After seven months of debating protections for gay and lesbian students, the Deer Park School Board has struck a broad compromise: It wants to protect all students.
Suggested policy changes would prohibit discrimination based on "human differences," which, loosely interpreted, could include everything from obesity to sexual orientation.
The wall above the Monroe Street bridge stands as a tribute to Doug McCray. Students painted the wall as a farewell to their much loved counselor. Photo by Liz Kishimoto/The Spokesman-Review
1. Two cars, which simulate the experience of drivers of slippery or icy roads, will help train students how to drive in bad weather. Photo by Dan McComb/The Spokesman-Review
2. Bruneau
Unforeseen development
1. Her father fought to keep Long Lake pristine and Misty Miotke wants to preserve the late Len Miotke's legacy, but a property dispute is dividing family and friends. Photo by Dan McComb/The Spokesman-Review
2. (Photo of Len Miotke)
Sharie Pearson was able to pick up her dog from an animal control shelter despite being charged with abuse so severe that it nearly killed the 11-month-old chow.
According to court papers, Pearson didn't loosen Throck's collar from the time he was a puppy to when he was found by animal control officers in January.
Consider Sally's problem: "A friend of her mother's touched her bottom under her panties and made her promise not to tell! He said he was teaching her about being grown up!"
Mead elementary students will be reading about Sally's problem in class next year, as they get grown-up lessons in sexual abuse, incest and protecting their private parts.
The district school board last week expanded its Personal Safety curriculum to kindergartners, first- and second-graders as a way to augment its current instruction in first and fourth grades. The Sally scenario will be presented to third graders.
More than 2,000 North Spokane elementary tykes will be riding with older secondary students next fall as the Riverside and Deer Park school districts combine bus routes.
The two districts are ending separate bus pick-ups for elementary and secondary students in response to tighter transportation budgets.
1. Jim Barrett looks out over his backyard as the river floods through his neighborhood. The water had only another foot or two to go to hit his basement. Photo by Christopher Anderson/The Spokesman-Review
2. Arthur Miller walks through his driveway as water from the flooding Little Spokane cascades through his yard. Photo by Christopher Anderson/The Spokesman-Review
3. Flood waters covered the softball diamond at St. George's School. Photo by Christopher Anderson/The Spokesman-Review
North Side seniors Joe Le and Rache Stotts-Johnson pulled in four-year, full-ride scholarships last week when they were named Washington Scholars.
The award goes to the top 1 percent of graduating seniors based on academics, leadership and community activities.
Jim and his boys can stretch out now without fear of kicking off the car's emergency brake in a fit of bad dream.
Their three hot meals each day are home-cooked soul food, far from the beans over a campfire the family had come to expect.
Jim now has energy to pursue "the plan:" a stable home and school for James, 15, and Jacob, 8, college accounting classes for himself, and assurance he'll never again be homeless.
After three weeks of living in a red 1980 Subaru GL-5 on Beacon Hill, Jim and his boys have found manna: the new Interfaith Hospitality Network of Spokane homeless shelter.
Spokane homeless shelters are using progressive technology to reduce demand for one of the most primitive needs: a warm, dry place to sleep.
The city's dozen emergency housing centers plan to use the Internet and electronic mail to post vacancies and trade information about services, according to Bob Peeler, homeless coordinator for Spokane Neighborhood Action Programs.
Seven months of often bitter feuding in the Riverside School District have settled into an uncomfortable silence.
One of the district's unions filed a lawsuit and formally accused administrators of unfair labor practices. Another packed school board meetings in silent protest. A parents group formed to oust Superintendent Jerry Wilson.
Deer Park resident Carole Livingston can chat up her friend in New Hampshire for less money than it takes to order a steak from the neighborhood butcher.
"It's like calling New York to call my market," said Livingston.
Since moving recently to North Spokane, Livingston has discovered the quirks of rural phone coverage that play havoc with her, and her neighbors', phone bills.
Debbie Oakley helps first-grader Robert Murphy and sixth-grader Sha'Noel Jones with a team computer project. Photo by Shawn Jacobson/The Spokesman-Review
Lamps flicker in the corners of the darkened Mead High School classroom. The deep bass of a haunting song - Phil Collins' "In the Air Tonight" - throbs. Students are told a tragic story about lost friendship and asked to write a poem of their feelings.
Inappropriate public school instruction? Or a valuable teaching tool?
As educators learn more benefits of teaching kids to relax and contemplate, concerns about the instructional techniques grow.
Mead students won three of the eight individual titles at the speech tournament, domination as impressive as the heralded Mead crosscountry teams.
T he set-up: two old Vaudeville cronies, attempting a reunion.
Fifty years ago, Mount St. Michael was a self-contained city, far from its current use as a pastoral abode.
During the mid-20th century, the mountain was home to Jesuit brothers and seminarians from Gonzaga University, who were served by tailors, bakers, cobblers, bee keepers and gardeners.
FROM NORTH VOICE page N2 (Thursday, March 20, 1997):
Correction
Our Lady of Guadalupe church holds a Latin Mass. An article in last week's North Side Voice incorrectly stated that Mount St. Michael was the only church in Spokane to hold Latin mass.
1. Fourth-graders Elizabeth Rojas and Sammantha Waco read with Sister Mary Petra in literature class at Mount St. Michael Academy. Photo by Colin Mulvany/The Spokesman-Review
2. Rev. Louis Kerfoot prepares to say Latin Mass. Photo by Colin Mulvany/The Spokesman-Review
3. From their classroom window, third-graders at Mount St. Michael smile at a visitor. Photo by Colin Mulvany/The Spokesman-Review
4. Mount St. Michael first-grader Trevor Johnson shares a story he wrote with his class. Photo by Colin Mulvany/The Spokesman-Review
5. Conservative doctrine and modern technology are melded in computer skills class, where Sister May Philomena helps St. Michael's junior Matt Bedker. Photo by Colin Mulvany/The Spokesman-Review
Spokane police arrested a Spokane woman earlier this week with a full stock of drugs and drug paraphernalia, including a Loony Toons lunch box packed with methamphetamine, used crack pipe screens and cigarette papers.
Kandy Lynn Campbell, 38, was booked into the Spokane City-County Jail for drug and drug paraphernalia charges, and for an outstanding theft warrant. She was in custody Tuesday, awaiting a bond hearing for the drug charges.
Student activities didn't get kid-glove treatment in Mead School District's budget boxing ring.
Administrators are cutting off support for the Associated Student Body account, leaving the Math Club to compete with sports teams for funding.
Mead School District officials propose cutting spending for supplies, teacher training and travel to balance next year's budget.
The plan, if adopted by the school board, will mean a minimum 10 percent reduction in all non-salary spending. No staff will lose their jobs, but several positions will be eliminated through attrition and retirement.
The district's wallet has been stretched taut by construction of a second high school, by a new state law restricting property tax levy collection and by slower-than-expected student growth.
