Dress-code revision

Dress-code revision
YOUNGSTOWN -- The dress-code policy for pupils in Youngstown city schools has been modified slightly for this school year.
The district now requires that pupils wear polo shirts, said spokesman M. Mike McNair. Also new, pupils are permitted to wear their shirts untucked.
Color requirements remain the same: pupils must wear either a blue or white shirt and blue or black pants or skirt.
Road surface gives way
STRUTHERS -- A 1998 Ford pickup truck fell through the pavement of an access road after rushing water apparently washed away the ground underneath.
The access road connecting State Street to the Tri-County Sports Complex, 276 State St., gave way under the weight of the truck about 10 p.m. Monday, causing the left front side of the vehicle to sink into a large hole. A police report says officers could see "water gushing from the hole in the roadway."
Barricades were erected to close the access road as well as State Street between Walton and Charles Street because of flooding. Damage to the truck appeared to be minor.
Animal-cruelty charges
STRUTHERS -- Six counts of animal cruelty have been filed against a woman.
Kathleen E. Skalaris, of 349 Sexton St., was charged with animal cruelty after police found several dogs without adequate food and water locked in the house she rents, after a neighbor complained about their incessant barking Tuesday afternoon.
Four of the eight dogs were locked in the basement, one was locked in an upstairs bedroom and one had chewed through a metal can to eat what was inside, the police report says.
The odor in the house, which was strewn with urine and piles of feces, was overwhelming, police said. The stench emanated to the front porch, and Mahoning County Humane Agent Dave Nelson and officers who entered the house were forced to wear masks, the report states.
Skalaris lives in the house with her 15-year-old daughter. A warrant has been issued for Skalaris' arrest. The Mahoning County Health Department and Children Services are also investigating, Nelson said.
Woman reports rape
YOUNGSTOWN -- A Berlin Township woman was given a rape examination at Forum Health Northside Medical Center and the evidence was collected by police Wednesday night.
The 31-year-old Berlin Station Road woman gave police sketchy details. She told police that she came into the city Tuesday and picked up a female friend on Cohasset Drive to go and smoke crack at a house somewhere on the South Side. The woman said she left her friend at the house and accompanied a man who told her he'd find her some drugs.
The woman told police she ended up at a yellow house on a street off Boston Avenue, where she smoked crack and was raped by four men. The woman was locked in a bedroom overnight and then walked to a convenience store Wednesday morning and called her mother, reports show.
Disorderly conduct
STRUTHERS -- Police charged two Poland teens with disorderly conduct after they drenched three girls with a water cannon in a drive-by attack.
The two boys, ages 15 and 16, pulled up alongside the girls in a gray Chrysler about 4:40 p.m. Monday as the girls, ages 12 and 14, walked along Fifth Street near Maplewood Avenue. The boys then aimed the water cannon at the girls and soaked them.
The boys told police that they did not know the girls and that they had selected them as random targets, the police report states.
Two of the girls are deaf.
Suit against chief rejected
LOWELLVILLE -- The Seventh District Court of Appeals dismissed a lawsuit Wednesday that was filed against William Vance, Lowellville chief of police. The court also denied a counterclaim against Patrick Naples, who once worked as a part-time police officer in Lowellville.
Naples brought the case against Vance contending the chief failed to contact the state attorney general and the Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation to initiate an investigation into alleged "illegal actions and cover-up taking place in the village." It was dismissed because, court documents state, Naples "failed to file a claim upon which relief can be granted" and because he failed to cite any Ohio law establishing a clear legal right to an investigation.
The counterclaim was denied, court documents state, because there is no proof that the suit was filed merely to harass or maliciously injure the other party.