This Special Focus section is reported and written by Shanta Lee Gander and MacLean Gander, with additional reporting by Matthew Vernon Whalan. Jeff Potter edited and designed the section and provided additional research and data analysis.
By way of transparency, we note that Shanta Lee Gander reported this piece while winding down her activities on the Brattleboro Selectboard, from which she will step down when her term ends next month. None of her reporting was done under the auspices of her position as an elected official in town government. Two sources in this report - Kate O'Connor and Tim Wessel - also serve on the board.
As indicated in the reporting, The Commons has elected to withhold the identities of several of the people who have shared their experience. A number of people also provided information on deep background, and the reporting team is grateful for everyone's participation in helping shine light on a constellation of difficult and heartbreaking elements to this story.
As always, readers are encouraged to take our reporting not as the last word, but the first. Letters are welcome and may be emailed to voices@commonsnews.org. Comments on the website are considered for publication as letters.
Special thanks to our volunteer proofreaders, who worked hard on these pages and offered both considerable time and special insight: Lee Stookey, Janet Wallstein, Kim Noble, and Karen Cribari.