Public asked to help find hydrant vandals
Police and fire officials are seeking the public’s help in tracking down vandals who have been opening fire hydrants around Spokane Valley.
Surveillance video from University High School shows two people fleeing in a dark-colored compact car after openine a hydrant to flood the school’s parking lot about 1:50 a.m. Sunday.
In addition to flooding parking lots and streets, vandals flooded a home in the 3400 block of South Sundown Drive, causing hundreds of dollars in damage, police spokesman Sgt. Dave Reagan said in a news release.
Police said the vandals also removed the cap from a hydrant at East Valley Middle School and threw it through a window, causing about $300 in damage.
Reagan said the incidents likely took place late Saturday night or early Sunday morning.
Anyone with information is asked to call (509) 242-TIPS.
– Ken Paulman
Dozens attend hearing on plan to fell trees
Dozens of Spokane residents turned out at the Downtown Library on Wednesday evening in an effort to save some two dozen stately trees along Bernard Street between 14th and 29th avenues.
Mayor Dennis Hession called the open house meeting to give city officials a chance to explain why reconstruction of Bernard Street may result in removal of the large trees, which have outgrown their small planting strips. Excavation of the street could cause significant root damage, making the trees a public hazard.
“It’s an unpopular decision,” said one parks official.
A South Side resident said of the mayor, “I think he’s a reasonable guy, and he’s going to listen.”
Residents have called another meeting for 7 tonight at Wilson Elementary School, 911 W. 25th, to hear alternative ideas from Washington State University landscape design students.
– Mike Prager
WSU alters evaluation of potential teachers
Washington State University has revised a controversial method of evaluating potential teachers, after a conservative student complained he was being punished for unpopular views on diversity and race.
From now on, WSU’s College of Education will evaluate future teachers based on how well they work among people of diverse backgrounds – not based on their opinions or views.
“This has never been about free speech for us,” said College of Education Dean Judy Mitchell. “This has always been about professional standards. We tried to clarify that.”
Ed Swan, a 42-year-old from Othello, was threatened with dismissal after he received poor marks on an evaluation for stating he didn’t believe white people are privileged anymore, that he opposes gay marriage and wrote “diversity is perversity” in the margins of a book, among other things. He described himself as a conservative Christian in an earlier interview.
Mitchell and other university officials have said that the evaluation – known as “professional dispositions” – is an attempt to ensure that future teachers can work well with all students and not discriminate.
– Shawn Vestal