Thank you for bringing this story to light, and thank you to Mindy Haskins Rogers for her bravery in sharing it.
I'm relatively new to the community, don't have kids in the school system, and don't know any of the people mentioned in the piece, but I support speaking truth to power, even (and especially) when it makes people uncomfortable and shatters the silence around these types of crimes.
Those who believe that child abuse, sexual assault, and the sexual exploitation of children only happen in “other” communities to “other people” need to come to grips with the fact that these crimes are committed, more often than not, in our own backyards, by people we know.
Our silence only serves to protect the abuser.
I've been following news about the Bellows Falls Warming Shelter from the sidelines for the last few weeks, hoping it would be resolved successfully and that folks who find themselves outside would be welcomed in before the weather turns really awful. Truthfully, I've resisted jumping into the fray, because...