In brief: High schools won’t get grants for AP study
Three Spokane-area high schools will go without grants aimed at boosting participation in Advanced Placement courses after teachers unions statewide were unable to agree to contract terms that would have given extra money to certain teachers.
Spokane’s North Central and Ferris high schools and University High School in Spokane Valley were set to receive roughly $800,000 over five years as part of a $13.2 million grant from the Vancouver-based nonprofit Mentoring Advanced Placement for Students.
Four other schools statewide were to receive the money, which would have paid teachers and students stipends for passing grades on the College Board’s AP exams. The money also would have paid for teacher training, incentives for teachers working with students after hours, and exam fees for middle- and low-income students
But teachers unions objected to how the cash was to be distributed, and those objections stopped the organization from awarding the money, according to a news release issued Friday.
- Meghann M. Cuniff
Teen fired shots from car, police say
A teenager who deputies say fired gunshots from his car window at trees because he was angry that the driver in front of him hadn’t sped up was booked into Spokane County Juvenile Detention on Friday on a felony count of drive-by shooting.
Spokane County sheriff’s deputies and Airway Heights police arrested the 17-year-old about 7:45 p.m. after a woman reported someone had passed her car on Trails Road and fired a pistol out the window at trees. The woman followed the car and talked to a 911 dispatcher until the teen was arrested at Hayford Road and Sprague Avenue, north of Airway Heights.
Deputies determined the boy “had fired the pistol as an expression of his irritation” because the woman hadn’t accelerated fast enough when the speed limit increased to 45 mph from 35, according to the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office. The boy told police he recently inherited the pistol, a Star-brand .45-caliber.
Deputies retraced the teen’s route and determined no one had been injured by the shots.
- Meghann M. Cuniff
Spokane
Three men hold up Erotic Boutique
Spokane police are seeking help identifying three men, including one with a gun, who robbed an adult store early Friday.
The clerks at Erotic Boutique, 54 E. Wellesley Ave., told police that three men wearing bandannas over their faces entered the store just after 1 a.m. They threatened the clerks and took an undisclosed amount of cash.
No injuries were reported, Officer Teresa Fuller said.
The robbers were described as 18 to 25 years old and between 5-foot-8 and 5-foot-10 with thin builds. One white male was wearing a white sweat shirt featuring multiple cartoons and a hood that was pulled over his head. He carried a gun, Fuller said.
The second white male wore a gray UCLA sweat shirt with the hood pulled up, she said. He wore track pants.
The third man, who was black, wore a green South Pole-brand jacket with a flag on the back and a dark-colored baseball cap.
Anyone with information is asked to call (509) 242-TIPS (8477).
- Thomas Clouse