No penalty for Pa. teacher who ridiculed Broncos fan
Beaver Falls, Pa. – A school district won’t discipline a teacher who made a student wearing a Denver Broncos jersey take a midterm exam on the floor.
Beaver Falls High School student Joshua Vannoy said he was humiliated when John Kelly, a Pittsburgh Steelers fan, forced him to take his honors ethnic relations midterm on the floor and encouraged other students to throw wads of paper at him.
It happened on Jan. 20, two days before the Steelers beat the Broncos for the AFC Championship. Vannoy wore the jersey of retired Hall of Fame quarterback John Elway.
Kelly “has already been the brunt of adverse public opinion and the school district does not believe discipline is warranted or would serve any purpose,” the district said in a statement released Tuesday.
During the district’s investigation, administrators talked to Kelly, Vannoy and witnesses.
Students who take the course “are often singled out to exemplify uncomfortable treatment and students who enroll in the course are aware of this fact,” the district said.
While crumpled paper was thrown at Vannoy, it didn’t happen during the exam, the district said.
Vannoy returned to school Monday after staying out last week, claiming he was threatened.
The district said Kelly apologized to Vannoy and “addressed the student body requesting that they show respect for Josh and not allow this matter to be blown further out of proportion.”
PLAINS
Warm, dry weather likely to continue
The last six weeks have been the warmest on record across much of the High Plains, including northeastern Colorado, and an emerging climate pattern called La Niña could keep the region dry and warm, climate experts said Wednesday.
Weather stations in Wray and Fort Collins recorded 100-year highs for the period from Dec. 23 to Tuesday, according to the High Plains Regional Climate Center in Lincoln, Neb.
In Denver, the average temperature in January was 37.4 degrees Fahrenheit, said Klaus Wolter, a meteorologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Boulder. Normally, that figure is 29.2.
A La Niña climate pattern is now established in the tropical Pacific Ocean, Wolter said, and that typically keeps Colorado’s February and March relatively warm and dry, he said.
April storms occasionally “bail out” the state’s water supply during La Niña years, he said, but the region’s precipitation outlook remains fairly weak.
METRO AREA
Two murder charges in road-rage incident
A man accused of killing two drivers by allegedly starting a road-rage collision on E-470 was bound over Wednesday on murder charges by a district court judge.
Jason Reynolds, 32, of Parker faces a possible death sentence or life in prison if convicted by a jury on two counts of first-degree murder with extreme indifference. He also faces two counts of vehicular homicide stemming from the Nov. 8 collision.
Killed in the crash were Kelvin Norman, 50, of Highlands Ranch and Greg Boss, 35, of Lone Tree.
Arapahoe County District Court Judge Marilyn Leonard ruled that Reynolds drove in such a manner that he acted with “malice” and “extreme indifference to the value of human life.”
After the ruling, Mary LeFrance, Boss’ girlfriend, hugged a woman in the hallway outside the courtroom and they wept.
BOULDER
Earthquake expert, go-to Person retiring
Earthquake expert and Boulder resident Waverly Person is retiring Friday from the National Earthquake Information Center in Golden after 51 years of working for the federal government.
Person, 79, said he’ll still carry the pager and phone that notify him automatically when a big quake strikes somewhere in the world, and he’ll go into the office to help out when needed.
He will, however, no longer be the first scientist to pinpoint the location and size of an earthquake, or the first person the center puts on the phone or the television when reporters call, seeking to understand a disaster.
“After that length of time, it’s time to call my own shots,” said Person, who plans to travel more with his wife and volunteer in area schools.
FORT COLLINS
Suicidal man killed by officers identified
A suicidal man who was fatally shot by two veteran Fort Collins police officers Monday when he refused to put down a gun he was holding to his head as he approached them was identified as Charles A. Pollet, 53.
Officers Scott Goff, on the force for 26 years, and Greg Beaumont, a six-year veteran, were placed on paid administrative leave pending the completion of the investigation into the shooting, said police spokeswoman Rita Davis.
Pollet was in close proximity to the officers when they fired a total of four shots, Davis said. Pollet did not fire his revolver.
DENVER
Archdiocese facing two more lawsuits
Two more lawsuits were filed Wednesday against the Archdiocese of Denver involving claims that priests from the archdiocese sexually assaulted boys.
In one suit, a 51-year-old man alleges that Father Harold Robert White molested him on dozens of occasions from 1965 to 1968 while White was the pastor of St. Anthony’s Catholic Church in Sterling.
In the second suit, a 46-year- old man claims that Father Leon ard Abercrombie molested him on 10 occasions in the therapeutic swimming pool of St. Anthony Hospital in Denver between 1970 and 1972.
HAXTUN
Cops say ex-boyfriend kidnapped woman
A man on Wednesday pushed his former girlfriend into his car in the parking lot of the Haxtun Hospital where the 18-year-old woman worked and sped away with the passenger door open, authorities say.
Eduardo Moreno, 20, was arrested for investigation of kidnapping, menacing, assault and domestic violence when he returned his ex-girlfriend to the hospital about five hours later, said Haxtun Police Chief Tanya Mayhew.
