RANDOLPH – Schools in a Vermont district were closed Tuesday following the threat of a shooting.
The Randolph Police Department received information late Monday evening from a parent about a threat of violence against a school in the district. Police said after an altercation between two middle school students, one said he was going to "shoot up the school."
Superintendent Layne Millington decided that because of the specific time frame of the threat officials decided to close all schools in the district. The schools are scheduled to reopen on Wednesday.
Randolph Police Chief Daniel Brunelle said police visited the middle school student's home and found that all firearms in the house were locked up. Police determined that the student was not able to carry out the threat, and as of Tuesday afternoon, Brunelle did not anticipate the filing of criminal charges.
Carol McNair, a math teacher at Randolph Union High School emphasized the need for further discussion.
“It is important to continue the dialogue about how schools and communities can work together to find actionable solutions to end these threats and actions of violence,” McNair wrote in a Tuesday email.
High school principal Elijah Hawkes shared a piece that he wrote following the Parkland, Florida shooting for the Hechinger Report, an educational news nonprofit, in which he said educators should try to know the children they teach.
"Continue to know them, their families, their hopes and pains, their needs and questions. Continue to support each other in this work. It is work that has another name: love." Hawkes wrote. He explained that though the current context for closing school in Randolph wasn't an incident of violence, the sentiment remained true.
Orange County's Randolph Union High School plans to host on June 21 a dinner and showing of a short documentary by the students who went from Randolph to the Washington D.C. "March for our Lives" rally in late March.
“One goal for the evening will be to brainstorm actionable steps we can take at the local level to create environments where students feel safe in coming to school, and one that can be more inclusive so that no students feel disenfranchised and in a position to want to do harm,” McNair wrote.
Lt. Governor Zuckerman, and local representatives Ben Jickling and Jay Hooper are expected to help moderate the discussion.
In northern Vermont, Bellows Free Academy in St. Albans senior Sophie Venturo sent out a notice on Monday, on behalf of the student walkout committee, which said that the school is holding a gun-violence awareness community day this Friday for the school district and families.
Attorney General T.J. Donovan is scheduled to be the keynote speaker.
"Although this plan has been in the works since our initial action in March, in the wake of the massacre in Santa Fe, TX, our drive to create a meaningful dialogue in school communities is renewed," Venturo wrote on behalf of committee members.