Iowa
Bill changing definition of ‘bullying’ in Iowa law heads to governor
DES MOINES, Iowa (Iowa Capital Dispatch) – The Senate sent a bill changing how the state defines “bullying” to the governor Tuesday despite concerns by some Democrats that the measure will make it more difficult for schools to enforce anti-bullying protections.
Currently, Iowa code defines bullying and harassment in schools as electronic, written, verbal, or physical acts or conduct that create an objectively hostile school environment for a student based on “any actual or perceived trait or characteristic.” There are 17 traits listed as potential characteristics of a student that could be used in bullying, including age, race, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability and political belief. The law states that bullying is not limited to these categories.
House File 865, approved 32-16, would remove this list and reference to students being bullied because of an actual or perceived trait of a student, instead defining bullying and harassment as “repeated and targeted” acts and conduct that create a hostile school environment for a student. Sen. Sandy Salmon, R-Janesville, said this change is needed because some schools are not addressing bullying incidents if a student is being bullied for a reason not related to a listed trait.
“Those schools don’t believe they are required to act unless the behavior is based on one of the traits listed, those school officials believing their hands are tied,” Salmon said. “This has resulted in an unequal treatment of students and underreporting of bullying. The bill removes that confusion and clarifies that all students should receive an equal level of protection.”
But Democrats said the measure will weaken Iowa’s laws on bullying. Sen. Sarah Trone Garriott, D-West Des Moines, said bullying is a “life of death matter” — she has known students who have died by suicide because of bullying, and Trone Garriott said it would be more difficult for families with students who are bullied to get support and responses from schools if the bill becomes law.
The law is not limited to the traits listed, Trone Garriott said, but having the 17 characteristics in law for reference helps schools and families both identify and track many of the major reasons why students are bullied, she said.
“I think the real intent might be to make it harder for folks on this list to get the support they need, and for the people of Iowa to know what’s happening in our schools,” Trone Garriott said. “This bill makes it harder. This bill removes guidance. This bill is not going to protect anyone. It’s going to make our students more vulnerable.”
Sen. Matt Blake, D-Urbandale, said he was bullied in school, and suffered severe depression during middle school and high school because of the bullying he faced. He said the bill will make it harder for students like him to seek help from schools, saying the definition of bullying as “repeated and targeted” acts and conduct will not cover much of the harassment students face.
“The instance of my life when I was the lowest, where I went home from school and cried for the entire day and the entire afternoon, is because some child, student, that had never bullied me before said one mean word to me, and that’s what set me off that day,” Blake said. “You never know what that behavior will be that sets a child off, and taking these restrictions and making it harder to protect our children is not something we should be doing in this body.”
Sen. Mike Zimmer, D-DeWitt, the former president of the Central DeWitt School Board, called for lawmakers to look at how their local school districts address bullying. He said Iowa school districts already have board policies created to define and address bullying, which includes the ability to report bullying and harassment incidents using an online form.
“The vehicle to address bullying and harassment is already in code, it is already in board policy,” Zimmer said. “It is in every single school district in this state. If an administrator is misinterpreting this, this is not going to solve that. That’s an issue that’s got to be handled internally between the superintendent their subordinates.”
He said a better approach, if there is a problem with school officials not addressing bullying if it does not involve harassment based on limited traits, would be doing more to inform parents about the existing policy and platform.
Sen. Lynn Evans, R-Aurelia, said that while Zimmer’s point was correct — a board policy and procedure on how to report bullying exists — he said there are some school districts misinterpreting the law so that if a bullied student does not have an identity or characteristic listed in the Iowa code, “they’re passing it off as just two kids that were having a disagreement or a misunderstanding or a skirmish.”
“Every child should be protected in schools, every child, not just because they match up some certain traits that we decided to laundry list a number of years ago in Iowa code,” Evans said. “The bill that is before us cleans up Iowa code. It makes it very clear that it should apply to the majority of school board policies already on the books, but it ensures that every kid — even though their traits may not be listed in Iowa code — that they get the same protections as everyone else.”
The measure heads to Gov. Kim Reynolds’ desk.
Copyright 2025 IOWA CAPITAL DISPATCH. All rights reserved.
The national anniversary is an opportune time to explore what a commitment to history, particularly local history, does and doesn’t look like.
The history of Iowa: From Native Lands to statehood
What we know as Iowa was once home to several Native American tribes. Here’s how the state got its name and when it joined the union.
As the United States reaches 250 years, many Iowans’ thoughts on the next four months, when, for the first time, in two decades, they’ll elect a governor who hasn’t already been governor.
The gubernatorial campaign’s contours are taking shape in television ads, on social media and in meetings around the state. In those forums, some narratives about Republican Zach Lahn and Democrat Rob Sand are emerging — and are easily rebutted.
One idea worth a closer look, though, comes from one of Lahn’s consistent refrains: that Iowans are not properly sharing our state’s story or its history with each other and with our children. The national anniversary is an opportune time to explore what a commitment to history, particularly local history, does and doesn’t look like.
“I believe we are losing our culture as Iowans,” Lahn said at the Republican State Convention June 13. “I believe the history and the heritage of our people truly matter. I believe the stories of our history matter.”
While the editorial board believes our history matters, what he appears to define as our culture and our heritage also matters. And it also matters how we, as a state and nation, preserve the teaching of our history.
We can talk about history outside of the culture-war context
Lahn ties this plank to accusations, essentially, that Democrats want to suppress broader American history because they want children to hate their country. After the soaring quote about what matters, Lahn went on to say that “the left” knows that “the shortest way to destroy a culture is to destroy their stories ― make sure that they are ashamed of where they came from.”
That isn’t close to this editorial board’s view. Lahn is misrepresenting the majority of left-of-center Americans. Understanding this state and this country’s history, both the glorious and shameful parts, are key to telling our stories.
But let’s try our best to set aside this culture-war land mine for today and instead zero in on how we can best conserve the tapestry of Iowa’s past.
This December will mark 180 years since Iowa’s statehood ― more than two-thirds of the United States’ existence. The state’s government should reinvigorate its commitment to conveying and preserving Iowa history. That includes how and when history is taught in public schools, as well as the work of the State Historical Society and related units, which depend on state support.
That’s easy enough to say. But both pieces involve some zero-sum games.
Make some room for Iowa history in high school curriculum
Teachers are in front of students for only so many hours in a year, and state lawmakers and other regulators are constantly stuffing more curriculum requirements into that time. Just this year Gov. Kim Reynolds signed into law new minimum requirements for time spent in physical activity. That was one of the better parts of the mixed-bag “Iowa MAHA” bill, but Iowa can’t stuff 1,500 hours of worthy coursework into the 1,080 hours of each school year.
Also this year, the state Board of Education approved new social studies standards for use in kindergarten through 12th grade. The 219-page document is filled with Iowa connections to social sciences, national politics and world history to enrich lessons in those subjects. But specific focus on Iowa’s past is limited mostly to first and second grades. That’s too little.
Nothing in the standards’ high school curriculum screams that it’s dispensable, to be fair. But U.S. history classes could make some room to expose high school minds for a few weeks to Iowa’s story, from before European exploration to territory days and early statehood and the constant transformation since.
Restore funding for Annals of Iowa and other history initiatives
Meanwhile, relentless belt-tightening has threatened the work of historians to investigate and answer questions about Iowa’s past. The State Historical Society and other agencies were once combined in the state Department of Cultural Affairs; the 2023 state government reorganization closed that department and shunted pieces of the history apparatus to the Department of Administrative Services and the Economic Development Authority.
More concretely, much consternation greeted the 2025 announcement that the Iowa City branch of the Historical Society would be closed, leaving the only physical facilities in Des Moines. Experts said it would stunt research work in eastern Iowa and could lead to the permanent loss of some documents and artifacts, to say nothing of cutting off the possibility of locals deciding to try more casual research.
The state also announced plans last year to step back from editing the history journal Annals of Iowa, a change attributed to “increasingly lean staff.” Historians have called it a singular outlet for scholarship on Iowa topics. Subscribers covered most of the printing cost. No new publisher has been announced.
If history is as important as Lahn says, the next governor and Legislature should resist the temptation to see it as an easy place to save a few bucks compared with, say, taking state troopers off the roads or compromising public health services. The state budget will speak more loudly than rhetoric. And if it truly comes down to history vs. state troopers, Iowa might need to figure out ways to increase government revenue.
History should elicit wonder, regret and pride
A few of Iowa’s stories are widely known, especially to longtime residents. The Iowa Supreme Court’s first ruling, in 1839, In Re Ralph, declaring a Missouri man was free and not bound to his former slave owner in Missouri. The seed genetic innovations that Henry Wallace used to transform the agriculture profession. The Day the Music Died. The despair of the 1980s farm crisis.
But few Iowans could say very much about the periods before statehood and before European exploration. And even the above 19th-century-and-beyond bullet points barely scratch the surface of the wonder, regret and pride to be found in our collective pasts between the Missouri and Mississippi.
When Lahn visited the Register editorial board before the Republican primary election, he gave the right answer to a question about his divisive framing about teaching history. “People that have challenged me on this, they go back to talking about the horrid past of America, the harms that we’ve done to other groups and things like that. And I don’t want to ignore those things,” he said. “I think there’s truth behind things that that we have done wrong as a country. But I think what defines America is how we’ve tried to set the path right. And I just want to make sure that that’s the story we’re telling our young kids is that, yes, we’ve had these pieces in our history that were really tough, that were bad, but look at what we did to make things better, not just for us, but for the entire world.”
The campaign for governor will be better off if Lahn and other candidates stick to that more holistic and more unifying message. All Iowans running for office ought to be able to agree on that philosophy ― and then work to back it up with resources. That would give students and adults a better chance to understand, and continue to discover more about, where we’ve come from.
Lucas Grundmeier, on behalf of the Register’s editorial board
This editorial is the opinion of the Des Moines Register’s editorial board: Rachel Stassen-Berger, executive editor; Lucas Grundmeier, opinion editor; and Richard Doak and Rox Laird, editorial board members.
IOWA CITY, Iowa. — Fans at Kinnick Stadium for Savannah Bananas game are encouraged to take cover as storm hits Iowa City.
University of Iowa Police confirmed at least three children have been reported missing in the crowds below the concourse. One missing child is a two-year-old girl.
A lightning delay was issued at 5:45pm where announcements were made over the loud speaker and the video board provided instructions as to were instructed to exit the stands.
Stadium operations projected a map of shelter locations including the Indoor Track, Field House, Carver Hawkeye Arena and the Dental Building.
The hallways leading to the concourse are packed with fans trying to stay out of the rain, leaving little to no room to move around.
Security has paused entrance to the stadium, as hundreds of fans are outside in the rain.
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The game may not resume until 30 minutes following the last lighting strike.
INDIANOLA, Iowa (ICD) – After being convicted last year of 10 felonies including theft and dependent adult abuse, a central Iowa nurse is facing sanctions from the state’s Board of Nursing.
Registered nurse Holly Renee Carlson of Indianola is charged by the board with being convicted of a criminal offense that directly relates to the duties and responsibilities of the nursing profession, and failure to notify the board of a criminal conviction within 30 days. A hearing on the charges is scheduled for Oct. 16, 2026.
Court records indicate that in December 2025, a Warren County jury found Carlson guilty of one count of ongoing criminal conduct, six counts of first-degree theft against an older individual, one count of second-degree theft against an older individual, and two counts of dependent adult abuse.
According to prosecutors’ court filings, The Iowa Medicaid Fraud Control Unit and the Indianola Police Department launched an investigation into Carlson in 2024.
Prosecutors alleged Carlson financially exploited her parents while also working as a “legal nurse consultant and case manager” for her own company, Carlson & Associates. Prior to 2019, prosecutors said, she had worked as a case manager for the Des Moines office of the Veterans Administration.
According to the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, Carlson was granted power of attorney over the affairs of her mother and father in 2016. In 2019, her father entered Vintage Hills, an Indianola senior living facility, due to issues with dementia.
In December of that year, Carlson allegedly submitted a change-of-beneficiary form to John Hancock Insurance, switching the beneficiary of her mother’s life insurance policy from her father to herself. When her mother passed away a few weeks later, Carlson submitted a claim for her mother’s life insurance and was paid $251,027.70, prosecutors alleged.
According to MFCU investigators, Carlson also transferred the family farm, and all of its land, out of her mother’s name, preventing Vintage Hills from placing a lien on the property to collect money owed from the mother’s stay at the facility, and deposited loan proceeds into her own bank account rather than using the money to improve the farm.
Investigators also alleged Carlson regularly withdrew money from her father’s bank account, and also sold two of his vehicles, without paying the bills for his care at Vintage Hills. “ln the end, after reviewing all of the bank records and various other records, it was determined that Carlson had financially exploited (her parents) for $456,829.09,” a Medicaid Fraud Control Unit investigator told prosecutors in a sworn affidavit.
Court records show that after her conviction, Carlson was sentenced to three years of probation tied to a 25-year suspended prison sentence.
Carlson referred the Iowa Capital Dispatch to her attorney, Trent Nelson, who declined to comment other than to say the criminal convictions are being appealed and the allegations against Carlson had nothing to do with her practice as a nurse.
Other Iowa-licensed nurses facing charges recently disclosed by the board include:
— Susan Louise Peden of Bondurant, an advanced registered nurse practitioner who is charged by the board with professional incompetence including a lack of knowledge, skill or ability to discharge her professional obligations; deviation from the standards of learning, education, or skill ordinarily possessed by a nurse; committing acts that might adversely affect a patient’s welfare; prescribing or distributing drugs in an unsafe manner, and prescribing or distributing drugs without assessing or evaluating the patient. A hearing on the matter is scheduled for Oct. 16, 2026.
According to the board, Peden, also known as Susan Louise Deo, has been an advanced registered nurse practitioner since May 2018. State records indicate the investigation into her conduct was initiated in 2024, the same year Peden founded Bondurant Dermatology.
Iowa Capital Dispatch was unable to reach Peden for comment.
— Nicolette Rae Lovitt of Coon Rapids, a registered nurse who is charged by the board with deviating from the standards of learning, education or skill ordinarily possessed by nurses; engaging in behavior that constitutes unethical conduct or practice harmful to the profession; and engaging in unethical conduct or practice harmful or detrimental to the public by violating professional boundaries. A hearing on the charges is scheduled for Oct. 16, 2026.
Iowa Capital Dispatch was unable to reach Lovitt for comment.
— Jaci M. Moore of Preston, a licensed practical nurse who is charged by the board with misappropriating or attempting to misappropriate medications or supplies of a patient or clinic; committing an act that might adversely affect a patient’s welfare; and failing to assess or evaluate a patient or client. A hearing on the charges is scheduled for Oct. 16, 2026.
Iowa Capital Dispatch was unable to reach Moore for comment.
Iowa Capital Dispatch is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.
Copyright 2026 KWQC. All rights reserved.
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