The Lincoln Public School Board voted in favor to expedite their 3-year plan of connected learning. The initiative is for the district to put technology in the hands of all LPS students and was initially approved last year.

The three-year plan originally intends to give Chrome books to grades 3-5 in the 2016-2017 school year. However, the end of the 2015-2016 school year falls in the same fiscal year, allowing LPS to allocate the roughly $2.3 million without effecting its budget.

Kindergarten through 2^nd grade will receive a tablet of some sort. Grades 3^rd though 12^th will receive a Google Chromebook. Kids are incorporating technology in many areas of their life and it is their hope that these will be instruments of learning.

“One of the things we’ve been careful not to say is that Chromebooks or devices in the hands of students equals higher achievement,” Stavem said. “The only thing that impacts good achievement scores is high quality teaching and learning.”

A positive aspect to giving grades 3-5 their Chromebooks sooner is that it eases the demand of registering the numerous amounts of Chromebooks that will going to the students starting next year.

“If we can do 3^rd through 5^th a little earlier, it helps us get ready for 7^th and the two high schools,” Stavem said.

The annual Nesa test that assesses the literacy scores for all fourth graders is delivered online. Giving students access to their Chromebooks earlier will assist students while taking their test. The students do not have planned curriculum that involves using their Chromebooks until next year.

Next year will be year 2 of LPS’s three-year plan. Currently only 6^th grade and LPS focus program students’ have Chromebooks. Next year, two high schools and 7^th grade will receive Chromebooks.  Year three will reach the remaining four high schools and 8^th grade.

An additional instructional coach will be needed to help with the Chromebooks. LPS did not originally budget for this “go to” staff person during this fiscal year so it will require freeing up part of a current facility members day to be able to assist students with their Chromebook. Starting next year, LPS intends to have a designated position at each school.

Whiteclay, Nebraska. There are bodies sitting together on sleeping bags, with blankets draped over the front of their body to escape the chill that November brings.

Some people lie down outside of a closed down convenient store with nothing except a sleeping bag - others camp around a fire in a dirt field on the edge of the town.

Whiteclay is less than a small town and more like a village with one road that slices through the middle of town and also serves as the highway. The town covers a mere six or seven blocks. It’s the kind of town that a driver might miss if you blink. However, Whiteclay serves as a very specific purpose: to sell liquor to Native Americans.

Every year around four millions of cans of beer are sold in four Whiteclay liquor stores and most of that alcohol ends up in the hands of the Ogallala Lakota, who live on the nearby Pine Ridge Indian reservation. The Pine Ridge Indian reservation has banned the sale and possession of alcohol because of rampant alcohol related problems.

The alcohol percentage in beer sold in Whiteclay is higher compared to other places. The Nebraska Alcohol Commission allows beer in Whiteclay to be sold with an 8 percent alcohol content. In comparison, the beer sold in Lincoln is 7 percent.

According to the American Indian Humanitarian Foundation, one in four children living in Pine Ridge suffer from fetal alcohol syndrome or other related effects from alcohol. The life expectancy for residents living on the reservation is nearly 30 years younger for the people who live outside of it.

The close proximity of the liquor stores is drawing people from the reservation of more than 40,000 to Whiteclay. The largest town in Pine Ridge is located nearly a mile from Whiteclay and lays just across the border of Nebraska in South Dakota.

The resulting impact has been a staggering 75 percent unemployment rate, which is among the highest in the nation. There simply is not the opportunity to work and earn money on the reservation, so people turn to alcohol.

Nebraska Wesleyan Native American studies major, Emily Clement, believes that the Nebraska liquor license committee is simply not doing its job of enforcing its alcohol consumption regulation.

Every day you’ll find people on public property drinking from a can wrapped in a brown paper bag, Clement said. To her, it simply doesn’t make any sense why there is also no law enforcement in Whiteclay. Clement says these stores need to be held accountable for selling to minors and persons who are already intoxicated.

There is no presence of a police officer or sheriff in Whiteclay. The last time any law enforcement presence was actively employed in Whiteclay was in the early 1970’s. Ultimately, a budget crisis led to the elimination of that position. Until recently the issue has been largely ignored.

“Great Plains Budweiser and Whiteclay's beer merchants are sweating bullets,” said John Maisch, a Whiteclay documentarian.

Not only are Nebraskans starting to ask why taxpayers have been footing the bill for those incarcerated or hospitalized as a result of Whiteclay beer sales, but also Whiteclay's other merchants are complaining that the unincorporated town's beer stores are bad for business Maisch said.

Lance Moss, a business owner in Whiteclay whose business does not permit the sale of alcohol says the sale of liquor doesn’t help the local businesses. 

“They knock out two birds with one stone coming to get alcohol and groceries,” Moss said. “It definitely has a negative effect on other business in Whiteclay.”

People don’t feel confortable. Ultimately, it leads them to stop somewhere else to make their purchases Moss said.

A Nebraska Department of Revenue employee who wished to remain anonymous says Nebraska may not do anything at all. The reason: the four liquor stores in Whiteclay might possibly be in the realm of Nebraska’s top earners for income state tax.

In 2014, the Nebraska state tax revenue from the four retailers that sell alcohol in Whiteclay totaled $113, 814. The federal government earned a total of $212, 942.

The Pine Ridge Indian reservation is barren of civilization. There is no resemblance of an economy. The reservation lacks basic functions of society that allow it to flourish. There is no public transit. The residents of Pine Ridge live in poor or cramped situations. There is an absence of modern housing and professional establishments. Medical care is inadequate and Pine Ridge lacks an economy that has the ability to grow.

Trash and litter around Pine Ridge are as common of a sight as is stars in the night sky. Businesses were built out of sheet metal and wood. Each unit typically contained a phone number and name spray painted on the front of the building.

 “Whiteclay is just a f***** up situation. People are getting rich of off the suffering of other people.” Isaiah Lahm said.

Lahm is a 26-year-old resident of Lincoln but also an active tribe member in the Sisseton Wahpeton Dakota (Sioux). Lahm’s extended family lives on the Rosebud reservation a couple of hours away from Pine Ridge in South Dakota where he has spent a lot of time during the past five years.

“Being closer to Pine Ridge is clearly the difference maker,” Lahm said.

The Rosebud reservation isn’t affected nearly as bad because of distance Lahm said. However he believes that Whiteclay’s impact to families extends all the way to Rosebud.

“All they’re doing is selling alcohol to people that have the intention of doing something illegal with it.  I can’t believe the amount of money they’re making,” Lahm said.

Lahm was speaking about the roughly $75,000 per year in profit and the estimated value north of a million dollars that the liquor stores are valued in at.  

“There’s only 15 people in Whiteclay,” Lahm said. “For a town that size to sell millions of cans of beer is astronomical. Who do you think is buying the beer?”

Lahm’s only logical answer can be the nearby tribe members. Tribe members purchase the booze in Whiteclay and bring it back to the reservation, which is illegal, Lahm reiterated.

Whiteclay made it cheaper for the Oglala Lakota to buy beer. The very existence of the town promotes poverty and alcoholism amongst the tribe, Lahm Said.

“The Nebraska Liquor Commission Control is continuing to allow addicts to kill themselves,” Lahm said. “I don’t know anyone who wants to go to Pine Ridge. It’s a third world country.”

Isaiah’s mother, Renee Lahm believes the problem is the bootleggers. Her solution is to get rid of all of them. In order to do that she believes tribal police and Sheridan County Sheriffs need to step up and make a better effort of catching them red handed. She believes the presence of law enforcement will help deter these criminals.

            “There’s only supposed to be two ways inside and out of Whiteclay and road blocks have failed because these people will find the means necessary to getting it back to the reservation.” Mrs. Lahm said.

The problem of people lingering around Whiteclay drinking has been evident for a long time. People only began to take notice when a body was left on the sidewalk for days Mrs. Lahm said.

“Families are probably waiting for loved ones to come home and they won’t because they’d rather wait for their next beer or people to come through so that they can beg for money.” Mrs. Lahm said

Recently there has more push than ever to finding a solution the problem in Whiteclay. People are starting to spread awareness via social media and through documentaries of Whiteclay.

“I just try to educate my fellow Nebraskans,” Clement said.

Clement attends candle light vigils and also plans to write to Nebraska governor Pete Ricketts. She recently had a documentary shown in one of her courses at school and strongly encourages people to post on social media about the topic.

A meeting between the Omaha, Winnebago, Santee Sioux and Ponca tribes, Nebraska Commission on Indian Affairs and State Senator Brett Lindstrom took place with Nebraska State Senator Tyson Larson in Lincoln on Nov. 12, 2015 to discuss a variety of issues including economic development, education and social services. 

Even though Pine Ridge is rampant with alcohol abuse, the reservation only has one seven-bed impatient treatment facility.

“This is shamefully inadequate,” said Alexander Mallory, senior, political science and history major at the University of Nebraska. “It is imperative that funding is increased for impatient treatment facilities and substance abuse counseling on America’s Indian reservations. This is a simple step that would surely garner bipartisan support in both Nebraska’s and South Dakota’s legislative bodies.”

The next legislative session for Nebraska lawmakers begins Jan. 6. More meetings between the groups are in place before the session starts to brainstorm ideas with the hopes presenting a bill to legislature that will address the concerns over Whiteclay. As of right now, there is no planned legislation that addresses the issue.