(Editor’s note: This story was written by Todd Wellington of The Caledonian-Record, which first published it July 10, 2013.)
The Danville School Board voted 4-0 Tuesday night to express support for principal Noah Noyes who was criminally cited by the Vermont State Police Monday along with CCSU Superintendent Martha Tucker for failing to report an allegation of child abuse and neglect of public duty.
The Danville board also announced it would issue a press release to all media today explaining their position.
The vote came following an one hour-plus non-public executive session called for the evaluation of a public employee with both Noyes and Tucker remaining in the meeting after the media was asked to leave.
There were no Danville residents in attendance at the special meeting, which was held in a first floor conference room of the CCSU building. But there was one moment of public comment when a woman leaned out of the window of a passing SUV just before 8 p.m. and yelled to a reporter standing on the front porch of the CCSU building, “It shouldn’t take that long to fire him.”
While the non-public session could not be heard, it was clearly visible from the porch through a glass front door and at one point both Tucker and Noyes could be seen leaving the conference room and going behind a closed door into another section of the building.
A short time later — with the executive session ongoing — school board chairman Dan Ouellete left the conference room and went behind the same closed door as Tucker and Noyes leaving the other four school directors behind.
A short time later Ouellete, Tucker and Noyes all returned to the conference room together.
The meeting could be seen because Tucker had insisted on keeping the inner door to the conference room open after trying and failing to make the reporter sit on a wooden bench in a dark hallway behind a glass door during the executive session and then accused the reporter of trying to secretly listen to the secret board meeting through the door of the conference room.
Tucker could be seen throughout the meeting alternately pointing and gesturing at different people around the table with the pen she held in her right hand and making notes as board members spoke.
The 4-0 vote in support of Noyes came on a motion by School Director Fred Kitchel.
School directors Dan Ouellete, Sandy Hausermann and David Towle also voted in favor.
School Director Walter Smith, who works as a state police detective at the Middlesex Barracks, did not vote and said he would recuse himself from further discussion about Noah Noyes.
Danville is one of four school districts served by CCSU and it is governed by an executive board including members from Danville, Barnet, Peacham and Walden.
Kitchel is chairman of the CCSU board but for the second day in a row said he still wasn’t sure if the CCSU board would hold a meeting to evaluate Tucker – who was also charged criminally by state police on Monday.
“We’re thinking about it,” said Kitchel after the meeting.
Both Noyes and Tucker were cited by state police for allegedly failing to report to the Department for Children and Families (DCF) an allegation made by a Danville High School student that she had been touched inappropriately twice by a male teacher on April 29.
Under state law school officials and employees are required to report allegations of child abuse or neglect to DCF within 24 hours. State police said the original complaint abuse remains under investigation.
On Tuesday, Tucker’s lawyer — Pietro Lynn of Burlington — said the charge against his client is meritless and that the allegation of misconduct by a teacher was immediately investigated by the school and found to be unsubstantiated. Lynn said his client had no reasonable basis to make a report.
“The decision to charge her criminally for failure to report child abuse by a school employee where the state has not even charged that employee with child abuse is perplexing,” Lynn said.
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