WHITMAN — They’re getting ready for trouble.

While participants in a RAD for Seniors Systems program at the Whitman Senior Center are hoping they never have to use the self-defense skills being taught by Whitman Police officer Kevin Harrington and Lt. Christine May-Stafford, the men and women are glad to have the training.

“I’m very happy with the turnout and they’re very much into it,” Harrington said. “It’s great.”

One woman, good-naturedly nicknamed “Attila,” said she would at least like to try a few skills on a real person.

“If we don’t get to all seven does he have to lie there until we finish?” she asked, with a laugh, about the seven basic strategies of defense against attacks from behind they were learning.

“Most of the time you’re not going to get through all seven,” Harrington said. “It’s what target you have presented to you. … Some of you can’t do all of them, either.”

Harrington joked that he had better not get any reports about guys left laying in the park crying because of a vicious older lady.

All joking aside, the men and women enrolled in the 10-week program are serious about learning how to protect themselves from physical assault and fraud in a modified version of Rape Aggression Defense (RAD) Systems of Self Defense. RAD is typically an intensive three-hour course in four sessions aimed at teaching skills to fend off physical attacks.

“RAD Systems developed this for the older adults,” Harrington said after a class Friday, May 15. “A lot of these physical defensive techniques are used in the regular RAD program, but they do tailor them toward the older adults. Sometimes we have to do different things with their hands and things like that.”

The group ranged from active seniors involved in sports programs like pickleball, to more frail elders and those with conditions such as Parkinson’s.

“I think when we first started they were hesitant about what the program entailed, but once they saw we never require the physical stuff — they can sit and watch — I think some of them watched the first week but most of them got into it and now they love it,” Harrington said.

Each session begins with a tutorial on crime prevention techniques. During week six it covered financial fraud and identity theft. The second half of the class reviews previously learned self-defense moves and teaches a new one. On this day it was defending against attackers attempting a “bear hug” immobilization from the front and rear.

They start the physical work with warm-ups featuring head rolls and arm circles and stretches.

One woman joked that working the kinks out would take longer than the hour. Then they moved to “establishing a base,” a neutral position that provides good balance and on to the defensive stance of hands raised in front of the face while shouting “no” before moving to a new skill.

“A lot of these, if you hit someone where they don’t ever get hit, it hurts,” Harrington said of pokes to the clavicle notch at the throat or the eyes. “You just give a little poke and it’s going to hurt — it’s all distraction techniques.”   

Above all, the message is: “Don’t panic.”

RAD emphasizes that once techniques are learned, a person can shift from one to another until an attacker releases.

“If you find one or two that you can use, use it,” Harrington said.

Future classes will cover defending against choking and attacks if one is at home in bed or on the ground.

Another 10-week course is being planned for the fall. For more information, contact the Whitman Council on Aging at 781-447-7619.

The School Committee voted 7-0 Wednesday, May 13 to refinance the debt on the Whitman-Hanson Regional High School — a decision that will save the towns just over $929,000 over the next 12 years, or about $77,000 per year.

Whitman would save about $45,000 and Hanson would save about $32,000 next year.

Member Alexandra Taylor arrived after the vote and members Robert O’Brien Jr., and Robert Trotta were absent.

School principals, meanwhile, presented school improvement plans by level and the bottom line, all agreed, was more investment is vital to a system already cut to the bone.

“If we can’t move forward, we’re going to start to regress,” said WHRHS Principal Jeffrey Szymaniak. “I don’t know where to cut anymore. We’re getting to bone.”

Speaking for elementary school administrators, Maquan Principal Donna Murphy said curriculum focus remains literacy and STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) with safety also a concern.

Hanson Middle School Principal William Tranter said he and WMS Principal George Ferro and their school councils work closely together. They are especially keen to bring algebra to grade eight and are also concerned about school safety.

School Committee member Kevin Lynam noted the goals indicated more resources would be appreciated.

“I hope that rang through,” Ferro said.

Szymaniak again this year stressed his goal for graduates is college and career readiness, and noted NEASC recommendations continue to point to the need for investment.

“They want a plan in place [as to] how we will support education at the high school minus user fees,” he said.

Szymaniak also advocates AP training for all teachers as well as training on Google Classroom and a year-round curriculum for core courses, as the trimester schedule does not allow a full school year in all courses.

“The budget has precluded me from working on that schedule,” he said. “This year I’m looking at potentially laying off teachers in my building and I’d be hard-pressed to put forth a full schedule for 1,200 students if I don’t know if it’s going to work.”

Teachers also need mental health training to help the increasing number of students with mental health issues.

“They want to help as best they can,” Szymaniak said. “They’re teachers. They know their subject matter, they care about kids, but they don’t know, necessarily, how to identify a kid who’s dealing with anxiety and stress.”

He said he will soon be coming to the committee to seek approval for gofundme.com fundraisers to support programs.

“We heard a message loud and clear,” said Chairman Bob Hayes. “One of the biggest issues … is the funding source.”

“When you’re 10th from the bottom, every single teaching position, support position that we cut hurts — and hurts children,” Superintendent of Schools Dr. Ruth Gilbert-Whitner said of ongoing cuts to materials, which have so far reduced the FY 2016 budget deficit to about $500,000. But cuts that won’t affect staff are becoming hard to find.

It was a good day to be an incumbent in Whitman and Hanson as voters cast ballots in the annual town elections Saturday, May 16, and both towns may benefit in the future from losing candidates who ran positive, issues-based challenges and indicated a willingness to run for office again.

In Hanson, where 17 percent of voters turned out, incumbent selectmen Don Howard (493) and James McGahan (681) were re-elected despite a respectable showing by challengers Annmarie Bouzan (403) and Joseph R. Weeks III (371). Whitman Town Clerk Dawn Varley (618) also bested challenger Catherine Gage (236) in a contest that saw 9 percent of the town’s 9,491 voters cast ballots.

Arlene Dias, LPN won Hanson’s other contested race — for an open seat on the Board of Health over Plymouth County Mosquito Control Commissioner Kimberley King, 646-406.

The ballot question concerning technology upgrades for the schools passed in both towns [see related story].

“No change in the board — that tells me that people of Hanson are happy with the direction we’re moving and I’m really excited about it,” McGahan said as supporters congratulated him. “But I really think we should thank Annmarie and Joe Weeks for stepping up and trying their best. I have a lot of respect for both of them.”

“I’m pleased,” Howard said of his re-election. “I wanted the people to vote and I got the opinion that they wanted me back in as selectman so I’ll do everything I can to work for them.”

McGahan and Howard both said continuing to push for solutions to school issues will remain on the board’s front burner, as well as some of the ideas fostered by the other candidates.

“I would love sidewalks in this town, I really mean that. We’ve talked about it,” McGahan said, echoing a major issue put forth by Weeks.

“Anything for the kids has got to be it,” Howard said. “Adults in Hanson, or any town, are responsible for the children … they’ve got to have good schools and equipment.”

Bouzan, while disappointed said she tried her hardest and will likely run for office again.

“I ran a really fair and great race and I feel like I’ll be back,” she said. “The voters chose the right two candidates for them and it was a learning experience for me and I’m happy to have taken part in that.”

She said she will not lose sight of what she stands for or what goes on in town as she becomes involved in different areas of the town government.

Weeks, too, is leaving that door open saying if he can contribute to the town in anyway he will.

“I’m obviously a little disappointed that I didn’t win, but I think the town has spoken and Don and Jim are the right men for the job,” he said. “I wish them nothing but success.”

Dias said she was excited by her win and pledged to make education and emergency preparedness the first orders of business.

“I’m going to look forward to doing a lot of things,” she said. “There’s so much information that’s available that people aren’t aware of, and I think we should be a resource for people in the town.”

King said she is happy to see a new face on the Board of Health.

“Arlene is a good addition to the board and I congratulate her,” she said. “I’ll be staying active nothing’s going to change.”

In fact, King will be holding her annual public meeting on mosquito-borne diseases and control practices at 6:30 p.m., Thursday, May 28 at Hanson Middle School.

King’s young son asked her if she had won over “the bad guys.”

“There’s no bad guys,” she told him.

Both Whitman Town Clerk candidates expressed appreciation for one another’s campaigns and voter support.

“I’m proud,” Varley said. “The townspeople believed in me. That makes me feel good — it would make anybody feel good — and I promised them that I’d do a fantastic job for the next three years, like I’ve done in the first three.”

She said Gage gave her a hug and congratulations after the votes were announced, which Varley appreciated.

“I was not surprised that I had an opponent,” Varley said. “I think it makes you stronger, especially when you win and you’re doing a good job.”

Gage, who stressed her run was an effort to use her customer-service experience to become involved in her town, said she would most likely run for office again.

“I am so appreciative of the people and the support that I did have, and I was very happy in the end,” Gage said. “This was my first time running and I felt good at the end. I was a little disappointed I didn’t get in, but I’m very happy with what I did do in the past months.”

Varley said that, while she ran the election as the job requires, she recused herself from handling absentee ballots and the vote-counting Saturday night.

Write-in campaigns were also waged for offices in both towns, as James Arena III garnered 70 write-in votes for Hanson Cemetery Commissioner, a position he sought after no other candidates came forward.

In Whitman, Conservation Commission member Joshua Kimball was less successful with his write-in effort for a seat on the Planning Board, which he began shortly after he missed the filing deadline because he was out of town. Wayne Andrews won the four-year term with 596 votes to Kimball’s 87.

A landscape operations manager for a Walpole company, said he had been confident of his chances in light of support he’d seen on Facebook, as he held his signs across the street from Town Hall.

HANSON — The Board of Selectmen have postponed a scheduled discussion of Town Administrator Ron San Angelo’s contract after an at times awkward start Tuesday night, during which some residents expressed concern that the cart is being put before the horse.

Selectmen Chairman Bruce Young had said that his review of San Angelo’s performance evaluation was not yet complete, and that he was not certain where the rest of the board was in that process.

The review, if completed, is now scheduled for the Tuesday, June 2 meeting — which could also include an executive session or open discussion on the contract issue.

“The review process is actually separate from the actual contract process,” Young said. “That’s not on the agenda tonight.”

The state’s Open Meeting Law treats evaluations and contract negotiations as separate issues.

Young stressed the emphasis right now is on settling contract issues with San Angelo and that evaluations, once consolidated and handed into the chairman for summarizing and completion, is a separate document that becomes part of the employee’s records.

During the discussion, a group of residents made their support of San Angelo known by sitting silently while wearing lapel name tags with “Ron” hand-written on them. Former Selectmen James Egan and Steve Amico, members of the board that hired San Angelo, also attended but did not speak.

San Angelo also said nothing during the discussion.

Young outlined the three options between which Selectmen will be deciding: take no action by June 30 with the contract automatically renewing for one year beyond the current June 30, 2016 expiration date; opt not to renew the contract serving as a one-year notice that it will conclude in 2016; or renegotiate a new contract.

He opened the floor to comments from fellow board members on how to proceed.

Selectman Don Howard said he has “no qualms” about working with San Angelo, the third town administrator he has worked with in the past seven years.

“He’s from another state, and sometimes he gets carried away because he’s been a mayor and a manager,” Howard said. “As far as what we hired him for as an administrator for the town of Hanson, in my opinion he’s doing his job.”

“I agree the job’s getting done,” said Selectman James McGahan. “I question, sometimes, the way he does it.”

He said there are three specific points in the contract that concern him, including the indemnification clause.

“Under the old contract, if he was guilty of misconduct the TA was dismissed,” he said. “There is nothing of such in this contract.”

McGahan presented a motion, later withdrawing it; to act on one of the options presented, but Selectman Kenny Mitchell said that step should be made in executive session.

“I think we should go into executive and discuss it and see where everybody’s at,” Mitchell said. “You guys voted to change it to this date. I wasn’t here, I was on vacation.”

He also agreed with Annmarie Bouzan’s contention that some type of review should come first.

“Without going through an evaluation process first, how do you get to the contract?” Bouzan asked.

“I’ve got enough of the evaluation done to make a decision,” Young said. “But it’s not complete yet. It’s not on the agenda.”

Resident Richard Hickey said his understanding was that the board was going to discuss the contract issue alone.

“You said a few minutes ago this was not going to be a public evaluation,” he said. “It sounds like, unintentionally, it’s turning into a public evaluation.”

Hickey said it would not be fair to Mitchell and that executive session would be the proper setting for that.

“I’m sure everybody here wants to see this happen as soon as possible,” Young said. “But we also have to follow legal proceedings and legal advice of counsel, which I got today. My preference would be what Kenny would like to do and have the meeting [June 2] and have an executive session and see where each particular individual stands on this issue — how the board would like to proceed.”

Young is concerned that legal requirements are met to protect both the board and San Angelo.

“Basically, it’s his future,” Young said.

Some in the audience suggested that a decision has already been made.

“I get the feeling that you’ve already made up your mind, and that’s why you are putting the contract negotiations in front of the evaluation,” said resident Robert Sutter.

Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett suggested the June 30 deadline provides ample time to conduct a review first.

“You guys have really been stumping on transparency and openness,” she said. “I’m imploring you to do what you said you were going to do and it just feel right to the majority of people to say that you’re going to go into talk about a contract in executive session — that’s fine — but how can you do that if you haven’t already talked about … and agreed upon what his performance is?”

Young explained the review could be discussed in open session June 2, with a contract discussion either in open or executive session, followed by a subsequent meeting with a vote on the contract.

Calling all cheerleaders or if you’re interested in becoming one — Hanson Youth Cheerleading is taking final registration until Friday, June 12 for children entering grades Kindergarten through grade four this September. Come and join a dynamic program that has amazing coaches and advisors to guide you though the program.

Please contact Judy Kelly at 781-264-5715 for a registration form.

As the nation concludes observances of the Civil War’s 150th anniversary and marks the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, communities are preparing for the 147th observance of Memorial Day to honor and remember the fallen in all wars.

Originally known as Decoration Day, Memorial Day began May 30, 1868 “for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion,” according to Gen. John A. Logan’s General Order No. 11, it is now observed on the fourth Monday in May.

Locally, parades, wreath-laying ceremonies, speeches and ceremonial rifle salutes will mark Memorial Day on Monday, May 25.

Hanson Scouts will place flags on veterans’ graves at Fern Hill Cemetery at 6 p.m., Tuesday, May 19.

Weekend of events

In Whitman, Duval Elementary School kicks off the weekend of events at 9:30 a.m., Friday, May 22 with its 12th annual We Remember Ceremony of patriotic music, student poetry, honors for deceased veterans and a reception for guest veterans and town officials. Town organizations will begin decorating veterans’ graves in town cemeteries with the help of Boy and Girl Scout troops at 9 a.m., Saturday, May 23.

Dunkin’ Donuts is contributing doughnuts, coffee and juice for the Scouts and troop leaders at the VFW Pavilion at 8 a.m. before the work of placing flags begins.

“We’ve got a good committee — us, the Legion, the DAV,” said chairman Aaron Richardson, a Navy veteran and commander of  Whitman VFW Post 697, of the planning group that has been meeting Wednesdays each week as the parade day nears. “Everything seems to be falling into place. It’s something we do for the fallen servicemen and women — it’s in honor and remembrance of them.”

A parade Grand Marshall has been selected and dignitaries have been invited to speak, including state Rep. Geoffrey Diehl, R-Whitman, and U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Mass. Replies are still pending, according to Richardson.

“It’s a big day for them,” he said. “I’m sure their schedules are going to be busy — they do multiple engagements.”

Scouts are also being asked to do readings of Logan’s Order, The Gettysburg Address and perhaps a prayer at the WWI Memorial Arch during the parade stops.

Morning observances ahead of the parade on Memorial Day involve wreath-laying and flag ceremonies from 7 to 8:40 a.m. starting at Hill Street Cemetery, then to the Knights of Columbus, St. James Cemetery, Mt. Zion Cemetery and Colebrook Cemetery’s veterans’ lot and the grave of Medal of Honor recipient Lt. John R. Fox.

Parades

The parade forms on Court street at 8:45 a.m. and steps off to South Avenue, stopping for ceremonies at the Town Hall Honor Roll, WWI Memorial Arch, Colebrook Cemetery and the flag pole and Civil War Soldiers Monument in Whitman Park.

In Hanson, the parade steps off from Indian Head School at 10 a.m., following a brief 9:45 a.m. ceremony and marches to Town Hall and Fern Hill Cemetery for ceremonies and speeches.

Selectmen Chairman Bruce Young will read the Gettysburg Address at Town Hall where ceremonies will include a rifle salute and “Taps.” The day’s keynote speaker will be Maj. Drew Kitchen, who will speak during ceremonies at Fern Hill Cemetery.

WHITMAN – The metaphor of an empty – or vacant – chair as a reminder of life lost in war dates back at least to a Civil War song by H.S. Washburn.

Now Whitman has its own empty chair as a POW/MIA memorial, presented by Veterans’ Services District Director James Crosby and Veterans’ Services Officer Tom McCarthy and accepted by the Board of Selectmen Tuesday.

Crosby and McCarthy found an unused chair in Whitman Town Hall, which Crosby refinished as a permanent symbol of remembrance that will be placed in a roped-off area between the Collector and Town Clerk’s offices. They are working on a similar project for Abington, which shares their services with Whitman.

“They’ve done a really fantastic job to-date addressing the needs of veterans in both communities,” Town Administrator Frank Lynam said to introduce the presentation.

“This is a POW/MIA Honor Chair – a program that’s going though the United States,” Crosby said, noting similar chairs have been presented to the Boston mayor’s office as well as Gillette Stadium, TD Garden and several police departments and town halls across the state. “It’s a chair that remains open and empty so that we can bring awareness to all our prisoners of war and those who are missing in action.”

A plaque donated by Disabled American Veterans Chapter 119 of Whitman dedicates and explains the chair’s message.

In other business, Selectmen voted to approve the transfer of $6,000 associated with benefit costs of the ratified DPW union contract, which had been assigned to the salary line, so the benefits could be paid.

And then there was pickleball.

Selectmen approved a request by COA Director Barbara Garvey to set off an unused basketball court behind the Police Station on Essex Street for the unusual low-impact sport named for a cocker spaniel who liked to chase tennis balls.

While few locally have ever heard of it, the combination of tennis, ping-pong and badminton has hundreds of thousands of devotees nationwide – especially among seniors, though it has multiple-generation appeal.

“After the painful jokes I made [Garvey] actually explained to me what pickleball was,” Lynam said. “But it didn’t help, so I went online.”

He found a three-minute report from the erstwhile “CBS Early Show,” which he screened for the board to explain the sport.

Local seniors currently playing in  Abington have expressed interest in a location on which to play in Whitman, according to Lynam, who said the basketball courts in question would require some rehabilitation. He said some seniors are willing to help with the work and suggested the  DPW might help fill in overgrown areas and level it out.

“It wouldn’t cost much, but it would be an opportunity to offer a program to seniors that we don’t currently have,” he said. “I think it’s worth trying to see if there’s any interest in it.”

It may not prove whether or not someone is lying to you, but a working knowledge of micro facial expressions — some crossing the face in less than a fifth of a second — can reveal clues about a person’s true feelings.

Students in Jeffrey Andrews’ AP psychology class at WHRHS on Tuesday, April 28 took a sample of the San Francisco-based Paul Ekman Group’s copyrighted Micro Expression Training Tool, or METT, program during a visit by former Secret Service Special Agent Paul Kelly.

Students — all seniors, a third of whom will be studying psychology in college next year — gave the program high marks in post-event comment forms, according to Andrews.

“I find it extremely progressive and impressive that the training is finding its way into some branches of the military,” said one student who opted to withhold her name. “You pick up on a lot more and are able to see how people truly feel about something said in everyday conversation.”

The student cautioned, however, against reading specifics into such fleeting expressions.

“Ever since participating, I have not been able to stop noticing micro expressions,” said Hannah Cotter. “A blessing and a curse!”

Hailey Hennessey found the topic exciting, too.

“I’m very into all of it,” she said. “It felt really exciting to have a professional, experienced guest give us a rare look into it.”

Maddie Scheller said she hasn’t noticed many micro expressions in daily interactions, but recognizes real-life applications of being able to do so. The students also enjoyed the hands-on nature of the workshop.

METT tested the students twice on a series of videos of people displaying neutral expressions interrupted for 1/10 of a second by one of seven expressions universal to all humans: anger, contempt, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness and surprise.

“You could say, by a stretch, that facial micro expressions since they are non verbal, could be a type of body language, but it’s really much different,” said Kelly, an Ekman Group instructor.

He said Andrews’ interest as well as that of the motivated AP students brought him to schedule the visit.

Ekman is recognized as the world’s foremost authority on facial emotion and recognized by the American Psychological Association as one of the 100 most distinguished psychologists since Sigmund Freud.

“The face is the clearest example of emotion,” Kelly said. “His (Ekman’s) work is very much science-based. … “What he’s looking at, in terms of emotion, is if the face can reveal an emotion other than what the person is presenting.”

After determining a baseline score based on the students’ answers to the first video test, Kelly went over details of each expression and the physical clues to each emotion before the students were retested. Commonly confused in the early stages of training are fear and surprise as well as contempt and disgust, he explained.

“I am watching the T, primarily the center line of the face,” he said.  “When it comes to emotion … ears are not a factor, but the wrinkles in your forehead are, the eyebrows are, the nose muscles and cheeks are, the upper lip is a factor. Teeth are a factor. The mouth itself, the jaw, the neck, the head — it’s all there, but it’s all a center line. I’m just taking it all in.”

Every student at least improved on their baseline scores, with those scoring in the average range at least doubling their score in the second test.

“In real life, once you get this in your skill set, you’re going to be picking it up all the time,” Kelly said. “Most of the time you don’t notice it about yourself because it is involuntary. The micro is in short duration because it’s stifled somehow.”

Ekman teamed with Dr. Maureen O’Sullivan, a psychologist interested in evaluating truthfulness and credibility, to study how good people are at recognizing deception. They discovered that, globally, there is only a 53 percent rate of accuracy.

“That’s not much better than chance,” Kelly said. “Only one-third of 1 percent of all the people they tested were significantly more accurate in evaluating truthfulness … why were they better?”

The Secret Service was among the higher scoring subsets in the study.  Kelly said he is convinced that is because Secret Service Agents deal with a lot of people who threaten those officials they protect. Many of those threats are from people with mental illnesses.

Secret Service agents are, therefore trained to be active listeners and observers, he said.

Macro expressions are the broad smiles or pronounced frowns people see every day — the expressions a person is trying to show you. Micros are shorter duration; almost involuntary, subtle expressions brief in duration and minis are briefer still.

“What we are really conscious of is, when a micro is displayed that is contrary to what the person is saying,” Kelly said. “That’s why this skill set is not just for cops, it’s for anybody that deals with people.”

He stressed there is no single physical clue to expose when a person is lying, or the Pinocchio Fallacy.