How Did Cigarettes Come Back Like This?
Why are so many people lighting up now? PLUS: The parent of a school shooter faces sentencing, ADHD linked to social media use in boys, and thoughts on Jimothy.
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I’m Christopher Pepper, an award-winning health educator and the co-author of the bestselling book Talk To Your Boys.
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In this edition:
I’ve Studied Hundreds of Mass Shooters. Parents, I Hope You Know The Story Of Colin Gray.
Cigarettes Are Back In Vogue. How Did This Happen?
RFK Jr.’s Flawed Claims About Sperm Count and Fertility
New Study Links ADHD Symptoms In Boys And Addictive Social Media Use
How Do Young People Feel About AI? 7 Teens Weigh In
They Watched TikToks About ADHD, Anxiety And Cancer. Then They Worried They Had Them
The Phenomenon of Jimothy And What It Means About How We Treat “Wayward” Bodies
I’ve Studied Hundreds of Mass Shooters. Parents, I Hope You Know The Story Of Colin Gray. (Slate)
By Nina E. Cerfolio: On July 28 and 29, Colin Gray will be sentenced at the Barrow County Courthouse in Georgia. This March, he became the first parent in American history to be convicted of murder for a school shooting carried out by his child. A jury took less than two hours to convict him on 27 counts for his role in the Sept. 4, 2024, shooting at Apalachee High School, where his 14-year-old son Colt killed two students and two teachers and wounded nine others with an AR-15-style rifle given to him by his father. Colin Gray didn’t carry out the shooting but was found guilty of second-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter, reckless endangerment, cruelty to children, and knowingly allowing his son to have a weapon. He faces up to 180 years in prison.
It isn’t the first time a parent has been charged in a shooting carried out by their child. But it is the first second-degree murder conviction for a parent, establishing a new legal standard. It also raises a question the rest of us now have to answer: What are we going to do about the children we can still save? READ MORE
Cigarettes Are Back In Vogue. How Did This Happen? (Washington Post)





