Monday morning read: Iowa's school security takes on renewed priority, Faith-based providers add to social services, Four Oaks withdraws from foster parent retreat

School security in Iowa takes on renewed priority- His southeastern Iowa students and staff know what do if a fire breaks out in their school, or if a tornado touches down nearby, Superintendent Dave Harper said.

For those emergencies, there are drills to prepare students and clear action plans.

'But do we have all the way down to a natural disaster or an active shooter plan? No,' said Harper, who is a shared superintendent for the Sigourney and Pekin school districts, both near Ottumwa.

It's something he's working to change, especially after a mass shooting earlier this month inside a Parkland, Fla., high school left 17 dead. Read more...

Offering hope: Faith-based providers add to social services in an evolving climate- When Samantha Allsup moved to Cedar Rapids in late 2017, she had her 4-year-old son with her and little else.

Allsup wanted a fresh start after she said she had to obtain a no-contact order for her son's father and move to Cedar Rapids from southern Iowa. Now 26, she still was searching for a job when interviewed for this article in early 2018.

Without family in Eastern Iowa, she and her son stayed at area homeless shelters, which Allsup said confused her son, Zephaniah. Now, Allsup and her son live in a two-bedroom apartment in northeast Cedar Rapids, though Allsup continues to search for a job and household supplies, such as furniture, mattresses and dishes. Read more...

Four Oaks withdraws from foster parent retreat at Bible camp- Four Oaks, a Cedar Rapids-based social service agency with a state contract to recruit and train foster parents in Iowa, is defending its use of church facilities despite concerns from some Iowans it may deter prospective foster parents who aren't Christians.

Four Oaks last month withdrew from a training retreat set for this weekend at the Village Creek Bible Camp in Lansing after learning it was marketed as being for 'like-minded families' and included devotions and child care provided by staff screened for their views of homosexuality and divorce. Read more...

Campuses become epicenters in hate speech debate- A troublesome discovery in October 2016 led University of Iowa administrators to reach out to the campus cultural houses.

'Yesterday, (flyers) with a hateful message were discovered on and around the University of Iowa's Latino Native American Cultural Center, LGBTQ Resource Center, and Afro-American Cultural Center.'

Sixteen days later, they shared another message, this time with the entire campus. Read more...

Hlas: Jordan Bohannon and a record he refused to break- It takes courage to be a team's primary long-range shooter in basketball, to be the guy a team counts on to stick shots most players can't consistently make.

It takes more guts to do what Jordan Bohannon did Sunday night, which was intentionally miss a free throw at a moment in which his Iowa team had yet to fully secure a victory. 

The Hawkeyes beat Northwestern 77-70 at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. The game itself had little cosmic meaning. Iowa snapped a six-game losing streak and dodged tying Rutgers for last place in the Big Ten. The BTN won't replay it 27 times this summer. Read more...