Alabama's Marine Resources Division and the Dauphin Island Sea Lab are investigating after vacationers found dozens of dead sharks along the shore of Mobile Bay.
Media outlets report the sharks, mostly identified as bull sharks, were discovered Saturday morning. Sabrina Rios, who was on vacation with her family, reported finding a net with about 40 sharks inside.
Chris Blankenship, director of the Alabama Marine Resources Division, says it appears the sharks were caught in a recreational gill net and then discarded. There were 57 total sharks discovered. Blankenship says the sharks were collected and will be donated for research by shark expert Dr. Marcus Drymon.
Teachers from across the country are in Alabama this week to learn about the Civil Rights Movement. Now, one group is hoping to inform both young and old of the movement’s history.
The Alabama Humanities Foundation has invited K-12 educators to participate in an interactive study on Alabama’s role during the movement. The workshop is called “Stony is the Road We Trod: Alabama’s Role in the Civil Rights Movement.”
Dionne Clark is the Program Director for the Humanities Foundation. She says the teachers will be able to put themselves where the events happened.
"This workshop is a week-long intensive study of Alabama’s role in the civil rights movement. 36 teachers across the nation will participate. While they’re here, they will go to national landmarks that are associated with the Civil Rights movement.”
Clark says the instructors will also hear from experts on the Civil Rights Movement as well as former protesters who were active during the process. The workshop will be based in Birmingham and will run through Saturday.
As the state of Alabama looks to better education as a whole, one group is putting on a workshop to broaden teachers’ art perspectives.
The Alabama Alliance for Arts Education will hold their 20th annual SAIL workshop for teachers across the state. During the four-day process, teachers will better understand the fine arts and how they can introduce them into their daily class schedules.
Donna Russell is the Executive Director for the Alliance. She says the program will feature alumni to better show teachers how the SAIL program helps students.
“The alliance as a whole has a philosophy that all children should have equal opportunity to discover and develop their talents in the arts and we believe that all should have a sequential and comprehensive education. All Alabamians should gain enough knowledge about the culture and heritages of others they could understand.”
Russell says participants will work on all forms of fine arts including poetry and theater. The workshop runs at the Huntington College campus in Montgomery through Friday.
Many kids in Alabama will be a little safer on school buses, thanks to a new state law.
The Tuscaloosa News reports starting this month, school systems statewide have the option of installing cameras on the stop arms of school buses to monitor cars that illegally pass them. Schools in counties such as Jackson and Limestone are already looking to invest in them.
The law was passed in April and allows school systems to enter into contracts with third-party providers to install and maintain the cameras.
Revenue from the citations issued would be split 40-40 between the city or county and the school systems themselves, with the remaining 20 percent going to the Alabama Department of Education and the Alabama Department of Public Safety.