u/MrBenchly

A few months ago, Bruce Roy's wife Cindy started a Facebook group called Williston, South Burlington and Neighboring Towns Backyard Forum. The group's stated purpose is "to share ideas, comments, and info for Williston and its surrounding communities in the Chittenden SE Senate district including - Richmond, Bolton, St George, Hinesburg, Charlotte, Shelburne, S Burlington, Burlington wards 5/6, Jericho & Underhill."

I thought it was hilarious that the group didn't include our ACTUAL neighbors Essex and Richmond but hey, those folks can't vote for her husband in the next election. Because, that's right, it's painfully obvious that Cindy has created a public forum for the sole purpose of advertising her husband's next state senate run, as evidenced by the increasing number of posts about it this week (among calls for fundraising for the Vermont Republican Party). How do I know about these posts? Because for 7 glorious days, I was a member of the forum.

My time in the group was fun. In response to Cindy's voiced opposition to the library project, I expressed my support for it and then engaged in a civil discussion with G.S. Handy. I engaged in another civil discussion with Mr. Handy about the ICE protest in Williston last week. We were doing what the group said we could do: "share ideas, comments, and info." It's just that my ideas disagreed with his ideas. But hey, that's what forums are for, right? In every instance, my opinions were expressed politely and respectfully. Anyway, you guessed it ... strangely, today, I was removed from the group. So, too, was another vocal library supporter. And now I'm left on the outside of this echo chamber wondering what Republican talking points I'm missing.

Am I upset that I can no longer engage with these folks? No. Do I think it's hilarious that Cindy Roy is trying to pass off this group as anything other than a bullhorn for her husband's next political campaign? Yes, absolutely.

I'll end with my opinion: Vote NO today in support of our public library. And then this fall, vote for Thomas Chittenden, Ginny Lyons, and Kesha Ram Hinsdale for state senate!

My 11 year old has a pretty solid friend group (6 boys) that spends lots of time together outside of school (in groups of 2, 3, 4, 5 and everyone). During school, they are only together during recess and they like to play together there.

There is a 7th boy (we'll call him Sam) who has at times been part of this friend group but who has gradually stopped being invited to playdates by the other kids because he doesn't take no for an answer and is not enjoyable to play with. Probably severely spoiled at home but who knows?

During recess, Sam wants to play with the friend group. They object and tell him not to, he doesn't listen, he follows them around. The group then relents and plays with him and then they get frustrated when he doesn't play nicely. This happens every day. Sam's parents are aware of this and insist Sam is part of the friend group and that he always plays nicely.

One of the 6 friends (Tommy) REALLY doesn't get along with Sam. Tommy gets emotional when Sam doesn't play nicely and then gets in trouble for how he reacts to Sam. Tommy's parents have been told by the school that he has to learn to deal with his emotions in these situations. It has reached the point where Tommy has chosen to remove himself from the friend group during recess so as to not have to engage with Sam. And now Tommy feels isolated and misses his friends.

We are at a loss as to what to do. We have tried to encourage our son to be accepting and to not exclude people while also emphasizing he should not feel pressured to engage with anyone who isn't nice. He has expressed to us that Sam is not his friend and he doesn't like spending time with him because Sam makes him feel frustrated. The times he has asked teachers to step in, they have told Sam to give him space and Sam has ignored them. This is essentially what happened whenever Tommy tried bringing it to the teachers.

We've never had to talk with the school before because our kid has never had an issue before. Is this even an issue? Is this worthy of bringing up with the school? Or just an opportunity to help our son learn how to not let difficult people get to you? We know he will encounter many more Sams in his life.

Looking for advice!

Bruce and Cindy Roy