Draper student places third in national spelling bee
A Draper student placed third in the 2023 Scripps National Spelling Bee on Thursday.
Surya Kapu, an eighth grader at American Preparatory Academy, was one of 229 kids who qualified for the national bee. He out-spelled all but two of them, finally being eliminated by misspelling the word “kelep,” which is a type of Central American stinging ant.
This is Kapu’s final year of eligibility for the spelling bee. He ranked fifth last year.
Scripps National Spelling Bee began in 1925, with students qualifying by winning regional competitions across the country. This year, 11 million students participated at the school level.
Bibles removed from some Davis County schools for 'inappropriate content'
Copies of the King James Bible are being removed from elementary and junior high school library shelves in Davis County after an unknown person complained the texts had inappropriate content for younger children.
A committee with the Davis School District Board of Education reviewed the request and decided that while there wasn’t sensitive material as defined in Utah Code, some of the vulgarity and violence was age-inappropriate for younger readers. It’s expected to be removed from seven to eight elementary and junior high shelves, but not from any high schools.
An appeal has already been filed requesting the Bible be retained at all age levels. The request will be heard by a three-person committee and then sent to the full Davis School District Board of Education for a final decision.
It’s been a year since a law passed allowing residents to challenge books in school libraries. As of March, the law has been used 81 times, with Davis County removing 33 books for inappropriate material for younger readers like sex, vulgarity and violence.
Salt Lake County event offers resources to Afghanistan refugees
Salt Lake County hosted the Emergency Kit Distribution and Resource Fair for Afghan refugees Thursday.
Immigrants were able to walk through resource booths about topics like health care access, obtaining library cards and outdoor recreation. They also got emergency kits filled with items like food, menstrual products, flashlights and infant care materials.
The event was a nine-month work in progress, and was headed by the Salt Lake County Office for New Americans, with support from several other groups such as the Utah Refugee Center, Asian Association of Utah and Spice Kitchen Incubator.
Over 900 refugees currently call Utah home, with over 550 of them living in Salt Lake County.
