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 Members of the Wapakoneta Middle School Student Council pose for photo outside the classroom earlier this year. To date, the group has raised nearly $2,300 in which they have donated to various local and area organizations throughout the 2009-2010 school year. Photo provided By KRISTA HAYES Staff Writer With the end of the school year nearing, Wapakoneta Middle School Student Council members are hoping to end their term on a positive note. During the school year, the school government raised nearly $2,300 for various local and area organizations. “Each year, we try and raise as much money as we can for various clubs and organizations that we vote on and decide to help support at the beginning of the school year,” Wapakoneta Middle School Student Council President Neal Maxson said. Elected a Student Council representative of his homeroom, Maxson, a seventh-grade student, said this is his second year serving on the council. This year as president, his main responsibility is to set forth an agenda and preside over the group’s monthly meetings which are held the first and third Thursday of each month. “I joined the Student Council because I was looking for a new activity to do and thought it’d be challenging experience,” Maxson said. “Politics have always been one of the things to stick out in my head and when I grow up, I want to be a lawyer. “Overall, as president I think I have done a pretty good job,” he said. “Being president is a lot harder than what I thought it would be since I have to make the agendas, run the meetings, and keep the advisers in the loop. I have the whole weight of the council on my shoulders, and at times it can get frustrating, but I would recommend it to all the kids coming to the middle school next year because it’s a fun activity to be involved in.”
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Wednesday, 08 April 2009 |
By MATT NICHOLS Staff Writer An area school was evacuated Tuesday after a bomb was reported to be near the building. Students at Botkins Local School were ushered out the doors at approximately 11:30 a.m. amid worries that an explosive device was planted in an automobile outside the building. Botkins Police Chief Wayne Glass said his department was notified by the Wapakoneta Police Department that they had received information from “reliable sources” there was a bomb in a student’s car on the street near the school building. “Once we received the call, we exercised precautionary measures and evacuated the school and the north end of the village,” Glass said.
Glass said his department called in a bomb dog from Lima to check and sweep the area, including the vehicle the bomb was allegedly in, as well as other nearby vehicles. No explosives were found. “We just think it was a hoax,” Glass said. By 1 p.m., law enforcement officials had cordoned off entrances to the school, and a constant stream of parents and their children emerged from the Immaculate Conception Church where the students were told to wait until the search was over. Wapakoneta Police Chief Dave Webb told the Wapakoneta Daily News on Wednesday that the alleged informant was an inmate at the Auglaize County Jail. “This inmate was speaking to his counselor and wanted to get something off his chest,” Webb said. “He wanted to come clean and tell someone what he knew.” Webb said once the inmate informed his counselor of the possible bomb location, the Auglaize County Sheriff’s Office contacted the Wapakoneta Police Department, which in turn contacted Glass at the Botkins Police Department. The inmate who made the allegations has been in jail since September. Webb said the inmate apparently knew the student who had the alleged explosive device in his vehicle. “Anytime someone makes those kinds of statements, you have to take those steps,” Webb said of the school evacuation. “You can’t blow people off when it comes to something like that.” Webb said the inmate could face possible additional charges after finding his information to apparently be false. Officers from the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office, Anna Police Department and Jackson Center Police Department also assisted on the scene.
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 09 April 2009 )
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