Hidden in plain sight

In Vermont’s idyllic small towns, injustice can lurk below the surface. At a live storytelling event last week, VTDigger’s Katie Jickling and Kevin O’Connor spoke about Vermonters whose experiences remained invisible to their communities for years at a time — and about the process of bringing those stories to light. For Jickling, a Facebook message from a former schoolmate this January led to five months of conversations with Sam McPhetres and Rose Earl, two women who came forward to report abuse by former Randolph Union Middle/High School vice principal David Barnett. How did the close-knit school community overlook the abuse, she wondered? O’Connor met the Providence family in 2009 for a story about the optimism of a multiracial family during the inauguration of President Barack Obama. Eleven years later, amid a national reckoning over racial injustice after the murder of George Floyd, they had a different conversation. Rohan, Aaron and Justin Providence detailed their treatment as young Black men at the hands of Brattleboro police, surprising even their mother with what they had silently endured. Local Live(s) was produced by Back Pocket Media and sponsored by Vermont Glove.