School Safety Community Forum ProvidesVital Information As New Academic Year Begins

The Revere School Safety Community Forum, held Aug. 12 at the West Revere School Complex, was an informative event that gave parents an in-depth look at how the City of Revere, Revere school officials, the Revere Police Department, and the Revere Fire Department are working as a team to keep the school community safe in the coming 2022-23 academic year.

Revere Police Chief David Callahan, in his initial remarks, addressed the serious topic that is on the minds of parents across the country.

“These are difficult conversations to have, but it’s reality,” said Callahan. “I understand the concern people have. Columbine [High School] was one of the first mass active shooter incidents that happened, and it  changed a lot of things – how we looked at them, how we reacted, how the police trained to react to those situations, and we’ll continue to do that now.”

The forum had been advertised as 60 minutes in length, but it continued for 90 minutes, and the content was so well presented by the panel and moderated by Assistant Supt. of Schools Dr. Richard Gallucci, it really becomes a must-watch event for everyone associated with the schools considering the recent incidents in school districts nationally. Revere TV, led by Executive Director Bob Dunbar, videotaped the forum for broadcast.

Mayor Brian Arrigo opened the forum by thanking officials – School Committee members Susan Gravellese and Aisha Milbury-Ellis and City Councillors Patrick Keefe and Anthony Cogliandro for their attendance.

Arrigo said the city, schools and public safety leaders are taking a proactive, preventative approach to prevent critical incidents in the schools.

“Everyone understands that we’re being proactive – that’s a theme you’ll hear tonight,” said Arrigo, who as mayor is chair of the School Committee. “We have the best people in uniform who are in charge of public safety. We have unbelievable people who live and breathe making sure that we are all safe. And our school resource officers are the lifeblood of school safety.”

Supt. of Schools Dr. Dianne Kelly called the Revere Police and Fire Departments “incredible partners.”

“People often think that schools are institutions unto themselves, but the work that we do with this team is invaluable in making sure that our students and staff are all safe on a day-to-day basis, and we connect with them regularly,” said Kelly. “Safety is one of our main priorities and we have an incredible team not only in the school resource officers, but also in our school security personnel.”

Fire Chief Christopher Bright said, “We’re here to let the community know that your public safety and your school people are on the ball with these issues. We’re here to ensure the community that we’re prepared, and we will act. Tonight’s message is going to be that everybody has our stake in our safety – the parents, the students, and I think this community does it better than most.

“We’ve been working on these relationships for years with the school resource officers, Dr. Kelly and her staff, and police and fire,” added Bright. “I think our best chance is to head these things off before they become a major incident.”

Fire Capt. Mark Wolfgang told the audience that the department conducts four emergency drills in the schools each year.

Police Capt. Amy O’Hara, who oversees the three school resource officers – Officer Bryan Brenes, Officer Joseph Singer, and Sgt. Joseph Internicola, spoke about their key role in the schools.

“They’re committed to the safety of our students, and they care about our kids,” said O’Hara. “All three of the officers and myself are lifelong residents and proud graduates of Revere High School, so we have a real connection to this community. They are some of the most highly trained officers in the department, not only tactically, but in other areas like crisis intervention, trauma-training, bias training, race and equity training, and specialized training in bully prevention and social media risk.”

O’Hara later illuminated on the professional approach that the school resource officers take in preventing incidents at the schools. O’Hara said that “students are often the the first to know of a planned attack.”

“Most of these incidents were averted because a student reported concerns to a trusted adult – a parent, a teacher, a police officers – about a student’s concerning behavior, and then action was taken,” said O’Hara, emphasizing that “if you see something, you have to say something.”

 Sgt. Joseph Turner, who oversees the training division in the Revere Police Department, along with the special operations unit and the tactical patrol officers, said, “It is our policy that we will respond to an active threat incident. When there is a threat to people in a public, populated place, our officers are taught to intervene. Our goal is to get in there and stop the potential loss or danger to human life or stop the act of taking of such.”

Turner assured the school community that the Revere Police Department “is definitely at the top, when it comes to the equipment and training side of the house, when it comes to active shooting.”

Turner concluded his remarks by thanking city and public safety officials for being very supportive of the department’s training efforts.

The forum concluded with a question-and- answer session.