Morning Roundup: School's Disney band trip saved by rival school

Here are some of the latest news items from this morning, Friday, Jan. 20, 2023:

Neighboring school district helps save Disney trip for high school band

United School District in Indiana County will still be taking a trip to Disney World later this year, thanks to a rival school district that offered to share its trip with them.

WJAC reported that United last week said it would have to cancel the trip amid allegations of missing funds from the band booster club.

The missing funds, earmarked for an anticipated spring trip to Florida, were raised by students, families and communities over four years, district officials said in a statement. Officials said the initial decision to nix the trip was “a heart wrenching” one.

While state police investigate the theft of the funds, the district can assure their students they will still go to Disney after neighboring — and rival — Penns Manor Marching Band agreed to share their trip and parade moment with United’s marching band, WJAC reports. Both schools are part of the Heritage Conference in sports.

District officials said they hoped the experience would teach students “some very great lessons.”

Penns Manor band director Paul Rode and United band director Luke Hamilton initiated the process of combining the musicians on the trip, which includes band students in grades nine through 12, district officials said. The idea was approved by both districts.

Depending on the outcome of the investigation, the district would “use all means, including insurance claims, to recover any missing money,” district officials said. The cash could then help younger classes fund similar trips.

“In this era of polarization and division around us, there may be no better lesson about the actual good which is achieved by cooperation, trust, support and caring,” district officials said in a statement.

One-time speakeasy left to burn in Beaver County fire

Crews allowed an abandoned building that caught fire overnight Thursday burn itself out.

The abandoned structure, located in a wooded area off Route 65 in Rochester, Beaver County, once housed a popular speakeasy, according to Tribune-Review news partner WPXI.

Rochester Fire Chief Mike Mamone told WPXI that the building had been empty for years and access to it is poor. The building was fully involved in the fire when crews arrived, so their plan is to monitor the blaze and allow it to burn.

There were no injuries, WPXI reported, and no hazards in the area to make it unsafe for the building to continue burning.

Mamone said officials will investigate the cause of the fire.

Woodland Hills joins activist, former pro football player on mentorship programs

Woodland Hills School District on Thursday announced it will partner with Pittsburgh activist and entrepreneur Leon Ford and former pro football player Trey Edmunds to provide mentorship programs to students.

“We have made a commitment to provide a wide range of support systems to our students,” Superintendent Danial Castagna said. “Leon and Trey each have an amazing ability to connect with our youth.”

The pair, he said, can provide students with “valuable resources and tools they can utilize throughout their lives.”

Ford was paralyzed after being shot by a Pittsburgh police officer during a traffic stop in a case of mistaken identity. He has since worked for social change, partnering with former Pittsburgh Police Chief Scott Schubert to form The Hear Foundation, which aims to address gun violence reduction and trauma.

His “From Surviving to Thriving” program will begin as a six-week interactive mentoring program with students that includes writing exercises, meditation, storytelling and other self-care ideas.

“I can directly relate to a lot of what our young people experience,” Ford told the district’s school board, which has approved the program.

Edmunds spent six years in the NFL, including parts of five seasons with the Pittsburgh Steelers. He launched the My Brother’s Keeper Foundation with his siblings Terrell and Tremaine Edmunds, who are also pro football players.

His program will include meetings three times a month from February through the rest of the school year. It will include larger motivational presentations and small group discussions about specific school and community issues.

Edmunds said he grew up in a school similar to Woodland Hills and “took on some of the same challenges” students there face today.

Both programs are geared to high schoolers.

Police charge Brookline couple after 6-month-old found with drugs in system

Police say two people are facing charges after a drug screening at UPMC Children’s Hospital on Jan. 13 revealed a baby had ingested drugs.

Alicia Graham, 24, and Richard Atkins Jr., 30, were charged with aggravated assault and endangering the welfare of children after the hospital notified police that a 6-month-old girl was admitted to the hospital with drugs in her system.

A urine sample revealed the child had cocaine metabolites and fentanyl metabolites, according to a criminal complaint.

Police said Graham told officers she had smoked crack cocaine recently and usually kept her crack pipe in the closet in the child’s nursery next to the changing table, in a dresser drawer next to the couch in the nursery, and on a red plastic plate they use to break up the crack rocks in the nursery, the criminal complaint said. She told officers those items may also be on a coffee table in the middle of the nursery.

The complaint said Graham told officers the baby, who was not identified, may have ingested the drugs because she didn’t wash her hands after breaking up the crack cocaine rocks and then touched the child or her items.

According to the criminal complaint, officers searching the couple’s Brookline apartment found “a large quantity” of drug paraphernalia in the nursery, with a dirty baby bottle among the items.

Highland Park man facing charges after young relatives allege sexual abuse

A Pittsburgh man is facing more than 20 charges, including rape, indecent assault, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and endangering welfare of children, after young relatives told police he had sexually assaulted them.

A mother brought her daughter to Pittsburgh Bureau of Police’s Zone 6 station to report her daughter had told her she was sexually assaulted. She identified the suspect as Jaree Reeves-Nalls, 31, of Highland Park, a relative of hers, according to a criminal complaint.

Police did not identify the victim or her mother by name in the complaint.

According to the report, the girl told officers she was assaulted by Reeves-Nalls, her cousin, twice when she was 10 or 11 years old.

She told police she would go to her cousin’s house during the summer months while her parents were working, according to the complaint.

Police said the girl also told them she did not see Reeves-Nalls assault others, but suspected he had similarly done so to two others.

The criminal complaint said police identified a second victim, also a cousin of Reeves-Nalls, who said she often went to her cousin’s house after school until her family could pick her up. That victim told officers Reeves-Nalls began to sexually assault her when she was in first grade, according to the complaint. She accused him of raping her and showing her pornographic materials from a young age, police said.

According to the report, police found a third cousin of Reeves-Nalls who similarly alleged that she was sexually assaulted “so many times that she could not provide specific numbers” between the ages of 6 and 11.

Officers said she also told them he showed her pornographic material and told her she would get in trouble if she did not comply with his assaults.