Former students parents outraged after Fairfield buys Giant Steps property
Josh LaBella
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Permanently closed during the pandemic, the former Giant Steps School for individuals with disabilities at 309 Barberry Road in Fairfield on Tuesday, September 29.Brian A. Pounds / Hearst Connecticut Media
FAIRFIELD Kathy Roberts made one of her toughest decisions this spring when she and the board of directors decided to close Giant Steps, a school that served students with disabilities for nearly 30 years.
At the time, Roberts, who founded the school, said the board never found a strategy that would keep students safe amidst the coronavirus pandemic while providing them the education they deserve.
Town approves buying former Fairfield school for $5 million
Josh LaBella
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Permanently closed during the pandemic, the former Giant Steps School for individuals with disabilities at 309 Barberry Road in Fairfield, Conn. on Tuesday, September 29, 2020.Brian A. Pounds / Hearst Connecticut Media
FAIRFIELD The town’s alternative high school will have new home next year, after town officials approved buying the former Giant Steps property.
The Board of Selectmen, Board of Finance and Representative Town Meeting all unanimously approved a 20-year, $5.1 million bonding resolution to purchase more than 11 acres in Southport on Barberry Road Monday. The town intends to use a building on the property to house the Walter Fitzgerald Campus Fairfield’s alternative high school.
People may commonly say that dog is man s best friend, oft overlooking our furry feline friends and the roles they play in our lives. (For more on that, read our piece I m a Cat Person and Here s What I ve Learned Over the Years.)
But a 2019 study from researchers at Oregon State University s College of Agricultural Sciences published in the journal
Current Biology, indicates that like children and dogs, cats forge a similar attachment to the humans raising them.
“In both dogs and cats, attachment to humans may represent an adaptation of the offspring-caretaker bond,” said Kristyn Vitale, a researcher in the Human-Animal Interaction Lab in OSU’s College of Agricultural Sciences and the study s lead author, in a press release. “Attachment is a biologically relevant behavior. Our study indicates that when cats live in a state of dependency with a human, that attachment behavior is flexible and the majority of cats use humans as a source of comfort.”