Police investigate reports of gunshots

Residents of a west Lawrence neighborhood awoke to gunshots early Sunday morning.

At least four people in the 2500 block of Morningside Drive called police after hearing a series of gunshots between 2 a.m. and 4:30 a.m., according to a report.

Police found no damage but recovered five .45-caliber shell casings from the area. One witness described seeing a dark-colored pickup truck speeding from the area with its headlights off.

District to consider school calendar options

The Lawrence school district will consider options for giving teachers more time to fill out elementary school grade cards.

Wayne Kruse, president of the Lawrence Education Assn., received a pledge from the school board to reopen the 2004-2005 school calendar. LEA is the union representing the district’s teachers.

He said elementary school teachers had problems earlier this year filling out the report cards, getting each copied and sent home with students in time for parent-teacher conferences.

“There needs to be more time between when we have recording-and-reporting day and when we have the conferences,” Kruse said.

Consideration of the calendar will be limited to the issue of grade cards.

Report cards for elementary students were revised this year, and require more detailed information on each student’s progress.

Free State student suspended after threats

The Lawrence school district suspended a student at Free State High School for the remainder of the 2003-2004 school year, officials said Tuesday.

Julie Boyle, the district’s communications director, said the male sophomore student was kicked out after an investigation of threats he made to harm employees of the high school and to damage the high school building.

The threats were made in writing, Boyle said.

The student had been suspended for three days Dec. 3, pending the mandatory disciplinary hearing.

A report with Lawrence Police was filed Dec. 3.

University sets exams

Kansas University has announced the following final examinations:

• Carol Stotz, pharmaceutical chemistry, “Secondary Structure and Deamidation of Ã-turn-containing Peptides,” 1 p.m. today, 100 Simons Biosciences Research Laboratories.
• Fei Tian, pharmaceutical chemistry, “Calorimetric and Spectroscopic Evaluation of Humanized Monoclonal Antibodies in Amino Acid Formulations,” 8 a.m. Thursday, Simons Auditorium.