Features

Child Felon Views Life After      Prison

(The Lincoln Lantern featured this story in the spring of this year. The following is an update)

Catherine Jones and her brother Curtis were the youngest U.S children to be charged as adults in a first degree murder case in 1999. Catherine and her brother Curtis were 13 and 12, when they killed a family member with their father’s handgun, who they claimed to be sexually abusing them. Both Catherine and her brother were released this summer. Catherine Jones, now 30, says that she had no idea how big and bright the stars were going to look or how happy they could make her. She had forgotten

I love that I can go out at night, in the dark and see the stars," she said from Kansas, where she has been living for three months. "I am very happy."

       While in prison Catherine met a man named Fleming. Thousands of miles away, Senior Chief Ramous K. Fleming was aboard the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Enterprise in the Persian Gulf. He was spending a little free time on the Internet looking through crime stories from his home state of Florida. A self-professed true-crime junkie, Fleming enjoyed spending his time reading and learning about various crimes. Catherine's story touched him. He couldn't get it out of his head. "I wrote a letter and she responded," Fleming said from Norfolk, Va., where he was currently stationed. "I had never done anything like that before. Her story just piqued my interest and I wanted to be pen pals." They decided to meet and the mutual attraction was instant, Fleming recalled. "It was as if I knew her more through every letter and it felt very natural," he said. "It was like we had known each other for years. It did not feel weird at all.” Fleming says. They kept in touch.

"We continued writing and through that we fell in love," he said. "It never crossed my mind that would happen." They got married November 27, 2013 in a chapel at the Hernando Correction Institution. Catherine’s husband has since retired from the Navy so that he can help her adjust to the 21st century.

“Of course there are fears, mainly because there's so much I must learn, to function like a normal person, how to drive, fill out job applications, text, dress for a job interview, build my credit, obtain life, dental and, medical insurance,” Catherine added. “I'm completely clueless. The idea of being 30 and completely dependent on others to teach me how to do these basic things isn't appealing. I left prison just as clueless as I was at the age of 13.” but it’s very exciting at the same time’’. Catherine said. (Google .com)

The Tiger Scholarship Bulletin:

Fast- Web (www.fastweb.com)

Federally Funded Scholarships, Grants and Internships (www.usajobs.gov/studentsAndGrads)

B.E.L.I.E.F. Fountain (www.thebelieffoundation.org)

Coca Cola Scholarship (www.coca-colascholarsfountain.org/)

Dallas County Community College Rising Star Program (www.foundation.dcccd.edu/risingstar/risingstarintro.html)

Dallas Hispanic Chamber Stars on the Rise (www.gdhcc.com)

Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. Scholarships (www.mdadst.org)

Hispanic College Fund ( http://scholarships.hispanicfund.org)

Jackie Robinson Foundation Scholarship (www.jackierobinson.org)

McDonald’s Scholarships (www.mhc.org/mbc-us-scholarships)

Ron Brown Scholarships (www.ronbrown.org/home.aspx)

SMU: Community College For students transferring to SMU from a community college with at least 50 credit hours. (www.smu.edu/admission/financialaid)

Stars and Stripes Fund (www.unt.edu/unt-dallas/starsandstripes.htm)

Texas College in Tyler, Texas, First generation college student. (www.texascollege.edu)

YMCA College Scholarships (collegescholarships@ymcadallas.org)

UNT Multicultural Scholastic Award (http://outreach.unt.edu/msa)

University of Texas at Dallas Scholarships (www.utadallas.edu/enroll/financialaid/scholarships)

NAACP Scholarships (http://www.naacp.org/departments/education/scholarshipindex.html)

(Contributed by Counselor Camp)

Remembering Pearl Harbor

Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base on December 7, 1941. December 7, 2015 was the Remembrance Day for Pearl Harbor. That day Japan intended the attack as a preventive action to keep the U.S. Pacific Fleet from interfering with military actions. The Japanese managed to destroy nearly 20 American naval vessels, including eight enormous battleships, and more than 300 airplanes. More than 2,000 Americans soldiers and sailors died in the attack, and another 1,000 were wounded.                 The day after the assault, President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked Congress to declare war on Japan; Congress approved his declaration with just one dissenting vote. Three days later, Japanese allies Germany and Italy also declared war on the United States, and again Congress reciprocated. More than two years into the conflict, America had finally joined World War II. The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise, but Japan and the United States had been edging toward war for decades.

  The United States was particularly unhappy with Japan’s increasingly belligerent attitude toward China. The Japanese government believed that the only way to solve its economic and demographic problems was to expand into its neighbor’s territory and take over its import market; to this end, Japan had declared war on China in 1937. This day was a big event that happened because it was a turning point for the U.S. to join in World War II. (google.com)