School may have closed, padlocked doors without notifying teachers, parents

She said, "There has been no official notice." Now, 600 students will have to find other schools. The teacher adds, "The hard part is there are a lot of wait lists for a lot of the open enrollment."

HLN reports, "The parents don't know how they're going to enroll their kids now because the student records are still locked up at the school."
We checked VLT Academy's website, which still notes it's enrolling students for the 2014-15 school year. The phone number listed is disconnected.
Perhaps the problem stems from a legal issue the school is facing. Ohio state law requires charter schools to have a sponsor. The Cincinnati Enquirer reports VLT's former sponsor -- Educational Resource Consultants -- recently opted not to renew its contract, citing "poor academics and financial issues."
No other sponsors jumped on board. The school's Superintendent Valerie Lee thinks there's another reason the academy couldn't track down a new sponsor.
"Lee said the Ohio Department of Education pressured other sponsors not to take on the school. The state can't directly close charter schools unless they perform so poorly that they trigger Ohio's academic closure laws. So the state is instead cracking down on charter school sponsors."
In July, a judge ordered the Ohio Department of Education to sponsor VLT and fork over nearly $300,000. But it was later appealed, and the judge issued a stay. The department wrote that decisions meant it wouldn't have to sponsor the "poor performing community school."
That statement makes the state's opinion very clear. Because the stay was issued, assets froze and debts reportedly mounted.
According to WCPO, three companies are now suing VLT because the school's rent wasn't paid. That case will be in court August 18.
Lee says she had no choice but to close, but she didn't give a reason why teachers and parents weren't informed.

Judge: Teen to be tried as adult in teacher death

By PHILIP MARCELO
BOSTON (AP) - A teenager accused of raping and killing his math teacher on high school grounds lost his bid Tuesday to be tried as a minor.
Philip Chism, who is now 15, is charged with robbery, rape and murder in the attack on Colleen Ritzer, 24, at Danvers High School in October 2013. At the time, he was a 14-year-old freshman who had recently moved from Tennessee.
Chism's attorney, Denise Regan, argued in court Tuesday that the state's youthful offender law, which requires minors 14 years of age and over charged with murder be automatically tried as adults, violates her client's constitutional rights of "equal protection, due process, fundamental fairness and freedom from cruel or unusual punishment."
"Massachusetts is an outlier in its mandatory harsh treatment of juveniles," she said. "There is no discretion involved."
Regan also argued that there is no reason for Chism to be tried as an adult, since juvenile courts can hand down life sentences. "The reason why a 14-year-old is in adult court is to stigmatize him," she said. "There is no other rational basis to do it."
Essex County Assistant District Attorney Kate MacDougall countered that if tried and convicted in the juvenile system, Chism could be eligible for parole before he turns 30. "That's the reality of what we are dealing with here," she said.
MacDougall said Chism is accused of "one of the most heinous and brutal murders that a person could possibly commit."
In court papers, prosecutors wrote that Chism had followed Ritzer into the girl's bathroom after school, raped her and "repeatedly asphyxiated her before or while assaulting her with a box cutter."
He then put her mutilated body in a recycling bin and dumped it in the woods, prosecutors said. He took Ritzer's cellphone, which he destroyed, and her wallet, which he used a credit card from to buy fast food and attend a movie at the mall later that day, they said.
Salem Superior Court Judge Howard Whitehead denied Chism's request to have the youthful offender charges dismissed.
Chism also faces attempted murder and other charges stemming from an assault on a Department of Youth Services worker while in custody earlier this year.

American woman's dead body found inside suitcase in Bali

BALI, Indonesia (AP) - The body of a 62-year-old American woman was found stuffed inside a suitcase on the Indonesian resort island of Bali, and authorities on Wednesday arrested her daughter and her daughter's boyfriend in relation to the death, police said.
The suitcase containing Sheila von Wiese-Mack's body was found Tuesday inside the trunk of a taxi parked in front of the St. Regis Bali Resort in the island's upscale Nusa Dua area, said Col. Djoko Hari Utomo, the police chief in Bali's capital, Denpasar.
Von Wiese-Mack's 19-year-old daughter, Heather Mack, and her 21-year-old boyfriend, Tommy Schaefer, were arrested Wednesday morning at a hotel in Bali's Kuta area, about 10 kilometers (6 miles) away, Utomo said.
Both were being questioned but were refusing to talk until being joined by attorneys, he said.
The U.S. Embassy in Jakarta confirmed that von Wiese-Mack's body had been found, but did not give details.
Utomo said that Mack and Schaefer had hired the taxi and then placed the suitcase inside the car's trunk. The two then told the taxi driver that they were going to check out of the hotel and would return, he said, citing the driver, I Ketut Wirjana.
However, after two hours, Mack and Schaefer had not reappeared, Utomo said. Hotel security guards found blood spots on the suitcase, and suggested that Wirjana drive the taxi to the police station. Officers at the station opened the suitcase and discovered the body.
Von Wiese-Mack, from Chicago, and her daughter arrived at the St. Regis on Saturday, while Schaefer checked in on Monday, Utomo said.
CCTV footage shows that the victim had an argument with Schaefer on Monday in the hotel's lobby, he said.
Von Wiese-Mack's body was being autopsied at a hospital in Denpasar.

Unpaid O.J. Simpson civil judgment to be auctioned

NEW YORK (AP) - After waiting 17 years for O.J. Simpson to pay a $9 million wrongful death judgment, Ronald Goldman's mother is selling her right to the cash online.
Sharon Rufo listed the judgment Tuesday on JudgmentMarketplace.com with a $1 million starting price. Bidding continues for 30 days.
Website founder Shawn Porat says the Simpson judgment is now worth $24.7 million after interest is factored in, but that's only if Simpson pays.
The winning bidder takes on the risk of collecting from the financially strapped former football star. He's been in a Nevada prison since 2008 on a robbery and kidnapping conviction.
Simpson has paid little of the $33.5 million he owes from the 1997 civil case. A jury acquitted him in 1995 of killing Goldman and ex-wife Nicole Brown.