Regional School Committee Embraces Digital

Amherst Regional School Committee

The Amherst Regional School Committee voted unanimously this evening for the "alternate posting" option allowed under Open Meeting Law for regional entities to post legally required meeting notices on the ARPS regional website rather than individually in all four towns that make up the region.

The RSC has run afoul of the posting requirements having to cancel  meetings at the last minute because they were not properly posted in Pelham where the Town Clerk only works one day per week.

Member Katherine Appy wanted to delay tonight's vote until their next meeting because the Attorney General letter finding the RSC in violation of Open Meeting Law was not included in the packet for tonight's meeting, even though it had been distributed at their 12/8 meeting.

The AG found found in favor of a Open Meeting Law complaint filed by a former member, Tom Flittie, over the July 14 meeting called by then Vice Chair Trevor Babtiste.  The meeting was legally posted in all four towns but then Amherst pulled down the notice at the request of then RSC Chair Lawrence O'Brien.

Other members pointed out the AG finding the committee in violation due to posting protocol was all the more reason to vote in favor of it now so that the streamlining could begin immediately.

Appy reversed course and said she would vote in favor as long as the RSC took up discussion of the Attorney General's finding at their next meeting.

The Whole Story

Emerson Auvenshine (6' 2", 190 pounds) stands before Judge Shea

So here's yet another example of the state's new domestic violence law protecting the perpetrator from public scrutiny. 

You may have read in the bricks and mortar media that Emerson Auvenshine, age 24, a UMass senior, was arrested by APD on Sunday for Breaking & Entering and Malicious Destruction of property valued over $250.

As a result he was immediately suspended from the UMass Hockey team, but he was on crutches in Eastern Hampshire District Court on Monday due to recent ACL knee surgery, so his athletic career at UMass was over anyway.

Now what the other media outlets did not tell you, because they can't afford to send reporters to District Court, is that Mr Auvenshine was also charged with Domestic Assault & Battery on his former girlfriend.

Because of the law passed back in August police departments can no longer report domestic assault cases and have to purge them from the their daily logs.  So the only way to get that information is to hear it in open Court and then request the documents. 

Click to enlarge/read

Let The Contest Begin

Aaron Hayden (center in sweater) Chair of Amherst Select Board

Yes, the local political season has already begun -- even though nomination papers for the March 31st Annual Town Election are not due at the Town Clerk's office until February 10.  

Doug Slaughter, current Finance Committee and Town Meeting member, has taken out papers for the one lone seat on the 5-member Amherst Select Board.

Current Chair Aaron Hayden's seat is the only one up (next year two seats will be up) but he is about to pull a President Johnson and announce that will not seek nor accept the nomination for his seat in the upcoming election.  Not that Select Board candidates are nominated by a party.

Doug Slaughter as member of Finance Committee (standing)

So no, at the moment, even if Mr. Slaughter turned in his nomination papers with the 50 required signatures, we do not really have a "contest."  Not yet anyway.

Interestingly (at least to me anyway) Slaughter voted in favor of my 2007 Town Meeting petition to fly the commemorative American flags annually on 9/11 (that lost by a two-thirds vote), as did recently elected Select Board member Andy Steinberg.  

And the two current long-time Select Board members Alisa Brewer and Jim Wald have always voted "yes" when the Chair allowed the Select Board to come to a vote on it. 

Mr. Hayden always voted "no" and as Chair, last year, did not even allow the SB to vote on it. 

Modern Age Of Education

Textbook Annex:  Will continue to operate as gift shop under Follett Corp.

For generations students have dutifully lined up the first few days of school to get their expensive textbooks at the aptly named Textbook Annex.  As of this coming fall semester that quaint tradition, like using a payphone, goes the way of video rental stores.

UMass has cut a 5-year deal with Amazon, the largest Internet based retailer in the country, which will allow convenient free delivery of textbooks at an average savings of 31%.

Lower costs for quality higher education is the reason many students choose UMass/Amherst in the first place, so this deal will only enhance that attribute.

Fortunately for Amazon -- should they ever implement drone delivery -- the Amherst Town Meeting ban on drones was only advisory.  And few officials outside of Amherst listen to Town Meeting.

That's What I'm Talking About!

Today's issue of Charlie Hebdo:  "All is forgiven"

Popular American wall poster 1970s

And Justice For All?

Maria Geryk introduces Calvin Terrell to the crowd of about 100- 125 Middle School parents/guardians and a few hand picked students

No tears were shed, nobody puked and professional counselors were not required as "social justice" speaker extraordinaire Calvin Terrell paid a return visit to the Amherst Regional Middle School -- the scene of the crime -- to "reenact" his October 2nd routine that terrorized far too many impressionable young students.

This time around school officials told parents to keep their children at home, kind of like cops separating two partners in crime during questioning so they can't compare notes.

Although nine ARHS students, all members of IGET (Inter-Generational Equity Team), were trotted out to the front of the room to tell the crowd why they are "warriors".

ARPS Superintendent Maria Geryk, the highest paid public official in Amherst, announced at the outset that no video recording was allowed (while looking directly at me).

 Calvin Terrell displays a t-shirt from a racist group in his home state of Arizona

Over the course of the first two hours the affable Terrell put on a good show that was a cross between a pep rally and a religious tent revival meeting.

 Audience stands for one of many interactive exercises

But the last half hour became a bit more somber as he reenacted the "visualization" exercise that was the most traumatic aspect of his controversial October 2nd presentation.

He told the attentive audience that this would be the "exact same way I did this with your kids."

He asked us to close our eyes and envision heading into our school on a cool October night holding the soft hand of a five year old girl, with our most beloved adult accompanying us, walking on our left.

Suddenly people are running, shots are fired, and we're understandably scared and confused.

A man near us pulls a gun of his own and says he's going to end this, but he's cut down by the shooter who is yelling things indicating he had been bullied.  Another shot rings out, only this time it's the police doing the shooting and the perp is neutralized.

He then pauses ... and you can almost see the Hollywood-like cut to a new scene which he describes as a room in a funeral home with two coffins, one of them for a child.  It's a closed coffin because the child was shot in the face with the resulting damage too great for the mortician to repair.

We then take a brief break and he asks everyone to check on the persons sitting next to them to make sure they are emotionally okay.

But in the October 2nd version I heard from a half-dozen Middle School students (one of them my daughter)  there was a much closer more graphic visualization of the shooter killing the 5-year-old girl and your most beloved adult right in front of you while you helplessly watched in sheer horror.

No wonder they didn't want this talk recorded.

Terrell also made snide remarks about men who dress "in Brooks Brother suits and work in tall buildings" yet he claims the reason he doesn't want his talks recorded is to protect his intellectual property, which generates a decent income.

In this case $38,000 for ten visits to Amherst.  So even if tonight was "free," it was done to protect his $38,000 contract.  Kind of like a restaurant giving you a free meal because the one you paid for previously gave you salmonella.

 Calvin Terrell:  As photogenic as he is smooth talking

As I was taking video at the outset of the meeting (and no, I was not going to video the entire 2.5 hour presentation) a woman sitting behind me suddenly snatched my iPhone, reminding me that it was against the rules.

I was sitting in the front row seat of the PUBLIC Middle School auditorium, the same seat I have occupied over the past 24 years as an Amherst Town Meeting member.  It was well below freezing tonight so keeping the auditorium warm (and lit) cost the taxpayers a few dollars.

And this event was sponsored and promoted by the Amherst PUBLIC schools to try to atone for the October 2nd mishap that was widely covered in the local media.

Social Justice does not trump the First Amendment.




Editor's note: To her credit the woman who grabbed my Iphone did apologize to me; as did Calvin Terrell to the audience late in his reenactment for having upset some students at the original October 2nd presentation and badmouthing the town after the controversy erupted in the media. 

A New Age of Civility?

UMass/Amherst: the flagship of higher education

When I first started shining a spotlight on rowdy student behavior a few years ago, I never thought the day would dawn where a dramatic decrease in such bad behavior would become a "dog bites man" kind of news story.

But here we are, thankfully.

UMass released on Friday the box scores for this past fall's violations of the student code of conduct (now that it applies to off campus activities) and it was down a whopping 63%.

No surprise really since I published the Amherst Police Department noise/nuisance tickets and arrests back in late November showing they were down dramatically.  And the feeder system so to speak for the Dean of Students is APD, as every negative interaction is reported to their office.

But I still find some of the statistics interesting.  Out of the 107 students reported to the Dean's office only one was expelled, probably this guy.  (Assaulting and calling a black police officer the N-word will do that.)

Another not at all surprising, but still notable when you see it as a stark statistic:  80% of the 107 student offenders were males.  Why is that?  Is it a testosterone thing where men are more naturally inclined to bad behavior?

Of course the other statistic UMass doesn't show is the involvement of alcohol in all of these sordid situations, which if I had to guess approaches 100%.  Perhaps alcohol and testosterone make for a bad mix. 

Speaking of which, another notable statistic, one that UMass will not tell you about, is reported rapes plummeted from 22 in 2013 all the way down to six in 2014. 

In his inauguration speech on Wednesday, Northwestern District Attorney Dave Sullivan credited UMass with helping to develop materials now used nationwide to address sexual assaults on campus.



That too is something to widely acknowledge.