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SD House votes to ease student drug suspensions
• PIERRE, S.D. (AP) -- The South Dakota House has voted 48-20 to approve a bill that would reduce the time some students caught with drugs are suspended from sports and other school activities.
• The Senate now will decide whether to accept a minor change made by the House.
• Current law requires that students convicted of a first drug offense be suspended from school activities for one year, but the suspension can be cut to 60 school days if they get counseling or treatment. Repeat offenders are permanently banned from activities.
• The bill would cut the suspension for a first drug offense to 30 calendar days if a student gets assessed by an addiction counselor. Students convicted a second time could cut suspensions to 60 days by getting treatment.
• Students also must miss some events.
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SD lawmaker approve making animal cruelty a felony
CHET BROKAW, Associated Press
• PIERRE, S.D. (AP) -- South Dakota would become the last state in the nation to make animal cruelty a felony under a bill that received the Legislature's final approval Tuesday.
• The House voted 54-15 to pass the measure, which was approved earlier by the Senate. It will become law if signed by Gov. Dennis Daugaard.
• Similar bills have failed in past years amid fears they could interfere with the livestock industry, but this year's measure was written in a cooperative effort led by State Veterinarian Dustin Oedekoven. Livestock groups, law enforcement officials, veterinarians, local animal control officials and some animal welfare supporters worked on the bill.
• Rep. Mary Duvall, R-Pierre, said the measure reserves felony charges only for those who willfully and maliciously seek to harm animals, while keeping a misdemeanor penalty for neglect or mistreatment. The bill also makes it clear that legal hunting, accepted livestock-raising practices and rodeos are not considered mistreatment or cruelty, she said.
• Current South Dakota law makes inhumane treatment of animals a Class 1 misdemeanor, which is punishable by up to a year in jail and a $2,000 fine. Neglect, abandonment, and mistreatment of an animal would remain a misdemeanor under the bill.
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