(Radio Iowa) – The State Board of Education today (Wednesday) approved new rules for the use of restraints and seclusion rooms in the state’s schools. The Board of Ed had prepared rules about one year ago, but decided to hold more forums on the issue after getting a large amount of response. Department Attorney Thomas Mayes says the rules were put on hold by the COVID-19 emergency — but they are now ready.

“Three big areas of dispute that we had attempted to address — the size of the room, notice to parents, and sort of the risk to teachers of injury before they could engage in seclusion and restraint,” Mayes says. He says they’ve had a lot of cooperation and input as they moved forward with changes to the rules. “We’re trying to sort of take into account both student safety as well as parents’ rights and faculty safety in balancing those three. The Department looks forward to any public comment,” Mayes says.

Mayes was asked by a board member how harm to a teacher would be defined. He says that will come through training. “Everybody who worked on these rules throughout this process has known that the rules will not be self-executing. Teachers will need to have these sorts of global ideas explained in a concrete way,” according to Mayes. He says the rules do address one specific concern. “One thing that the rules emphasize is there’s no Monday morning quarterback. If the classroom teacher, if the paraeducator, if the school psychologist engaged in restraint that was reasonable at that time — the rules will continue to command that that person not be second-guessed with the benefit of hindsight,” Mayes explains.

The A-C-L-U is one of the groups which has been working with the Board of Education on the rule changes. Spokesperson Veronica Fowler told the board they want to see restraints and seclusion rooms as the very last option. “And only used in the rarest of circumstances. And we believe that ideally their use would be banned,” Folwer says. “That’s not going to happen with the proposed rules — but rules can make the use of seclusion and restraint rare — and the last thing schools do,” Fowler says.

A public hearing will be held on the rules on September 15th in the Department of Education board room in Des Moines. An online option for the hearing will also be available.

(Radio Iowa) – Some Iowa school districts will require students and staff to wear face coverings in an effort to keep from spreading coronavirus and they also need a plan for enforcing the mask mandate. Darin Haack (HAWK), chief operations officer at Ankeny Community Schools, says the district north of Des Moines will spend time in the first days teaching students why they must wear masks. He hopes that prevents any need for discipline.

Ankeny is following a hybrid plan where students are divided into two groups that attend class in-person every other day. Students and teachers will be required to wear face coverings when they’re indoors and can’t be at least six feet apart. Exceptions will be made for medical reasons. Haack remains optimistic the students will comply.

Haack says teachers will build mask breaks into the day. He says families can choose an all-virtual option instead of attending school in-person, but the district will not force students to go virtual because of face coverings. The Iowa Department of Education recommended allowing but not requiring face coverings, in part because of potential legal and disciplinary problems.

(By Grant Gerlock, Iowa Public Radio)

Officials with the Elm Crest Senior Living Center in Harlan report, that “As of today, August 5, 2020,” they are “canceling all visits and will not be scheduling future visits at this time. The numbers in Shelby County are still rising,” officials said, and they do not feel it is safe to resume visits in two weeks as initially hoped.

According to their social media posts, Elm Crest officials will continue to send out emails to their families and post on Facebook updates, as to when they will allow visits to resume, but added “However that date is uncertain at this point in time. Elm Crest does remain COVID-19 free. Continue to send your good thoughts and prayers.”

It was also noted that WINDOW VISITS ARE STILL PERMITTED at the Elm Crest Senior Center.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Two doughnut franchise employees have been fired after refusing to serve a Des Moines police officer. Television station KCCI reports that Sgt. Paul Parizek, a spokesman for the Des Moines Police Department, says he was refused service over the weekend at a Dunkin’ doughnut shop. Parizek said when he asked a woman behind the shop’s counter “what’s going on,” she replied that the store would not serve him and that he needed to leave.

Corporate Dunkin’ officials sent a statement saying the Des Moines store’s franchise owner fired two employees over the incident and had contacted police to apologize.

Riverside School District Superintendent Dr. Tim. Michell reports, the Riverside Community School District administration was notified of a potential COVID-19 exposure on Sunday August 2, 2020.  Mitchell says Tuesday morning, August 4th, Pottawattamie County Public Health confirmed that a Riverside student has tested positive for COVID-19.  The Riverside facilities utilized by the student were closed on Monday August 3, 2020 for deep cleaning and disinfecting per Center for Disease Control (CDC) guidance. Riverside notified public health, identified potential close contact students and staff, requested quarantine of potentially exposed students and staff and provided Pottawattamie Public Health potential close contacts for followup.

Following the guidance from the Iowa Department of Education and Iowa Department of Public Health released last week, Mitchell says the student will not be allowed to return to school until after 24 hours with no fever and symptoms improving and 10 days since symptoms started.  Any potential student or staff member that is determined to have been in close contact (within 6 feet for more than 15 minutes) can not return to school for 14 days from the last contact with the student. Riverside facilities have now reopened and programming has continued.

Any questions can be directed to Tim Mitchell, Superintendent, 712-484-2212 or tmitchell@riverside.k12.ia.us.

(Updated) (Radio Iowa) – Governor Kim Reynolds signed an executive order this (Wednesday) morning to automatically restore voting rights to most paroled felons.

The order restores voting rights to about 40-thousand people statewide, though it won’t apply to those convicted of murder, manslaughter or serious sex crimes. Reynolds had advocated for an amendment to the Iowa Constitution to make the change — but indicated she would sign the executive order after that process stalled in the Iowa Legislature.

Reynolds says lawmakers still needs to approve the amendment so it can be voted on by Iowans.

Betty Andrews, who heads the N-double-A-C-P of Iowa and Nebraska, thanked the governor for keeping her promise to sign the order.

The order technically restores citizenship rights and does NOT require repayment of victim restitution before a felon can vote. State Legislator Ako Abdul-Samad has pushed for the executive order as well and was on hand for the signing.

The order, which technically restores citizenship rights, does NOT require repayment of victim restitution before a felon may vote. That was a sticking point for many Republican legislators who balked at the idea of automatically restoring felon voting rights, and Reynolds says she wanted to let that discussion continue while the legislation was in the works.

The governor says she has talked with the groups which pushed for the change and they plan to have a bigger celebration in the future.

Sheriff’s deputies in Page County, Tuesday, arrested 23-year old Jacob Aaron Leon John Esque, of Clarinda. He was taken into custody on a Page County warrant for Failure to appear for a Revocation of Probation hearing, for Violation of Probation. Esque was arrested at the Page County Jail. He was being held on a $2,000 cash-only bond, pending further court proceedings.

And, 41-year old Lorenzo Louis Lawson, of Shenandoah, was arrested Tuesday, on a Page County Warrant for Violation of No contact / protective order –
contempt and Violation of probation. Lawson was arrested at the Pottawattamie County Jail and transported to the Page County Jail where he was being held on $2,000 bond, pending further court proceedings.