SEWARD COUNTY — Law enforcement authorities are investigating a Kansas teacher for an alleged sex crime.

On Sunday at the request of school administration, police initiated an investigation into allegations that a teacher at the Liberal High School had sexual relations with an 18-year-old student, according to Police Captain Robert Rogers.

The investigation concluded that the incident had occurred Saturday at an address in the 1200 block of W. 10th Street in Liberal.

Police arrested the 25-year-old female teacher, according to Rogers.  An affidavit was forwarded to the Seward County Attorney’s Office seeking the charge of unlawful sexual relations.  The teacher has resigned her position.

Police did not release her name.  A bond had not been set and late Monday she was still in custody, according to Rogers.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A 33-year-old man who ran over a Wichita police officer nearly two years ago has been sentenced to more than 28 years in prison.

Justin Terrazas was sentenced Monday to 28.4 years, which will run consecutive to an 11-year sentence in a separate case from Ellsworth County.

Prosecutors say Terrazas ran over officer Brian Arterburn while fleeing in a stolen vehicle in February 2017 as Arterburn placed spike strips on a road in south Wichita.

Arterburn, a 25-year police veteran, spent nearly 10 months in hospitals in Colorado and Texas. He returned to Wichita in November 2017 and took a medical retirement from the police department last year.

Terrazas was on probation in Ellsworth County for introducing contraband into a correctional facility when he ran over Arterburn.

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) — A Kansas military school failed to adequately supervise cadets entrusted to its care and intentionally inflicted emotional distress in 2014 on a bullied 11-year-old student who had been physically tied together with his harasser in public as punishment, according to an arbitration award made public Monday.

Shortly thereafter, the boy was allegedly raped and sodomized by his harasser in a dorm room at St. John’s Military School in Salina, the court filing said.

A $369,175 arbitration award last month against St. John’s Military School and its endowment fund was made public on Monday when the family’s attorney, Dan Zmijewski, filed a procedural motion in the federal case seeking a court order confirming it. Zmijewski represents the Tennessee father of the bullied boy. The initial complaint listed the boy’s age as 12, but the family’s attorney and arbitrator both noted the boy was 11 at the time of the alleged assault.

School officials and the school’s attorneys did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment.

The arbitration award, dated Dec. 17, followed a four-day hearing in September.

The private boarding school for grades 6 to 12 draws boys from around the country as it touts its ability to develop academic and leadership skills in a military environment. Tuition is $34,100 a year, according to its website.

Arbitrator John Phillips of the American Arbitration Association found St. John’s school was suffering from decreasing enrollment and did little review of applicants to determine their own safety or the safety of other students.

The alleged perpetrator, another student who now lives in Washington state, had a troubled childhood that raised a substantial question as to whether he should have been admitted to the boarding school, according to the ruling.

Shortly after arriving at St. John’s, he was observed bullying other students and demanding that they call him “master.” The 11-year-old student was one student that he bullied extensively, and on one occasion “adult supervision” at the school decided to tie them together and leave them in a public area within the school, the court filing said.

“Not only was it an unconventional way to discipline boys that age but the boarding school’s own expert testified that it resulted in humiliation of both boys and made things only worse” for the boy who was the object of the other student’s bullying, the arbitrator wrote in his findings.

The bullied boy did not tell anyone he was sexually assaulted until more than a year later. A therapist attributed the boy’s post-traumatic stress disorder to the sexual assault, saying he will likely need treatment the rest of his life, according to the arbitration ruling.

The arbitrator noted that the school acknowledged there was “some sort of unfortunate incident,” but did not concede that a nonconsensual sexual assault necessarily occurred.

No criminal charges were ever filed in the case, which Zmijewski attributed to the fact that the rape was not immediately reported or investigated. A complaint was later made to state child welfare officials who determined the charges were unsubstantiated without even interviewing his client, Zmijewski said.

The arbitrator also faulted the school for moving an aggressive, threatening student across the hall from a student who was known to have psychological issues.

In his finding of negligence, the arbitrator also faulted the school for its lack of documentation or investigation and for its decision to allow the aggressive cadet to remain a student for the remainder of the school year. But the arbitrator did not find the conduct or failure to provide appropriate care was so outrageous or egregious as to warrant punitive damages.

TOPEKA – The Kansas Department of Health and Environment has received additional federal funds from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to keep the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) operational into March, during the Federal Government shutdown. KDHE received an additional $1,421,255 for food purchases and $889,645 for Nutrition Services and Administration. These funds now allow Kansas to purchase foods until Mar. 4 and keep staff operational until Mar. 13.

“This is good news for the WIC program in Kansas,” said David Thomason, director of the Nutrition and WIC Services Section in the KDHE Bureau of Family Health. “There is a great deal of uncertainty during the shutdown, so this news will help to communicate that the WIC program is secure into March. We will continue to share any other news about this program in the meantime.”

The USDA continues to monitor state WIC programs and is working to ensure that programs remain operational. States were instructed to contact the USDA prior to implementing any changes to the program that would curtail operations or in any way limit or restrict access to the program and its benefits.

— KDHE

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — President Donald Trump on Monday left a city shut down by a funding dispute with Congress and the year’s first snowfall to promote his trade policies and the new farm law at a farm convention in Louisiana.

President Trump Delivers Remarks at the American Farm Bureau Federation’s 100th Annual Convention https://t.co/tMWj5zj3K0

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) January 14, 2019

Trump arrived just outside of New Orleans behind schedule because a mechanical issue slightly delayed Air Force One’s departure from Washington on Day 24 of the partial government shutdown. A maintenance crew needed to reset an indicator light before takeoff, the White House said.

The president was greeted at the airport by Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, whose department is among those affected by the shutdown. Trump was also welcomed to the state by a trio of Louisiana elected Republicans — Rep. Steve Scalise and Sens. John Kennedy and Bill Cassidy — and a man carrying a boxed king cake, a local treat.

Trump was expected to discuss his trade policies, which have affected farmers, and an $867 billion, 10-year the farm bill he recently signed into law.

Some farmers attending the American Farm Bureau Federation convention said they continue to support Trump despite the difficulty they’re feeling.

Outside the convention center, several hundred demonstrators gathered holding signs that said “Open the Government Now” and “Deport Trump” and chanting “Build Bridges Not Walls” and “Love Trumps Hate.”

A stalemate between Trump and congressional Democrats over $5.7 billion the president is requesting to build his long-promised U.S.-Mexico border wall led several U.S. departments and agencies to halt services deemed non-essential just before Christmas. Federal departments that were unaffected by the shutdown ended up closing Monday after Washington was blanketed by anywhere from six inches to a foot of snow over the weekend.

Richard Musel of Bennington, Nebraska, a corn and soybean farmer, described business as “marginal” but said he doesn’t blame Trump. Musel says Trump has been good to farmers and had no choice but to get tough with China. He criticized Democrats for refusing to fund the wall.

“He’s asking for such a small amount.” Musel said of the president. “All they are is a bunch of bullies. That’s the Democrats. Our president is pretty stern. His plan, it’ll work.”

Lemuel and Shelby Ricks grow cotton, soybeans, wheat and peanuts on their farm in Conway, North Carolina. They say they’ve been hurt by low commodity prices and the shutdown. They can’t apply for financial aid the federal government is giving farmers hurt by Trump’s trade policies because of the shutdown.

The Rickses said they voted for Trump and will again in 2020, contending the country will benefit from Trump’s policies in the long run.

“We’re not giving up on him now,” Shelby Ricks said.