The FBI on Thursday identified human remains found in a Florida nature preserve as those of Brian Laundrie, a person of interest in the death of girlfriend Gabby Petito while the couple was on a cross-country road trip.

The remains, a backpack and notebook believed to belong to Laundrie were discovered Wednesday in a Florida wilderness park, according to the FBI.

The area where they were found had been under water during earlier searches.

The FBI’s Denver office said in a news release a comparison of dental records confirmed that the remains were Laundrie. A lawyer for his parents, Steve Bertolino, also confirmed in a statement they were told the remains were those of their son.

Members of Minnesota’s teachers union are calling on school leaders to do more to protect students and staff after the state Department of Health reported the first student death from COVID-19 this school year.

Health officials said the student and two staff members died last week. That increased the total number of school fatalities since the start of the pandemic to two students and 13 school employees, including five workers this year.

About 85% of the nearly 12,000 school cases detected since mid-August have been among students.

The St. Thomas Center for Well-Being restructured positions to add the responsibility of peer education and health promotion to the pre-existing violence prevention program manager role.

This position also has an explicit focus on LGBTQ+ health, making it the first position with a focus on the LGBTQ+ community in the Center for Well-Being.

This new role was filled by Belqis Amatus-Salaam.

According to Amatus-Salaam, her new role involves using St. Thomas students as peer health educators to help develop outreach activities on campus and promote resources that are available at the Center for Well-Being.

Hope Hansen can be reached at hope.hansen@stthomas.edu.