Underground Workshop: A trip to school
Students of BHS getting on the bus. Photo by Rose Howell
Rose Howell is a Burlington High School student working with the Underground Workshop, a network of student journalists across Vermont partnering with Community News Service.
Alena Davis and her younger brother frequently come across drug use when walking around downtown Burlington.
“There are a lot of needles along the bike path. And my brother, who’s eight, will point them out. He’s like, what are those orange caps for?” Davis said. “What do you say to that?”
Alena Davis, Kuba Thelemarck, Victoria Tornwini, Nyankor Ateny, Scarlett Contreras-Montesano, and Keats Overman-Smith all either take the bus or walk to school. As students who go to Burlington High School in the old mall downtown, they’ve dealt with their fair share of sketchy incidents. They say recent increases in substance abuse and addiction have made them feel unsafe.
“I’ve pretty much walked to school my whole life,” Thelemarck said. “First, [to] elementary school, which is close to my house, Edmunds Middle School, which is close to my house, and BHS is downtown and close to a lot of things,” he said.
“I love walking to school. It’s probably one of my favorite things in my school day,” Davis said. “It’s a time that I get to reflect and it’s totally unbothered. I walk along a pretty unused section of the bike path. The people that I do see recognize me.”
Davis sees characters of all kinds.
“One of my favorites is this one guy, who has a husky, and he has a skateboard,” she said. “They’ll go bolting down the bike path, and it’s hilarious because he’s being yanked by this huge husky.”
For the most part, these students take the bus or walk to school out of necessity.
“If my parents didn’t have to work, or they were able to take me, I’d have them take me every day,” Tornwini said.
Ateny said she witnessed someone overdose at Green Mountain Transit Center. Police and ambulances were surrounding the transit center and school area, and she felt annoyed that it was so close by. According to NBC5, there have been more than 300 overdose-related calls so far this year. That’s about 50 more calls than in all of 2022.
Students see this rise first hand.
“There’s been overdoses, people out of the right state of mind, et cetera,” Contreras-Montesano said.
“One time I saw someone using right near the bus station,” Overman-Smith said. “A friend and I were walking, and we saw some folks with white bags of powder, clearly really high.”
“One time, I was sitting next to this guy, and he had a little white baggie. He tried to [use it] on the bus. Thankfully he got thrown off, but it was weird it was [happening] there in the first place,” Tornwini said.
Contreras-Montesano mentioned that she has seen verbal disturbance and even violence.
“A friend and I were downtown, and there was a guy punching people, cursing a lot, pretty scary.” She said another person around the sidewalk near BHS was yelling racist and misogynistic threats. “I’ve been yelled at, sworn at, I generally try to avoid that, especially feeling extra targeted as a girl.”
Davis said she’s even been followed. A person clearly under the influence seemed to be muttering about his financial status, and they trailed behind her for a while.
“I went onto the beach to see if he would follow me, and he was rambling about how I could never afford a car either.”
These students primarily said not enough accessibility regarding social services and the housing crisis were reasons for what feels like an increase in unsafety.
“It’s become more noticeable these past few years, and I think the social services needed aren’t accessible enough. I’ve noticed because I don’t feel safe walking around City Hall Park, and areas like that,” Contreras-Montesano said. “It does make me uncomfortable, but the bus is really helpful. It's close to my mom’s work, the library, school.”
Overman-Smith noticed that most of the drugs he sees in downtown Burlington are centered around homeless encampments.
“Our city does provide some resources and support for unhoused folks,” he said. “It’s not like all of them are junkies. And there are services like the clean needle center and the food shelf.”
There has been a significant increase in homelessness rates in VT over the past few years. According to VTDigger, as of last December, Vermont has the second-highest per capita rate of homelessness in the country.
“I don’t want to demonize people struggling, because those people need help. And they aren’t getting it, which is more scary to me,” Davis said.
Overman-Smith said that the lack of safety of Burlington’s bus system makes him distrust the city’s public services.
“People need help. I don’t know where, but they need it,” Tornwini said. “I’ve yet to see the change."
