Sep

24

A Little Excitement

September 24, 2005 |

We had a little excitement in our small community the other day. The kind of excitement any parent does not want to have in their town. Early in the week a young girl in the 6th grade at my children’s school arrived in the morning and went straight to the principals office to report that a truck had been driving very slowly behind her and when she turned around to look at the driver he was taking pictures.

The school officials called our local constable and the state police. They took a statement from the girl and a notice was sent out to all of the parents “not wanting to alarm anyone but wanting to be sure everyone was aware”. Children did not walk to school on their own for the rest of the week. None of the parents were taking any chances. Not only were they all driving their kids to school but they were also looking for the truck.

Everyone in town was talking about this. We are your typical small, picturesque New England town - the kind you’d see in Vermont Life Magazine. We never thought anything like this would touch our community. Everyone knows everyone else here. Who could betray our children?

Well it turns out that no one did. As the talk was spreading throughout the town one member of the community started to piece together that he was the suspect in question. He was slowly driving a pickup truck on that particular morning and he was taking photographs - but not of the girl walking to school. Turns out the driver of the truck is the Game Warden in town whose wife is on the Town Select Board and he was taking pictures of signs along the road that people had posted in regards to a recent vote we had in the town. He had asked the State to have to signs removed, they assured the town they would and then the signs were not taken down. He was photographing them as evidence that the state had not completed their task. He contacted the state police directly and gave them a full statement even showed them the photos - which were only of the signs, no people/children were in any of the pictures. So all is well again.

Except with some of the parents in the school. Some of the oh so intelligent families in this community are actually pissed that the school “got them all worked up for nothing.” Are you serious? Really, I’m shocked. This is a scary world that we live in and I for one am thrilled with my children’s schools response. Living in such a small area we would be more likely to rationalize something like that away. But they didn’t. They involved the authorities and notified the parents immediately. Bravo!! There is going to be a portion of the school board meeting dedicated to this issue this coming week and guess who will be there with bells on to praise the actions of the principal? You got it. Bring it on.

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Comments

8 Comments so far

  1. mrs. diamond on September 24, 2005 11:19 am

    I’m glad it turned out to be nothing serious and I think the school handled it very well. You can’t be too cautious. Not in this day and age.

  2. Aimz on September 24, 2005 6:44 pm

    That’s good that it was totally innocent in the end. I suppose that although the parents got all worked up I think I’d probably be just as concerned if it was my child was the one being photographed.

  3. Theresa on September 26, 2005 11:57 am

    Whatever happened to better safe than sorry? You go girl!

  4. Michele on September 27, 2005 10:35 am

    I’m with Theresa- always better safe than sorry.

  5. cassie-b on September 30, 2005 11:05 am

    I’m so glad it was a false alarm. Better be safe than sorry.

  6. Philip on September 30, 2005 12:16 pm

    Better to be on top of things than not…

    Vigilance keeps everyone safe.

  7. Bev on October 1, 2005 12:38 pm

    In most instances it seems that a school is damned if you do, and damned if you don’t.

  8. Marcia on October 3, 2005 9:19 pm

    Better safe than sorry

    and

    All’s well that end’s well!

    Two appropriate cliches.

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