Thursday, December 6, 2007

The Public School Did The Crime But Karen Maple Did The Time!


Digging deep into the photo archives I found this. This is a group photo taken during the Karen Maple case here in Vermont. This is from the day Fox News interviewed Karen at her home in Bakersfield, Vermont. Douglas Kennedy of Fox News and his camera crew spent the day with us interviewing myself, Karen and her son, Trevor. That's Karen in the pink dress and Trevor in the shades. Douglas is standing to the left of Trevor. The two younger children are mine.

It turned out to be a beautiful sunny day and was a great learning experience for everyone involved. It was truly a pleasure to meet Douglas, who is no stranger to politics and controversy, and his crew. Douglas was very kind to Karen and very thorough in his interview. He fairly gave both sides of the issue but most importantly he gave Karen the opportunity to have her story told.

Basically, the matter boiled down to a U.S. citizen being denied her constitutional rights while still operating within the law. It was the local school and Department of Education who were violating those rights and operating outside the law. The harder Karen pushed back to preserve those rights the more devious the state officials became. One of the most irritating things about the whole episode was the state's portrayal of Karen as a sort of country bumpkin', as if that meant it was alright to deny her her rights. Karen was eventually exonerated by the Vermont Supreme Court but the actions of those at the local public school and the VT DOE went unpunished.

Below is also a photo from the same day. Here Douglas Kennedy is interviewing me for Fox News while his cameraman films. We were seated on the green in the town of Bakersfield.

No comments: