxes. Currently, the company has a manpower rate of 100 workers that work 20 out of a month. The company has been able to last through some of the toughest economic times, but recently the AMC’s fixed cost is â€Å"high enough†, and their total costs are exceeding their total revenue. Assess the current environmental scan factors that are relevant to the decision making process. Determine the factors that will have the greatest impact on plant operations and management’s decision to continue or discontinue operations. Provide a rationale for your determination. Some environmental scan factors that are affecting the decision making process are social, economic and technological circumstances. When it comes to the social factors, the lack of properly trained and skilled laborers are affecting the amount of production being put out on a daily basis. The company needs to develop a better recruitment process and training program to employ the best and most profitable employees. In addition, the language barrier creates a problem for our managers. The majority of our workforce is Hispanic and speaks minimal English; this creates problems when trying to delegate job duties among the employees. The economic factors are that the country as a whole is trying to go green; therefore recycling old cardboard boxes is more environmentally friendly than using new ones. This causes a decrease in the amount of orders coming in, therefore affecting the amount being shipped out. The technological factors are the lack of computer skills by some of the labor force. If the machines that produce the product are not being run properly in order to produce the maximum output rate, then this will cause a decrease in profits. Management should focus the economic and social factors when coming to the decision whether or not to continue operations. If the company focused on what will either hold the company back or push it forward, and then issues will begin to reveal themselves. Evaluate the financial performance of the company using the information provided in the scenario. Consider all the key drivers of performance, such as company profit or loss for both the short term and long term and how each factor influences managerial decisions. Be sure to show the calculations that helped you reach your conclusions. The total revenue is the output multiplied by the number of units produced per month: TR=$32*6,000 TR= $192,000 The monthly wages for the worker are the number of workers multiplied by the daily wage multiplied by the number of days worked in each month: 100*$70*20= $140,000 The total variable cost is daily variable input multiplied by the number of days worked in a month: TVC=$2000*20 TVC= $40,000 Recommend how the company can improve its profitability to deliver more value to its stakeholders. Then, develop a brief plan to implement the recommendations. Allentown Manufacturing Company can improve its profitability in a variety of ways, such as expanding into new markets sectors, or developing new products or services. Some major changes that can take place to improve profitability can be to reduce manpower or scale back on working hours, reducing costs, and increasing productivity and efficiency. I think AMC should work with their top management to create a partnership with another company to begin manufacturing a new product to potentially increase profits. Another plan can be to reduce the manpower either by hours or by personnel. This will allow the company to save money on wages, employment taxes, and employment insurance such as workman’s compensation and unemployment insurance. Increasing productivity is a solid way to increase profitability. If the plant is able to acquire larger orders of boxes, this will in turn cause them manufacture a larger amount of boxes. Management would also have to decide the best way to train the workforce to work in a more efficient manner, decide whether or not it is feasible to purchase additional machines to increase the production and develop a proper training program to develop the workers’ skillset. Assess the circumstances in which the company should discontinue operations and how management should react when confronted with these circumstances. Provide a rationale with your response. The circumstances in which Allentown Manufacturing Company should discontinue their operations, is when their total costs surpass their total revenue. The company will not be able to maintain production or meet their cost demands such as salaries, materials, maintenance, etc. if they are constantly spending more money than they are making. Management should react in a manner that is in the best interest of the company and not themselves. If the manager or managers are not able to develop a solid plan to match or pass the total costs that company is hitting each month, than the most feasible thing to do would be to shut the plant down. By continuing to manufacture the cardboard boxes, they are constantly increasing their costs from the electricity being used, and the workers needing to get their salaries.

Creative Writing – It was just like any normal day in the picturesque suburb of Massapequa, N.Y.

It was just like any normal day in the picturesque suburb of Massapequa, N. Y. It was in the middle of fall and leaves were scattered on people's front lawns. It was a completely ordinary Sunday morning with people either going to the shops or just casually lazing around on their verrandahs, everyone leading a deceptively offhand style. But all was not the same for the Rediros. This family were living descendants and a modern replica of the infamous Gambino family. Amongst the Rediros' neighbourhood they present themselves differently and carry out their lives in a normal manner around home and try to show the residents they are average people living an uneventful, debonair life with a nonchalant attitude to life. Most of the criminal activity comes from the father of the family, Al Rediro, he was so high up in the ranks of the elusive New York crime family he practically had his own army there was talk from amongst his father's friends that Al Rediro was to become il capo di tutti cappi, the boss of bosses, godfather and chosen heir to Paul Castellano. Al Rediro made his money from owning various strip joints, bars, nightclubs, drug dealing, money laundering, prostitution and owning New York's biggest illicit stolen car ring. Carlo was one of the many people visiting the shops that day; he popped along to get some bread and milk. But once he returned he was in for a shock, a very big shock. He encroached his six bed-roomed well furnished house walking up the drive to notice the front door open; it all seemed a bit peculiar to Carlo for a neat family, leaving there front door open shows means there showing the neighbourhood into their lives. He could view through the illustrious and grand front door and immediately spotted furniture upturned and out of place; the house looked surprisingly out of touch for the neat family. He slowly peered his head inside and got more than he bargained for, he could blatantly tell someone had forced an entry quite simply ransacked the place, whether they had done anything else was for him to find out. He wondered around the ground floor and looked around, â€Å"hello, anyone there† he asked. He stood there looking helpless with a great big white, blank face as a sign of fear and desperation, wishing for a member of his family to reply. Silence. Carlo began to step around in his hallway cautiously watching where his feet landed amongst the furniture left wrecked around his house. He found nothing of use to him in finding his family, so he backed up against one of the walls and threw a book through the living room door on his left side, to show he's there in case anyone was in there. Then carefully, very slowly, he gently moved his head so only one eye could see in, he saw nothing wrong but could only see half of the room. Then suddenly he plucked up enough courage inside him and quickly jumped in to witness the tragic scene of his sister Ella lying with her back down on the sofa. That was the sofa the family would sit on and enjoy nights in and sing songs with the rest of the family, but now this time it was very different for his sister, Ella had been brutally stabbed in the back, the claret-red blood was all over her back saturating the back of her shirt, it was dripping off her nose from her face and staining the sofa all over. Carlo stood there about ten yards from her body standing completely shocked and dismayed. Carlo was now engaged in an emotional outburst crying out loud as any other 12 year old boy would seeing a dead body, especially his sister's, he began to sprint aimlessly around the house not having a clue what to do. Carlo dashed in and out of every room on his ground floor of his three storey house hoping to find a member of his family alive, but there was nothing to be seen, just more wreckage of their once beautifully kept house with beautiful dicor. He sprinted through his hallway, past the front door he arrived through and tore it up his staircase screaming for aid, help and to see his family. Once at the top to see he saw straight across the landing, his worst nightmare had just got even worse, he had now found his mother hanging from a noose in her bedroom doorway. The coldest part was when Carlo unexpectedly witnessed a gruesome sight of blood stemming profusely from her stomach. She had been riddled with bullets from an automatic gun across her torso to make sure she never survived her slow death of hanging. Continuously crying, Carlo was becoming more and more desperate by the minute. He carried running in and out of the bedrooms and had noticed Robbi, Carlo's nineteen year old brother had his window wide open. Carlo ran across and by now had learnt to expect the worst. He looked out everywhere to witness nothing wrong but peered his head out a bit more to look straight down and see Robbi square on the patio lying cold. Courageously he vowed to continue looking for his last possible living family member, his father, Al. Undoubtedly this attack on the family was from someone who knew Al and were never going to leave him be they were certain to chillingly kill him just like every other member of Carlo's family. In utter desperation Carlo continued searching. He had combed the whole house, apart from the basement where Carlo knew Al spent a lot of time. He sprinted down the steps to see fresh blood still wet on the floor. He followed one end of the trail to lead him to a laundry basket; quickly he opened it and straight away recognised a body but no head. He immediately followed the other end of the trail of blood to stand in front of the washing machine; he looked through the transparent screen to see his father's head knocking around. Carlo, screaming senselessly in a fit of anger, he was completely deluded as if he was in his worst nightmare, he knew he'd hit rock bottom. Without any hesitations he ran straight up the steps and across the hallway and exited through the front door and ran down the block heading for the park where he plays with his friends after school. But Carlo bumped into a man he recognised but hadn't introduced himself ever before, Carlo recognised him from the trips he had made to the grocery store throughout his childhood. The man introduced himself as Zack and immediately could tell something major had gone on in Carlo's life very recently. Carlo described to him the situation he was in and they wondered back to his flat and from then on they hit it off, they had a lot of things in common and they were more or less from the same background, Zack felt for Carlo and Carlo moved in with him. That night they watched the news and discovered the attack was an event waiting to happen amongst the underworld for many weeks. Ever since the trial of Vince Vandetti, Al de Miro had been waiting for it. Al de Miro had committed the biggest unwritten rule for anyone in the underworld, grassing. Al testified against Vince in his trial for the numerous money laundering arrangements he had made. Al wouldn't have done it but he gave in to the Courts, he was gong to risk jail for all his illicit businesses had it not been for all the deceitful and corrupt judges. They had struck a deal with Al, he testified and he would get immunity. Carlo had learnt everything now, everything was fitting into place but couldn't forget his father, his father had completely let the family down. For the next few weeks Carlo settled into Zack's two bed-roomed apartment. Together they worked well; they bonded to the extent that Zack became his legal guardian. But one day Carlo noticed something that would turn his life around – again. Zack was cleaning the barrel of a handgun. Carlo shocked with disbelief thought his days of lies and crime were over questioned Zack, â€Å"Why have you got a gun? † Zack replied calmly â€Å"this is my job Carlo. I'm a cleaner; I get paid to do this†. Carlo was in an outrage. â€Å"Did you kill my family? † Zack told Carlo he would never do such a thing because he has two rules:- 1. No women 2. No children He also told him he doesn't know who killed his family. Carlo is a soloist who does jobs for the Mafia and proclaimed he has never had links with Vince Vandetti. From then on Carlo agreed with him and believed him, he changed also as a person and began to train with Zack for the skills he needed, Zack became an inspiration and Carlo declared he wanted to be a cleaner as well. After over 9 months of intensive training and expert tips Carlo turned into a one time 15 year old with a scrawny figure to a muscle bounding, flesh hungry assassin. They were beginning jobs together and by the age of 17, Carlo had killed 12 men. There was one job though that the Mafia gave Carlo and Zack, this was thought to be a good incentive for Carlo, it was to eliminate Vince Vandetti from life. The job was also aimed to take out the whole Vandetti family, Vince had got off lightly as some of the charges against him were dropped for a lack of evidence, this meant he was only in prison for two years. Once out Vince and his own family had severed links with the Mafia as Al de Miro was much loved within the Mafia. Since out of prison Vince grew links down south with the Columbian Mafia. So for Zack and Carlo to do their job they went there, they posed as drug dealers and arranged a meeting with him at a casino. However, they had other things on their mind and set up a post on the roof of a building with their sniper and night-vision scope. They found him dressed in a long dark grey jacket on the crowded street, the setting was perfect as they would never be caught as everyone would be panicking, then they aimed at him and Carlo fired with pleasure. They decided between themselves that he was definitely dead quickly before a mass crowd occurred around him; they fled the scene and got on the next plane to New York. All was well, they touched down safely and got on with the rest of their lives and carried on doing more jobs. Three months later word must have spread, Carlo and Zack had been found out and on a normal trip to the grocery store they were both wrestled by two men into a dark alley and executed in the head as part of a reprisal. They paid the consequences for just one of their many jobs, people said Carlo should have given up and left the New York crime scene since the loss of his family and set up life elsewhere and continued with the rest of his childhood but he didn't and ultimately paid the price. But people who remembered Carlo and Zack, the only people who can consecrate their memory, were fellow callous minded members of the Mafia from the New York underground crime scene turned up to their joint funeral to give their condolences to two very loyal colleagues killed on the job.

Inclusion What Is Inclusion

Inclusion is the educational practice of educating children with disabilities in classrooms with children without disabilities. Prior to the PL 94-142, the Education of All Handicapped Children Act, promised all children a public education for the first time. Prior to the law, enacted in 1975, only large districts provided any programming for special education children, and often the SPED kids were relegated to a room down near the boiler room, out of the way and out of sight. The Education of All Handicapped Children Act established two important legal concepts based upon the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment, FAPE, or Free and Appropriate Public Education, and LRE or Least Restrictive Environment. FAPE insured that the district was providing a free education that was appropriate for the childs need. Public insured that it was provided in a public school. LRE insured that the least restrictive placement was always sought. The first default position was meant to be in the childs neighborhood school in a classroom with typically developing general education students. There has been a broad range of practices from state to state and district to district. Because of lawsuits and due process actions, there is increasing pressure on states to put special education students in general education classrooms for part or all of their day. Among the most noteworthy is Gaskins Vs. the Pennsylvania Department of Education, which forced the department to insure that districts place as many children with disabilities in general education classrooms for all or part of the day. That means more inclusive classrooms. Two Models There are generally two models for inclusion: push in or full inclusion. Push In has the special education teacher enter the classroom to provide instruction and support to children. The push in teacher will bring materials into the classroom. The teacher may work with the child on math during the math period, or perhaps reading during the literacy block. The push in teacher also often provides instructional support to the general education teacher, perhaps helping with differentiation of instruction. Full Inclusion places a special education teacher as a full partner in a classroom with a general education teacher. The general education teacher is the teacher of record, and is responsible for the child, even though the child may have an IEP. There are strategies to help children with IEPs succeed, but there are also many challenges. No doubt not all teachers are well suited to partner in full inclusion, but skills for collaboration can be learned. Differentiation is an incredibly important tool to help children with disabilities succeed in an inclusive classroom. Differentiation involves providing a range of activities and using a variety of strategies for children with different abilities, from learning disabled to gifted, to successfully learn in the same classroom. A child receiving special education services may participate fully in the same program as the general education children with supports from the special education teacher, or may participate in a limited way, as they are able. In some rare occasions, a child may work exclusively on goals in their IEP in a general education classroom alongside typically developing peers. For inclusion to truly succeed, special educators and general educators need to work closely together and compromise. It definitely requires that teachers have training and support to overcome the challenges they must meet together.