Final Reading: Session opens on somber note - VTDigger # Final Reading: Session opens on somber note Family members of Hisham Awartani, one of three Palestinian-American men who survived a shooting in Burlington in late November, visited the House floor during its first meeting in 2024.
vtdigger.org · Kristen Fountain, Sarah Mearhoff · September 6, 2026
Final Reading: Session opens on somber note - VTDigger
# Final Reading: Session opens on somber note
Family members of Hisham Awartani, one of three Palestinian-American men who survived a shooting in Burlington in late November, visited the House floor during its first meeting in 2024. Lawmakers responded with a 30-second standing ovation.
by Kristen Fountain and Sarah Mearhoff January 3, 2024, 6:53 pm January 4, 2024, 4:28 pm
Elizabeth Price, the mother of Hisham Awartani, one the three Palestininan-Americans shot in Burlington recently, speaks about the experience on the opening day of the Legislature at the Statehouse in Montpelier on Wednesday, January 3, 2024. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger
Lawmakers in the Vermont House began the first day of the 2024 legislative session Wednesday morning with an acknowledgement of one of the darkest incidents in the state’s recent history: the apparently unprovoked shooting of three Palestinian-American men in Burlington less than six weeks ago.
On the evening of November 25, three 20-year-old Palestinian-American college students — Hisham Awartani, Kinnan Abdalhamid and Tahseen Aliahmad — were shot on North Prospect Street in Burlington. A day later, police arrested a 48-year-old man, Jason Eaton, who pleaded not guilty.
The shooting touched off an international wave of grief and shock. In Vermont, the violence has led to an uncomfortable soul-searching: How could such a horrific act take place in a state that takes such pride in its culture of acceptance and neighborliness?
“The reverberating effects are still felt in this state, in the city of Burlington, and in my own personal life,” Rep. Mary-Katherine Stone, D/P-Burlington, said on the House floor Wednesday morning.
The shooting took place just blocks from her home, she said. After the violence, Stone, who is Egyptian-American and a member of the Legislature’s newly formed Middle Eastern North African caucus, said she fled her house for days fearing for her safety.
After the House gaveled in on Wednesday, Stone introduced five of Awartani’s family members. Lawmakers responded with a 30-second standing ovation.
In an interview with VTDigger at the Statehouse Wednesday, Awartani’s mother, Elizabeth Price, said that her son’s life has been “overturned.”
Awartani, a junior at Brown University, is currently undergoing rehab at a facility in Massachusetts. The bullet shot by the assailant is lodged in his spine, Price said, and it is still too risky to remove it. Family members have said he is paralyzed from the chest down.
Awartani “has a lot of equanimity,” she said. “He’s resolute and he’s just very practical. I’ve asked him sometimes how he manages things and he says, ‘Well, I just have to get done.’”
It’s not clear yet whether the shooting will be classified as a hate crime, which could lead to a longer prison sentence in the event of a conviction. Chittenden County State’s Attorney Sarah George said in an email Wednesday that there was “no update” on whether that might happen.
But Price said family members were mulling the possibility of a civil lawsuit over the incident. Such a lawsuit wouldn’t add any criminal penalties but could establish the incident as a hate crime, Price said.
“It’s very important for the families of the three boys that this be recognized as a hate crime,” she said.
Price, who lives in Ramallah, in the West Bank, and spends part of the year in Vermont, said the recognition from Vermont lawmakers Wednesday was “a balm to the soul.”
“What happened was a tragedy for Vermont and its community as much as for our family,” she said. “Because of how terrifying it was to see one of their own taking this action against another of their own.”
— Peter D’Auria
## In the know
When Vermont legislators convened in Montpelier on Wednesday, one topic had already clearly emerged as their top priority for the next four months of lawmaking: the state’s response to last year’s catastrophic floods — and how to mitigate the inevitable floods to come.
Speaker of the House Jill Krowinski, D-Burlington, gavels the House in on the opening day of the Legislature at the Statehouse in Montpelier on Wednesday. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger
And part of that work, according to legislative leadership, is helping the Vermonters still reeling nearly six months after the initial flooding hit last July.
“This year, we’ve weathered multiple catastrophic floods that forced people from their homes, destroyed businesses, and left in its wake over a billion dollars in losses,” House Speaker Jill Krowinski, D-Burlington, said in her opening floor speech of the session. “Vermonters are remarkably resilient in the face of adversity, but they are counting on us to take bold action.”
All of the flood talk reached its highest, and most personal, pitch at a noon rally on the Statehouse steps. Flanked by central Vermont House members who have released a sweeping flood response omnibus bill, impacted residents of Montpelier, Barre, Plainfield and more made it clear that they have not been made whole since July.
Mary Zentara, a teacher and single mother living in Montpelier, stood before the Statehouse and gestured toward her city’s downtown. With a glimmer of optimism, she said the capital city “has begun to rebuild on many levels, and that is just wonderful.”
But roughly a half mile away at her State Street home, Zentara said she and others like her are “stuck in limbo.”
— Sarah Mearhoff
On the first day of the session, state education officials presented lawmakers with the latest estimates for Vermont’s school construction needs — a whopping $6.3 billion over the next 21 years.
And that number, Agency of Education staff cautioned, is likely a significant underestimate.
Rep. Peter Conlon, D-Cornwall, chair of the House Committee on Education, called the figure “eye-popping.” He signaled that his committee would make addressing school construction needs a priority this session.
Rep. Peter Conlon, D-Cornwall, explains details of an education bill at the Statehouse in Montpelier on May 12, 2023. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger
With Gov. Phil Scott’s administration predicting an 18.5% rise in property taxes driven by a projected 12% increase in education spending, the cost of school construction could further strain local budgets.
— Ethan Weinstein
Gov. Phil Scott’s administration is urging lawmakers to increase the consequences for people accused of crimes who violate conditions of release — and to make changes to Vermont’s bail policies that could result in more people being held in jail ahead of a trial.
Jaye Pershing Johnson, Scott’s general counsel, told members of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday that the administration has heard during recent community meetings that, when it comes to the state’s criminal justice system, “it seems like all carrots and no sticks.”
Judiciary committee members said that they’ve heard similar perceptions about public safety, too, though several questioned whether those perceptions are rooted in data.
The administration’s rhetoric — which a lobbyist for the American Civil Liberties Union of Vermont characterized on Wednesday as “tough-on-crime policies” — is set to spur fresh debate this year as lawmakers attempt to address persistent public safety challenges that frequently intersect with the state’s opioid epidemic.
Sen. Dick Sears, D-Bennington, chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, speaks after hearing testimony on Gov. Phil Scott’s priorities for the upcoming legislative session on the opening day of the Legislature at the Statehouse in Montpelier on Wednesday. Photo by Glenn Russell/VTDigger
“I don’t disagree with most of the governor’s priorities,” Sen. Dick Sears, D-Bennington, who chairs the judiciary committee, told Johnson at the hearing, though he later added that he looked forward to “healthy” committee debates this year.
— Shaun Robinson
While the Green Mountain S