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Show C-1 B-1 STORYTELLERS WEIGH IN ON POWER OF ART UOP EXPANSION PLAN ENTERS THE FAST LANE WAY WE WERE, A-9 HAVE A COOL PHOTO? COLUMNS, A-10 TOWN’S BEGINNING WAS NO FANTASY TALE Share it to #parkcitypics or @parkrecord on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook, and we’ll run the week’s best in print TOM KELLY CRUISES DEER VALLEY’S CORDUROY Park Record. The PA R K C I T Y, U TA H | W W W. PA R K R E C O R D . C O M Wed/Thurs/Fri, January 29-31, 2020 Serving Summit County since 1880 Vol. 139 | No. 103 $1.00 State scraps changes to bullying rule Proposal would have removed protections for students based on sexuality and gender identity ALEXANDER CRAMER The Park Record RYAN KOSTECKA The Park Record F or the last decade, Nick Page has been a regular spectator at the annual World Cup moguls competition at Deer Valley Resort. Each year, he stands at the bottom of the moguls run, watching with great anticipation to see what tricks will be thrown and who will cross the finish line first. Come next month, the 17-year-old Parkite will once again be in attendance at the FIS freestyle World Cup at Deer Valley, which runs Feb. 6-8. But rather than waiting at the bottom of the hill with suspense, Page will be strapped in at the top — this time as a competitor. “It’s going to be really cool to be standing on front of everyone from my hometown, listening to them yell and cheer,” Page said. “Knowing they’re 3,200 meters below me, just waiting for me to cross the finish line, that’s as exciting as it gets.” For Page, being the local kid who’s made it to the big time is only a small portion of his overall goal. Like anyone who grows up in Park City and competes seriously in winter sports, the biggest goal has always been the Olympics and winning a medal. But even after he first started skiing as a child at Deer Valley, and then began competing with the Wasatch Freestyle program, it wasn’t until he watched the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver that he realized how far skiing could take him. “I remember sitting in the living room and watching Bryon (Wilson) with my dad,” he said, referring to the moguls skier who took bronze in those Games and trains in Park City. “... My dad knew who he was, I didn’t, but my dad told me he came from my team. I remember being so excited in that moment, knowing that someone who started out like me, came from the same team I did, just won an Olympic medal. I knew at that moment that this was what I wanted to do.” Unbeknown to Page at the time, that was only the first time Wilson would be a driving influence in Page’s career. Wilson, along with his brother Brad Wilson, have been instrumental in helping Page get to where he’s at. Bryon was Page’s coach during his time with Wasatch Freestyle, and has stayed in his life as a mentor and friend. Brad, a two-time Olympian, is now Page’s teammate on the U.S. Moguls Team, showing him the ins and outs of the World Cup circuit and teaching him how to think, train and perform like a professional. ABOVE PHOTOS BY LARA CARLTON/U.S. SKI AND SNOWBOARD “When I first met him, he was a kid who loved moguls and was all smiles. ... And he took that passion and went with it,” Bryon said. “I treat Nick as our youngest brother. He’s just a realPlease see Starting, A-2 COURTESY OF NICK PAGE A young Nick Page is all smiles as he takes a picture with Olympian Bryon Wilson after Wilson won a bronze medal at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Page, who at 17 has ascended the ranks of U.S. moguls skiing, credits Wilson with being instrumental in his career. The state anti-bullying rule that the Park City School District cited while defending its use of a controversial teacher training program is being revised, and amendments have been scrapped that would have removed explicit protections for students who are bullied because of their race, sexual orientation or gender identity. The removal of the amendments comes a week before the rule is expected to once again be taken up by a committee that has been attempting to clarify and refine how, exactly, Utah school districts are required to combat bullying, a process that has been ongoing for several years. The rules operate with the same authority as laws, said Benjamin Rasmussen, who is the Utah State Board of Education’s director of law and professional practices. An anti-bullying teacher training program was at the heart of a controversy at Trailside Elementary School this fall. The rule being revised, R277-613, is the one the Park City School District cited while defending the program, called Welcoming Schools, in response to a ceaseand-desist letter. Opponents have decried Welcoming Schools as a sex education program and referred to it as LGBTQ indoctrination. The rule mandates districts provide training that addresses bullying based on sexual orientation and gender identity. The proposed amendments would have taken that language out of the rule. The changes were written by Board Member Scott Hansen, who said his intent was to create a separate rule to deal with incidents of bullying that rise to the level of harassment, like targeting someone based on their gender identity or sexual orientation or targeting classes of people protected under federal legislation like the Civil Rights Act and Title IX. His draft amendments removed from the existing rule mentions of those protected classes, as well as a requirement that staff trainings target bullying based on race, national origin, gender identity, sexual orientation or conformance or non-conformance with stereotypes. Please see Changes, A-2 Sundance bonfire will heat up second-week slate Festival-goers asked to imagine future in a first-of-its-kind event JAY HAMBURGER The Park Record The Sundance Film Festival on Thursday wants to fire up the crowd as the closing weekend approaches. Organizers are scheduled to hold a celebration known as the Imagined Futures Bonfire. It will be held in Old Town and will be the first of its kind during Sundance. The bonfire, approved through City Hall’s overall permitting of Sundance, is designed to celebrate the future as Sundance enters a new decade. Organizers have said the event will connect Parkites, people who are visiting Park City and artists who are involved with Sundance. The bonfire and celebration are 3 sections • 30 pages Classifieds .............................. C-7 Events Calendar ..................... C-6 Restaurant Guide.................... B-6 Scoreboard ............................. B-5 scheduled to start at 4:30 p.m. in the flagpole parking lot toward the northern end of Swede Alley. It will run until sunset. John Cooper, the director of the festival, is slated to deliver remarks. The 2020 festival will be the last for Cooper as the director. “Come be a part of a ritual as old as storytelling itself as our festival and Park City communities gather around a sunset bonfire to welcome the start of a new decade and dream of our imagined futures,” Sundance said in an online posting publicizing the event. The gathering is scheduled to last 60 minutes. Sundance will use a series of wooden pallets that have been on display during the festival for the bonfire. Festival-goers have been writing short messages about the future on the pallets that will be burned in the bonfire. Some of the messages on one of the pallets on display at festival headquarters included: • “Love conquers all!” • “A future with equality for all” • “Constitutional gender equality” • “A future where we all work to be aware of and overcome our personal biases” • “be first women president” • “No more billionaires” • “Trump’s impeachment” • “be first women president” • “World peace” • “Care about the planet!” Other messages touched on topics like supporting families regardless of their makeup, accepting those who are different and hiring women. The bonfire and celebration requires the temporary removal of parking in the flagpole lot. The removal is scheduled to last from 2 a.m. on Thursday until 7 a.m. on Friday. City Hall arranged for people holding Blue permits or Carpool permits to park in the nearby Gateway lot or the China Bridge garage, depending on available space. The event is open to the public. It is scheduled on a day when the festival crowds normally have thinned signifiPlease see Bonfire, A-2 JAY HAMBURGER/PARK RECORD Sundance Film Festival-goers wrote messages about the future on a wooden pallet, which is on display at festival headquarters. The pallet and others will be burned at the Imagined Futures Bonfire, scheduled on Thursday in Old Town as the closing weekend of Sundance approaches. VISITOR GUIDE Children can explore the building blocks of fun A Minecraft club will meet at 4 p.m. every Thursday at the Park City Library, 1255 Park Ave. The free gathering will help children develop problem-solving skills. Kids will also develop social skills by working with each other. For information, visit parkcitylibrary.org. |