Armed Student Escapes From Stetson School Again, Alarming Barre Residents
A couple weeks ago I published a blog about the out of control students who attend the Stetson School in Barre. This is a boarding school near the center of town that warehouses extremely troubled and dangerous students. Stetson is owned by the Seven Hills Foundation, which takes in over $60 million a year in grant money. Yet they seemingly invest nothing in security, despite the dangerous population they serve. Consequently the Barre Police are frequently on the lookout for dangerous students, many of who are armed. And to the surprise of no one it happened again last night.
Armed and dangerous with a knife at 10 PM. There were state police helicopters overhead, waking people up who had to get to work the next day. All this time, money, and resources that the taxpayers are fitting the bill for because a multi million dollar, for-profit mega-charity doesn’t feel like investing in security. There are so many simple solutions to this – hire more people, ankle bracelets, corporal punishment, solitary confinement, barbed wire fencing. Something. Anything is better than what they’re doing nothing, which apparently is nothing.
We called the Stetson School today for comment and they took down our information which they said they were passing onto their corporate offices, AKA the Seven Hills Foundation in Worcester. I’m not holding my breath. It looks like Seven Hills is prioritizing vaping prevention over the safety of the citizens of Barre.
This is the VP of the Stetson School, Joseph Allred.
He likely makes an extremely high salary, but yet he claims that all is well at Stetson:
“Stetson is not a locked facility,” Mr. Allred said. “We have strategic cameras on campus and protocols in place for training our staff. We are a therapeutic school for children. There’s a misconception that we house a bunch of delinquent children and that’s simply incorrect.”
A misconception that you have delinquent children? They’re escaping form campus with weapons and stealing people’s cars.
I wonder where people get the idea that they’re delinquents. They also tie up police resources with prank calls:
At the Monday meeting, Kathleen Howard, a former Barre dispatcher, told the board of an instance Nov. 25 where there had been nine 911 hang-up calls made from the school to the regional dispatch center over a period of three hours.
But everything is fine, and Mr. Allred can’t believe that the people in Barre have an issue with his school.
Mr. Allred said he had viewed the video recording of the meeting and was dismayed by the comments from board members, believing there is a proven record of collaboration with the Police Department and other town boards and organizations.
Because he already bribed the town with free land for a police station a few years ago.
With respect to the school’s financial contribution to the community, Mr. Allred said a 30-year PILOT agreement executed July 1, 2015, provided the four acres at no cost on South Street for the Stephen M. Brewer Public Safety Building.
So the townsfolk have given up their right complain about safety.
And to make matters worse, Stetson officials are unwilling to sit down with the public to discuss the danger this is causing to the community because the citizens “view the students as prisoners.”
During its Sept. 3 meeting, the board said Stetson officials have been unwilling to participate in a public board meeting. Instead, it wants to meet on its own terms at the school. On Aug. 29, the school’s lawyer wrote a letter to town counsel stating that the board gave the impression selectmen “view the students as prisoners who must be kept inside the property boundaries at all costs.”
Because they are prisoners. If they were allowed to leave then they wouldn’t be prisoners. The mere fact that their disappearance is problematic proves this point.
The State Police are constantly being called from the Brookfield barracks to go to that school as well, and when they get there they are harassed and taunted by the inmates because the Stetson School has completely lost control of its population.
But all you really need to know is that Bret Killoran used to be an inmate at Stetson. We like Bret now, but as a youth he was the poster boy for juvenile delinquency and a prime candidate to be featured on Turtleboy. According to him the place is a complete zoo with no supervision, and he or may not have boinked his counselor. Knowing Bret I have no doubt in my mind that this is true.
Here’s my question – what are they waiting for? Do they want an innocent person to be killed? Last week it was a kid with an axe, now it’s a knife. They’ve stolen cars too. What happens when they get a gun? What happens if a citizen shoots one of these kids breaking into their house? Is Seven Hills waiting for someone to get killed before doing something? If you’re a citizen of Barre or one of the surrounding towns (or even if you’re just concerned in general) I highly suggest you contact State Senator Anne Gobi or State Rep Donnie Berthiaume to voice your concerns. The Seven Hills Foundation might not work for you, but your elected leaders do.
If not you can just sit back and wait for more of this.
Your call.
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