Yvonne Krumrey

In this newscast:

• Lack of affordable childcare in Sitka,
• Ketchikan welcomed a new U.S. Coast Guard cutter,
• MonkeyPox vaccine eligibility expanded in Alaska,
• Former state Rep. Dean Westlake’s son is charged with beating Westlake to death

A humpback calf appears to be okay after an encounter with a tour boat in near Juneau that left some of the whale’s skin on the boat’s hull. 

“The whale certainly felt that contact,” said Suzie Teerlink of NOAA’s Whale Sense program. “Probably didn’t feel good.”

The calf’s name is Cinder. Its mother is Flame, an often-seen Juneau regular that Teerlink describes as a “super mother.” Flame has brought four calves back to Juneau in four years, when a calf every two or three years would be typical.

But Teerlink says this latest calf, which is about six months old and maybe 18-20 feet long, is a little too interested in people.

“We’ve been getting reports about it being very curious and coming up to boats,” she said. “Weaving underneath the boat, blowing bubbles, that kind of a thing.”

Teerlink says video of the Aug. 11 incident showed the calf rolling against the boat, which was shut down at the time. Since then, NOAA researchers have seen Cinder out and about and acting normally. 

But Teerlink is concerned about the consequences of the behavior — to the calf and to anyone who encounters it.

“We really want to emphasize that these are huge animals,” she said. “A small interaction could be really harmful to anyone involved.”

Teerlink says this kind of curiosity isn’t that rare in whale calves, but encountering curious whales calls for more caution — and for giving them as much space as possible.

“I don’t want people rushing out there trying to have that experience,” she said.

Teerlink says it’s best to stay 100 yards away from whales and to idle if a whale comes closer. And with curious whales like Cinder, it might be a good idea to start backing away safely.

Correction: Teerlink said the boat that the calf struck was shut down at the time, not idling.

Transgender youth face challenges in school that most students don’t — like finding a gender-neutral bathroom or asking to be called by a different name.

To help students learn how to get what they need, the Zach Gordon Youth Center and the Juneau branch of the National Alliance on Mental Illness has created new guides for Juneau middle and high school students.

“It can be hard enough and scary enough to be a kid at school trying to figure things out,” said program coordinator Meryl Connelly-Chew. “Add in the piece of being a trans or gender-diverse young person, and potentially not having a supportive adult at home who’s helping you.”

The guides have answers to questions like how to handle name changes and negotiate activities that are typically gender-segregated — and what to do if somebody disrespects a student’s identity. 

And they explain how to navigate those problems in each of the district’s middle and high schools, complete with lists of people students may need to know, like counselors, principals and registrars.

They also have an explanation of the district’s non-discrimination policy, written for students.

“It just really became clear to us that we need to simplify some of the school district’s anti-discrimination policy into a way that young people can understand and use for themselves,” Connelly-Chew said.

The booklets debuted at the Zach’s Trans Youth Advocacy Workshop earlier this month, when trans youth were able to ask questions and hear from school staff and the people who put the booklets together.

On Aug. 23, the youth center and NAMI are hosting a webinar about the guides for family members, teachers and school staff who want to better support transgender students in Juneau.

“Okay, you are the trusted adult,” Connelly-Chew said. “So what can you do, and how might you support a young person, if they come to you, and say, ‘You’re my trusted adult, I need help with this thing?’”

The guides are available at the Zach Gordon Youth Center and online at namijuneau.org/lgbtq2.

During Tuesday night’s Board of Education meeting, the Juneau school board announced that masks are optional for students and staff during the upcoming school year. 

“Our mask policy is not on the agenda tonight as an action item. That is because we did not anticipate a change to that policy,” Juneau School District Superintendent Bridget Weiss said.

While masks remain optional, Weiss says the school district will focus on ventilation in buildings and encouraging people to stay home if they are sick. 

One change from last year is that pre-K students will not be required to wear masks. Because vaccinations weren’t available to children under five, the youngest students in the school district did have to wear masks at school last year. 

School Board President Elizabeth Siddon says she wants people to know masks are still required in cases where a student or staff member is exposed to COVID-19. That’s not a change in policy — just a continuation of the policy adopted last year.

The policy also requires mask use around high risk students, which is handled case by case, Siddon said. 

During Tuesday’s meeting, the school board moved to get rid of the requirement for all Juneau School District employees to test weekly. Last year, staff who were fully vaccinated and those who recently had COVID-19 were exempt from testing. 

Emil Mackey was the only board member to vote against repealing weekly testing. 

“If we repeal this requirement, what tool is left in our toolbox should we get another variant or a different disease that suddenly appears, to actually send the staff home?” Mackey asked the rest of the board.

Free at-home tests will be available for staff and students in school buildings. Staff can’t test students, but students can take them home to test. 

One more change for this year is that students who travel to other communities for school activities won’t have to test first unless the destination community requires it.

Update — Aug. 9, 3:55 p.m.

The Coast Guard suspended its search just before noon on Tuesday for a crew member missing from a cruise ship in Juneau. 

“We searched for 38 nautical miles around the area for approximately 11 hours, and concluded that with no results, we would end the search,” said Coast Guard Petty Officer Ian Gray. 

Gray offered condolences to the crew member’s family. 

Residents reported seeing an emergency flare around 11 p.m. Monday and then boats and a helicopter searching the channel. 

Gray said that at 10:45 p.m. Monday, Holland America reported that a 31-year-old man had gone missing and “potentially gone overboard” from a cruise ship. 

Coast Guard Sector Juneau launched a response boat twenty minutes later. An MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter from Air Station Sitka joined the search at around 12:40 a.m.

In a statement Tuesday afternoon, Holland America said camera footage showed that a crew member “likely went overboard intentionally.”

The cruise line also clarified that the man went missing from the Koningsdam. In an earlier statement, the Coast Guard said the report came from the Eurodam, which was also in Juneau and assisted in the search.

The Coast Guard asks that anyone with information that could help in the search call the Juneau command center watchstanders at 907-463-2980.

The National Suicide & Crisis Lifeline is available 24/7. Call or text 988.

Correction: The Coast Guard said that a 31-year-old man had gone missing but did not say that he was a passenger. 

This post has been updated with information from Holland America and to reflect that the Coast Guard has suspended the search.

Jeremy Hsieh contributed to this story.

Kara Willis and her husband Tyler used to spend evenings at the Mendenhall Glacier a decade ago, when they worked summers in Juneau. 

They live in Wyoming now, but they were visiting in July and reliving old memories at the glacier when they found a water bottle on the shore of the lake. 

“It was just floating in the water, and we’re like, ‘Oh, there’s garbage,’” Kara said. “But then — there’s something in it.” 

Tyler opened the bottle. Inside were 11 notes written by kids back in 2006.

“When we saw children’s handwriting and the date, the year 2006 over and over, and the sweet little facts about the kids, it was just — it was so special,” Kara said.

Written on each card is a first name, the year 2006 and what appear to be facts about the kids or memories they have from their first 9 or so years on Earth. 

One, written by a child named Gabriella, reads, “I was born in nineteen ninety nine. I can ski and clime [sic].” 

Zori Oberle wrote, “getting an IV in my head.” 

Oberle is 25 years old now, lives in Salt Lake City and works in the biotech industry.

“I unfortunately do not remember anything about this,” Oberle said. “Several people messaged me, and like, ‘Oh, is this you?’ And I was like, ‘No way! That is me!’”

She says the I.V in her head was a dehydration treatment she got as a small child after she was adopted from China by a couple who still live in Juneau.

If Oberle were to write a note in a time capsule now, she would tell her future self what to do.  

“Just stay scheming for adventure, and maybe I guess travel to China. And three: learn to surf,” she said.

After finding the time capsule, the Willises handed it over to staff at the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center, where it’s being kept. Tyler speculated that someone in the group threw the bottle onto the glacier itself and that it later floated out to the lake with meltwater. 

Julia Spofford, an assistant director for the center, also wonders if it was tossed onto the ice. 

“It was quite soggy when I got it. But luckily, it’s in pretty good condition, so you’re able to still read everything,” Spofford said. 

She encourages people to avoid leaving a trace in the future and to instead bury their time capsules at home.

“We do want to make sure there’s good messaging about leaving a trace,” Spofford. “And while we’d love finding things like this, at the glacier that you know these moments of history, we hope to not find too many more.”

For their part, the Willises are glad to have found it. They’re both teachers, with a 9-year-old of their own. They say they feel invested. 

“We were thrilled, and we thought, ‘We have to keep this safe. We have to find out the story,’” Kara said.