AKRON SCHOOL INCIDENT
Counselors are on campus at Akron-Westfield Schools today to meet with students affected by an incident in which a student assaulted another last Thursday. A report of the incident from KTIV TV indicated that a student approached another student in the high school gym, and began kicking and punching him. The police chief in Akron says the person was arrested, and processed at the Plymouth County Sheriffs office. The student was released to his mother.
The School district released a statement saying “Our student code of conduct clearly states students who engage in bullying, harassment, and/or physical violence will be disciplined following school policy. To say we are disappointed in what was depicted in the video is an understatement and we are taking this matter very seriously. We continue to follow district policies and procedures to determine the next steps to ensure this situation is dealt with properly and that we do all we can to prevent something like this from happening again.”
The Area Education Agency’s Crisis Team is on the Akron-Westfield campuses today. They held assemblies at the grade school and high school buildings, and are available throughout the day to counsel students who are affected by the incident.
CHARGES FILED IN FATAL ACCIDENT
A Sioux City man is facing a vehicular homicide charge in a Plymouth County fatal accident which occured last year.
A court document filed in Plymouth County District Court requested a warrant for David Jack Diaz, age 31, of Sioux City. He has been charged with Homicide by Vehicle – Operating under the influence, a Class B Felony.
On June 7, 2022, Diaz was involved in an accident on US Highway 75 southbound, at Plymouth County Road C70. Diaz is accused of crashing into the rear of a car that had slowed to turn at C70. The complaint says Diaz was driving 81 miles per hour at the time of the crash. The crash injured the driver, Uzael Abraham, 22, of Sioux City. A back-seat passenger in the car, 45 year old Ermiohne Hoswa of Sioux City, was pronounced dead at the scene. Diaz admitted via text message that he had been drinking on his break while at work in Le Mars. His blood alcohol content was .159%. Diaz appeared last week on the charges in Plymouth County District Court. A preliminary hearing will be April 17.
SPOTTER TRAINING COURSE
Tuesday, It’s Le Mars’ turn for the National Weather Services’ Severe Weather Awareness Training Course. Peter Rogers is the warning Coordination Meteorologist with the weather service’s Sioux Falls office.
He describes some of the topics covered at Tuesday’s event.:
They will also review some of the storms that hit the region last year.
Covid caused the weather service to use more online tools, such as social media, to communicate with the public about severe weather.
The training session is easy to join…
The National Weather Service office in Sioux Falls holds these sessions in communities across their forecast area each spring.
SOCIAL MEDIA BAN
A bill to ban any Iowan under the age of 18 from having accounts on TikTok, Instagram or any other social media site has cleared its first hurdle in the Iowa House, but bill backers are planning changes in the legislation. House Speaker Pat Grassley says Republicans want to start a conversation about how social media companies are collecting data about children — but, more importantly, about how smart phone apps and online platforms are impacting the mental health of Iowa kids.
House Democratic Leader Jennifer Konfrst says lawmakers should let parents control their children’s social media use.
Utah has just adopted a law that requires minors to have parental consent for social media accounts. A key G-O-P lawmaker in the Iowa House says the plan is to adjust their bill so Iowa parents would have to sign off on social media accounts for teenagers, but Iowa children under the age of 13 would not be allowed to have one. A recent study found 40 percent of kids under the age of 13 were using apps like TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook.
EDUCATION MEASURES
A House committee has combined several education-related measures into one 38-page bill and it includes some of Governor Kim Reynolds’ proposals.
The bill would prohibit instruction about sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through sixth grade classrooms.
It says books with graphic descriptions of sex acts must be removed from public school libraries.
It also specifies that a school administrator would have to notify a parent if a student asks to be known by a different name or pronoun at school.
New, quicker routes for getting a teaching license are included, and the Iowa Board of Educational Examiners would be changed if the bill becomes law, so parents make up half of the board’s members.
Some of these proposals were separate bills already cleared the House. They are now added onto a Senate-passed bill and the package is eligible for debate in the full House this week.
MULTIPLE INJURY ACCIDENT
A semi collided with a van Saturday morning at the intersection of Iowa Highway 60 and 400th Street in Hospers. The Sioux County Sheriffs Office was called to the scene, where a van driven by 65 year old Judith McCord of Spencer was westbound on 400th Street. McCord entered the intersection and was stuck by a semi driven northbound on 60 by Logan Kollbaum, , of Anthon, Iowa. Four people received minor injury.
McCord and a passenger, 64 year old Byron Smith, Sr, of Spencer, were transported by ambulance to Orange City Area Health. Kollbaum and a passenger, 23 year old Carlos Inigo Ransom, were taken to Sanford Sheldon Medical Center.
McCord was cited for failure to obey a stop sign.
The sheriff’s office was assisted by the Hospers Ambulance, Granville Ambulance, Hospers Fire Department and Iowa Department of Transportation.
PFAS TESTING
The state has released the results of its public water testing for the chemicals known as PFAS. The D-N-R’s Corey McCoid says this testing covers 116 water supplies in 99 communities. He says almost 60 percent of the water supplies had no detected PFAS, 12 had detections above the health advisory, and 29 percent were in between the health advisory and no detection. This testing was done before the E-P-A’s recent announcement of its proposed drinking water standards, but McCoid says these tests fit into those guidelines. The complete summary and results of the PFAS testing can be found at iowadnr.gov.
