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Imagine you thought the flu was behind why you felt so bad. And then hours later, to your horror and surprise, you were giving birth and had no clue you were even pregnant. This is what exactly happened to 17-year-old Braeley Pettigrew. 

The Racine, Wisconsin teen told CBS 15 News that she knew was sick, but strongly believed it was influenza. After what she believed was a “tough bowel movement” she looked down and saw a baby boy in the toilet.

“I never thought I would be having a baby at 17, but my first instinct was to get him out of the toilet and wrap him up to keep him warm,” said Braeley Pettigrew.

Pettigrew admits to being afraid of getting in trouble, so she told her mother she found the baby on the doorstep. After her mother called the police, she noticed that blood on her daughter’s clothes.

The police will not be charging Pettigrew, who has decided to keep the baby who she named Kayden. (CBS 15)

Chicago Cop Charged With Laquan McDonald’s Murder Doesn’t Want To Show Up In Court

Chicago Cop Charged In Shooting Death Of Laquan McDonald Returns To Court

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Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke doesn’t want to attend routine court appearances for the first-degree murder trial for the death of unarmed Black teen Laquan McDonald, the Chicago Tribune reported

Van Dyke’s lawyers have filed a motion stating that they worry for their client’s safety, given that he has been labeled “Public Enemy Number 1.” They wrote, “[Van Dyke’s] previous court appearances have resulted in violence, intimidation and threats to such an extent that defendant’s personal safety is jeopardized by entering and exiting the courthouse for scheduled status hearings.”

Most defendants who are out on bond like Van Dyke are required to appear at every court date, unless a judge says otherwise. Judge Vincent Gaughan instructed the prosecution they have three weeks to respond to this request, as the trail is set for May 5.  

Gaughan is the same judge allowed for R&B singer R. Kelly “to use a special entrance to maintain crowd control during his 2008 trial on a child-pornography charge” the Tribune noted. (Chicago Tribune)

Study: Even When Graduation Rates Rise, Black Students At Many Colleges Are Left Behind

Bright young grads

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A recent report found that African-American students continue to fall through the graduation cracks in public collegiate institutions.

Researchers from the Education Trust analyzed 232 four-year public colleges where graduation rates had improved over a 10-year period. Yet, they found that Black students still had lower graduation rates than their white counterparts in more than half of the cases and that of 30 percent of the colleges examined, Black graduation rates declined or stagnated, while white rates increased, The Huffington Post noted.

What’s really going on?

Andrew Nichols, the report’s co-author argue that the institutions themselves are to blame for this widening gap and the lack of support for students of color. “Even among the institutions that improved, black students were not always able to reap the benefits,” Nichols said. He added, “We see in our report lends credibility to what the student activists have been saying. You can think it’s anecdotal when it’s just a protest here and there, but what we find here are distributing trends that have been taking place for years and years.”(The Huffington Post)

Evening Minute: Teen Thought She Had the Flu, Instead Gave Birth To Baby In Toilet  was originally published on hellobeautiful.com