BRATTLEBORO-What does accountability look like? How does a school district repair a legacy of harm?
Reading Linda Hecker's self-pitying opinion piece, it's clear that not much has changed in our community since the revelations of "No more secrecy" [Viewpoint, Aug. 25, 2021], a memoir written by Brattleboro Union High School alum Mindy Haskins Rogers over three years ago.
The WSESD school board's refusal to release the results of their years-long sexual abuse investigation has emboldened Mrs. Hecker to write and publish what I consider a classic example of DARVO.
The acronym DARVO refers to a reaction that perpetrators may display in response to being held accountable for their behavior: deny, attack, and reverse victim and offender.
After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June, I took my rage and grief downtown, protesting on the street corner by the Co-op with 100 other supporters of reproductive freedom. We understood it was a symbolic action. Roe was gone and would not be coming back; Christian...
I've never been more frightened for the future of girls and women in our country. Having Becca Balint as a champion of reproductive rights gives me hope. I support Becca Balint in the primary race for Vermont's only Congressional seat. As the mother of two teen daughters, I trust...
Our local schools are facing challenges that extend far beyond the pandemic. In the past six months, students at Brattleboro Area Middle School and Brattleboro Union High School have endured hate speech, racial bullying, threats of violence, and a gun on campus. There have been allegations of sexual assault past and present. Our community needs school board members who can confront these challenges with courage and clarity and bring years of experience to the table. Lana Dever is the candidate...
For the past few months, students from Thomas Aquinas College have been driving up from Northfield, Mass., to downtown Brattleboro to protest our local Planned Parenthood. On Tuesday afternoons, as many as 60 protesters arrive with anti-abortion signs, chalking the sidewalks with judgment, making High Street a hostile place for any person seeking health care at the clinic. Planned Parenthood offers a wide range of health care services - from well-person visits and cancer screenings to birth control consultations and...
We write to you as concerned members of the community, parents of students, and graduates/former students of the district and Brattleboro Union High School. Since the publication of Mindy Haskins Rogers' article in The Commons [“No more secrecy,” Viewpoint, Aug. 11] detailing years of grooming and abuse at BUHS, we have been actively involved in discussions about healing and accountability. Some of us participated in the School Board meeting on Aug. 24, and we seek to be both resources to...
I was expecting a ghost town when I dropped my 13-year-old daughter off at Okemo on a recent Sunday. I'd been working from home for months, only seeing the occasional friend for a walk, and assumed most Vermonters were similarly wary of public spaces during the pandemic. So it was shocking to drive up to the mountain and see crowds waiting in the lift lines and cars swarming the parking lots, many of them with out-of-state plates. Through the lodge...
In the wake of the Weinstein “revelations” and the millions of #MeToo stories shared online, the national conversation about sexual harassment is rising to a fever pitch as more powerful men are called out on their misconduct. During this time I've been watching the youngest generation of males, dismayed by what I've seen. Many of my friends have sons, and they are lovely lads who treat others with decency. No, I'm talking about the boys who mouth off to girls...