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Wayzata police urge drivers to stop for stopped school buses
Drivers must stop for school buses when their stop signs are out but many motorists have ignored that law this school year.
WAYZATA, Minn. — Like many departments, Wayzata police put school resource officer programming on pause this school year, citing ongoing confusion around state use-of-force laws.
So now, former SRO Brandon Haapoja is back doing regular patrols.
“We’re just kind of waiting for some clarification,” he said.
But he’s not giving up on students. Haapoja says he frequently searches for drivers who blow past school buses when their stop signs are out and flashing red, indicating students are crossing.
It’s a misdemeanor violation to pass a bus with its stop arm out without kids present. In that case, Haapoja can give the driver a citation and release them from the stop. However, it’s a gross misdemeanor to pass when kids are outside and off the bus.
“We refer them in to our city attorney for charges,” Haapoja explained.
Haapoja says he’s caught both types of violations a total of 35 times so far this school year, so he’s urging drivers to wait behind buses until their stop arms are no longer extended and flashing.
“When you’re a school resource officer, you tend to get a different kind of relationship with the students and with the parents of the students, so I guess I take it a little bit more personally, that I want to be out there and protecting the kids in any way that I can,” he said. “We’ve seen some videos where kids have gotten hurt, and that’s what we’re trying to prevent.”
Since the start of the school year, we have had almost 30 school bus stop arm violations. Please help keep the children…
Posted by Wayzata Police Department on Wednesday, January 17, 2024
Helping his mission, he says, is the $14.7 million in public safety grants to equip more buses with cameras. Legislators passed the funding for years 2022 and 2023.
“Whereas before, we might see three or four violations and maybe only stop one car — that’s a tool we can use to investigate additional violations,” Haapoja said of the cameras.
According to a Minnesota Judicial Branch report, 2,004 drivers in our state were cited for stop-arm violations between 2018 and 2022.
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“This Valentine’s Day, 2025, will mark the five-year anniversary of the premiere of ‘Love is Blind,” Vanessa said on the Season 7 finale. “And, it is gonna be the launch of Season 8, which takes place in Minneapolis.”
The episode also revealed three of the new cast members, one of whom, “Alex,” told Lachey Minneapolis is “not like a major city, but it’s also not a small town,” which he said is just one of the obstacles in his way of finding the one.
“I just never found the right person that clicked for me,” he said.
Meantime, you can bone up on Seasons 1-7 streaming now on Netflix.
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KARE 11 News at Noon shared more on Thursday about the impact that this book will have.
Gary Peterson and his friends are collecting donations to help people in their community.
ST. LOUIS PARK, Minn. — A St. Louis Park pumpkin display is raising money for their local food shelf.
Gary Peterson started carving and painting three pumpkins over a decade ago. It’s now grown to over 100.
“I’ve heard people say they’ve come from Hutchinson,” he said.
Peterson along with two of his neighbors have spent the last 14 years growing their display, turning it into a neighborhood event.
“It’s been incredible, I just can’t believe how much this has expanded,” he said. “We did it just because we like to and then people were asking to give us money to cover the cost.”
The trio refused to take people’s money, but then one of them had an idea.
“My neighbor, Steve Leensvaart, just mentioned how about we just do it for the STEP program and the STEP program is our local food shelf in St. Louis Park,” he said.
So, they started to collect donations to help families in need. They’ve raised hundreds of dollars and donated hundreds of pounds of food over the last few years, carving for a cause.
“It is more gratifying every year,” Peterson said.
He estimated they have over 100 unique pumpkins in their yard. They’ve created the displays and come up with new family-friendly concepts for people to enjoy. Peterson said about 30 of their neighbors carved their own pumpkins to be put on display, and it’s been a big hit.
“It’s great. In the last couple of years, it’s turned into more of a neighborhood event,” said Sarah Durch.
“We love this Halloween display, we come every year to see it. We love that the whole community gets involved to craft and carve the pumpkins,” said Jami Gordon-Smith.
“The shading and the details are unbelievable,” said Elizabeth Hanson.
Hanson hopes to take her 2-year-old son trick or treating for the first time but is worried the cold temperatures might keep them indoors.
“We’re going trick or treating hopefully,” she said. “He’s going to be a firefighter, but we’re probably going to have sweatshirts maybe like two pairs of sweatpants underneath. We’re going to be bundled up.”
Gordon-Smith said her family will be out Halloween night no matter the weather.
“Halloween only comes once a year, so you really have to take advantage and enjoy the evening no matter what the weather brings,” she said. “Guess it’s not totally unheard of in Minnesota to have a cold Halloween, but we are going to try and modify and do a lot of layers underneath our costumes and then we might add some hats and maybe some warmer socks.”
Durch also isn’t surprised they’re in for another chilly night.
“Well, what would Halloween be without Minnesota cold? I feel like every time you plan a costume you have to plan for how you can make this work if it’s snowing,” she said.
Peterson said they will have a bonfire and some hot chocolate and cider on Halloween to keep trick-or-treaters warm while they look at their pumpkins.
Click here to learn where you can see the pumpkins and how you can donate.
