Shoes greet Region 15 staff

#Middlebury #Region15

By MARJORIE NEEDHAM

Some of the 35 pairs of shoes placed on the steps and landing at Regional School District 15 headquarters. District employees found them when they went to work November 22. (Photo courtesy Superintendent Smith)

The text message that arrived on Regional School District 15 Superintendent Joshua Smith’s phone about 7:35 a.m. Monday, November 22, was from the district’s Director of Special Education, Jessica Schiarretto. She wrote that she saw about 35 pairs of shoes lined up on the stairs in front district headquarters at 286 Whittemore Road in Middlebury when she pulled into the parking lot. With some of the shoes were handwritten notes addressing concerns about mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations for children.

The police report on the incident states that when Smith arrived, he found the custodian had put the shoes in garbage bags and two bags of shoes were sitting on the front stoop. Smith said in a telephone interview November 30 the plan was to donate the shoes to a charity. Before that could be done, however, a vehicle that had been observed on security cameras earlier returned to the parking lot, and the bags were removed.

Smith said California does have a vaccine mandate for school children, but Connecticut does not. Even if it did, the folks organizing the shoe protest would be targeting the wrong audience. “I think I can appreciate there is a spectrum of personal views around COVID-19 and vaccines. However, as a public school district, we cannot set vaccine mandates,” he said. He said such mandates come from the state and protesters would need to look to their state legislators if there were such a mandate.

Both Smith and Police Chief Pat Deely agreed no charges would be filed. The police, did, however, review the security tapes; noted the makes, models and license numbers of all vehicles that came and went from the parking lot; and checked ownership of those vehicles.