Quinton Chandler, KTOO

Editor’s note: We’ve published an expanded and recast version of this story here.

Update

Capital City Fire and Rescue reported all of the tour boat’s passengers and crew refused medical treatment, including one person whose knee was injured.

Original story | 7:06 p.m.

Two boats rescued the passengers of a whale watching vessel that sank Sunday.

U.S. Coast Guard PO3 Lauren Steenson said the tour boat Big Red reported it was taking on water early in the afternoon.

“Coast Guard Watchstanders issued an urgent marine information broadcast and there were a couple (of) good Samaritans that responded,” Steenson said.

The Sea Ya, the first vessel to reach the Big Red, took most of the 16 passengers and two crew members aboard. Later, an Allen Marine Tours vessel, the St. Herman, came on scene.

“But once the St. Herman got there, all 18 people were recovered from the water and the other boat and transported to Allen Marine Dock,” Steenson said.

The passengers and crew reached shore about two hours after they called for help. Steenson wasn’t certain what condition they were in. She said one person had a knee injury.

Steenson said the Coast Guard rarely sees vessels sink in the Juneau area, but they do see an increase in calls for vessels taking on water during the summer months.

“Especially during those months we definitely like to stress the importance of having all your safety gear up to date and having life vests for each person on board and functioning communication equipment,” Steenson said.

Lt. Jennifer Ferreira, Coast Guard Sector Juneau command duty officer said in a press release, all of the Big Red’s passengers were given life vests.

The Big Red was operated by Dolphin Jet Boat Tours. The company didn’t immediately respond to attempted requests for comment.

The cause of the boat sinking is under investigation.

This is a developing story.

Correction: An earlier version of this story had misspelled the good Samaritan vessel’s name. It’s the Sea Ya, not the See You. Also, the Coast Guard spokesperson’s assertion that four people waited in the water has been deleted because an eyewitness had a contradictory account. 

Local artist, Christy NaMee Eriksen, and her friend Melissa Garcia Johnson sent out an invitation to share art and discuss racial justice and violence at the University of Alaska Southeast Student Recreation Center in Juneau Sunday. Dozens of people attended.

The event had three parts: A visual art exhibition, live performances and multiple conversations about race relations in the U.S.

“We’re welcoming, what we’re calling, a creative conversation around racial justice and anti-violence for our community. We’re calling it a creative conversation because we think there are a lot of ways that people can talk about race, talk about racism and racial justice, and talk with each other and we’re choosing to do ours today through art,” said Eriksen.

Attendees examined art pieces, listened to a play, two poems and had the opportunity to voice their own frustrations and ideas.

Juneau Police Department Lt. Kris Sell said having the conversation was a good idea.

“There have been incidents across the country that have concerned people about police use of force. I think that if people have concerns, we need to drag that out and talk about that because we only function if we respect each other,” Sell said.

She said she felt a little uncomfortable when some of the artists criticized police in their performances.

“There was this desire deep down that maybe I want to withdraw, maybe I feel like people are looking at me as the enemy. Like they’re seeing me as the police, not Kris that shares a community with them,” said Sell.

She thinks that same defensiveness is felt by a lot of people during hard conversations and that it’s important not to give into it.

Organizations that helped organize Sunday’s event:
Black Awareness Association of Juneau
Sealaska Heritage Institute
University of Alaska Southeast
Juneau Arts & Humanities Council
Perseverance Theatre
UAS Native and Rural Student Center
Northern Light United Church
Juneau Police Department
Juneau Interfaith Coalition
Juneau People for Peace and Justice
AWARE
Juneau Violence Prevention Coalition
Alaska Native Sisterhood Camp 3

An assembly line of workers collected piles of chum salmon that spilled onto Egan Drive near Highland Avenue after a truck tipped over about 3:30 Monday afternoon. The incident took place near Juneau-Douglas High School and the Breakwater Hotel.

The truck was carrying totes of fish.

“So when the vehicle rolled over onto its side, it lost its load and the fish were spilled over the intersection. The inbound lanes of Egan Drive were completely blocked,” Juneau Police Lieutenant David Campbell said.

Traffic backed up for several hours while police diverted vehicles. Drivers were asked to avoid the area if they could. Outbound lanes were shut down to just one lane of traffic while a tow truck was called to the scene to remove the overturned vehicle.

Egan Drive was fully reopened by 7 p.m. Capital City Fire and Rescue hosed down the highway to remove the slime.

Chuck Bill, CEO of Bartlett Regional Hospital confirmed that the truck driver was evaluated and then released.

Police and witnesses estimated the weight as between 10,000 and 16,000 pounds. Several people at the scene said the spilled salmon were considered contaminated and unfit for human consumption.

Note: This report has been updated with additional information. A new report is posted here.

 

Bridget Weiss is director of student services for the district. She wants to do a better job identifying all the students who need an extra hand meeting the district’s core curriculum standards.

It’s well-known not all children learn in the same way or at the same pace, but it’s not always easy to realize which kids need extra attention. Weiss is excited about a method that tracks kids’ academic progress and shows the district which ones need an intervention. The method is called RTI, which stands for Response to Instruction.

“In some places, it’s often referred to as Response to Intervention. It is a program based on the philosophy of identifying students’ needs early and attacking those with special interventions outside of the regular core curriculum,” Weiss said.

She said the strategy is being used in other schools around the country. The Juneau School District has used parts of it in a few schools in the past, but now it’s trying to use the strategy district-wide. Weiss said elementary schools used Response to Instruction last year to improve reading skills.

“Some schools are saying, ‘Hey, we really want to spend another year just focusing on reading, because we’re close, we’re not quite there, we really want to get expert at this whole RTI process with reading.’ Some schools are saying, ‘We’re chomping at the bit. We really want to get after math,’” Weiss said.

Student behavior is also on some schools’ RTI to-do lists.

This strategy has a lot of moving parts, but Weiss gave a brief explanation on how it works:

She said it lumps students into tiers according to their performance. Tier 1 is the district’s core instruction that every kid in every classroom is getting. At this level, educators are evaluating how effectively they’re reaching every student in the district.

Tier 2 is for kids who have a “higher level of need.”

“Which would mean they get some additional time in a small group, adding some instructional methods to what they’re getting in the regular classroom,” Weiss said.

She said if a student is “significantly behind,” they’re moved into the Tier 3 category.

“Which just means more time. So we increase the amount of time and focus that they’re getting and some of the strategies that we use,” Weiss said.

She said one of the most powerful parts of RTI come into play after kids are placed in a tier. They’re monitored for improvement. If a student in Tier 2 is getting additional small group instruction and it’s working, educators might keep giving that student more of the same.

“Or is it not working and they need more time, or do they need a different intervention altogether,” Weiss asked.

Finally, if students just aren’t showing enough improvement after multiple assessments and interventions, the district will consider the possibility that it’s dealing with a learning disability and move them towards special education.

Weiss said, “There’s a continuum of work happening here from looking at all kids who might need some assistance, and then narrowing and applying effective practice, as well as identifying students who might need even more than what RTI can do for them.”

She said because RTI is not just relying on teachers’ thoughts and feelings about their students’ abilities, there’s a better chance of catching kids who might otherwise fall through the cracks. It’s a systematic review of students’ performances over time.

Weiss believes RTI can help identify kids’ individual challenges so they can solve them early in their educational careers.

Each student’s data is also unique to them, not to the school. So when students change schools, their data travels with them.

 

 

A two-vehicle collision left a portion of Egan Drive partially closed for 30 minutes on Saturday afternoon. Officer Jason Vansickle said a driver travelling inbound on Egan was turning left toward Fred Meyer when the vehicle was t-boned by another vehicle travelling in the outbound lane.

Vansickle said the vehicles were carrying seven people. They were all transported to Bartlett Regional Hospital for mostly minor injuries. He said one person’s injuries were more significant, but he did not believe they were life-threatening.

Alcohol is not believed to have been a factor in the crash. Vansickle said the accident was most likely a case of driver error. The investigation is ongoing.

The Powells are a family of four living in a home in downtown Juneau. There’s Pyper – wife and mother, Justin – the only man in the house, and their two daughters: Mahala, 11, and Juniper, a newborn.

Their house was broken into in June while they were away on a business trip.

“Yeah, we came home from our trip, saw the window open, our cats scurrying in through the open window. That was the red flag for me,” said Justin.

He said the house wasn’t vandalized, but it was obvious their privacy had been invaded. Their things were moved around and weren’t where the family left them.

Juneau residents are feeling the effects of multiple burglaries that police believe are, in part, a result of increased drug use. The cost to victims can be huge.

“They took our laptop with all of our account information on it, all of our pictures from birth to now of our newborn (Juniper),” said Pyper. “They stole over $550 worth of cash, several thousand dollars’ worth of jewelry – that dates back to stuff my mom has given me, stuff my sister gave me. And my biggest treasures: my daughter’s baby teeth (Mahala) and a swatch of baby hair. I put them in my jewelry box ’cause I said, ‘That’s my biggest treasure. I’ll keep it with my treasures.”

Pyper said her sister died earlier this year so losing her jewelry was especially painful.

Justin regrets losing a silver bracelet handcrafted by his late uncle, and he had a handgun that he believes was stolen a couple of weeks before the rest of the house was hit.

“That’s when we originally got cased, I think. Whoever stole that handgun, whether they came back or told a friend, ‘Hey if you want an easy place to hit …’” said Justin.

He said they were an easy target, that they were lulled into complacency by the belief that Juneau was a crime-free town.

“Oftentimes when I would take my daughter to school in the mornings I would purposely unlock the side door so when I was coming back with Juniper and all the baby gear, it was easy for me to get back in,” Justin said.

Pyper agrees they made the break-in too easy. Both parents were especially disturbed by the theft of a picture of their 11-year-old Mahala.

“Why would you take that?” asked Pyper. “It wasn’t in a frame … that bothers me,”

She hopes the thieves got the photo by accident when they were cleaning out her dresser.

“I’m a therapist, so I hear some of the most horrific stories that there are –”

Pyper gently shoos Mahala out of earshot before continuing.

“I know that there’s a human trafficking concern in Juneau. I know that there’s child pornography in every town, I know that there are kidnappings in every town.”

The Powells said the break-in has definitely changed their lives.

Justin said, “That’s probably the worst thing about being robbed. Immediately, you start pointing the finger at everybody. It erodes trust in the community.”

Pyper agreed, “I really had to catch myself because I was giving everyone the evil eye. ‘Are you the one? Did you do this to us? Are you coming back?’ That’s what it does, it leaves you feeling vulnerable,” she said.

The couple now watches for suspicious characters in the neighborhood and they’re putting a security camera in their daughter’s room. They have stronger locks on their windows and Justin has a new, bigger gun.

“When I was younger, I swore I’d never get a weapon for self-defense. I was all about hunting, but I never felt the need to have a handgun,” he said.

That’s changed now that he has a family.

Justin said they found two things the thieves took while checking local pawn shops, but the police are still investigating and no arrests have been made.