High note
Into the woods
Shelburne woman sings with Youth Opera Co.
Animal personalities play role in the forest
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Volume 52 Number 3
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shelburnenews.com
January 19, 2023
Officer’s use of force violated Shelburne department policy
Standing guard
Internal review calls behavior ‘unreasonable’ COREY MCDONALD STAFF WRITER
The Shelburne Police Department’s internal investigation into Cpl. Jon Marcoux found that he violated four department policies following his use-of-force incident last year while arresting a teenager. The internal investigation, conducted by Sgt. Josh Flore over several months last year, found he violated the following policies: abuse of authority, use of force, conduct unbecoming and failure to follow department rules. The investigation stems from an incident that occurred Jan. 23, 2022, when Marcoux elbowed a teenage girl in the chin after she
had spit on him. Video footage of the incident was released this month following a public records request by the Shelburne News. “De-escalation by Cpl. Marcoux in this case was non-existent and directly impacted the outcome of the situation leading to an unreasonable use of force,” Flore concludes in his report, which provides further details of the incident. “Both parties report the strike in the back of the cruiser as being reactionary in nature due to Cpl. Marcoux being spit on. While this may be the case, we, as police officers, have the responsibility and the training to overcome the urge to be reactionary.” See MARCOUX on page 10
Racist TikTok post prompts two schools to protest CVU game COREY MCDONALD STAFF WRITER
PHOTO BY MIKE IRELAND
Mike Ireland of Shelburne recently captured this photograph of two bobcats in his yard. Reader submitted photos are always welcome at news@shelburnenews.com.
Two Champlain Valley Union High School girls’ basketball games were postponed — one by Rice Memorial High School and another by Burlington High School — after students at the schools learned of a social media video that a CVU player posted last month that included racist language. Champlain Valley Union High School principal Adam Bunting, in
an apology letter to students, said that in December, “a student-athlete on the CVU varsity girls’ basketball team made the terrible decision to follow a TikTok trend and post a video that was racially insensitive at best.” The video has since been taken down. The student “made the video with a family member who is a person of color,” Bunting said, and “she wrongly believed it was okay to post something that used See TIKTOK on page 13