By CRISTINA JANNEY

Hays Post

Thanks to increases in school funding passed by the Kansas Legislature this spring, the Hays school district is able to propose a reduction in student fees for the coming school year.

The Legislature passed funding for all-day kindergarten. The new funding bill requires public schools to eliminate enrollment fees for kindergarten.

District staff also is proposing using a portion of the increase in state per pupil funding to lower the student workbook/material fees.

Administrators are proposing decreasing the material fee from $135 to $90 per year. This would be a revenue decrease of $90,000.  The workbook/material fee pays for the cost of textbooks, library books and classroom and athletic supplies.

The new base state aid per pupil will be raised to $4,006 for the 2017-2018 school year, increasing overall state funding under the new funding law.

The school funding bill is being reviewed by the Kansas Supreme Court after a number of school districts sued the state in 2010, alleging the state was providing constitutionally inadequate funding to the state’s schools. The Supreme Court found in favor of the school districts and ordered the Legislature to address the school funding formula.

The latest formula is under review by the Supreme Court, which is scheduled to have a decision later this month. Until that decision can be made, the funding bill the Legislature passed this spring was allowed to become law on July 1.

Wednesday will be the board’s first meeting of the new fiscal year and is dedicated to reorganization. Among other appointments, the board will appoint a new president and vice president.

However, the board will be short one member. Current board vice president Sarah Rankin has announced her resignation as her family is moving out of Hays.

The board will vote on a motion to publish Rankin’s vacancy, which will set in motion the process for her replacement.

Rankin is in the second year of a four-year term.

The board will also set the mileage reimbursement rate to the state rate, which is $0.535 per mile and consider a memorandum of understanding for Ellis County schools.

The board will meet at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Rockwell Administrative Center. This differs from its normal Monday meeting date because of the July 4 holiday.

 

By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post

The figures don’t lie.

This is Wilfred Kreutzer’s favorite saying.

So here are the figures on Wilfred Kreutzer.

He is 86 years old, 87 in another month.

He started work at S&W Supply in Hays in 1954 at the age of 24 in the bookkeeping department. That is 63 years ago — more than 22,000 days of service.

Most people start thinking about retirement at about age 65, but Kreutzer said the time was just not right for him.

After his wife died, he said he needed something to keep him going, so he kept working.

Kreutzer thought bookkeeping might be in his future during high school. He took many math courses and enjoyed them.

Kreutzer served int he U.S. Army from 1952 to 1954 during the Korean War. He was stationed in Germany and worked doing office duties in a message center.

He still wears a red shirt every Friday, including his last day this Friday, to honor service men and women. Many of his co-workers joined him in wearing red on his last day in honor of his service.

When he was discharged from the Army, he returned to Hays where he was born and raised.

He attended an open house at S&W and was hired shortly after by  the company’s president.

S&W Supply has its own long history.

Established during the “Dust Bowl” and “The Great Depression” by Claude Sutter and his wife Helen (Bickle) Sutter, the original company that would become S&W Supply started out small, selling a limited number of automotive parts, according to their website.

Even with the state of the economy, their business grew and Claude Sutter moved it to Hays.
The city offered them a more central location for sales within northwest Kansas.

He was then joined by Don Wells and his, wife Lyle (Bickle) Wells, and this new partnership (Sutter & Wells) is where the current company received its namesake of S&W Supply.

In 1954 S&W Supply moved to the current location at 300 E. Eighth St. in Hays.

Besides the Army and a brief stint in construction when he was young, Kreutzer has had no other job in his lifetime.

The people and the camaraderie he found at S&W Supply has been what has kept Kreutzer coming back all these years.

“I get to be amongst people in a good office. That is why I am still here,” he said.

Kreutzer also praised the great management and the good benefits for his longevity.

Management returned the compliment.

Don Bickle Sr., 89, one of the S &W owners and who is still an active employee, said of Kreutzer ’s character, “Wilfred is the most loyal, honest man I’ve ever known.”

Bookkeeping has changed much since Kreutzer began his job. When he started, he was doing the books long hand with adding machines, then calculators and then computers.

“I flowed right into it, one step at a time,” he said. “I came right on up to date that way.”

Kreutzer said he knows he will miss work and his friends and S&W Supply, but it is time to move on to other things.

He hopes to spend some time vacationing, fishing and working on the lawn and his home.

Kreutzer’s co-workers said he will be missed.

Kreutzer has two nieces and a nephew who are also all long-time employees of the same company.

Jay Weigel, nephew has worked at the company for 41 years. Nieces Debbie Casper and Coy Wasinger have worked with the company for 28 and 27 years respectively.

Jay, who works in IT, has sat next to his uncle for more than 40 years. Kreutzer is family, but the whole office is like family, Jay said, and that is why people tend to stay so long.

“It is a great place to work,” Jay said. “They have good benefits, and it is more like a family.”

Jan Stauth, office manager, said Kreutzer has been a great asset to the company.

“He has taught me a ton,” she said. “He still does things the old school way. He still does books by hand.”

Stauth continued, “It is so incredible. It is a major milestone. Not many people ever hit that.”

By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post

OSBORNE — A group in Osborne is raising money to build a new city pool.

The current city pool was built in the 1950s and is leaking.

A committee of local residents has been working for the last year with the city and has a design for a new $2.1 million pool.

The design calls for a format much like the old pool, but with a couple of slides and basketball net.

Lacey Holloway, who is on the committee, said the parents wanted an open space where children could have unstructured play.

“We want them to use their creativity,” she said.

Currently the project is a grassroots effort.

Osborne voters will be deciding on two tax issues in November, one for the hospital and another for a new EMS barn. Pool supporters did not think asking for tax dollars for a pool would be prudent at this time.

Eventually organizers hope donations and grant money could be paired with a bond issue to build the new pool.

The committee would like to break ground on the project within the next three years.

Holloway said the pool committee is just getting started with fundraising efforts, and they have a long way to go.

Their first event was a kids’ triathlon that raised $600.

The group has two more fundraisers scheduled for July 22 — a kickball tournament and softball tournament.

The kickball tournament will be from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. with check-in starting at 7:30 a.m.

Cost is $60. Games will be 30 minutes with double elimination.

Teams must have at least nine players, consisting of three members from each age group — kindergarten-4th, 5th-12th and adult. At least one team member has to be an adult.

Contact Marci Lantz at 785-346-6401 to sign up.

The co-ed softball tournament will be 2 p.m. to midnight July 22 with check-in at 1:30 p.m.

Cost is $100 per team or $150 after July 14. Games will be five innings or 45 minutes with double elimination. Team members must be 16 years old or older. Teams must have at least nine members with even numbers of men and women or at least four women.

First place wins $100 in Oz Cash.

Contact Holloway at 785-346-6603 to sign up.

The group will have more fundraising events during its end of summer festival on Aug. 19. The event will include sand volleyball, arm wrestling, music and a free swim, among other activities.

For those who wish to make a monetary donation to the project, you may mail a check to the Osborne Community Foundation in care of Osborne City Hall at 128 N. First St., Osborne, KS 67473.
Note Osborne City Pool in the memo line.

Hays USD 489 Superintendent John Thissen visited The Eagle Morning Show Thursday morning to talk about a proposed $78.5 million school bond issue.

The proposal was crafted with input from teachers, administrators and a Community Vision Team that also included community members and parents.

Some of the highlights from the bond issue include two new elementary schools, renovations of Roosevelt Elementary School, a new gym for PE at the middle school, a new auditorium at the high school, renovated classrooms and CTE space at the high school and storm shelters and secure entrances at all schools.

See more details of the plan by clicking here.

The school board is set to vote on the proposal on July 24. If the school board approves the bond, it could go on the November ballot.

 

Ellis County Sheriff

The Ellis County Sheriff”s Office has identified three juvenile suspects in the recent vandalism at the St. Andrew’s Church in northern Ellis County.

Sheriff’s deputies received tips in the case Tuesday afternoon following a press release made by the department and public information about the church vandalism.

The tips provided information on who the suspects were and about the motorcycles that were used to cause most of the damage to the church’s floor, windows and door.

Deputies interviewed two of three juveniles. Both admitted their part in the vandalism.

The sheriff’s office thanks all the tipsters who came forward for their help in solving this crime. Investigators will be forwarding the case to the Ellis County Attorney early next week.

By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post

Domestic violence costs U.S. employers billions of dollars each year in lost productivity, health care costs and absenteeism.

Victims of intimate partner violence lose a total of 8 million days of paid work each year, and the cost of intimate partner violence exceeds $8.3 billion per year, according to a study published in the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology.

Statistically it is likely that a person who is being abused is working with you.

Related: Read about how a woman escaped her abuser and fled to Kansas

A 2005 national telephone survey by the Corporate Alliance to End Partner Violence found 21 percent of full-time employed adults were victims of domestic violence and 64 percent of them indicated their work performance was significantly impacted.

In this survey, 40 percent of the respondents who were being abused said they lost productivity because of harassment by their partner at work.

Options, a non-profit group that works with survivors of domestic violence, is trying to educate the business public about what employers can do to help survivors of violence and what legal obligations they have to their employees.

Related: See how the non-profit Options helps domestic violence survivors and how the demand for their services is increasing.

Kelsey Hogan, Options shelter services coordinator, said OSHA requires employers to provide safe environments for their employees.

Between 2003 and 2008, 142 women were murdered in their workplace by their abusers.

She suggested all businesses have a policy in place on how to deal with domestic violence. This can include information about spotting signs of abuse and what supervisors, human relations coordinators and co-workers should do to respond.

Examples of these policies include sections on what to do if you have an abuser working for you.

Under Kansas law, employers are required to allow survivors of sexual assault or domestic violence up to eight days off work for the following:

• Obtaining or trying to obtain a restraining order for the survivor or his or her children
• Seeking medical care for injuries resulting from domestic violence or sexual assault
• Obtaining services from a domestic violence or rape crisis program
• Appearing in court proceeding related to domestic violence or sexual assault.

Employers are barred from discriminating or firing an employee for taking this leave.

A survivor may use paid leave if he or she has it available or unpaid leave if it is not.

Domestic violence and sexual assault survivors are not obligated to tell their employers that they have been abused or assaulted.

However, if they wish to take time off under Kansas law, they may be asked to submit documentation of the following:

• Police report
• Court order
• Documentation the survivor is receiving treatment from a medical provider or counselor because of domestic violence or sexual assault.
• Documentation from a domestic violence or sexual assault advocate stating the survivor is reeking service.

Survivors should give notice to employers in advance if they have to be absent because of domestic violence or sexual assault. However, if a survivor is unable to give notice, he or she can still give the above documentation to the employer within 48 hours and still receive protection under the law.

Employers are required to keep information about such absences and the documentation confidential.

Unemployment benefits may be available to survivors if they can show they had to leave their jobs because the survivors, their spouses or their children were victims of domestic violence.

Hogan said she wants employers and co-workers to get involved. However, when Hays employers and human relations leaders were invited to a recent presentation on domestic violence in the workplace, no one showed up.

Hogan said a variety of signs may indicate a person is being abused and they are not all physical.

Seeing bruises or physical injuries is an obvious sign, but survivors may wear long sleeves even in the summer to cover injuries.

Other signs ay include:
• Missing a lot of work
• Tardiness
• Decrease in work quality
• Becoming isolated from co-workers
• Feeling forced to stick to a strict schedule
• Co-worker may seem anxious, upset or depressed.
• Co-worker may avoid people or not answer the door or phone
• Financial consequences could include not being allowed to handle his or her own money and overdrawn accounts, foreclosures, evictions or wage garnishments.
• Legal issues, including divorce, child custody or a child abuse investigations

If you believe someone is being abused, Hogan suggested being honest and direct.

“I would come right out and talk to someone,” she said. “If I saw someone at work with bruises, I would come out say, ‘Do you need help?”

She said she would take the person aside in a quite safe place.
Options suggests the following:

• Tell the person what you see
• Express concern without giving advice or judging
• Show support
• Refer to help
(Options has a 24-hour hotline at 1-800-794-4624)

Abusers and survivors can come from all walks of life, Hogan said.

“Just because someone is well-respected in the community that does not mean they may not be an abuser,” she said. “As human beings, we want to expect the best of people.”

Hogan said it is very important when a survivor comes forward they are believed.

“When a survivor comes forward, we have to make sure a door is not slammed in their face,” she said.

Options provides personal, medical, court, law enforcement, youth/child and parent/child advocacy, as well as crisis intervention, a safe shelter, counseling, support groups, community education and a 24-hour Helpline.

Many of Options services are designed to walk survivors through the medical and legal steps necessary to report an assault or to leave an abuser. Counseling helps survivors rebuild lives after leaving an abusive situation or recovering from an assault.

For more information about Options or to refer someone, call 785-625-4202. Options’ 24-hour hotline is 1-800-794-4624. No appointment is needed to seek Options’ services. The Hays office is located at 2716 Plaza Ave.

Options offers educational presentations for individual business and organization. The organization is also always in need of volunteers and donations. Information on any of the above can be obtained by calling the main administration line.

Hays Superintendent John Thissen will be live on air at 8:30 a.m. Thursday on KAYS 1400 AM and 94.3 FM.

Thissen will talk about the school district and the upcoming $78.5 million bond issue proposal that is under consideration by the Hays school board.

By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post

The name of the woman in this story has been changed to protect her identity.

When Mary heard her husband’s truck hit the pavement, she knew it was time to go.

She grabbed the diaper bags for her 2-and-half-year-old son and 3-month-old daughter, jumped in the car with the children and drove.

That was all she took, she said, the diaper bags and their carriers.

“I didn’t even pack underwear. Who forgets underwear? I did. … It did not occur to me in the moment to pack my stuff. I was so worried about making sure I had diapers and formula and had this baby and just had this other baby, and I wanted make sure I had their binkies. It didn’t dawn on me to pack things for myself,” she said.

She knew she had to disappear. She had tried to leave her husband before, but he found her.

The violence, rape, psychological and emotional abuse was more than she could handle, and now she was afraid for her two small children.

One night when her son was a newborn, he cried in the middle of the night. Her husband flew out of bed in a rage and threatened the child. She moved herself and the baby permanently to the living room for fear her husband would attack her son for making a noise in the middle of the night.

“It wasn’t human. I looked at him when he was like that, and he was like the devil,” she said.

She tore through Georgia toward Kansas, a place unknown to her, terrified the entire way.

She was afraid to stop for gas.

“I knew he was going to get me,” she said, “because he always did. But he didn’t this time.”

Related: See how the non-profit Options helps other domestic violence survivors and how the demand for their services is increasing.

Mary grew up in a life of violence and poverty and did not know there was any other way to live. Her mother was abused and her grandmother was killed by her abuser.

Mary’s mother kicked her out of her home when she was 14. She ended up with her husband when she was 16, married very young. Soon after, she had her son.

Mary was beaten black and blue. Her husband daily degraded her.

“Then I had my son, and it progressively got worse and worse,” she said. “It was more like torture. It was abuse and humiliation and really bad stuff. It wasn’t normal. Normal people don’t think like that.”

When Mary became pregnant for the second time, she started to plot her escape, but she couldn’t see a way out.

She went to her brother-in-law, who had tried to protect her several times, for help. She asked him to help her kill her husband.

“I knew if I didn’t kill him, he was going to kill me and my children too,” she said.

She admits now this was not rational, but at the time, she believed it was the only way to get out.

Her brother-in-law convinced her that killing her husband was not the answer. She had to leave. She bided her time until the fateful day she grabbed the children and the diaper bags and sped away on the highway to disappear to Kansas.

“When I got here, I was scared. I was emotionally messed up. I was pretty unsure of what I was going to do or how I was going to do it because I had been torn down for so many years that I was not capable. No one wanted me,” she said of her arrival in Hays.

Mary ended up in even more bad situations. She fell in with some bad people. She started to use drugs as an escape.

“At first, it felt good to not feel anything,” she said of the drugs.

Mary ended up back in a series of abusive relationships. She had multiple run-ins with the law, and her children were removed from her custody.

After one arrest, she was placed with a community services worker. Mary said this worker was relentless. She came and banged on her door repeatedly for meetings. Mary sat in the dark watching her, unwilling to answer the door.

Mary finally hit rock bottom. She was sentenced to jail and served a year behind bars.

She was released to community corrections in what she was arrested in — Betty Boop pajamas and no shoes. She had no belongings, no job and no home.

But the worker who had persistently banged on Mary’s door was there again. She wouldn’t give up on Mary even though Mary did not know how to fight for herself.

“Getting in trouble was actually what saved my life,” she said, “and I met some really awesome people through some organizations here in town.”

Mary was referred to services, including Options in Hays, a group that provides free services for survivors of domestic abuse and sexual assault.

What Mary now refers to as the “Dream Team” started to form, a group of supporters who would help Mary break her cycle of abuse and addiction.

She struggled and relapsed and was put on community corrections where she met community corrections worker, Erin.

“She believed in me,” she said, “just like the other lady believed in me. I had never had anyone in my life that had been there for me. My mother was not a good mom when I was little. She was abused and tortured by her father, and she was extremely abusive when I was little.”

Because of the drugs and the years of abuse, Mary said she really did not know how to function.

“I had to retrain how to be human,” she said. “I had to learn how to talk on the phone. … I couldn’t do anything for myself ever.”

Options not only helped with counseling, but also with some household items and clothing.

“The little pieces of things that you get from organizations like this. They obviously can’t give you a brand new life and a brand new car and job and a husband that is not going to try to kill you, but the little things they do offer are huge to people. Tiny things can be really big or just a kind word from one of them. Some people have never heard a kind word.”

Although Mary worked to regain custody of her children, her final relapse ended those hopes. The state determined it would be too disruptive for her children to continue to try to place them with their mother.

Mary finally agreed to let go of attempts for custody. She said it was one of the most difficult things she ever had to do. She knows she gave them an opportunity she had never had to live in a stable home.

“I wanted my kids to have a better life than what I was capable of giving them at that time,” she said, “so I agreed to let them stay where they were. I didn’t know how to be a parent. I surely did not learn it in my house growing up. Sometimes sacrificing your pride and your happiness is more beneficial than that.”

She still keeps in contact with her children and sees them on weekends. Her son is now in college. Her children have been able to see a stable marriage, learn fiscal responsibility, attend school and participate in school activities — things she could not have given them.

“Sometimes you have to know that you are not enough,” she said.

Today Mary, 37, is clean and sober. She is a self-employed cosmetologist and she says she loves her job so much it is like she is not even working. She is remarried to a loving husband and she has built the skills she needs to cope.

One of the things that sticks with Mary to this day is that people knew her husband was beating her and did nothing. Her neighbors heard her screaming. He was arrested once for breaking Mary’s nose and her step-father bailed him out of jail and brought him home.

You can anonymously report. You can be a blessing and no one would ever know about it, she said.

Mary was alone that night as she raced down the highway with her two children as they escaped to Kansas, but Mary learned she did not have to be alone and she did not have to be a victim.

To the victims, Mary says, “They can not be victims. They can overcome anything. Anyone can. I believe that.”

She encourages others who have been abused to accept help.

“Even if you don’t believe in yourself, if you go into any type of service like Options or rehab and you let them help, even if you don’t believe you will get sober or you are not worth anything, accept the help,” she said. “Sometimes the person you meet can help you change how you perceive yourself. It is not going to happen over a day. It certainly did not happen in a day for me. There is a completely different life that we don’t know about.”

For more information about Options, call 785-625-4202. Options’ 24-hour hotline is 1-800-794-4624. No appointment is needed to seek Options’ services. The Hays office is located at 2716 Plaza Ave.

 

By CRISTINA JANNEY

Hays Post

The name of the woman in this story has been changed to protect her identity.

When Mary heard her husband’s truck hit the pavement, she knew it was time to go.

She grabbed the diaper bags for her 2-and-half-year-old son and 3-month-old daughter, jumped in the car with the children and drove.

That was all she took, she said, the diaper bags and their carriers.

“I didn’t even pack underwear. Who forgets underwear? I did. … It did not occur to me in the moment to pack my stuff. I was so worried about making sure I had diapers and formula and had this baby and just had this other baby, and I wanted make sure I had their binkies. It didn’t dawn on me to pack things for myself,” she said.

She knew she had to disappear. She had tried to leave her husband before, but he found her.

The violence, rape, psychological and emotional abuse was more than she could handle, and now she was afraid for her two small children.

One night when her son was a newborn, he cried in the middle of the night. Her husband flew out of bed in a rage and threatened the child. She moved herself and the baby permanently to the living room for fear her husband would attack her son for making a noise in the middle of the night.

“It wasn’t human. I looked at him when he was like that, and he was like the devil,” she said.

She tore through Georgia toward Kansas, a place unknown to her, terrified the entire way.

She was afraid to stop for gas.

“I knew he was going to get me,” she said, “because he always did. But he didn’t this time.”

Related: See how the non-profit Options helps other domestic violence survivors and how the demand for their services is increasing.

Mary grew up in a life of violence and poverty and did not know there was any other way to live. Her mother was abused and her grandmother was killed by her abuser.

Mary’s mother kicked her out of her home when she was 14. She ended up with her husband when she was 16, married very young and soon after had her son.

Mary was beaten black and blue. Her husband daily degraded her.

“Then I had my son, and it progressively got worse and worse,” she said. “It was more like torture. It was abuse and humiliation and really bad stuff. It wasn’t normal. Normal people don’t think like that.”

When Mary became pregnant for the second time, she started to plot her escape, but she couldn’t see a way out.

She went to her brother-in-law, who had tried to protect her several times, for help. She asked him to help her kill her husband.

“I knew if I didn’t kill him, he was going to kill me and my children too,” she said.

She admits now this was not rationale, but at the time, she felt it was the only way to get out.

Her brother-in-law convinced her that killing her husband was not the answer. She had to leave. She bided her time until the fateful day she grabbed the children and the diaper bags and sped away on the highway to disappear to Kansas.

“When I got here, I was scared. I was emotionally messed up. I was pretty unsure of what I was going to do or how I was going to do it because I had been torn down for so many years that I was not capable. No one wanted me,” she said of her arrival in Hays.

Mary ended up in even more bad situations. She fell in with some bad people. She started to use drugs as an escape.

“At first it felt good to not feel anything,” she said of the drugs.

Mary ended up back in a series of abusive relationships. She had multiple run-ins with the law, and her children were removed from her custody.

After one arrest she was placed with a community services worker. Mary said this worker was relentless. She came and banged on her door repeatedly for meetings. Mary sat in the dark watching her, unwilling to answer the door.

Mary finally hit rock bottom. She was sentenced to jail and served a year behind bars.

She was released to community corrections in what she was arrested in Betty Boop pajamas and no shoes. She had no belongings, no job and no home.

But the worker who had persistently banged on Mary’s door was there again. She wouldn’t give up on Mary even though Mary did not know how to fight for herself.

“Getting in trouble was actually what saved my life,” she said, “and I met some really awesome people through some organizations here in town.”

Mary was referred to services, including Options in Hays, a group that provides free services for survivors of domestic abuse and sexual assault.

What Mary now refers to as the “Dream Team” started to form, a group of supporters who would help Mary break her cycle of abuse and addiction.

She struggled and relapsed and was put on community corrections where she met community corrections worker, Erin.

“She believed in me,” she said, “just like the other lady believed in me. I had never had anyone in my life that had been there for me. My mother was not a good mom when I was little. She was abused and tortured by her father, and she was extremely abusive when I was little.”

Because of the drugs and the years of abuse, Mary said she really did not know how to function.

“I had to retrain how to be human,” she said. “I had to learn how to talk on the phone. … I couldn’t do anything for myself ever.”

Options not only helped with counseling, but also with some household items and clothing.

“The little pieces of things that you get from organizations like this. They obviously can’t give you a brand new life and a brand new car and job and a husband that is not going to try to kill you, but the little things they do offer are huge to people. Tiny things can be really big or just a kind word from one of them. Some people have never heard a kind word.”

Although Mary worked to regain custody of her children, her final relapse ended those hopes. The state determined it would be too disruptive for her children to continue to try to place them with their mother.

Mary finally agreed to let go of attempts for custody. She said it was one of the most difficult things she ever had to do. She knows she gave them an opportunity she had never had to live in a stable home.

“I wanted my kids to have a better life than what I was capable of giving them at that time,” she said, “so I agreed to let them stay where they were. I didn’t know how to be a parent. I surely did not learn it in my house growing up. Sometimes sacrificing your pride and your happiness is more beneficial than that.”

She still keeps in contact with her children and sees them on weekends. Her son is now in college. Her children have been able to see a stable marriage, learn fiscal responsibility, attend school and participate in school activities — things she could not have given them.

“Sometimes you have to know that you are not enough,” she said.

Today Mary, 37, is clean and sober. She is a self-employed cosmetologist and she says she loves her job so much it is like she is not even working. She is remarried to a loving husband and she has built the skills she needs to cope.

One of the things that sticks with Mary to this day is that people knew her husband was beating her and did nothing. Her neighbors heard her screaming. He was arrested once for breaking Mary’s nose and her step-dad bailed him out of jail and brought him home.

You can anonymously report. You can be a blessing and no one would ever know about it, she said.

Mary was alone that night as she raced down the highway with her two children as they escaped to Kansas, but Mary learned she did not have to be alone and she did not have to be a victim.

To the victims, Mary says, “They can not be victims. They can overcome anything. Anyone can. I believe that.”

She encourages others who have been abused to accept help.

“Even if you don’t believe in yourself, if you go into any type of service like Options or rehab and you let them help, even if you don’t believe you will get sober or you are not worth anything, accept the help,” she said. “Sometimes the person you meet can help you change how you perceive yourself. It is not going to happen over a day. It certainly did not happen in a day for me. There is a completely different life that we don’t know about.”

For more information about Options, call 785-625-4202. Options’ 24-hour hotline is 1-800-794-4624. No appointment is needed to seek Options’ services. The Hays office is located at 2716 Plaza Ave.

 

By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post

Options workers have often said they are the best-kept secret in town.

But perhaps not anymore.

After the organization, which assists survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence, began a public awareness campaign last year, calls to the Options hotline more than doubled.

Jennifer Hecker, Options: Domestic and Sexual Violence Services executive director, said she did not believe the occurrences of sexual assault and domestic violence have dramatically increased, but more people are aware of the nonprofit’s services.

“We wanted to pull the curtain back,” Hecker said. “We didn’t know if people would respond, but we wanted to let them know there was an environment of safety. There are more people in the shadows. We want to reinvigorate hope. We want them to know there is hope out there and know there is hope out there for me.”

Related: Read about how a woman escaped her abuser and fled to Kansas

During the same time the hotline calls increased by 267 percent, the number of survivors served at the Options shelter increased by 36 percent — and is projected to grow 58 percent this year.

Overall demand for services was up 159 percent in 2016, and Options is on pace to see 50 percent growth in 2017.

Options provides personal, medical, court, law enforcement, youth/child and parent/child advocacy, as well as crisis intervention, a safe shelter, counseling, support groups, community education and a 24-hour Helpline.

Many of Options services are designed to walk survivors through the medical and legal steps necessary to report an assault or to leave an abuser. Counseling helps survivors rebuild lives after leaving an abusive situation or recovering from an assault.

Kelsey Hogan, shelter services coordinator, said all Options services are free and all contacts are confidential. Advocacy workers are there to support survivors and will not push to report the crime if the survivor does not wish to.

The organization also can offer limited financial help for people who are trying to leave an abusive home. Some survivors have not been allowed to handle their own money and leave abusive situations with nothing.

There is no time limit on receiving help. Some survivors seek help long after the abuse or assault is over. Hogan said it can sometimes be years before survivors are ready to come forward. Options works with men, women and children and people from all walks of life, including those from the LGBT community.

Options has a male advocate for those who feel more comfortable talking to men, offers materials in Spanish and Braille, and works the Kansas Language Line to provide interpreters.

The nonprofit offers classes for domestic violence survivors on pattern changing. Hogan said survivors often find themselves going from one destructive relationship to another, and support groups and counseling can help them break the cycle.

Options serves 18 counties, including Ellis, Russell, Trego, Gove, Logan, Wallace, Osborne, Rooks, Graham, Sheridan, Thomas, Sherman, Smith, Phillips, Norton, Decatur, Rawlins and Cheyenne counties.

About a third of the survivors served by the organization are from Ellis County.

The staff at Options anticipated the education campaign would increase demand and wrote grants to increase personnel and resources to handle the influx.

Still the organization shelter, which can house 15, has been at capacity for the last two years and is in need of expansion.

Despite Options’ education and advocacy work, Hogan said stigma is still attached to domestic violence and sexual assault and can be a barrier to survivors reporting the crimes.

In Options’ 18-county service area, 91 assault victims were served last year. Seventeen cases were reported to law enforcement, and nine arrests were made.

In Ellis County, 39 survivors received services, eight incidents were reported to law enforcement and five arrests were made.

Options will conduct a workshop from 1 to 3 p.m. Wednesday at the United Way of Ellis County conference room to inform employees and human resources coordinators about how they can assist employees who might be experiencing domestic violence.

Domestic violence costs employers millions in added health care costs each year, affects productivity and increases absenteeism.

For more information about the workshop, call Options at 785-625-4202. Options’ 24-hour hotline is 1-800-794-4624. No appointment is needed to seek Options’ services. The Hays office is located at 2716 Plaza Ave.

By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post

The Hays school board voted Monday night to approve revisions to school handbooks.

Among the revisions was a new requirement of all middle school students to keep cell phones locked in their lockers during school hours.

School officials said the use of social media during class time has become a significant problem.

Locks are being ordered so the students can keep their phones, other valuables and the school-issued iPads when they are not in use for classes secure.

Students will still be able to take phones with them on sporting and extra-curricular trips.

Lance Bickle, board president, noted members of the community told him a number of high school students are not using their lockers any more. He asked if any other options had been considered rather than ordering locks and requiring phones be locked in lockers.

Superintendent John Thissen said he was not aware of what other options had been considered in forming the policy. However, he said the issue had been discussed for one to two years before the current policy was formed and teachers had tried different strategies to deal with the problem.

Sarah Rankin, board member, has two children in middle school.

“The problem is rampant. It is really causing disruption in those 50-minute classes,” she said. “Even though kids were instructed not to bring devices or to have them out of sight, with social media there is so much temptation.

“Teachers can’t be watching ever student every second, and they shouldn’t need to. I think perhaps this is where it has evolved to. I just know there have been a lot of problems this year.”

In other business, the board:
• Heard a report on a concrete bid for the high school

• Approved a Crisis Management Plan

• Set the board retreat for July 17

• Approved a $330,000 transfer of funds from the general fund to the contingency reserve fund.