AMHERST — A Town Council member is expressing appreciation to Amherst police for service that officers offered her and her wife, and to a young friend she describes as being vulnerable, on a recent Saturday night.
“The thank you goes to the two officers who came into my home and dealt so carefully with this young man,” District 2 Councilor Pat DeAngelis said at the council’s Sept. 19 meeting. “Apparently they knew him because of other situations he was in with them and in town. They wanted to check that Carol (Lewis) and I were all right, but they really wanted to check that he was all right.”
DeAngelis initially called emergency dispatch when the man showed up at her home. “It became clear that he was delusional. It became clear that we needed help,” DeAngelis said.
With personnel from the new unarmed public safety department Community Responders for Equity, Service & Safety not on call at that time of night, two police officers arrived as the man was curled up on the kitchen floor crying out in fear, she said.
“They were very thoughtful. They were very kind,” DeAngelis said, and they also asked what could be done to help. One officer came into the home, but not into the room where the man was, and was “soft, open and relational,” she said.
“She was very thoughtful in the way she engaged with him,” DeAngelis said.
The situation was resolved positively, DeAngelis said, though she learned later from CRESS Director Earl Miller that the man has had violent episodes, and that she and her wife could have been at risk. She argues what happened serves as a lesson for the community about emergency response.
“Some of the anger that we see at our police is not always justified,” DeAngelis said. “And it seems to me we as a community can drive away this relationship between police and CRESS if we’re not careful.”
Council President Lynn Griesemer thanked Griesemer for sharing her experience.
“I think too often we forget and don’t realize the extent to which our police are extremely well trained on any number of de-escalation tactics and on dealing with all kinds of difficult problems,” Griesemer said.
Eastern Hampshire County History Day will be celebrated Saturday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. with open houses at seven historical museums east of the Connecticut River.
Those participating include the Amherst History Museum, Hadley Farm Museum, Hadley Historical Society and Porter Phelps Huntington Museum, Pelham Historical Society, Stone House Museum in Belchertown and The Sycamores in South Hadley.
Requests for proposals to expand early education in Amherst are due to the town by Oct. 31 at 2 p.m.
The town has allocated money through the American Rescue Plan Act to award grants to both current and new early education programs, including centers and family daycare.
Go to amherstma.gov/bids for more information.
The Amherst public schools recently launched a promotional video for the Caminantes dual language program at Fort River School.
“The goal of this program is academic achievement, bilingualism and biliteracy, and also cultural competency,” says coordinator Katie Richardson in a segment of the brief video.
The video, with comments by teachers in the program in both Spanish and English, can be viewed at youtube.com/watch?v=GFUd2Hlqms4.
Massachusetts businessman and philanthropist Robert L. Epstein, a 1967 graduate of the University of Massachusetts, is committing $1.5 million to establish the Robert L. Epstein Endowed Professorship at the Isenberg School of Management.
The gift honors Epstein’s friendship with outgoing Chancellor Kumble R. Subbaswamy and is designed to bolster academic excellence.
“I have been inspired by the innovation and growth UMass and Isenberg have seen under Chancellor Subbaswamy’s leadership,” Epstein said in a statement. “The university is attracting students of the highest caliber who are eager to make a difference in their chosen fields; and faculty scholarship has had a considerable impact both in the commonwealth and on the national stage.”
“His generosity will provide untold benefits for our students and industry partners in the years to come,” Subbaswamy said.
MONDAY: Town Council, 6:30 p.m.
THURSDAY: Residents’ Advisory Committee, 2 p.m.
