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MAY 20, 2021
Students press school board on gun safety
WILLISTON’S NEWSPAPER SINCE 1985
WWW.WILLISTONOBSERVER.COM
A yarn about Williston’s Shetland sheep farm
Safe storage information to be distributed districtwide BY JASON STARR Observer staff The Champlain Valley School Board agreed Tuesday with a gun-safety-focused student group to distribute a letter to families in the school district urging the safe storage of any firearms in their homes. The letter will be distributed this spring. Superintendent Elaine Pinckney said she expects all the principals in the district to sign the letter. It was written by a national gun violence prevention group called Students Demand Action and has been presented to school districts in Vermont by students affiliated with the group as a way to educate families on the issue. The Champlain Valley Union High School Social Justice Alliance has also endorsed the letter. The letter urges those who own guns to store them unloaded, locked away and in a separate location from ammunition. It cites national data that shows the efficacy of secure gun storage in reducing suicides and unintentional shooting injuries among children. Legislation that would criminalize the unsafe storage of guns has failed to gain traction in the Vermont Legislature in recent years. “This is crucial,” CVU student Eva Frazier told board members during their meeting Tuesday. “People are dying from accidental shooting, including children. This letter is incredibly urgent.” The board deflected a second request from Students Demand Action that would have gone further to distribute safe gun storage information to families. The students asked the board to vote on a resolution agreeing to include the information in the district’s student handbook and commit to an annual distribution of a separate safe storage letter, asking parents for a signature acknowledging receipt. Board members said it wasn’t their role to determine the information in the student handbook and directed the students to make the see GUN SAFETY page 21
ABOVE: A Shetland ewe and her two lambs. RIGHT: Brenda Perkins holds a newborn Shetland lamb named Lars, while Steve Perkins looks on. BELOW: Stephen and Brenda Perkins in front of the 1805 farmhouse on their property. OBSERVER PHOTOS BY SUSAN COTE
BY JASON STARR Observer staff A flock of Shetland Sheep grew by eight lambs this month, further establishing itself on Brenda and Stephen Perkins’ Petersholm Farm on Peterson Lane. The breed, native to the Shetland Islands of northern Scotland and once almost extinct, is prized for its hardiness, unique colors and markings and exquisite wool. The Perkins family, which has lived on the farm going back five generations, started with a flock of three rams and six ewes in 2014. Seven years later, they have seen four generations born, and the flock has grown to 33. Brenda and Stephen learned about the need for Shetland Sheep breeders after they retired from the public school system. With a 50acre farm and few other animals, they knew they were in a good position to take on and grow a flock. The first flock of Shetland sheep in the United States was located in East Braintree, Vt., beginning in the 1980s, Perkins said. “It sounded very interesting.
Here’s an animal that was endangered and the people who first brought them into the United States were Vermonters. And we just kind of picked up the baton and went from there. We’ve enjoyed them,”
Stephen said. The new generation includes lambs with colors and markings that are new to the Perkins’ flock. “Most Shetland sheep are a
single color, however some have exciting marking patterns,” said Brenda, who is currently the president of the Williston Historical Society. “Some are snow white while others are various shades of silvery gray to coal black. Still others are shades of brown, ranging from a light champagne color through medium brown to a dark Hershey bar color.” “The Shetland Breeders Association encouraged us to keep the markings and colors alive in the gene pool,” Stephen added. “This is the first year we’ve got some different genetics out of the pool than we normally do.” “It’s amazing each time we have lambs that are born,” he said. “It’s amazing to see how the mothers take care of these young ones. They get them to nurse and stand up in a matter of 30 minutes. It’s quite a miracle to watch.” The grazing sheep help keep the farm fields open. Yarn from the flock is sold to Must Love Yarn in Shelburne and the Mad River Spinnery in Waitsfield.