Putnam City Elementary Students Witness Solar Eclipse
Monday’s solar eclipse was a unique experience for Oklahomans young and old. Elementary students at Putnam City Public Schools took a break from class to witness the celestial event.
They may not be quite in the path of totality, but Pre-K through fifth graders at Putnam City’s Tulakes Elementary School are still excited to experience 94% totality at the solar eclipse.
"The moon getting in front of the sun, and it’s gonna be less daylight today, and whenever I look at it, it looks like a toenail," one student said.
When it hits peak coverage, a dim twilight settles over the playground, the temperature drops, and students look through their eclipse glasses and cereal box pinhole viewers.
"It looks like a tyrannosaurus rex took a bite out of it," another student said.
Afterward, fourth grader Camila recorded her scientific observations on a worksheet.
"We’re gonna send it to NASA, and we’re gonna talk about whenever we started the time to see the eclipse, and whenever we’re gonna end to see it, and what we saw or heard," Camila said.
Amy Lauver teaches STEM at Tulakes.
"We made a couple different models in class to show what happens when the moon passes in front of the sun, and we used globes and flashlights to make a shadow on the earth," Lauver said.
They were looking forward to it, but she says she didn’t know just how excited they’d get.
"I didn’t expect them to be so in awe of it, to see how they were connecting what we did in the classroom to what they were seeing in person," said Lauver. "And just for them to get to have actually experienced it instead of just learning it in the classroom, I think that will make it stick with them for life."
As the temperature starts to climb and a circular rainbow appears in the sky, the little scientists file back into their classrooms, breathlessly reliving their experience of the cosmos.
New Data Reveals Underreported Oklahoma Prison Homicide Numbers
Oklahoma’s District Attorneys Council previously reported 14 inmate homicides from 2019 to 2023, but new data from the Department of Corrections shows the real number is at least double that.
ODOC records show at least 29 inmates died by homicide from 2019 to 2023. The department is also investigating 28 inmate deaths that have occurred since 2023 — the causes of death have not been determined.
A federal report shows Oklahoma had the second highest prison homicide rate in the country from 2001 to 2019, behind South Carolina.
This comes as ODOC is under increased scrutiny from lawmakers regarding the conditions at the state’s prisons.
Last month, Republican State Rep. Justin Humphrey held a House Criminal Justice and Corrections meeting to discuss his concerns about the state of Oklahoma’s prisons and call for the Department of Labor to conduct an investigation.
Bill Proposing Criminal Charges for STI Spread Advances, Sparks Concerns from Tulsa Clinic
An Oklahoma House bill seeking to charge Oklahomans for intentionally and recklessly spreading sexually transmitted infections is heading to the Senate Floor. An STI testing clinic in Tulsa is concerned the bill will worsen infection rates.
House Bill 3098 by Elgin Republican Toni Hasenbeck would add sexually transmitted infections like chlamydia and HPV to a list of diseases already criminalized by Oklahoma law. People who intentionally or recklessly spread these infections could face two to five years in prison.
Jeff Burdge, a development and communications director from the Tulsa STI clinic H.O.P.E Testing, says the word reckless isn’t defined, leaving an open door for lawsuits.
“Many Oklahomans aren't even aware that they have an STI. You're criminalizing a group of people that may not even know what they have," said Burdge.
Burdge says he worries this bill will encourage Oklahomans not to get tested and target people who lack access to health services and treatment.
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