Dog Bites Children Story

 New sign at Crocker Farm Elementary School

I'm feeling remiss to even publish the link to this petition on everyone's favorite left wing platform, Change.org, since I'm sure it will probably stimulate a signature or two and School Superintendent Maria Geryk tells me she gets livestreamed email notification with each signature.  Yikes!

I always thought not having dogs on school grounds during school hours was the kind of thing you did not need to put signs up over.  Kind of like those warnings on motor oil not to drink the product.

Considering today's front page Gazette article confirms the dog that viciously attacked two school children on school grounds during school hours still has not been identified, thus forcing the children to undergo rabies vaccination, it's probably not the best time to start such a petition drive.

I was also a little taken aback by the Gazette naming the two children.  Our local hometown newspaper has a policy of not naming sexual assault victims so why should dog assault be any different -- especially when they are juveniles.

I've named (and received bitter criticism over it) college aged youth who died via heroin overdose or falling while under the influence of alcohol or even a suicide victim who used a dangerous (to first responders) chemical cocktail in an enclosed automobile. 

But I would not have named the children involved in this traumatic event, even with parent permission.

Although I would be happy to publish the name of the irresponsible dog owner who selfishly left the scene thus sentencing those two children to a scary procedure.

Anyone have any tips? 

First Lockdown of the School Year

File this under the "that didn't take long" department.  And no, the dog biting incident at Crocker Farm Elementary School last week doesn't count since the school did not go into lockdown.  Although it was a traumatic enough incident.

Sometimes saying only a little about an incident is worse than saying nothing at all.  And in the Amherst Public School system, you never have to worry about them saying too much.

Obviously parents who received this email are wondering why the heck an entire elementary school would enter lockdown simply because one child "fell ill" on the playground.

Click to enlarge/read

What the heck was the illness, Flesh-eating bacteria?

Last year was a travesty of loony lockdowns.  This year is not starting well.

ARPS Employee Handbook procedures

AFD Labor (intensive) Day Weekend

AFD Engine 1

In spite of four additional  professional firefighters funded by UMass over the long weekend allowing for five ambulances to be staffed, we still needed mutual aid assist from Northampton FD for an emergency call at Amherst College in the Sunday overnight.

While UMass still has far too many ETOH (overly intoxicated) runs, the percentages seem to be improving. Last spring oftentimes the majority of EMS runs to our flagship University were alcohol related.

Although I suspect some of those trauma via falls with head injury could have been somewhat alcohol related.

   AFD Labor Day Weekend Runs

And So It Begins ...

 

This Frathouse sign raised a few eyebrows from parents (and generated a few calls to APD)

Yeah, I know a bit of a cliched headline.  But the two most common refrains to my live tweeting and Facebooking the festivities over this l-o-n-g weekend was that line along with, "They're baaaaaaack."

Northwestern District Attorney Dave Sullivan was in Court this morning.  Message to students:  "Respect your neighbors, respect yourself."

I even heard both those comments in the halls of Eastern Hampshire District Court this morning, where proceedings were delayed by 20 minutes in order to properly process the paperwork from 20 Amherst police arrests.

Yes, almost all of the arrests were alcohol related and almost all of those involved Umass students.

As usual the District Court used the "diversion" program (converting infractions from criminal to civil) to more efficiently handle the caseload.  For "open container" infractions the perps will pay $300 town bylaw fine, $100 in court costs, take the Brains at Risk alcohol education program at UMass, and be on probation for four months.

For the "minor in possession:" $100 court costs, Brains at Risk program and four months probation.

 Junior Meach stands before Judge Payne for DUI.  Case continued to 10/23

Surprisingly there was only one Driving Under the Influence arrest, Junior Meech, but that doesn't include the driver in the somewhat spectacular accident on South East Street last night, because he has not yet been processed.

 DUI incident 706 South East Street last night. PD arrested Ailton Correia, 22

UMPD had only one arrest compared to APDs twenty, so maybe UMass/Amherst scientists have developed a good behavior force field that encapsulates the sprawling campus.

Phillips Street was almost impassable Sunday night around midnight

Things That Go Bump In The Night

The car driven by Ailton N. Correia, age 22, was traveling at a good clip down a hill on scenic South East Street and careened off the road hitting a tree immediately in front of a solid brick house.

Many emergency vehicles were on scene

Both occupants were ejected from the vehicle and both were transported to Baystate Critical Care unit in Springfield (rather than a routine transport to Cooley Dickinson Hospital in Northampton).

 Officers take measurements for accident investigation

An Amherst Police officer accompanied the ambulances to Bay State and the driver of the car, Ailton N. Correia, 22 was arrested for driving under the influence.

 

Car cut a swath through bushes, across lawn, into tree near house

706 South East Street  Still debris on lawn morning after

A Really BIG Clambake

 Hot time on the Haigis Mall

Thousands of students descended on the Haigis Mall late this afternoon, turning it into the area's largest food court.   For the 5th year in a row, UMass/Amherst has set a world record for food consumption.

Well, the world according to Guinness (no not the beer company).

This year it was an old fashioned New England Clambake: clams, steamers and lobster.  3,003 servings to be exact.  And it took less than two hours to serve them up under the watchful eye of a Guinness "adjudicator."

 UMass Chancellor Subbaswamy readies the starting horn

UMass Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy stoked the hungry crowd with a spirited speech and of course even more uplifting, tunes from the UMass Marching Band.

 

Professor Amilcar Shabazz (center) SGA President Vinayak  Rao (right) SGA VP Jacob Schissel (left) doing their civic duty

Serving World's Largest New England Clambake, celebrating local food and UMass commitment to sustainability pic.twitter.com/ElxvxKtvpt
— Kumble R. Subbaswamy (@KSubbaswamy) September 1, 2014

A Day To Remember

Downtown Amherst Labor Day morn

Considering how arduous was the struggle to bring about sane regulations to protect the rights, health and safety of everyday workers, Labor Day is indeed something to remember.   And to celebrate, even though it should be tinged with reverence and respect for those who died in the endeavor.

Labor Day is one of only six days the Amherst Select Board allowed on the list of holidays worth remembering with commemorative flags in the downtown, at their infamous September 10, 2001 run-of-the-mill Monday night meeting.

Amazingly 9/11 is still not on the list.  Well at least not on the "annual" list.  The town grudgingly allows the commemorative flags to fly on 9/11 every five years on "milestone anniversaries," with the next one not until 2016.

How many of the almost 3,000 Americans murdered that morning were everyday working folks going about their daily work routine?

Between police, fire and military a day probably does not go by without someone dying in the line of duty.  That awful morning we lost 343 firefighters, 60 police officers, 55 military personnel, 15 EMTs and 3 court officers.

But the vast majority of casualties were just civilian workers both blue and white collar.

Slaughtered in cold blood on a Tuesday morning that deserved to be in the record books, but for a different reason:  A stunningly crystal clear blue sky, one of those majestic dying days of summer, which started off without a care in the world ...

If the town can annually fly the commemorative flags on Labor Day, and even more somber days like Memorial Day,  the worst attack on American soil in our entire history certainly merits the same level of respect.

A deserving protocol paid for in the most pernicious currency possible:  the vaporized blood of thousands of innocent Americans.