Please join me in a moment of centering silence. And now let us join our voices together in our in-gathering hymn number 118, This Little Light of Mine. Good morning and welcome to the First Unitarian Society of Madison. This is a community where curious seekers gather to explore spiritual, ethical, and social issues in an accepting and nurturing environment. Unitarian Universalism supports the freedom of conscience of each individual as together we seek to be a force for transformation in the world. My name is Beth Binhammer and on behalf of the congregation I'd like to extend a special welcome to any visitors this morning.  Newcomers are encouraged to stay for our fellowship hour after the service and all you old comers and to visit the library which is directly across from the center doors of the auditorium. Bring your drinks and your questions. Members of our staff and lay ministry will be on hand to welcome you. You may also look for persons holding a teal, stoneware, coffee mug. These are FUS members who are more knowledgeable about our faith community than perhaps some others and who would love to visit with you. We welcome children to stay for the duration of this service. If a child needs to talk or move around the child haven back over here to my right or the commons are fine places to retire the service can still be seen and heard from those areas. And speaking of noise please check your lovely cell phones to make sure that they are on silent. I'd like to now acknowledge those individuals who help our service run smoothly. This morning our sound operator is Rob Cunningham, our lay minister is Tom Boykoff, our greeter is Becky Dick, our ushers are Ken Gage, Tom Dolmage, Marty Hollis and Paula Ault. And I think that is it for our volunteers. Thanks to all. Please note the announcements in the red floors insert in your orders of service which describe upcoming events at the society and provide more information about today's activities. We have one special announcement and that is that guest at your table is back and needs your help. Can you volunteer one shift to support the UUSC and their international work on behalf of refugees? If so please stop by the UUSC table at the opportunity fair or contact Nancy Kossoff to sign up to help distribute those little collection boxes on November 19th and 20th. Again welcome. We hope that today's service will stimulate your mind, touch your heart and stir your spirit. Simply sublime. Good morning. My name is Eric Severson. I am your ministerial intern for the year. It is a pleasure to be with you on such a glorious brisk morning. If you would please turn to number 444 for a responsive reading this morning. This house is for the in-gathering of nature and human nature. It is a house of freedom guarding the dignity and worth of every person. It is a house of truth seeking where scientists can encourage devotion to their quest where mystics can abide in a community of searchers. It is a house of prophecy outrunning times past and times present in visions of growth and progress. Thank you and if you would rise in body or in spirit and turn to the next page for our chalice lighting number 448. We gather this hour as people of faith with joys and sorrows, gifts and needs. We like to speak in a whole sign of our quest for truth and meaning in celebration of the life we share together. And in celebration of the life we share together, I invite you to turn to your neighbors and say hello.  What is the story going to be about today? Well let me get you started. I'll bet some of you have grandmothers. Yes? Yes. Do any of you have a favorite name for your grandmother? What's your favorite name for your grandmother? Yes, a grandmom is the same as a grandmother, Grandma Peters. Sometimes we call our grandmother's abuela. Sometimes we call, yes, sometimes we call our grandmother's granny.  So this story is about a young girl and her granny when her granny goes to vote. Who knows what voting means? Yes. Okay, that's a long answer. Yes. Okay. Yes. Voting is something you do by writing down on a piece of paper and you don't shout it out because you don't want to give it away. Excellent. Voting to me is like picking your favorite, making a choice, picking something you like. Do I ever vote as often and early as I can? So this is a story called The Day Gogo Went to Vote. There once was a woman in South Africa named Mrs. Mokwena. She was a hundred years old, older than the town she lived in. And when she was born, there were no cars or airplanes. Mrs. Mokwena had a six-year-old great-granddaughter named Temby. When Temby came home from school, her mother and father were still at work. So her granny, her gogo, took care of her. Gogo Mokwena called Temby her little tail because the girl followed her everywhere. Temby got to carry her granny's beautiful blue cloth bag, which held many important things. Because Gogo Mokwena was born in the olden days, she knew many things that happened long ago. She told many stories about how her ancestors lived before the white people came to South Africa. She also told Temby about where their family came from and how they were related to each other. One day, Temby's father and mother came home very excited because the people who ran and wanted to run the government had agreed on dates for a new election. One of the days would be a special voting day for old people and people who were very sick. And two more days would be holidays when people didn't have to go to work and could go vote. I will vote with the other old people, announced Gogo Mokwena. Her family was surprised when she said this because she never went out of the yard, not even to church. We cannot take you that day because we will be at work, said Temby's father. Then I will vote with you, said Gogo Mokwena. Oh, but we are going by bus. We cannot have you traveling on a crowded bus. The buses may even be too full and we may have to walk. Besides, said Temby's mother, there will be long lines of people at the polling station. You will not be able to stand in the lines. Temby's mother and father asked her aunts and uncles to help try to tell Gogo Mokwena that she could not go to vote. But Gogo Mokwena refused to listen.  She asked. A neighbor woman named Mrs. Malambo asked why there was such a fuss. While Temby's parents went to talk with her, Temby asked her granny why she wanted to vote so much. Gogo Mokwena said, Temby, black people in South Africa, have fought for many years for the right to vote. This is the first time we have a chance to vote for our own leaders, and it might be my last. This is why I must vote. No matter how many miles I have to walk, no matter how long I have to stand in line. Well, the neighbor, Mrs. Malambo, had a rich uncle, Mr. Ramoshu, who said that he would send his own car to take Gogo Mokwena and Temby's parents to vote. Temby asked her mother and father if she could go along. At first they said she was too little. But Gogo Mokwena told them that Temby must be there to help carry her blue bag. When the election days came, the whole family was so excited that no one could sleep, they got up early in the morning dressed in their best clothes and were all waiting eagerly when Mr. Ramoshu's big, shiny car stopped in front of their house. There were many people lined up to vote at the polling booth. The crowd had to move to let the car get through. Mr. Ramoshu had told the voting officers about Gogo Mokwena. So they were waiting for her and said that she did not have to stand in line. Gogo Mokwena showed her identity book to prove who she was, and they gave her a paper ballot to take into the voting booth. Temby almost cried when they told her that she could not go with her granny into the voting booth. Why can't I go with Gogo? She asked. Because no one should know who she is voting for, said the officer. But I already know who she's voting for, she said. It's a secret ballot. That means you must not tell anyone, they said. Temby's mother told her to stop asking so many questions. The voting officers laughed and said that she had to ask questions so that she would be prepared to vote when she was old enough. When Gogo Mokwena came out of the voting booth, she put her paper ballot into a big box with an opening on top. People with big flashing cameras took pictures of her and then a picture of her and Temby together. All the people in the room stood up and clapped and cheered for a long time because Gogo Mokwena was the oldest voter in the town. Temby and her parents all cried with happiness. When they got home, the yard was full of neighbors and relatives who had brought food to celebrate. While they were eating, some of Temby's uncles argued about who would win the elections. Temby's father told them to not worry about that. The important thing he said is that we can vote and Gogo has led the way. Everyone began to sing freedom songs and danced for joy. Temby stayed up way past her bedtime and danced with her cousins until their feet were sore. When they were too tired to go on, they all sang a new national anthem and crawled into bed. The next day, there was a picture of Gogo Mokwena and Temby in the newspaper. Under the picture, the word said, the past and the future, 100-year-old voter Mrs. M. Mokwena accompanied by 6-year-old great-granddaughter Temby. Temby and her granny felt very proud and important. The whole township celebrated after the elections when Mr. Nelson Mandela became president of the country. People danced and sang in the streets all day and all night. There were many parties and people all over the country celebrated for many days. But for Temby, the best day was when Gogo went to vote. Thank you for sharing our story this morning. Let's head off to class. Reading is a prayer by W. E. B. Du Bois. Give us grace, O God, to dare to do the deed which we well know cries to be done. Let us not hesitate because of ease or the words of men's mouths or our own lives. Mighty causes are calling us. The freedom of women, the training of children, the putting down of hate and murder and poverty, all these and more. But they call with voices that mean work and sacrifice. Merciful God grant us the spirit of Esther that we say, I will go unto the king and if I perish, I perish. And the second reading is by Lyndon Johnson excerpts from his remarks upon signing the Voting Rights Act of 1965. This act flows from a clear and simple wrong. Its only purpose is to right that wrong. Millions of Americans are denied the right to vote because of their color. This law will ensure them the right to vote. The wrong is one which no American in his heart can justify. The right is one which no American true to our principles can deny. In 1957, as the leader of the majority in the United States Senate, speaking in support of legislation to guarantee the right of all men to vote, I said, this right to vote is the basic right without which all others are meaningless. It gives people, people as individuals control over their own destinies. The members of the Congress and the many private citizens who worked to shape and pass this bill will share a place of honor in our history for this one act alone. And I pledge you that we will not delay or we will not hesitate or we will not turn aside until Americans of every race and color and origin in this country have the same right as all others to share in the process of democracy. So through this act and its enforcement, an important instrument of freedom passes into the hands of millions of our citizens. But that instrument must be used. Presidents and Congress' laws and lawsuits can open the doors to the polling places and open the doors to the wondrous rewards which await the wise use of the ballot. But only the individual Negro and all others who have been denied the right to vote can really walk through those doors and can use that right and can transform the vote into an instrument of justice and fulfillment. If you do this, then you will find, as others have found before you, that the vote is the most powerful instrument ever devised by man for breaking down injustice and destroying the terrible walls which imprison men because they are different from other men. For it is not enough just to give men rights. They must be willing to use those rights in their personal pursuit of happiness. The wounds and weaknesses, the outward walls and inward scars which diminish achievement, are the work of American society. We must all now help to end them. The central fact of American civilization, one so hard for others to understand, is that freedom and justice and dignity of man are not just words. We believe them. Under all the growth and the tumult and abundance, we believe. And so, as long as some among us are oppressed and we are part of that oppression, it must blunt our faith and sap the strength of our high purpose. Thus, this is a victory for the freedom of the American Negro, but it is also a victory for the freedom of the American nation. And every family across this great and tire searching land will live stronger in liberty, will live more splendid in expectation and will be prouder to be American because of the act that you have passed that I will sign today. If you would rise in body or in spirit for him number 131, love will guide us. A few years ago I discovered that I am distantly related to Cecil John Rhodes. The 19th century British philanthropist for whom Oxford University's Rhodes Scholarship Program is named. He's the man for whom the South Central African Nation of Rhodesia was named before its citizens gained independence as Zambia and Zimbabwe in the mid 20th century. Cecil John Rhodes was a politician and an international businessman. He was a diamond magnate, a founder of De Beers consolidated minds. He was a British imperialist and one of the architects of the system of segregation called apartheid.  A quick online search of his life reveals a fascinating, horrifying chapter in world history when European empires vied to control politically, geographically and economically Africa at the expense of its original inhabitants. So I consider today's story for all ages and the real life experiences it represents both instructive for all and curiously satisfying for me. At one point in my life I had both a young daughter and an aging granny. At another time I witnessed on television the dismantling of apartheid and I can only imagine how exciting, frightening and powerful the experience must have been for every South African voting in 1994. Cecil John Rhodes I'm glad to say has become just a footnote in that history. Today one week after our Black Lives Matter weekend and two weeks, two and a half weeks before our own national elections, I thought it appropriate to consider the fundamental right of suffrage. Since this nation's birth the right to vote has never been a given except for the wealthy men, white men in power. It is a right that millions have fought and died for and to this day is a right still denied many in our country. Our nation was founded as a republic based on constitutional laws that apply to all. Democracy in 1887 when it was written was considered a dirty word. It was understood as mob rule and the fuel for the bloody French revolution. Here today we are bound by the rule of law not just public opinion. We are subject to the law until we make the effort to change it. Our republic does operate though using democratic principles however flawed they may be. The electoral process in my opinion should empower us all of us but it doesn't. It should reinforce as part of our human identity one of the first lessons we learn as toddlers. If we choose, let me back up, one of the first lessons we learn as toddlers that we have choices and that our choices can influence the world. If I choose to drop a toy on the ground and someone picks it up I have influenced my world with my choice. Every one of us as United States citizens pursuing life liberty and happiness has a stake in choosing who will represent us who will serve us in public office. Just like Black South Africans in 1994 like Gogo Mokwena indeed like every adult on earth no matter what our political leanings each of us deserves to have our voice heard and the electoral college in theory and in practice is a conversation for another time. The right to vote is foundational to the democratic process as Churchill pointed out you and I entering the voting booth and making our mark with our voices our choices. In 1965 President Lyndon Johnson called this right to vote the basic right without which all others are meaningless it gives control over their own destinies people control over their own destinies and is the most powerful instrument ever devised for breaking down injustice and destroying the laws between us. So the vote is a fundamental honor and obligation of citizenship but why why is it so potent? Because said Johnson we as Americans believe that freedom justice and dignity are more than just words they are ideals that we as citizens strive to achieve. In 1993 President Bill Clinton strove toward these ideals when he nominated the noted scholar and attorney Lonnie Guinear as assistant attorney general for civil rights he withdrew her nomination shortly thereafter under pressure from political conservatives. Guinear considered the whole experience a civil right setback of monumental proportions. In the introduction to her book Lift Every Voice she has this to say about our role as citizens in the political process participation matters after all. A seat at the table and a voice at the podium enables each of us to become part of something greater than ourselves participation as citizens she says nourishes and supports us individuals as individuals and as a community helps us reach our full potential reinforces our dignity and sense of purpose in something transcendent even if we try and fail and it helps us understand that our voices are better heard when we speak plainly and collectively historic though it was the 15th amendment to the constitution granting men of color the right to vote was just one step and extending that right to every citizen women gained the vote in 1920 with ratification of the 19th amendment and yet poll taxes litter literacy tests and other obstacles remained until passage of various civil rights acts culminating in the voting rights act of 1965 and subsequent amendments to it but voter suppression is still very real among the economically disadvantaged the incarcerated senior citizens and persons of color even here in wisconsin a voter identification requirement signed into law in 19 in 2011 to prevent a specious voter fraud issue has been ruled in courts across the country as discriminatory and unconstitutional and yet here it has been allowed to stand author aria burman asserted this past week in the nation magazine that this year's voters are lacking crucial protections because this is the first presidential election in 50 years without the full provisions of the voting rights act it's incredibly unlikely there will be widespread voter fraud on election day he says but there will be eligible voters who show up to vote and are turned away from the polls that's the real threat to election integrity we should be focusing on while i am a middle-aged white male i am doing my best to learn about white privilege and combating systemic racism here's a popular metaphor of one thing i've learned so far it doesn't matter if you did or didn't intend to drop that brick on my foot my foot is still broken the impact is that my foot is broken regardless of the intent of an action law or policy we have to start by addressing the impact on people's lives the impact of this voter id law is that persons of color and others are actively being disenfranchised i feel strongly that each of us has a moral obligation to ensure that every voice is heard even those with which we disagree and especially those that aren't normally a part of the conversation not only is it fair and just but hearing people's stories acknowledging the depth and breadth of others experiences and opinions enriches us all linden johnson said that we all have a responsibility to end the wounds and the weaknesses the outward walls and the inward scars afflicting our society w e b Du Bois's prayer asks god for the courage to dare to do the deed which we well know cries to be done that might mighty causes are calling us with voices that mean work and sacrifice and even death unitarian universalists have long heeded that call throughout history liberal religious social reformers have improved our society beyond measure binding up the broken setting captives free bringing good tidings to be afflicted in those who mourn challenging conventions and holding up a greater vision there are too many to name i recommend famous you use dot com but our movement has included politicians musicians authors philosophers scientists poets doctors nurses educators jurists and hundreds of other change agents we are in good company since our seven principles were crafted 30 years ago we have explicitly championed the right of conscience and use of the democratic process and long before that our religious forebears called for the primacy of freedom reason and tolerance and worked to make it so this house of ours as we affirmed in our opening words is a platform for the free voice for declaring a full and undivided conflict of opinion locally and nationally we also have declared ourselves people of love and justice our living religious tradition calls us as our sources and our songs suggest to let love be our guide to act on the side of love martin Luther king junior paraphrased unitarian minister theodore parker when he said that the arc of the moral universe is long and so it is lifting every voice is an ideal that in the end we may not fully realize there are those who oppose it out of ignorance greed fear or other human emotion still it cries out to be done but how eric how will we lift up every voice in many aspects we already do we just need to look around see other opportunities and do more for example we lift others voices when we fly prayer flags with the names of those killed by racial violence we lift others voices when we make time and space available in our auditorium for presentations by marginalized people and those who work with them we lift others voices when we donate time or money to organizations serving the homeless the abused or the neglected we lift others voices when we join their organizations those who know the issues best and let them lead we lift others voices when we abolish racist mascots we lift others voices when we interrupt racist attacks when we stand up to bullies and when we help others understand the difference between impact and intent and impact we lift voices others voices when we dial into surf to or pick up and read news sources outside mainstream media we lift others voices when we ask the business owner of color down the walk what she thinks is the highest priority in our neighborhood we lift others voices when we elect people who are gay lesbian bisexual transgender to the school board or other public office we lift others voices when we demand greater access to and public funding for health care including mental health care we lift others voices when we teach our children that they deserve respect we lift others voices when we feel safe enough to question our own assumptions about gender race or physical ability when we see and address our own biases we lift others voices when we are willing to just shut up and listen pay attention and listen to others voice stories think of something you could do regarding this election there's still time to get out the vote contact the dame county league of women voters to compare candidates answers to questions get details on the league's website about registration and early voting throughout dame county such as what credentials you'll need to bring with you help your relatives friends neighbors and strangers register and get to the polls volunteer to drive someone or watch their kids while they vote if you haven't already voted of course i urge you to do so on november 8th or before and before our next election let's work to eliminate the voter ID law mighty causes are calling us and while we may fall short or fail in our efforts to make life liberty and happiness real for all the drive to fight for these ideals is part of our identity as unitarian universalists and as americans we must dare to do the deeds we know cry out to be done as we in this congregation strive to live with integrity struggle with difficult questions try to reflect to others our best selves as we work for greater equity in our city state and nation as we continue righting wrongs and building a land of peace and justice may we embody the curiosity and love of ten be the wisdom and determination of gogo moquina and the courage and passion of all who have fought for civil rights before us may we let our light shine may we continue to have faith that love will guide us that hope inside us will lead the way may we lift up our voices and sing to the power of the faith hope love and joy within so that others may hear us and feel empowered to raise theirs as well so may it be we gather each week a community of memory and of hope to this time and place we bring our whole and at times our broken selves we carry with us the joys and sorrows of the recent weeks and seek a place where they might be received celebrated and shared i'd like to pause this week to send healing thoughts to tom garver who recently underwent carpal tunnel surgery and in addition to to that mentioned we also acknowledge all those unarticulated joys and sorrows that remain among us and that as a community we hold with equal concern in our hearts let us now sit silently together for a few moments in the spirit of empathy and hope by virtue of our time together may our burdens be lightened and our joys expanded if you would please rise and body or in spirit for our closing hymn number 368 words are by the river mark bellatini called election promises i hear the polls are going to be open on tuesday all day good i certainly intend to go to them i certainly invite you to go to them and vote too but today i say the polls are not just open on tuesday i say they are open every day every hour even here even now right now i'm going to vote for the robin's egg sky the vanilla clouds the purple shadow spreading under the ginkgo tree i'm going to vote for tulips and redbugs i'm going to vote for love that does not have to run in someone else's circles in order to be loved i'm going to vote the homeless into homes i'm going to vote the uneducated into classrooms that teach them in a way they learn best not the way that would be most convenient i'm going to vote the sick into healing i'm going to vote the lost into belonging i'm going to vote right now for the right to dream of a world where the word politics doesn't stop me in my tracks and where the word honor still has a few good meanings left i'm going to vote right now for the power of free people to actually be free no matter who they are no matter who has abandoned them no matter who hates them i actually am going to vote for love i'm going to vote for truthfulness as the norm not the exception i'm going to vote for a world that doesn't vote for killing control and swagger i'm going to vote for you i'm going to vote for me right now right here silently for real so as we leave this place and time together let us dare to do the deed which we well know cries to be done let us work to fulfill the moral imperatives to lift every voice and let us commit ourselves to doing our civic duty to vote today and in the days ahead bless and be


My name is Brian Pete. I'm with the Montpelier Police Department. I'm the Chief of Police. With me is Corporal Mike Philbrick, who is our Community Resource Officer and one of and our Public Information Officer as well. So Corporal Philbrick will pretty much be leading this discussion. So before I turn it over, I want to thank folks for taking the time out to attend. And I know that this was a very stressful and anxious situation that happened and folks are rightfully concerned. So our whole hope is to make sure that we're transparent as we can't always be accountable to you and that we're able to provide you with the information that you need. So we want to want to provide, again, now that the case is at a point that we can make sure the information out there, we want to make sure we do that. So let's see. Sorry about that. So, so with that being said, sir, Mike, if you want to take it over. Thanks, chief. Even everyone. Thanks for joining us. We're really happy to be able to have these types of events. Part of my role as community outreach and something we've always stressed with Montpelier PD is being a community oriented police department. And our communication information are two of the most important aspects of our profession. Our ability to communicate with each other with folks who are in crisis with other agencies, and especially with the public that we serve is just important. You know, some things that we do are inevitably going to be confidential, but you know our goal as we move forward, and it's something that is always been part of our culture and something that's moving more towards embracing of social media and other things. The community with community is going to be our emphasis. So we're glad you're here to join us. We're glad that we can share this information with you. We're glad that we can hopefully help you understand our role and how we address this concerning incident and how we would respond in the future of something we're to have. So chief you want to advance the slide will go over the framework of this talk tonight, and then we'll go through the timeline of our investigation response to this potential threat incident. So we'll cover what happened. We're going to go into depth into how we responded to this and why we did. So chief Pete's going to go into the state federal laws that are applicable, you know, there's a lot of concern about by rest weren't made and we're hoping we'll be able to address a lot of your back concern a lot of your other other concerns tonight. And then finally we'll go over our relationship with our school system and how we prepare to respond to any threat to the safety of our schools and the children they serve. So chief you want to move on to the timeline. So this just happened initially over the course of just a few hours on the 17th around to 45 in the afternoon. We were informed by monthly or high school staff of this report to them by the really, you know, really courageous folks who came forward, both students and staff. It's not an easy thing for yourself in a situation around this type of, you know, potential act. That's it's a scary thing to be involved in, but you know these folks knew it was the right things to do they knew that we needed to share this information. They knew that what was said. Well not maybe a direct, a direct threat at the time was still concerning enough that they needed to bring it forward to school staff and the school staff know because we were close to them and have a great, a great great lines of communication open that they were able to bring that immediately to our on duty staff and chief you want to move that next box up. And they brought us with the background on this with their concerns were, you know, we were able to identify the folks would come forward and balance their desire for anonymity, and their concerns for their own safety with our the necessary response that we had to make to to the situation so we met with those three parties, you know, we're able to interview them get get the details we needed, and then chief you advance forward again. We review and look through and assess all of the information that's provided to us, you know, is this just hearsay or is this just rumor, or is this an actual, you know, from the you know from here saying rumor all the way up to an actual direct threat. And so we make that assessment. And then we start this process, based on what the appropriate responses in this situation is an 18 year old student who had access to firearms. And with a few years ago these sort of with I think they're known as red flag laws were put into effect in Vermont after you know as a school potential school shooting was thwarted. The laws were put in effect to help prevent this type of thing happening again. And we would, you know, we put forward this is the ideal application of these laws. You know, threat was identified as a potential potentiality, sorry. You know, we made the assessment we gathered our information we coordinated with the Washington kind of states attorney.  They are the attorneys that prosecute crimes in, you know, throughout Vermont, other places that we call the district attorney but in Vermont the states attorney. So we coordinate with them to determine if this meets the applicable, you know, measures or level to apply for something like an extreme risk protection order. And if someone doesn't know what an extreme risk protection or is it simply allows law enforcement to seize the weapons of someone who has the potential to be a threat. So they don't have to have already made threats they don't have to be an active threat. They have to know this allows us to take care of and address potential threats through the limited removal of weapons from those that you know those persons custody in those areas, especially to ensure that they are not able to be a threat in the future so we were able to work with the Washington kind of state attorney. We coordinate with them we went for a judge, and you know these affidavits and paperwork and forums were submitted before judge the judge review that application while that was being reviewed we contacted area, other area law enforcement agencies we started with various federal agencies that this would apply to anything with firearms we're going to talk to back alcohol to back on firearms. And we have great relationships, many of our former officers have gone on to be to join these agencies we have great relationships with them are able to bring their resources. Information expertise to bear on even an incident like this that didn't rise to the level of an active threat. And, you know assess using using those resources assess sort of what what what can we bring to bear on this, this situation to be able to ensure that everyone is safe. So, I'm notifying everybody make sure everybody's aware what's going on. And that, and that if they're, if anything we're an escalator and we have a lot of resources available to us. At 10pm a few hours later, the order was granted for officers immediately went to the residents and acquired the weapons and ammunition that belong to this student. And so within the span of a little over five hours to mitigate a potential threat to the Montpelier High School. And then, you know we've continued we continue to update the school, again those lines communication are so important. And that's part of my role as the community resource officers to be the school liaison. And, you know, making sure that the schools and, you know, ultimately the families and the community generally are aware of, you know, what we what it what is, what has occurred to the best, the best that we can share, and hopefully this way any fears that may have come from this type of situation. So, a very quick moving scenario. And, you know, ultimately the police department and the schools ended up putting out some information sometime later. It'll let Chief Pete address any concerns about the timing made but I believe we've had, you know, we've put out a lot of information Chief Pete has put out a letter the school systems put out a letter explaining a lot of the details into why we had to balance an anonymity with, you know, sharing information with making sure that our response is appropriate and we're not also not alarming the community unnecessarily. Can you add to that. No, thank you so very very much I can jump into the next one that will as, as Mike had mentioned to talk about the timing. Unfortunate timing as to everything that if that has been going on within our society within our country since then. So I do want to kind of again hit on some of the notes that corporate field work had talked about that the high school active very quick when they became aware of this potential threat. The Montpelier high school. Montpelier Roxburgh public school system. They're they're extraordinarily part of their extraordinary partners with us. And we have a very good working relationship and their devotion to the safety and security of students of our kids who go to that school. It makes the hairs on the back of my next stand up because they have an extraordinary amount of concern. So I'm very, very fortunate for that relationship and for for folks who have this tremendous responsibility. So in looking at the the second part is that they also prioritize again safety for the staff and for students. We conducted an immediate assessment, and that incest that assessment includes a lot of fluid things things that that that could change second by second hour by hour, and they often include did the incident occur on campus. No, it didn't know it did not we didn't have any information that suggested that the subject of this particular threat was not on school campus was not planning to go to school campus was not, you know, everything to that effect. What's the eminency of what's going on. It occurred during hours and we're that we're leaning towards non school now keeping in mind that there are activities that that happened at school. There are folks who are utilizing the tennis courts utilizing the track, just utilizing the space. So we're balancing and keeping all of that stuff in mind. And we're looking and then we also pay special attention to the high school as this is going on. And as we're doing the investigation in the background as we're conducting a preliminary investigation in the background and doing our best to make sure that everyone is safe. So from there, this was an allegation at this particular point in time. And there was no probable cause for arrest. The extreme risk protection order was filed for that we go through a judge it's not something that the police can arbitrary arbitrarily just do. We have to go through the judge. And so we utilize the that that tool which worked. It worked here in this particular incident. And so at that point what we're trying to do is take away any known threats or reduce any known threats that we have to keep the community safe. And so we did that and within only a few hours. We acted quickly. We acted quickly with the FBI we acted quickly with the ATF and with other regional law enforcement agencies, Berlin, very city, Northfield, Capitol police. It's just everyone played a part in this. So as I move forward. As Corporal Filbert had mentioned, the reporting persons in the family, they're they're very concerned with anonymity. This is their unintended consequences, or that happen when when you step up to something to report something, especially something as high profile and high is concerning as this so we want to make sure that we have a precedent that doesn't discourage people in the future. So if you're reporting a tip, if the tip doesn't pan out, then thank you, thank you so much for, you know, you know, if it didn't happen if that's what if you reported something in abundance of caution, and, and everyone acted on it. Great. How do we make sure we have a measured response how do we make sure that that folks aren't looked at is like you know you're with all the stress and anxiety that comes with reporting that so we want to make sure that we have a good precedent that folks know we're going to do their do our best to make sure that they and their family are safe to even include the person who they're reporting against me if somebody's making a report against someone who they think that may threaten the school. They're obviously going to be concerned for their own welfare and for the welfare of the family for their own home so we want to make sure we balance that correct. And this was a multi law enforcement agency effort. We had no known or credible threats after we made the seizure of the weapons. There were still no laws that were violated the subjects rights. We wanted to make sure we balance that with the public's immediate need to know the Montpelier police department. We have an unofficial policy that we do our best for maximum information minimal delay is best as we possibly can on staffing and all that so we want to make sure we balance it, and ours truly is as transparent as we say we will be and as we said as I've said that we were. So this was an ongoing investigation at this point once the extreme risk protection order was issued. And with that ongoing investigation again there are multiple agencies that are helping us with this we're looking at how do we preserve evidence how are we not losing anything in email social media accounts anything else that's going to help us get a profile on understanding or motive or intent anything that's going to help us move forward on that one so we don't want to lose that opportunity. We want to make sure again balancing that with maintaining transparency communication with the community to provide that as soon as possible. And then also that this was an in depth investigation so we're looking at. Chief I'll add that included, you know, we have an FBI Task Force officer is part of our department. And we had FBI agents out of the regional all the office coming to conduct interviews with that student. And again bring those federal resources to bear on this potential threat in our in our small community so we're fortunate to have those those partnerships. And again, and as you had mentioned again, as this is a multi agency effort. There are trade craft things that we're also working to do to determine threat level to to see if this is something legitimate but I but above and beyond we need to make sure while this is a very very disturbing threat and something that we take extremely serious. We also need to make sure that we, we are impartial that any emotions or fear or anxiety that we have or concern that we have. We do our best to stay professional to stay impartial. If this person intends to do it, we're going to get them. If they didn't intend to do it, we're going to make sure we clear their name. And I'm not saying that happened in this particular situation, either or just saying that's where we have to make sure we maintain our impartial. So, state laws. I'll go into first the statute of 4053 talks about the petition for an extreme risk order of protection. In this case, Sergeant Kevin molten was the lead here, and my hats off my gratitude. To him, for pulling together a lot of people and a lot of amount of time with minimal staffing and a lot of moving parts. His concern is for the safety of our community is strong and no one. I just want to make sure that you have no cost to believe or to feel that the Montpelier police department will never will never not act for the protection of our community. So with that protection gives up at the top about the state's attorney may file that petition to request that the court issue that extreme risk protection order Corporal Filbert went over that I think pretty well but it's here for folks to read. At the bottom right hand corner of the slide I will put these slides out on our website. So folks will be able to have access to them. We are also recording this event and then we'll put it on YouTube so other family members or community members can see this presentation but the some of the information or the links to where I got this information are at the bottom. And looking at 1703 domestic terrorism this means to engage or taking a substantial step to commit a violation of the criminal laws of the state with the intent to cause death or serious bodily harm to multiple persons or threaten any civilian population with mass destruction, or mass killings or kidnapping, and then the look at me with a B and in three. So I apologize about that one so it should be see, but I'm sorry enough three is actually another subset, but the substantial step is defined as conduct that is strongly cooperative of the actor's intent to complete the commission of the this is a high bar this is a high element to meet. How do we prove someone else's intent. And again this is why we want to make sure that we're not premature and the information that we put out to the public, because we want to to preserve as much evidence as possible. So with that, another potential charge that can be that we were looking at was criminal threatening. And this is the amended portion that was recently passed, is that a person shall not by words conduct, knowingly conduct a threaten or another person or group of particular persons. As a result of the threat place the other person a reasonable apprehension of death. So these are elements that's written by the law not by the Montpelier police department but that's that's enshrined in the law. These are elements that we have to meet to to get to a point of whether we can or cannot arrest somebody put someone in custody lodge someone. And so this is what we were balancing with and what we were trying to do something I would like to note to to folks on this call is that the state has no juvenile detection or detention facility. There's lodging that's required or necessary. In a case where there is a juvenile subjects. There is that possibility that that person may be remanded to DCF for custody, because we have no lodging facilities. There are out of state options for lodging juveniles in which that the state will have to work with, like New Hampshire and New York or somewhere somewhere else to see if we can have a juvenile subject who poses an imminent danger or specific danger in these particular cases. Make sure. So, and looking at the federal law so USC statute 2335. We're looking at domestic terrorism this means activities that are going to involve dangerous acts to human life or violation. They are meant to intimidate or course civilian population to influence policy or government, or to affect the conduct of a government violation of kidnapping. So, again, as we're looking at state statutes, our federal partners are looking at federal statutes, domestic terrorism there how do we also look at the eminence how do we look at the severity of everything. So, just keeping that in mind that we're trying to also meet these bars, and with that I'll go ahead and turn it back over to corporate over. In conclusion, we want to convey to you, you know the means the effort that we put into ensuring the safety of our. Thank you. I think he froze. I'll give it another second to see if he comes out from the freeze up his just send me a text his laptop died. So he'll be jumping back on here momentarily. So I'll just step in for there so we want to make sure that everyone knows we will always always be here for it for the community, and we will always give it our best. We maintain our communication with the Montpelier high school again a very strong robust relationship that we have with rocks very public schools that we also pay special attention to that we also pay special attention to school locations. During high peak times as call volume and staffing permits us to that we have very, very strong partnerships with regional state and federal agencies to the point that we have officers even in limited manning we recognize the importance of this. And we have three officers who are part of task force teams throughout the state. And that's Alice training that we have that corporal field work when he comes back in he'll talk about the training he's received from the FBI. As well as, as well as one of our detective corporals Diane Matthews who is also trained in Alice, and that's alert lockdown informed counter evade and to provide that Alice training, not only to MRPS but to houses of worship other unfortunately in this day and age. In the party headquarters, Republican Democrat independent progressive. Everybody's being targeted nowadays and it's and it's a, it's a sad sight to see but we want to make sure that we have the means to protect and safeguard against any emerging threat that we may face as a community. I also want to mention that the Montpelier fire department is also trained to come into situations to come into warm events where if there is an incident that happens that there's an active shooter situation that they're coming through with they're able to treat people who may be injured on scene as the as the whatever the scene is but they're coming in there with us to provide emergency medical care for folks who may be injured in an active response. And then there's several folks have asked me, what happens. Okay, this is what happened in this particular situation. And what will the department do if there's an active event. And the answer to that one is we mobilize we reach out to our partners, and we respond quickly. We do not wait for in the old days when these things started becoming more, unfortunately more routine in our society used to be that law enforcement will stand outside. And you'd, you gather up enough people until you thought that you were safe going inside and then you would make your way into that into that live situation and do what you could. So, Corporal Phil works back. So I'll just finish this one thought. I would say that those days are gone law enforcement enters, and we move immediately to try to identify and neutralize any threat that's going on, and then to let folks know how dangerous of a situation this is, and some of the reason. This, this, this supports why we know it's important, because any officer that's going to enter in and into an active scene has roughly a 70% chance of being shot based on data and past instances. So the officers are going in there knowing what we're about to deal with, but that's nothing to the folks who are experiencing it right then and there. And our commitment to making sure that we provide that safety and security to this community is is is always going to be above the approach and with that, Mike, if you want to go ahead and go through this again. Gotcha. You should be unmuted now. You good. Yeah, my apologies and technical difficulties there. And then zooming enough if you haven't had technical difficulties to zoom. All right, my apologies. I'm sorry. Let me get back into this. So you just wanted to cover and reassure how our department addresses a lot of these issues and concerns. First and foremost, like I mentioned earlier, communication is, is just paramount. Our ability to interact closely with the school, various school administrations, both the superintendent will be bone steel and all of her staff, the various principles and administrative staff and teachers all the way down through to the crossing guards have has just been a great opportunity of mine. And to be introduced me as the community resource officer at the beginning of the school year and since then I've been able to provide advice and spend time in the school zones addressing safety concerns around traffic. I mean any number of aspects of school safety we've been able to assist with in that communication has been both ways, you know, we needed something from the schools they've been incredibly helpful. And so, you know, having that open line of communication having, you know, the principal would be out of the middle school being able to detect me and say hey what do you think about this or to be able to come to our on shift staff like Sergeant molten that day and bring this concerning situation to them and be able to address it immediately. Because if we didn't have that communication then, you know, I think it would be a lot more difficult to be a lot, a lot more of a possibility of worse outcomes in these types of situations. So she alluded to earlier, our school staff is incredibly professional incredibly caring and incredibly committed to the safety of their students. You know, as, whether it be after an incident like this or generally as a set of events, you know, we spend a lot of time around the school zones.  After this type of incident, you know, having officers stationed around the high school, and other responses like that, and just as we're able to address it with clapping restraints. It's a great touchdown and we have amazing partnerships with our area police departments with a lot of, you know, supporting agencies and entities, everything from Washington County mental health.  A big part of response to active events. It doesn't have to be an action shooter could be any sort of active safety event is training the community training the staff and others at different entities that might be, you know, school staff and students that might be the employees of large organizations and corporations in town. So everything from the schools to government buildings the state uses this type of training system and houses of worship and others. This has become a more prevalent topic there's been a lot of outreach from the community and desire for us to be more involved in helping to train entities respond. One of that is a type of training called Alice training and you can see the acronym there. It stands for it's supposed to be very simple and straightforward it's it's a program that was developed and has been disseminated by the federal government. It's alert lockdown informed counter and evacuate. So that allows you to train community members of any organization to respond appropriately to any active threat. And that's to alert let everyone know in the community what's going on with everybody in that facility everybody in that organization. Lockdown is, you know, coming becoming a more common term but they will lock facilities down and preparing to do that informing everyone what's going on informing first responders what's going on. Preparing to counter. This is, you know, something that is a challenging conversation to have with a lot of folks. And that is, you know, how do you respond to a threat. How do you address somebody who might be trying to harm you and some for some people that might be, you know, hiding and sheltering in place others they may respond with their own, you know, attempts to defend themselves. And then the very at the very end of there is evacuate you know the goals to get everyone out safely. As best we can and getting you know that requires medical attention or other resources, like fire and EMS and others. That's all part of that training. So, both, you know, that's going to help segue into our own response. And, you know, by having a community that is trained and entities and large organizations that are trained to respond that helps us respond better. Because if everybody knows how to respond is able to lock themselves down and shelter in place and so on then we are better able to, you know, direct our response to the threat. And so, the way that we would respond to this type of active advantage want to go over a variety of the areas of our preparation so you know I just touched on training Alice training. The biggest part of our response is training for it. All of our officers receive active shooter response training from the Academy, going forward in their careers. We've trained in very variety of our officers to train in different programs, one of the most prevalent is called alert. It's another federally supported program. It's provided free of charge to law enforcement agencies, with the goal of having a right, you know, any area agency be able to have the same type of response training as other area agencies so that we, when we all respond and end up at an agreement where we're trained in the same manner the same response that alert program stands for it's an acronym that stands for advanced law enforcement rapid response training. And that's an active shooter response training specifically using using everything from, you know, a single officer up to larger teams of officers. And we certainly have trained in single officer response. So that we've held for officers and for other area agencies, we, we've been able to do our communication our relationship with the school to have been able to hold them in school facilities sometimes during breaks and other times when the schools are empty so that officers and area, other area agencies and their officers can be familiarized with our schools because they are going to be the ones who are going to be helping us they're the ones who are going to be responding to these. significant incidents and we've already seen several examples of this over the last few years of the amazing mutual aid response that we will get when there is a critical incident that happens in Montpelier. That includes the high school the lower grade campuses we've even done training at you 32 because we're one of the closest agencies to that campus, as well as national life houses of worship and our of course the large number of government buildings that are in Montpelier. Are we framed with our fire department to establish triage and trauma care within what we call warm zones, so a hot zone would be where there's an active threat a warm zone would be where the threat has passed, and now other other responders can now come in safely and be able to communicate and provide trauma care. And allowing that allows for a much quicker life saving response than if you know, we keep everybody out until until everything is concluded. And that also would speed up evacuation of both on injured under parties. And finally area first responders agencies. You know we have a huge number of volunteer and professional fire and the MS agencies as well as state hazmat and other responders who have hosted mass casual events in the Montpelier area, which again allows us to practice these skills practice the you know incredibly life saving skills and familiarize all these area agencies that may not work in our area all the time as to what they might be addressing when they come to Montpelier to help us. So we coordinate a lot of this training with our area, law enforcement agencies, like I mentioned earlier so that when somebody comes to help us from Berlin from Barry from Northfield from the state police from federal agencies from dnb I mean we've, we've had incredible training with our area agencies and by having them come and train with us ahead of time on all these in all these areas in our schools in our businesses in our, you know, in our community. It means they're better able to respond appropriately when they come here and it'll be a more efficient and effective response. We work together with our chain or chains command learn and learn to work together all of our leadership is trained in the incident command system that is set up by FEMA so everybody's trained on how to run these events. It means that again that they will be our response will be much more effective. Recent training in the last year even has included tackle response to the active shooter but also other areas that are important because when we do need to be able to respond up into dealing with a lethal threat we also need to be able to use less than lethal and de escalation skills and so our recent tackle training has included that. And again that's brought in we brought in agencies from all over the state and hosted this training here locally. At the high school and in some other facilities in the area. And those those trainers are quite impressive they have extensive field and tactical experience at the federal level to some fellow agencies with Department of Homeland Security.  The local environments can be custom tailored to represent our high school or the capital building or any local building or facility, so that anyone could come in regardless of what the availability or with a day or time and be able to train regularly with these skills and tools and environments that we're going to potentially be responding to. And that was a grant funded piece of equipment that was been becoming solely becoming part of our training regiments. It's great to be able to have. So those are some of the ways that we train and prepare for these types of incidents our officers are trained to respond as quickly as possible to an active scene for training gauge any threat, either as solo officers or as multi officer teams are equipped with protective gear and weapons and equipment to address any active threat. So training of the sizes locating and engaging an active threat immediately as statistically active shooters will either surrender or take their own life with confronted by law enforcement. If they're being engaged by and are focusing on us as responders and they will be less able to harm others. That is our motivation that is our goal that is how we were trained to respond to these incidents. And so, and that kind of that gives our community some measure as to the level that we've gone over over decades worth of preparing for these types of incidents constantly adjusting constantly adapting constantly learning from others successes and others mistakes. It is our goal to ensure that our community safe that our schools are safe, and we are able to respond appropriately and as expected to ideally any incident, but especially these that are most severe. And finally at the bottom of the site here and we shared on our Facebook page and it's been shared around quite a bit lately is there is a state, a state website and link and the state number where you can provide tips specifically about school school threats, or concerning events within school systems in the state, but also there is a general tip, tip line and thing for any tips relating to crime and it is, it is anonymous. You know, as it is often said, you know we want the information not your identity. So we hope that people will, you know, because of that challenge and the difficulty and the stress and anxiety around making reports and putting yourself out there for that. We're hoping that by sharing this type of, you know, tip line or this type of means to not only provide information that the information will still be shared and will still be able to act on it and prevent address threats but that people will feel, you know, more comfortable sharing that they're able to come forward directly. So that concludes our section on our preparations. Chief, do you have anything to add. Sorry, my cats, my cats being a little loud. No, no sir. I really appreciate it. Thank you very much for that for putting it together as I'm trying not to get emotional with it and you're handling it very, very more methodically so thank you all very thank you very much sir. So, so with that, I'd like to to open it up we've been Facebook or I'm sorry zoom bombed before. So we've got the whole mute function on and we're just going to open up to questions I'll call it out I see Dave so I'll ask you to unmute and please ask any questions that you may have of us. Thank you everybody and thank you for what I think is an exemplary job that MPD did and probably the school system as well. Because we're talking about something that didn't happen. But my question is and I'm not familiar with this extreme risk protection order. It's a high bar apparently, and the bar was met. What can you walk me through. What happens in the next six months to mitigate the risk that is allegedly extreme and hopefully, will be reviewed and who does the review and I mean are there different like risk levels is like, well it's okay this subject can get his firearms back because he's a moderate risk or she's a moderate risk, probably not. I mean I just don't have any information about that it seems more of a civil action than a criminal action who does the review is their psychiatric counseling that goes to the individual they make an assessment. You get the idea. I will say regarding any psychiatric evaluations or anything else any other steps. I'm very confident that the that Libby bones doing her team are all over that as it relates to the student that's in question. I can tell you for this particular incident, the, the weapons in this case again. Six months for seizure but I can tell you that the weapons are confiscated and ATF custody and they will be destroyed. I'm going to chime in a little bit like, you know, Dave this is new to us as well. I mean we, I think we've probably only served a handful of these like probably count the number we've served and I'm not always privy to everything going on but I can recall, you know, at least a handful be having been served since this law came into effect so it's a very rare thing for them to for this to be utilized and there has to think you say there has to be a pretty unique high threshold that have been met. And part of that just like a lot of what we do it goes under judicial review. So basically we had to write up an affidavit and with the assistance of the state's attorney's office, including all the facts, you know, kind of like, you know, kind of going in a charging affidavit with the facts of problem cause we include all the facts of why this, you know, the circumstances and why this meets that threshold, you know, and often when applying for a warrant or sending a case up sometimes it doesn't meet the threshold and it's not. And so in this case it was not denied it with a judge reviewed the affidavit and then a hearing just as in many other types of, you know, either civil or legal documents or orders, like with their training order. There's a hearing that is set and that was kind of I think that was publicized that they're recently been hearing which is, which is where that six month time period came from. I understand it, you know, this information is put before a judge they issued order hearing a set. And it's up to the prosecutors, the state's attorney, and the individual and any representation to argue, whether that order should remain in effect, or should be released and so it will continue to be reviewed in that respect. It's not like a court case in front of a judge. Until they're essentially until it no longer meets the threshold of a threat. I don't know what that necessarily is going to look like down the road but they're going to have to prove that they're not they're not a threat before a judge. Mr. Hoy. Thank you, thank you very much Chief Pete and and Corporal Phil Burke me lower my hand here first. I, the both of you might recall, I'm not sure I am a reporter with local 22 local 44 news up in Colchester, and a gentleman I do have one question for you that being chief actually about an incident that took place in Montpelio before your time here it happened, not very long after I moved to our region, and not not the particulars the incident but as I recall was one involving a bank robbery suspect who ended up yeah I'm gauging in a standoff with both your department and a myriad of other law enforcement agencies, as I recall, not inside the grounds of the high school I believe on the football field if I'm remembering that correctly. Again, my question is not about the particulars of that, but how might that incident be informing the training all of you do and and if not is it not I would be interested to know a little bit about that. I totally understand it by make sure I understand the question correctly. How did that particular incident influence influence us regarding training our policies procedures and how we act. Indeed chief yes. Yes sir it heavily, heavily, and it also even goes back to an officer wellness issue as well. But it's something that we know Montpelio is not exempt to, and it further drives home. The fact that we need to make sure that we're prepared and we owe it to this community to each other to make sure that we have the right training the right tools the right equipment to answer any potential threat that our community may face. And so it again that that is that that's very powerful for us. When in that particular extent the SRO was the one who had set the ball rolling and limited or contain that particular threat from going on to the school campus. So we want to make sure everything within our power to maintain the safety and security this community, even if it's a little bit, but every little bit helps so we so so again that's a great wake up reminder for us and Corporal Frederick I don't know if you'd like to add anything to that. What's an example of the Alice system working the school was able to be put on lockdown the school resource officer was present at the high school and immediately responded to a threat on campus. It's been a person to the football field instead of having them any number of things I mean it's a busy thoroughfare of route to going through there when we'll drive the Department of Labor building adjacent. As GP mentioned earlier the track is being used that the, you know, the bike path goes through there there are students coming and going and cars I mean any number of things could have happened that would have escalated to members of the community, being injured outside of Mr. So, while it's a tragic outcome, and I was personally involved and I, as she mentioned, it takes its toll on me every day. But, you know, I try to look at it in an impartial way and say like okay, you know, locked the, you know, this SRO was there he initiated the lockdown the kids were safe. We thought it was contained. And, you know, all of our mutual aid partners came to help us. You know, medical care was immediately available. It was just, it was it was a tragedy but it was also an example of the system that we have in place the training and such working. There have been some, you know, like GP alluded to there have been changes in equipment and training and other things which keep trying to do it better keep trying to think of ways to avoid that type of tragic incident from happening again. But the very minimum it was not, you know, it was, it was not worse than it was. I don't doubt it for a moment Corporal Phil Brick thank you and thank you chief I'll meet myself again. Thank you for your question. I don't have any Ron. There should be a little button that goes across there you go. Yeah, I was wondering, what, what is there to prevent this person from getting another set of handguns or whatever. At this point, I can talk to that chief. So part of this process and interacting with our federal partners was ensuring that. This just says when somebody so when somebody is arrested as a felon or has a restraining order in place for now this type of order order. They are considered under federal law considered prohibited person they can only purchase a firearm purchase a possessive firearm. So part of the process is to go and you know take custody and seize the firearms that they have, but they also are put into a federal database that prevents them from being able to purchase a firearm. You know legally from, you know, a federal firearms dealer, or now there are there are people required to get background checks when they purchase firearms private sales individually. And so we ensure we contacted it's called the next database and ICS. And of course the name of the acronym many acronyms, but the name of the meeting the acronym is escaping me but it's a national database that all firearm sales go through. Like I said, when they meet certain criteria. And so we may ensure that he was entered into that database and will be indefinitely until this order is, is disposed of. People acquire farms and weapons in other ways. You know things are stolen or sold on the black market and so on. So there's no perfect method to prevent someone but you know at the very minimum. We're very aware of this person we're very aware of the capabilities. They are being you know they're they've been scrutinized they're being investigated. You know we're monitoring, you know the schools and this person generally to make sure that. They're not a threat number two, they receive support and help to help address whatever was the underlying cause of it. I think you mentioned earlier that the police go into the, the school in this case as soon as possible. In that case what happened in Texas recently. There's been a lot of publicity about whether or not the police hesitated or whether they, they put too much time between the time that they were alerted until the answer to the school do you know anything about that or what happened there. As far as Texas is concerned, I don't know I'm eager to see any after action reports. There are often communication channels and lessons learned in which we can. See what happened in those particular cases and learn from them to make sure they don't happen here. I will tell you that with. We just recently had training as corporate work alluded to what with the gentlemen who is who is very skilled at this, probably one of the nation's best subject matter experts who came in and provide that training to us. So, I can tell you. The Montpiler police department is concerned. As far as our regional partners Washington County law enforcement is concerned, the state police for months and our federal partners are concerned. We will not hesitate to go in. We are trained to do that. We will do that. And not only because it's something we're trained we're trained to do it as safely as possible. But we go in there because we need to protect our kids. That's why we go in. And so I apologize. I don't necessarily know the specific answer to what happened in Texas, but I can tell you what the Montpiler police department will do. Thank you. Are there any other questions and thank you so much for your question. I really appreciate it. I think we've got the same amount of concern and I'm as a parent I'm looking to find out what happened as well. And, and I definitely acknowledge the anxiety that this particular incident happened at this particular time and our particular community. So I apologize for any stress address that this may have caused that this has caused folks. So, again, but yes, Cynthia. I'm mute Cynthia. Sorry, you're still muted. Okay. Thank you for recognizing me and thank you for having this forum. I know it's no news to anybody here that if someone is potentially dangerous they often have a mental health issue. And I know that it's difficult to force someone to get treatment. There was a very disturbing story on public radio this morning about an incident of a lot of people being alerted and actually a woman went and shot her father and she had a known history of having a gun she had a known history of having a mental illness and she still got through the system and what I heard on the radio today was that one of the problems is that we have a good amount of laws to protect people but we don't have a good amount of people in authority that can enforce these laws. So, can we feel comfortable in this community that even though the Montpellier police department took all those steps to make sure this current person has been put on the registry. Can we feel comfortable knowing that the dealer, the people who sell guns and ammunition in our area actually are monitored that they're doing the right thing because in this case that I mentioned about hearing about this morning is that there are many places that are really good and reliable places to get firearms but there's many people who ignore it and they're there haven't even had any consequences. So, can we feel comfortable that at least in our area these people are monitored that are selling guns. I can tell you that our department that the the officers the dispatchers the community service officers that I have here. I put my life in their hands, and, and I am confident that everything they do is is thorough is impartial and is diligent above all so so we any information that we get that we receive or I'm sorry get that we receive but any information that we get, we run it to the ground. And if we have information that suggests that someone is not doing what they're supposed to be doing. As far as laws are concerned, and with selling ammunition or selling weapons, we take that extraordinarily seriously and again we have three officers who are part of a federal task force. I can also tell you that our federal partners in Vermont are extraordinarily serious about this as well. So, we're ready to move and we're proactive in trying to find people who may not or who may be putting our community at risk by not adhering to the laws that are designed to keep us all safe. But there's another aspect of it too. And, and again which is why I'd like to applaud the folks who came forward on this one is that we also need the eyes of the years of the public. And we need folks to come forward and we want to make sure again that we establish that precedent that people can feel safe and anonymity when they make these reports when they provide these concerns, because we can't do it or see it all without our community. And again that leads to a whole bunch of other different things but that is why we are doggedly trying to protect our reputation within this department as a professional organization that folks feel that they can always trust us, and that we're always there for them. And that's how we do our jobs so there's a lot that adds on to that, but I can tell you, I have the utmost confidence in our officers. So, Chief Pete. You may have answered this, and I just went by me but is there a system in place that checks people who sell firearms and ammunition that they actually are doing their due diligence and checking the registry. So the answer is yes there's a so that's a that's a federal it's a federal firearms license that happens. So it's it's their federal agencies that look into that and I know that they do. They do check all these things as folks are purchasing weapons, everything else to that effect. There is a mechanism in place, whether it's it's not a municipal mechanism, it's a federal mechanism, and our partners are working on our partners continue to monitor and watch that. Good. And the the other part of my question I'm sorry I'm taking a lot of time but as a former school nurse. I know how hard it is to get mental health. And I don't know if you can help for anybody at any age, but sometimes particularly youth. And I don't know if you, if this is appropriate question. Is the police department able to follow up if if this person involved in the in the current incident has mental health problems is there any way to follow up that they're getting the the best treatment they can. So we do have a social worker who and we work extraordinarily closely with Washington County mental health services. And so we do those referrals and put that information out there to do those follow ups. So yes, there is a mechanism in place, but there are also other mechanisms that we we we move forward and trying to try to discover as many aspects as we possibly can. So can you can you get around HEPA. No. Right. So the police department does not really even with the order that you got from the judge, have the right to follow up and see if, if this person indeed needed mental health therapy. There is no way that there is no way for us to do that because that's that's something that that that is not a part of part of our area. But but I'm confident and in Libby and in the folks at the high school is to all the follow ups that they're doing for mental health wellness and checks as to whether that person is coming back on campus or not. I know that that's in another area and again, we are very strong partners with them we don't have direct access to staff. But we are very strong partners and and if there's anything that they have a concern of we would they I'm pretty sure they would let us know we would continue moving forward with any investigations. I don't mean any distract disrespect to anybody involved but don't be too confident. As Michael probably. Captain Michael probably knows there's an awful lot that goes on in schools, and there are not enough staff. I, I don't think we can assume, because the schools only have so much power as well, probably even less. So, yeah, it's, I guess I'm just saying please just with anything that is within the scope of the law, please keep an eye on what's happening and don't be comfortable that it's going according to plan. I'll say my plan is I don't know everything that's going to go on and that that I do know. I we we we put everything to bear that we can that we can meet those thresholds and those those challenges that we are aware about. So, so at right now the in dealing with the school where we're limited in that so we need to make sure that that we're strong in our in our conversations in our communication. So what what my confidence is my confidence is that the programs that we have put in place are the strongest they can possibly be, but any blind spots or challenges that we're working to overcome. And things that we're obviously working to overcome and it takes partnerships and other things to to short up as best as we possibly can. Well, I know Michael. You are a key, key person in all three of the schools, and I am so glad to see that your position has been read and stated. And I don't know how it happened. I, I know that you make a huge difference. I'm sorry Cynthia, if I can make a clarification. Corporal is actually a community resource officer. We no longer have a school resource officer so there are no police officers in the schools. Okay, so so it hasn't been reinstated, and I'm hoping that there's some vehicle where it can be because I know that makes a difference, and I do know that kids at the high school think that they have a resource officer so I don't know where that came from, but yeah. Thank you, Cynthia. It was a great, it's a great testimony I appreciate it. Anyway, thank you I've taken enough of your time. Thank you. Ron, thank you Cynthia for for for very good questions and very engaging. I was just wondering, sometime ago I read that you have a staff shortage. Has that improved you have enough staff now. No it has not improved and regrettably we do not have enough staff. How many do you need or would you estimate you need. How many would I estimate that I need for new new new employees here. I would, I would, I would say, as far as our standard workload and compliment where we currently are authorized 17 sworn officers, but I would be be comfortable with anywhere between 19 to 21 officers that would allow us to do to do more to be more proactive engaged so that that we minimize the opportunities of things like this happening within our community so for example, Corporal Phil, Phil brick has a huge role to play. Not only in just reaching out to partner organizations, but also to to businesses to houses of worship to working on policies procedures and rules. There's a lot that goes on into what Corporal Phil does, but he can't do it because he's covering a shift and then he's working overtime. So for example, the, another example of with our current overtime budget, the Montpelier police departments budget $123,000 were over 100 or $200,000 and our overtime budget because we have to have officers in overtime to fill positions for normal patrol duties. So, so, just to put that information that's out there that we, I would prefer to to move up a little bit that we can be more proactive and reaching out to the community. But I was wondering, not how many you would have ideally how many more do you need to satisfy your. Yeah. So, yeah, we're currently staffed at 14 right now and again authorized and but that that 14 level includes that we have again some folks who are in training, and then that also doesn't account for any time somebody's on vacation or sometimes, sometimes somebody may be injured. Things to that effect. So you would hope to get at least three more, more or less 14 and 317. Yeah. I mean, personally, I think that that that would be a good number for our department, but that's going to be a very if and when that opportunity comes up to have that discussion. It'll be something I definitely bring up through my chain of command through the assistant city manager, the city manager in the city council, and if it ever got to that point definitely have a community discussion, because it's a significant thing to do. Interesting. Thank you for your question. Are there any other questions or anything else that corporate field work and I can answer. I'm not seeing anything so I would like to, again, thank you all for your for your time for your for your questions for your attention, and for the opportunity to speak with you. This was a very stressful situation for everybody for all those involved, but I especially want to commend the Montpelier Roxbury public school district for their diligence and for their help and for their concern and for their partnership. And Mike, I don't know if there's anything you'd like to say before we close out. Yes, thank you for this opportunity to be thank you for the community members who joined us here. I've saying in doing the outreach work I've done I've never had a bad conversation with someone, you know, we can all just try to understand each other's points of views and exchange ideas and information and have empathy and share. I mean it's so important so I hope there'll be more of this. And I'll apologize for the technical difficulties and my various animals. I wanted to chime in as well. But that's, but they made a great contribution you shouldn't apologize for them. It's just part of being part of the community and being an animal lover. It humanizes things that humanizes the whole issue. Well I'm glad I'm just joking I'm just excited. I appreciate that. Well, thank you folks again we sincerely appreciate your opportunity your attention and the privilege to speak with you and if there's any questions, anything else that that we can ever answer for you please don't hesitate to reach out to to Mike or myself via email via phone call. We're here to help and to serve. Thank you all have a great night and be safe. Thank you.