This story by Corey McDonald was first published in The Citizen on Dec. 14.
The Champlain Valley School District and the Hinesburg Police Department in a joint statement acknowledged the need for “better communication and collaboration” following a jumbled response to the discovery of a handgun and drugs earlier this month at the Hinesburg Community School.
In the aftermath of the incident on Dec. 1, when Hinesburg Community School students discovered a loaded handgun and, later, more than 30 grams of suspected crack cocaine outside of the school, the district and police department offered conflicting narratives of events, and some parents expressed concern that information was not relayed to them in a timely manner.
Both parties in their statement apologized to the Hinesburg community for “any distress or confusion this may have caused” and noted that they were “working toward a robust and effective partnership in the future.”
The statement, issued Friday, followed several meetings between school and town officials, including the school district Superintendent Rene Sanchez, chief operations officer Gary Marckres, Hinesburg police chief Anthony Cambridge and Hinesburg town manager Todd Odit.
Those meetings were facilitated by the Williston Community Justice Center.
“Over the last two days, we came together to build an understanding of the sequence of Friday’s event,” the letter reads. “We reached an agreement for many of Friday’s events and now recognize that misunderstandings in communications and authority impacted the response.”
Hinesburg residents Alex and Taylor Goodchild, the parents of the child who picked up the weapon and initially gave it to a teacher, said during a recent selectboard meeting that the police department was “really open with us and responded quickly and appropriately,” and added that the school contacted them immediately.
But, according to reporting from Seven Days, other parents of children among the group that found the handgun expressed frustration that the school never directly notified them of what had happened, aside from a district-wide letter sent on Dec. 3.
“We were contacted immediately, and we’re very appreciative of that,” Taylor Goodchild said. “I think that has a lot of families really concerned and worried feeling like they weren’t contacted because it didn’t — it wasn’t their child and they’re hearing that it was, and so from our perspective and what we’re feeling is we felt like we were supported in that, and that communication I think wasn’t clear with families.”
Alex Goodchild told town officials that he hoped the incident results in “a change in the order of any incident happening in a school zone.”
“It needs to be reported to the administration at the school — whether it’s a car accident, a burglary or a crime,” he said, “because in that case then they can have more time to prepare.”
At around 10 a.m. on Dec. 1, a group of students outside of the school at recess discovered a handgun near the school’s playground. One of the children brought it to a teacher, school officials said, and school employees immediately alerted the school’s co-principals, who called the police.
The investigation remains underway, but police have previously suggested the gun and drugs were tied to an incident the previous night. Just before 11 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 30, police arrested Jermaine Rushing, 26, of Brooklyn, N.Y., for driving under the influence, excessive speed, negligent operation and leaving the scene of an accident.
Rushing sped along Route 116, attracting the attention of patrolmen, and led them on a chase before crashing into a tree at the intersection of Route 116 and Silver Street near the school. Rushing fled the scene.
The school turned over the gun to the police. The two officers, Andrew Thomas and Nick Labonte, then canvassed the school’s grounds. But it wasn’t until later in the day, after the officers had left and returned to the department, that school district officials notified police they had found the drugs on school grounds as well.
The school district released its narrative of events on Sunday, but by then, social media was rife with rumors.
The police department’s narrative released that Monday then complicated matters. According to police, Thomas and Labonte, after returning to the department, told police Chief Anthony Cambridge that a school administrator wouldn’t let police search an outdoor classroom area because a class was in session.
“Officer Labonte voiced concern that the kindergarten class was still outside after a loaded firearm was found,” Cambridge wrote in his timeline of the police response. He said Labonte asked the school administrator, “Can we search where the kids are?” but “she didn’t want to disturb or scare the kindergarteners.”
Whether that issue was resolved in the meetings is unclear. Cambridge did not return messages seeking comment.
“From my perspective, there’s not a lot of good that could come out of going back and saying who was right about this thing or the other thing, that’s not going to change what happened,” Odit said during a selectboard meeting. “What it can do is impact future actions and future situations. That’s really our goal.”
Police returned to the school later that morning after Tim Trevithick, one of the co-principals at the school, told police that several small bags of drugs were found in the outdoor classroom area that hadn’t been searched, according to the police.
Cambridge asked him to bring the kids in immediately, and police returned to collect the drugs. Cambridge told The Citizen last week that he had been surprised that kids were allowed outside after the gun had been discovered.
In their statement, both parties said they are “dedicated to establishing open lines of communication.” To facilitate this, the parties agreed to several commitments, including “frequent and regular communication,” and the creation of a shared policy between the district and the town’s three public service agencies.
The Hinesburg police, the statement reads, will serve as a regular member of the Hinesburg Community School Safety and Security Committee and will attend regular safety and security meetings with the district.
The statement also said that representatives from the school and police department “were harmed by the media coverage, social media posts, and direct attacks on their reported actions” and that “other members of the community, students, caregivers, teachers, and others were also impacted.”
“For the community to believe we deserve their trust, we need to build trust among one another,” the statement reads. “To do that, we will demonstrate integrity, humility, and honesty towards each other.”
