lockdown. it's wednesday night and the big story on "action news" tonight is the hostage situation still going on at delaware's largest prison. police converged on the james t. vaughn correctional facility late this morning, authorities say that four prison guards and a counselor were taken hostage by inmates, one hostage has since been released. john rawlins live at the prison tonight. what is the latest. what do we know? >> reporter: we have clarification, this started at 10:30 this morning with a phone call or radio call forever help from a corrections office insized building c. sergeant richard brotts picks up the story. >> we know that a correctional officer made a radio call for immediate assistance from inside of c building and correctional officers responded to assist and the facility was placed on lock

down. it was this time that five department of correction employees were taken hostage. >> now, that starts at 10:30 and at 2:40 one of the five hostages that was injured was released identified as a 35-year-old correction officer and struck numerous times in the face with fists and a mop ringer. he is ted to be awake and four hostages inside and one counselor inside of building c. a flow down unit where inmates from maximum security is processed into medium security and we don't have an official count of the hostage takers at this point and reports of as many as 35 and they are not confirmed. nor do we have specific demands or threats against the hostages, authorities are not taking

questions or answering questions at this point in time. they are trying to have a situation where they have an ongoing situation to negotiate peaceful resolution and the department of correctional personnel and fbi are involved. they are not taking questions but indicated every hour they will put outp dates about the situation here. live in smyrna, channel 6 "action news." >> 6abc.com has on going coverage of the hostage situation in smyrna, delaware along with the latest information and photographs from the scene as well as live video from chopper 6 hd and of course our "action news" cameras. >> shocking news from a buck county grand jury that the solebury school outside of knew hope was the scene of a coverup for 50 years to hide sexual relationships between faculty and students.

>> sara solebury known as a progressive school but the d axe says that this was child -- under the guise of education -- >> jim, former students testified before this grand jury about an environment at the private day and boarding school where faculty and students socialized and formed sexual relationshiped, they told stories of sexual contact lasting for years and haunting them for many more years to come. >> the grand jury report details sexual contact between personnel and students here. >> it was accepted at this school if you were employed there it was okay if you wanted to have sexual relations with your students, there was no lines of authority. the lines were blurred. >> the report details sexual offenses from the 1950s through

2005 and the grand jury heard from former students and a six case was formerly prosecuted. and they spoke with staff on campus and cities miles away all enabled by an environment free of boundaries. >> the students were encouraged to call the teachers by their first names and take trips outside of the purview of the school with the faculty and whenever that occurs as it did for many, many years here, the lines were no longer there. >> the victims testified they went to multiple head masters off the years but the sexual can't was never reported or investigating. one victim now a senior citizen testified. i want people to understand i am 77 but this has been with me my whole life. >> these children now adults and senior citizens have been condemned to a life sentence.

>> own recently the current head of school learned of abuses and encouraged students to come forward leading to the grand jury. in a statement tom wilkins apologized to the students, saying this they violated solebury's principals and values and their actions are indefensible. >> the grand jury named nine individuals that they say could have been prosecuted however the statute of limitation bars prosecution in all but one case and the victim in that case does not want to pursue charges. the grand jury recommended serious reform at the school some measures have already been put into place. i'm sara bloomquist, channel 6 "action news." >> all right sara thank you. president trump made an announced visit to dover air force base this afternoon to greet the remains of a u.s. commando, trump left the white house on marine one to attend

the arrival of chief special warfare operator william owens of peoria illinois. a member of navy seal team six was killed in a raid in yemen on friday. the first service member killed during the trump presidency. the senate confirmed former ceo rex tillerson as secretary of state this afternoon and senators voted largely along party lines, 56 in favor and 43 against with three democrats supporting rex tillerson. world news tonight with david muir has more on the developments in washington today that is next at 6:30 right here on channel 6. police say that a 17-year-old student arrested for bringing a handgun to upper darby high school was investigated in 2013 for

threatening to kill pope francis. at some point that student tried to hand a box off to an 11th grader and inside was a handgun and marijuana. both individuals were arrested and both are expected to be charged as adults. and charges are lodged against a couple in berks county for failing to seek medical help for their 2-year-old daughter suffering from pneumonia and she later died. walter perez is outside of the d da's office what the story here. the family is part of the final tabernacle church. not the first time that people from the faith have been prosecuted for failure to go to the doctor. the tip call came from a local

funeral home hired by jonathan and grace foster of beth elpennsylvania, seen here arriving for their arraignment today. to plan the burial of their 2-year-old daughter ella grace, they responded to the family home where they found the toddler's lifeless body on the couch. they told them that little ella grace fell ill and her breathing was labored and then her breathing stopped all together. >> the worst part is that the toddler's life could have been saved with a round of antibiotics. >> a common form of pneumonia, very treatable and that if the victim would have received medical treatment. there is a 95% chance or better that the victim would is survived. >> jonathan and grace foster told investigators they essentially let the youngster die because it's against their religion to seek medical care

and the toddlers death was the will of god. and the fosters have six other children are members of the none denominational tabernacle church. the da says it's difficult to separate your emotions from cases like these. >> i'm old enough now that i have two grandchildren who are 1 and 2. to me it's incomprehensible. >> well, the fosters have been released on unsecured bail and the family being monitored by the division of children and family services and the mom and dad face a maximum of 12.5 years in prison each. walter perez, channel 6 "action news." thank you walter, we have the late of on a stabbing of a 17-year-old girl during this attack involving two groups of girls inside of a chinese

restaurant it happened in the strawberry mansion section of philadelphia and now they are searching the suspect who they say is pregnant. the fight started in the street and spilled into the restaurant. the victim was taken to hahnemann hospital where she was treated and release. a federal jury has quitted larry far nicy, he was accused of spending $6,000 in campaign money as a bride to win a leadership election and the 48-year-old has been in office since 2009. coming up former vice president, joe biden, adds directing a foundation to his post white house resume and sixers coach brett brown talking about the game against the mavericks with joel embiid out of the lineup. and a warm start to

february, 50 degrees, 9 degrees above normal and winter makes a come back for the weekend. i'll explain in the accuweather forecast. >> those stories and more when "action news" continues tonight.

former vice president joe biden, launched a new foundation in his family's name. it will focus on causes close to him and his wife jill. the protection of children and pursuing the cancer moon shoot. it will be staffed by aides

funded by donations. funeral services took place for the most reverend martin lowmuller a retired bishop of philadelphia. at the time of his death he was the oldest living catholic bishop in the united states. and barbara latear will be the first president in the history. she is a 1972 graduate of the catholic womens college and served as president of trinity university in washington. she will be the 10th president in july. students and teachers from 20 philadelphia high schools had a chance to hear from top business leaders today they

attended the aspen challenge, the each speaker challenged students to come up with solutions to some of societies most pressing problems and next month the teens present the solutions to a panel of judges and three teens will travel to aspen, colorado to present their work there. and mayor jim kenney got a look at hans on education happening at swenson arts high school. the school in the northeast teaches students to take on careers in trade like automotive and electrical and carpentry. part of career and technical education month.

sixers back on the hardwood tonight. they will be short handed. >> no joel embiid, no robert covington. the sixers will be a couple of men down in dallas and embiid has a knee bruise and covington a hand bruise and coach brett brown knows he needs others to step tup. >> we are in a different place

without joel and now without robert tonight. you lost two starters from a group playing well but we get it done by committee, if we are anything we are a team. >> the nhl all start break ended but the flyers did not get the memo, they were instructioned last night. and they scored twice and recorded a hat trick, the flyers win streak ended. they will be home tomorrow night against the montreal canadiens. and la salle hosts you mass and villanova providence. jay wright knows the dunkin' donuts center. >> it's a tough place to play, wherever we go in there they have their biggest crowd we know we have our handed full and we love the challenge of going up there.

>> it was a worry that national signing day would be a let down for temple and they lostmal rule to baylor and they landed a player they were targeting, george reed a 6 foot receiver. and one of 17 players added today. new temple head coach, bill collined made it a process to have local recruits. >> philadelphia and the surrounding counties, i think we have seven in the signing class from the immediate area and we have five from the dmv if you look around the college landscape that say huge target nationally. and it's been good to penn state and the knitly lions class is said to be 15th in the nation. and wade is a fire star recruit from pennsylvania and franklin tells his recruits this is just the beginning. >> this is the day they should

remember the rest of think of lives and savor it today and wake up tomorrow morning ready to work hard. because as hard as they worked in high school they have no idea it all just started. st. joes deandre swift is headed to georgia. he signed on to play at the next level and he is listed address a four star recruit. a happy day for him. >> an hon toward be here with the other six players signing today. high emotion be able to get it over with. sign with georgia, that is like another home to me, the coach is like a father figure, we talk about stuff outside of football. >> he has the name for football, swift. and cecily tynan has the accuweather forecast.

we all enjoyed the warm weather day. >> but things change next week a roller coaster ride. stormtracker 6 live double scan showing we are dry out there. most of that radar echo you see over cape may is not reaching the ground it's really virga, a nice night to head outside and maybe do some ice indicating, penn's landing at the river rink. you don't have to bundle up much at all. it's a mild day and this is a trend for wednesdays, we have five wednesdays in a row for temperatures well above normal. our high today 50 degrees and that is nine degree as above

normal and you can see five weeks in a row where we have a trend to warm up by the middle of the week and temperatures drop by the end of the weekend and that is the case again this week. friday morning, step outside it's not going to feel like spring like it it did today. windchills on friday morning generally in the teens and low 20s and we keep the cold air as we head into the weekend. right now though, still mild, philadelphia 47 and trenton 44 and cape may 41 and wilmington 44 and reading 42 degrees, satellite 6 along with action radar showing a good amount of cloud cover today a cold front will begin to move in and zbt doesn't have moisture with it it but what it does is shift the winds from the northwest and pulling in cold irair and winds on the light side and 32 in philadelphia and 27 in allentown and 34 in cape may tonight 31 in wilmington relatively mild for february. for your thursday, groundhog day we bring back the sunshine,

mostly sunny and the high is 44 degrees stepping down still the three degrees above normal. and factor in the wins from the west 12 to 25 miles per hour. find the win ter coat for tomorrow you'll need t heading into friday the high pressure begins to built in and a weak disturbance comes in and the high only 35 degrees, and that high pressure moves over us on saturday and that brings loads of sunshine and temperatures in the teens and 20s and the afternoon high only 34 degrees, temperatures definitely dropping into the weekend. the exclusive accuweather seven-day forecast the sunshine is back tomorrow and also a chilly breeze foreground hog day and that is deceiving with windchills in the 30s. friday it's cold and limited sunshine and cold especially to the south and the afternoon high is only 35 degrees and the core of the cold air will be here on

saturday. again temperatures in the mornings and teens and low 20s and the afternoon highs struggling to make it up to 34 degrees, and then on sun we cloud up and get a little bit of activity but this system looks weaker and weaker with every commuter model run. at this point calling for a flurry or sprinkle sunday afternoon and sunday evening, don't cancel your super bowl party plans. looking minimal. and heading into next week we begin to warm things up on monday. partly sunny and seasonable way high of 42 degrees and tuesday we climb to 47 and rain moves in and wednesday a pretty strong storm is passing to the west and that brings us periods of rain and warm air with a high of 66 degrees, sunday not looking to be a big event and our next big storm will be rain. >> thank you. we want to bring you up to date on the big story. still unfolding at smyrna,

delaware, four prison employees are being held in building c by as many as 30 to 35 inmates. one hostage has been released and negotiations are going on trying to trying to end theityation peacefully. should is warn we'll cut into programming to tell you what is going on and you can get the latest at 6abc.com. abc world news tonight is next on channel 6. and "action news" continues at 10:00 on phl 17. and then please join us for "action news" at 11:00 on channel 6. for cecily tynan, ducis rogers and the entire "action news" team i'm jim gardner we hope you'll join us for "action news" at 11:00.

tonight, go nuclear. those words from president trump after his pick for the supreme court. telling republican leaders to go nuclear if that's what it takes to get him through. also the warning late today from the trump white house to iran. saying we are officially putting iran on notice. martha raddatz is standing by. also that moment late today. president trump talking his taught, ivanka, to pay respects to the navy s.e.a.l. from illinois killed in the raid in yemen. the hostage situation unfolding at this hour. seven workers being held captive inside. injuries reported. the denver area officer killed, and the suspect coming up from behind. killing hip execution style. tonight what we are learning. and america strong tonight.