Citizens of Hanover and Norwich, Vt., will have the chance to vote today on whether they approve of Hanover High School's decision to turn the investigation of the Hanover High cheating scandal over to the police, as part of the Dresden annual budget.
Norwich resident George Fraser filed the advisory question onto the warrant, a part of the Dresden budget, last Thursday. Fraser said he hopes local residents will vote "no" on the advisory question.
"If there is a significant no vote, it will send a clear message," Fraser said. " The situation should have been handled internally, as policy recommends."
Fraser, who owns Dan and Whit's General Store in Norwich, has employed several of the accused students.
Fraser contends that the high school administrators violated the "JGDA Safe School Zone/Discpline Policy," a Hanover School Board policy. Although high school administrators were required to notify the police as part of this policy, the school chose to allow the police to investigate and prosecute, he said.
"It irritates me when they say they had no choice," Fraser said. "They had a choice, they made a choice and there have been grave consequences."
Wayne Gersen, the superintendent who oversees Hanover High, said it was unclear what effect the outcome of this vote might have. The school board is currently examining Hanover High's policies regarding academic integrity, he said, adding that it could take months for any changes to be made.
Gersen added that since the vote is an advisory article to the budget, no specific action is attached to the outcome.
"It will be left to the board to decide what the interpretation will be," he said.
Teachers from Hanover High placed advertisements in the Valley News this week to explain their position on this issue to the public, Gersen said.
"The Administration was required to follow the law. They had no choice," the advertisement in the Valley News said.
Teachers are urging the public to vote "yes" on this article, Gersen added.
Gersen also said that he believes the article unfairly targets the high school administration, noting that he had been involved in all decisions that the school had made regarding the scandal.
"Obviously I fully support the school's decisions," he said. "It's unfortunate that [the high school administration is] being singled out."
In response to Fraser's addition of the vote to the budget, a group of Upper Valley residents added a second advisory question to the ballot, which states that the school is obligated to follow the law, even if doing so is "politically unpopular."
"We can't just say, 'I don't like [the law] now, I won't follow it,'" Hilary Pridgen, one of the residents who brought forth the article, said. "That's not the way society works and it's certainly not the way we want our elected officials to act."
Prigden added that she hopes both articles receive "yes" votes.
"They should just be affirmations that the school should follow the law," she said.
The superintendent's office and the school board did not actively seek the inclusion of the second article, Gersen said.
Parents of student's accused in the scandal have previously questioned whether their children's actions necessitated police intervention.
"I see this as an issue of academic integrity that should have been dealt with by the school and not the police," Diane Campbell, the mother of one of the accused, said in a previous interview with The Dartmouth.
The scandal began last June, when a group of Hanover High students allegedly entered the school and stole math and chemistry exams. Ten students have faced charges relating to the scandal. Four of these cases have been resolved.
