Items tagged with 'Vorheesville'

Old Songs music classes

Old Songs 1.jpg

Looking for accordion lessons? Hammer dulcimer? Penny whistle? This is the place.

Here's something we thought looked kind of fun.

The people who host the Old Songs Music Festival and concerts series are about to begin another semester of music classes in old school instruments.

Old Songs is dedicated to preserving traditional folk music, and as part of their mission they'll teach you how to play it on everything from the accordion (yep, accordion lessons) and the penny whistle, to the ukulele and mountain dulcimer. A lot of the classes are open to beginners who may not even read music.

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Teacher accused of biting student

vorheesville teacher alleged biterUpdate April 18, 2012: The charge against Guerette has been dropped.
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Easily the weirdest story of the day: the Albany County Sheriff's Office says a 5th grade teacher at Vorheesville Elementary has been arrested for allegedly biting a student. During an arm wrestling competition.

From the press release:

The incident allegedly occurred on December 13, 2011 during classroom instructional time during which Guerette allowed a male fifth grade student to engage in arm wrestling with him. During the wrestling, other students including the victim became excited and were pulling and pushing on the child's arm who was wrestling Guerette trying to cause the student to win the arm wrestling match. During this ruckus the victim reached her arm across the desk in front of Guerette pulling on the hand of the student who was wrestling the teacher. Guerette opened his mouth and bit the female student in the forearm leaving what the student said were teeth marks. The bite mark eventually turned to bruising on the child's arm which was still visible 48 hours later when examined by school officials.

The sheriff's office says the teacher -- Michael Guerette -- self reported the alleged incident to the school's principal. Also: an "investigation has not revealed any misconduct of a sexual nature."

The full press release is embedded after the jump.

Update: Cassie says Guerette was one of her teachers -- be sure to read her comment.

Update: The school district has a posted a statement about the situation. Here's a clip:

Our first concern is always for the safety of our students, which makes incidents of this nature difficult to comprehend and impossible to justify.
Mr. Guerette will remain on leave from all duties while the district awaits the resolution of the charge against him. We are also continuing to consult with officials from the State Education Department on the appropriate disciplinary actions.

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The Scoop

For a decade All Over Albany was a place for interested and interesting people in New York's Capital Region. It was kind of like having a smart, savvy friend who could help you find out what's up. AOA stopped publishing at the end of 2018.

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