Danielle & Eric Charest
Yesterday, at three P M, Girard at Large received a message from one of our loyal listeners who shared a Facebook post about a developing situation at Nashua North High School. Apparently, on Friday, administrators at the school were made aware of a “death list” which contained the names of seventeen students and the dates, times and ways they would each die. According to Danielle Charest, the parent who used Facebook to alert the public, quote “Each form of death was different and thought out. Each was sick, twisted and showed signs of a mentally unstable person as the author.” End quote.
Nashua North: Student had death list
Charest wrote that the school took the position that the list was not a threat and didn’t contact parents until the end of the day. She says her daughter, who was on that list, went to a principal in fear and was told quote “it was being handled please return to class.” Charest said school officials sent a “broad email” telling parents that the death list was based on a cartoon Japanese anime and was in no way an unsafe situation. Charest and her husband was outraged by the email and said when they asked questions of the school, they was put off with what she described as “politically correct statements” like “it is being handled according to district policy” and was told the name of the offending student could not be released because it would violate her privacy.
Superintendent Mark Conrad: Following policy
According to her post, attempts to get answers out of the Nashua Police Department were sent to voicemail. The girl that made this list cited the reason Charest’s daughter was number three was because “of a dirty look in second grade, 8 years ago.” Charest says her daughter doesn’t want to return to school and is afraid for her safety. She wrote she’s refusing to take it lightly and is drawing attention to the situation because quote
“School shootings start with a list of people who have wronged an individual…We cannot stand by and accept this type of behavior. I don’t want Nashua to be the next Columbine because we didn’t take a death threat list seriously.”
As of this morning, more than three thousand people have shared Charest’s post. We thank our loyal listener for bringing it to our attention. We have messaged Charest with an invitation to be a guest on the show and will, of course, be discussing this incident during this morning’s show.
News from our own backyard continues after this.
White: Phase II needed
Tonight, the Manchester Board of School Committee will consider a request from its Building and Sites Committee and associated staff to ask the Board of Mayor and Aldermen to fund phase two of the Manchester School of Technology’s expansion. In a memo submitted to the board, M S T Principal Karen White, school district Business Administrator Karen DeFrancis and Chief Facilities Manager Kevin O’Maley say that if the forty seven thousand feet of additional quote unquote “learning and programming space” isn’t added, the school will have to dramatically reduce the size of the four year program from four hundred fifty to three hundred five students starting with next year’s freshman class. Without reducing enrollments, there’s already a lottery system in place to determine who gets to go to the school as the number of kids who want to go is exceeded by the number of seats available.
Field Trip for Wilson School?
That discussion comes before the board considers a twelve thousand dollar field trip request that would send fifth graders from the Wilson School to Nature’s Classroom, an environmental camp that school officials say will help build on the math and science curriculum. Kids would be at the camp for four days and three nights. Based on the materials provided with the agenda, I’m not exactly sure if they’ll be in Connecticut or New Hampshire.
Metzler: Extremely fortunate
In a press release issued on Friday, S A U 5 5 said it was pleased to announce the Superintendent of Schools and the S A U Board had agreed in principle to terms of a contract extension until the year 2 0 2 2. The superintendent to whom the release refers is none other that Dr. Earl F. Metzler, II, who stated he was quote “extremely fortunate for the overwhelming show of confidence and support demonstrated by the Boards[sic] that I work for.”
According to board member Donna Green, the contract extension offered to Metzler was made after the board voted in non-public session on the terms it sought to offer. The extension had been on the table since the board’s May twentieth meeting, but the minutes of the non public meeting at which the extension was originally discussed hadn’t been disseminated to members of the board until Green, who was out of the country when the meeting was held, complained that the board violated its policies by meeting on the contract extension instead of the Spring as required.
Publisher’s Note: This correction was received from Donna Green during this morning’s show. We post it as received with appreciation.
Green: Raises questions, corrects report
Rich,
The full non-public minutes that included the tabled motion (of May 20 SAU non-public SAU meeting) were not posted to the website or given to the board in advance of the Oct 7th meeting when the contract extension was voted on. I discovered that the non-public minutes were included in our printed meeting material only after I complained about the policy violation.
This move to prematurely extend the contract was done in complete secrecy from the public.
Independent of all this, a citizen requested the minutes for May 20 which included non-public minutes within them. Those minutes did not show this tabled motion to extend the contract.
Neither I nor any member of the public could possibly have known that extending the contract was to be discussed at the Oct 7th meeting.
Bedford Police Dept.: Meet the Chief
Wanna Meet Bedford Police Chief John Bryfonski? Well then, pop in for his monthly Meet the Chief event tonight at the Bedford Safety Complex from four to seven.
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