A search party looking for a missing Sandown man found him crushed under the tree he apparently used to anchor his hammock.
Edward Murphy, who was conducting a multi-day hike that was to end last Wednesday, had been reported missing when he did not return, and searchers entered the White Mountain National Forest from several locations on Thursday at noon before finding him in Bean’s Purchase. He had a headlamp which indicated that he attempted to set up camp after dark and apparently did not notice that the tree he was using as an anchor for his hammock was dead or dying.
Hiking officials warn that is important to make sure trees are healthy, without dead limbs, before using them to secure a hammock.
Folds On Ballots Blamed In Windham
A review of the ballots used in Windham’s 2020 election showed that folds in the absentee ballots so they would fit into envelopes fooled the counting machines so they gave extra votes to Democrat Kristi St. Laurent in the state representative’s race. A hand recount showed a wide discrepancy in the ballot totals.
The auditors also found that humans and machines can read the same marks and interpret them differently: If a voter did not fill in the bubble for their candidate correctly, the machine might not count that vote. A stray mark on the ballot also could throw off the count. New Hampshire’s AccuVote machines are not programmed to reject ballots with too many candidates checked, as they are in some other states; instead, over-votes show up as blanks.
Auditors also say that the aging machines may have a dust build-up that makes it harder for the devices to detect the actual vote, but that possibility needs further investigation.
Windham auditor Harri Hursti said it appears to be not one mistake but “a conspiracy of coincidences” that was responsible for the discrepancies in the ballot tally.
It brings to mind the objections of the late long-time Franklin ballot clerk June Dolloff who for years successfully fended off attempts by the city to purchase ballot machines because she did not trust machines to do the work of dedicated poll workers. Franklin officials finally prevailed, and the city now does use ballot machines to count ballots — and provide election results much sooner than the old ways.
SROs Face Pushback
New Hampshire was slow to adopt the concept of having police officers in the schools, many communities only doing so because of the availability of grants to cover the initial costs. Some of those who accepted the grants declined to retain the “school resource officers” once the grants ran out and they would have to fund the positions with local tax dollars, but the idea gradually gained acceptance, until SROs became a standard feature of the school day. Nationwide, the number of SROs increased from fewer than 100 in the 1970s to as many as 20,000 today.
Those officers served as law enforcers, counselors, and educators, but seldom received much specialized training in the roles they were called upon to serve. Even today, New Hampshire does not require any specialized training, although many take the five-day seminar offered through the National Association of School Resource Officers. The New Hampshire Commission on Law Enforcement Accountability recommends specialized training and certification and wants to create a model agreement for school-police partnerships.
However, there is a growing movement to remove officers from schools in recognition that many of the problems they are forced to deal with could be more adequately addressed through counseling. Elizabeth Lahey of Concord, former director of the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Civil Rights Unit, said communities tend to drop problems in the hands of police, but “that leads to criminalization, because that’s what police are trained to do. They respond to crime, and they respond to crimes in a particular way.”
While their presence in the schools generally leads to a safer school, it also tends to result in higher rates of punishment: They are five times more likely to be arrested for disorderly conduct, according to a 2016 study published in the Washington University Law Review.
A better way, some believe, is to offer better mental health resources and train staff in de-escalation strategies. The staff would still call police when necessary, but would depend upon student safety coaches for most crisis intervention and trauma.
From Our Readers
School Vouchers
Should those that home school or private school their kids be allowed to get a few bucks back via a Voucher Program from the school taxes they paid? The State pays your school district about $3,500 per student and the rest comes from your property tax. If a parent chooses to opt out of using public schools the district loses the $3,500, but the district still gets 100 percent of all your school property tax. This leaves the parents of a home/private schoolers and the school district getting zero from the state.
Some may think the voucher program as equitable while others see it as a risk which is exacerbating funding inequity of NH schools. Michael Turmelle points out how NH funding of Public Schools is inequitable. He also points out that the voucher program will put public schools at further funding risk which I believe is not true. The voucher program would be or should be funded by the state portion of the tax which the parents already paid. As of now neither the district nor home/private schooler is getting any of the $3,500. What is so inequitable with giving back a tiny bit to those who paid the tax in the first place? Why should the state keep it or why should the district get it all?
We need to start looking at smarter ways to teach our kids. One thing this pandemic has showed us is there are options. We must start changing with the times and start thinking outside the box. This is not about teachers; this is about working smarter in teaching our kids and saving the taxpayer money before they go broke.
John Sellers
Bristol
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