Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Another "Event" @ ARHS

APD @ Amherst Regional High School

UPDATE:  Thursday morning

According to APD Chief Scott Livingstone the individual involved is one of Amherst's homeless population that police are "familiar with," and since no criminal violations occurred, he is not in custody.


click to enlarge/read

30 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think the police should have been contacted sooner then they were. Who knows who this person really was or if he could have harmed anyone. Again not handled very well.

Larry Kelley said...

Also took him long enough to tell the parents (6:32 PM).

Anonymous said...

I didn't see anywhere where it said how soon the police were contacted, 7:53 PM. The email says the event lasted a few minutes, and the cops were outside when administrators escorted him outside--sounds like they were contacted pretty quickly to me.

Anonymous said...

Did anyone say yes to going to the prom?

Anonymous said...

So, ARPS haters, according to you the schools have over reacted by enacting lockdowns in recent months and yet now have under reacted by not calling police soon enough. Hmm.

Nina Koch said...

It feels like some people are just looking for things to be bad, almost hoping for it, so they can say something critical.

Things would be so much better if people were working together. We do have some common goals, after all. Let's identify those and look for ways that everyone can be included and make a contribution toward achievement of the goals.

Walter Graff said...

Once again the school overreacted. Does no one have a backbone anymore. Why not just have a plexiglass window on the side of the building for visiting parents if they are so dangerous and you can't handle a disagreement. The lunatics have truly escaped from the asylum in Amherst.

Anonymous said...

Let's face it. The discussion is loaded against school officials on this blog.

Dr. Ed said...

Isn't it interesting how all this stuff happens in Amherst but not in adjacent communities. Assuming, of course, that it actually did happen as Team Maria claims it did.

There a few specific things in Jackson's email that make me suspect that there is a LOT MORE to this story.

This is either (a) an attempt to discredit & silence a parent with a legitimate grievance, (b) a situation handled badly -- very badly -- by whomever was in the office at the time, or (c) BOTH.

Larry, this sounds very much like the incident with you and the lack of hot water == which also was handled badly. But that does seem how the school staff handle most stuff -- BADLY...

Anonymous said...

So many haters on this blog. Why are you surprised when the kids hate on each other? The hate is all you show them.

Actually if the kids at arhs hated on each other as much as you people hate, that school would have imploded a long time ago.

Anonymous said...

Welcome to the world of small town politics, and local gossip.
This is what New England is truly all about. Ayyyup, been this way for generations.

Anonymous said...

I've noticed a lot more homeless people in town lately. Is this incident just a spillover from a larger population of street people in town?
I think the school handled this one fine.

Anonymous said...

I thought Graff said the guy was a visiting parent who was having a disagreement? He must have been projecting.

I don't know who to believe anymore.

Anonymous said...

I agree on this incident, not inclined to read any more into it.

As for "hating," that's not how I feel. However, as a resident taxpayer and parent of schoolchildren, I expect more from the Amherst school system in terms of:

Value for money - higher, measurable performance to justify costs

Accountability and transparency from central office - without secrecy

Ability to maintain a positive, productive atmosphere conducive to learning - a clean, well-lighted place, not a zoo.


We seem to have increasing trouble lately, in all three dimensions. That is concerning. I don't hate any of the people involved, and I cheer the great majority who are to be praised for their commitment and energy. Still, Amherst Regional Public Schools' priorities are wrong and the execution and results are lacking. The Superintendent and the School Board are not performing. Love that, if you can.

Mommy and daddy, why? said...

"So many haters on this blog. Why are you surprised when the kids hate on each other? The hate is all you show them.

Actually if the kids at arhs hated on each other as much as you people hate, that school would have imploded a long time ago."


You know, you are ~so right~.

Peace, love

and GTFO of our way.

If you don't understand,

ask mommy and daddy.


They created the cluster fck.

Now, they're going to own it.

All--of--it.


-Squeaky Squeaks

Yokal said...

I wonder how many kids would be homeless if their parents had to pay for their education (or insure for it ACA style)?

You could easily feed and house a homeless person for the amount spent on a student each year. The student does not have to qualify for this expensive ($10-15k a year) public benefit - they just get it. How about everyone who comes from a family making more than $75k a year has to pay their own way and we can divert the funds to folks actually in need or gasp, give it back to the families that earned it?

Anonymous said...

Sunday mornings the homeless people sit out in front of Starbucks on the benches and make their cardboard signs. It looks almost like a pre-job meeting, planning logistics for the day. At least they don't need a union. We got the best bums in the state here in Amherst.

Anonymous said...

Yokal, you sound about as smart as a box of rocks.

Keithw said...

Crazy people walk the streets. Even the streets of Amherst. They can walk into a school, a store where your mom buys milk or right into your house and put a serious hurting on you. Fast. What kind of crisis prevention training does the administration have if things suddenly turned bad during their "escort" and the fight was on in the middle of the hallway? The next time one of you is sitting in Rao's enjoying a latte and pondering your small-town politics, imagine YOU were the one accosted by this enormous former student of mine. Yes, it CAN happen to you.

http://dailycollegian.com/2006/01/31/amherst-man-begs-for-mercy-in-court/

Anonymous said...

OF COURSE there are more homeless lately! Because we have the ONLY "Wet shelter" in Western mass. and we just made it bigger!

Homeless people come here literally from all over New England because of it!

These are people who are NOT homeless because there are no homes, but because they are so mentally ill or addicted that they can't function. Homelessness is just the SYMPTOM.

And, Town Meeting just added a BIG line item to the budget, which will mostly go to keeping the shelter running!

We're PAYING for them to come here!

I am paying the highest property taxes in the area but my 14 year old daughter can't walk down the street without being harassed!

Anonymous said...

Helping the homeless makes everything right. Can I get a hallelujah and a little more tax money. Ha-Ha-Ha...

Anonymous said...

To anon 3:06

Wants some cheese with that wine? Move already if it bugs you so much. Sheesh.

Yokal said...

Only a box of rocks would make homelessness a priority over complimentary education for the wealthy....I guess. The name of the blog is so awesome.

Dr. Ed said...

I stand by my initial response that the school staff handled the situation badly -- Mark Jackson's "[h]e began to act erratically..." screams to me that the incident didn't have to end the way it did.

A person who is already "acting erratically can not then begin to do so, Jackson is clearly stating that there was a change in behavior. Interactions with mentally ill people are not unlike driving a car on an icy road, things are going to keep going like they already are unless something causes them to dramatically change.

On a slippery road, a front wheel drive car will want to spin if you quickly take your foot off the gas -- and while you can do things to recover from this, it is far better to avoid having to.

Likewise, *something* caused him to *start* "act[ing] erratically" -- I suspect that it is something that the secretaries said and/or did, likely unknowingly. My guess is that the "lockdown" mentality combined with the authoritarian mentality pandemic to K-12 provoked the "erratic" behavior.

I'll even go so far as to suspect that this, combined with whatever the administrator(s) then said/did in the course of removing him from the building was the cause of the "prom" comment. No one likes being publicly humiliated, my guess is that he was trying "to save face."

Yes, they resolved the situation, but one they didn't need to have happen in the first place. I don't think the school staff is properly trained!

There are some excellent trainings on how to properly deal with situations like this, I once attended a day-long one conducted by MassHousing in Roxbury. It was intended for people in situations very similar to those of the secretaries in the high school -- receptionists in elevator lobbies of large public housing buildings.

Or the ARHS can continue to handle situations badly...

Dr. Ed said...

Crazy people walk the streets. Even the streets of Amherst.

Which raises the "prom" issue -- where would you less like a high school girl getting asked that question -- in the relative safety of the high school or downtown when she's by herself?

What kind of crisis prevention training does the administration have if things suddenly turned bad during their "escort" and the fight was on in the middle of the hallway?

It appears that things had already "turned bad" -- at this point, with the cops enroute, I think they pretty much did the best any training would have enabled them to do. But the training they need is preventing things from going this far...

...imagine YOU were the one accosted by this enormous former student of mine.

I had a Section 8 Client who'd sent two police officers to the hospital a month before. I didn't have any problems because I didn't let things get to where there would be problems.

Keithw said...

"...in the relative safety of the high school"
= the relative safety of a middle school bathroom just prior to a lockdown.

"Turned bad"
= the guy grabs your head, bites your lower lip completely off and swallows part of it (true story if you follow news in Boston)

"I think they pretty much did the best any training would have enabled them to do"
= They were as lucky this time as they were the last couple of times.

"I had a section 8 client who'd sent two police officers to the hospital..."
= Police need training as well.

Dr. Ed said...

"...in the relative safety of the high school"
= the relative safety of a middle school bathroom just prior to a lockdown.
"Turned bad"
= the guy grabs your head, bites your lower lip completely off and swallows part of it (true story if you follow news in Boston)


One of the MANY problems I have with the "lockdown" approach -- which is more suitable for a PRISON (where the term comes from) than a school. Educators at all level (including college) have this truly asinine presumption of external threats, that it is people on the OUTSIDE whom they need to protect folks from.

Well folks, some of the little darlings INSIDE your school can be just as bad, if not worse. The murdered teacher in Danvers comes to mind -- allegedly murdered by one of her own students.

And hence as there is an inherent right to self-defense, locking potential victims inside a confined area with the perp, with no means of escape or defense -- raises Constitutional issues....

Anonymous said...

A Gazette article last week indicated that the Craig's Doors was approved to receive $200,000 in the approved MA Senate budget, and $100,000 in the approved MA House budget, & that the two budgets will now be reconciled. With Craig's Doors slated to receive at least $100K next year, is local budget funding necessary as well?

I realize that this thread didn't start with a discussion of homelessness & homeless people in Amherst, but since a number of comments have pushed the conversation in that direction, I thought I'd comment on it too.

But Noonan said because the state budget process is not yet complete it is premature to talk about what might happen with the shelter.

There is already $100,000 for the shelter in the budget adopted by the House. Thomas Mitchell, an aide to Rosenberg, said Friday that the shelter is assured at least $100,000, but not the entire $200,000. “It will be somewhere in between,” Mitchell said.

Anonymous said...

It would seem to me that a somewhat significant amount of money is going to Craig's Doors. Wonder what it is all being spent on... Wonder whom it is going to...

What's next, a Methadone Clinic?

Anonymous said...

'Twas this guy (not a parent like Walter "Good for a Laff" Gaff "reported"):

http://www.gazettenet.com/home/12177062-95/more-than-a-dozen-complaints-of-odd-behavior-in-downtown-amherst-result-in-arrest