■About 65 anti-war demonstrators set up blockades on the eastern side of Coolidge Bridge for about two hours this morning causing massive traffic tie-ups on Route 9. The demonstration was in response to President Nixon’s Vietnam policy statement last night. The demonstrators said that actions outlined by the president were “a clear violation of international law” and that the “increased bombing shows a complete disregard for human life.”
■In what is probably typical throughout the country, reaction here to the President’s blockading of North Vietnam was generally confused. “We should get out and let the whole country go communist if it wants to,” said one man. Another said, “We ought to go in there and wipe them all out. The whole thing would be over within a week.” And one bewildered woman said, “I thought they were discontinuing this war.”
■The discovery of a hidden video camera in the guidance office at Amherst Regional High School is prompting calls for a policy on such surveillance. The camera was installed in the office after the theft of about $100 from a petty cash box, Superintendent Gus Sayer said yesterday. The camera was removed Friday.
■Two Northampton women — Sandra Hennessy and Barbara Franklin — will soon be initiated as members of the formerly all-male Elks club, adding their names to a slowly growing roster of female members nationally that has followed a successful court challenge.
■After interviewing two finalists for Bridge Street School principal last week, Northampton Superintendent Brian Salzer has reopened the search for a replacement to succeed longtime Principal Johanna McKenna, who retires in June. Salzer said that while both finalists were knowledgeable, “neither was a clear match for our current needs at Bridge Street.”
■Amherst Regional School Committee members had new questions Tuesday about a plan to start the secondary schools up to 75 minutes later beginning in the fall of 2013. Superintendent Maria Geryk has proposed changing the secondary schools starting time from 7:45 to 9 a.m. and the elementary grades from 8:40 to 8:15.