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FRIDAY, JULY 19, 2013
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Kirkland teacher reprimanded for taping student to chair before students bullied him BY RAECHEL DAWSON rdawson@kirklandreporter.com
Several file complaints with city over loud cannons at Fourth of July parade BY RAECHEL DAWSON rdawson@kirklandreporter.com
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everal members of the community filed complaints about the Seafair Pirates’ loud cannon explosions that, they say, frightened children and dogs during the annual Fourth of July parade. Men dressed in pirates’ costumes engaged the crowd as they acted the part by adorning eye patches as they swung fake pirate swords. But as soon as the cannons blew, some say the
fun turned sour. “Kids were screaming and dogs were howling,” said Dean Jones, who submitted a complaint to the city on July 10. “People were leaving the parade, they were just so distressed.” Jones, who lives in California but was visiting friends in Kirkland, said his little dog “relieved himself at both ends” and the driver of a mini-horse in the parade couldn’t get it under control for at least one minute. Jones was at the corner of Central Way and First Street when
The Seattle Seafair Pirates fired cannons during the Celebrate Kirkland! annual Fourth of July parade in Kirkland. RAECHEL DAWSON, Kirkland Reporter
the cannons went off. He said the cannon explosions reminded him of the recent Boston Marathon terrorist attacks and that it ruined his and his family’s Fourth of July. Another parade-goer had a similar experience, but was seated farther down the parade route. “People all around me were complaining about the loud noises,” said Jerry Forell in an email to the city of Kirkland on July 8. “I still had minor discomfort in my ears an hour later.”
Forell was sitting at the intersection of Kirkland Avenue and Main Street and said the pirates spouted their cannon three times when they passed that area. Sudie Elkayssi, the city’s special projects coordinator, said in a reply to Forell that the city received “a handful of complaints” about the cannons and that it would be discussed at a later meeting. “I was standing at the corner of Market and Central, so I too experienced the [ more CANNON page 3 ]
After a 20-day investigation that included 18 student statements, a Lake Washington High School biology teacher was suspended last month for taping a student to his desk on May 29. The Lake Washington School District investigation found that Jennifer O’Hara violated the district’s human dignity policy, as well as the staff conduct policy, as she encouraged public ridicule and bullying in her classroom. Investigation documents state O’Hara admitted to wrapping clear packaging tape once around a male student’s upper body to the back of his desk chair because he continued to walk around her second period biology class without permission. During a June 11 meeting with district officials, O’Hara said the students were studying for an end-of-semester test and she wanted to “infuse humor to lighten the mood in the classroom.” “She jokingly attempts to wrap me in packaging tape (I thought it was funny, I was OK with it),” the male student said in a written statement. “But then it seemed almost instantly that many students appeared around me and
were actually trying to tape me to the chair I sat in.” According to many witness statements, several students taped his arm, drew lines on his ears and a smiley face on the back of his neck. But the boy said he was even slapped on the face and neck, which he said hurt but did not cause injury. He said his football was also temporarily stolen. “At this point, I was frustrated and it was not a joke at all,” the boy said, who added students also drew on his Spanish school work, ruining it. During the taping and harassing, the boy estimated between 10 to 15 students took photos or filmed the incident on their cell phones. Frustrated and angry, the boy freed himself from the tape and walked out of the classroom to wait in the hall. “He went from laughing to being mad in a matter of seconds and after he left, the class was confused,” said a student witness, who was in the biology class that day. Another student said O’Hara tried to get the boy to return to class but he did not. As the boy walked into his fourth period English class, English teacher Amy Sullivan overheard him talking to his friends who were “visibly [ more TAPE page 3 ]
New LWIT president Amy Goings looks to build more community partnerships The daughter of a barber and retired pulp and paper mill machinist, Amy Goings understands firsthand
what it means to have technical skills. “When parents have skills that allow them to have family-sustaining jobs, that means children can realize their dreams,”
said Goings, a Bremerton native, who was the first in her family to graduate from college and is currently a doctoral candidate in higher education administration at the University of
Nebraska Lincoln. And now just three weeks into her new position as president of the Lake Washington Institute of Technology, this notion is what has impressed Goings the most
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BY CARRIE RODRIGUEZ crodriguez@kirklandreporter.com