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Tuesday, August 30, 2016
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Cyberbullying in our schools New law will change discipline rules By Goldie Rapp
and
Eric Engel
news@bcrnews.com
A new Illinois law will soon force schools to reform their discipline policies for cyberbullying. Senate Bill 100 eliminates “zero tolerance” suspensions and expulsions related to cyberbullying, which will require schools to first exhaust all means of intervention before suspending students for more than three days. The law is set to go into effect in September. The theory behind this new law is that students who are being tossed out of school for bullying are those who should be kept within school boundaries at all costs to prevent them from getting into further trouble when not in school. Eric Lawson, Bureau Valley assistant superintendent and high school principal, said this new law will change
the rules most school districts have spelled out in handbooks. “The new bill calls for us to change how we administer discipline,” he said. “As educators and teachers, we now have to look at things a little different and process all the information before making a knee-jerk reaction or judgment on what the infraction is.” Vanessa Hoffeditz, a mother of two sons at Princeton High School, said while she likes the idea of working more closely with students who have misbehaved, she questions what sort of support will be given to students who fall victim to bullying. “What kind of support will be given to the targeted students, while you’re giving support to the students who did the bullying?” she questioned. She also feels the law leaves open the opportunity for someone to go back to the school and argue it didn’t do
everything it could before choosing to suspend or expel a student. “The decision a board makes knowing our student body and knowing what is going on and what they’re dealing with —are they going to be second guessed in some way?” she questioned. In Hoffeditz’s opinion, the new law covers some great ground but leaves unanswered questions on how it will bridge certain incidents. For example, she said the law seems to only address incidents that occur in school, when many cyberbullying incidents occur outside school boundaries. “Personally, that concerns me as a parent because … there is always the concern that it will bleed over into the school setting. Even though the threatening didn’t happen at the school, it could still impact that learning environment and what’s going on in the school,” she said.
Cyberbullying Page 4
Driver wanted
Dalzell Grade School searches for a new bus driver By E ric E ngel eengel@bcrnews.com
DALZELL — Dalzell Grade School Superintendent Bruce Bauer said the district currently does not have a bus driver to pick up students, but they are hoping to solve the problem by week’s end. “Thursday, Aug. 18, was our first day of attendance, and the Monday before, Aug. 15, we found out our bus driver for the last 20 years couldn’t get a release for his CDL to continue driving because of medical reasons. So three days before picking up kids, we’re supposed to find a bus driver,” Bauer said. He immediately contacted the local bus service — Johannes Bus Services Inc. in Rock Island, but unfortunately, the district could not rent a driver only. The bus service offered a combined rental of a bus and a driver, but the district has a brand new bus for which they had already paid. “When we crunched figures on what they were looking at, we would have had to raise our budget 400 percent, and we just couldn’t do that without
Dalzell Page 4
BCR photo/Mike Vaughn
There were thrills and chills for folks of all ages at the 162nd Bureau County Fair, which began Wednesday, Aug. 24, and ended Sunday, Aug. 28. Muddy conditions canceled or changed some events, however, but fair-goers still came out for some good, old-fashioned fun. See more photos on Page 2.
A little mud ... a lot of fun
B y Goldie Rapp grapp@bcrnews.com
PRINCETON — Despite wet and humid weather conditions throughout last week and weekend, the 162nd annual Bureau County Fair was well attended and provided plenty of entertainment for families all around the county and beyond.
On Monday, Nancy Monier, fair board member, said attendance was down this year about 10 percent, but she said it was due mostly to the poor weather conditions throughout the week. The rainy weather on Wednesday created muddy conditions in the grandstand area, which forced the fair board to cancel the draft horse pull show. Monier said board
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members received negative comments about the decision, but in the end, the board knew they had made the right choice to cancel the grandstand event. On Thursday, country music singer Dustin Lynch rocked the stage and put on a great performance for his crowd. Monier
Fair Page 4
Economical lab services and diagnostic testing, including digital x-rays, are also offered on-site. These services are available to anyone, regardless of your doctor’s practice or hospital affiliation.
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