##VIDEO ID:oWrNyXLjiBY## okay medium call to order first line is a pledge to flates stands uh have roll call S presid Mr Kingston pres is here mayor Keith here and want to acknowledge Michelle Kelly and Anthony C Andro behind me uh City officials uh I'd like to make a statement before we start I know the 12:00 meeting was a little an opportune time for parents to but we wanted to ensure the whole entire Safety Committee as well as the sr's Mayors all parties were able to make it and that was the best time this meeting is being recorded on Zoom also on channel 7 and uh if parents need to make comments we can uh they can come to our meeting on September 17 for public comment we we will Reserve public comment at the end any City officials or or any other the public I'd like to go with start off with the mayor first and then with the sro's I'd let the school committee to uh hold all their questions till after the presentation was made thank you Mr chairman and uh to kind Echo your comments and I I hear them too and I see them uh certainly there's no public body that wants to hide from the public uh this is a subcommittee meeting very standard I'm I'm I'm a I'm not a member of the subcommittee but obviously be here because there a certain level of importance I think that I should be as well as the other people that are here um the this subcommittee shouldn't take the form of a public safety Forum we've had a number of those Public Safety forums over the last number of years where they've been at six o'clock at night in large auditoriums and I think that there's going to be more yearning and calling to have these types of Public Safety forums whether it's relative to our schools or outside of that so we'll continue to support that and I think that with the parent parental involvement and student invol in our schools we would uh there will be uh tonight something that we want to discuss is when we can schedule a public safety form for our students parents Educators to to participate in uh just to you know really give a brief comment on this instance that happened last week uh in also instances considering there was some Fallout outside of the school you know we have to we do have to take a deep breath and realize that there are 7200 students in our environment there are a number of Educators and a number of Faculty um the one 2% um really can't take all of the oxygen out of the room but that that doesn't mean that we don't take every instance seriously uh we should never be reactionary leaders none of us we should never be reactionary employees we need to be able to collaborate and take the best practice approach on trying to prevent future instances just like we do with many different Public Safety initiatives when it comes to we're looking at these locks in the doors right now U we had a very very um heightened event yesterday in the country another tragedy across the country uh that's a proactive approach that doesn't mean that we're going to solve all of the world's crisises with foot locks on our doors but it's a proactive approach the city the school committee and the entire city took and making steps to make sure that we have a safe environment for our students and our Educators we're going to continue to make these proactive approaches so understand one instance is never going to overshadow the entire School environment with 7200 people one 2% of our student population should never and will never again I'm going to reiterate that doesn't mean any of that is acceptable it's not I'll say it again my children both went to this school this these same Halls as these other 70 well these other 2,000 students was my son was in these Halls just three months ago before he graduated I I had no problem every single day sending my son to this school my daughter as well and she graduated three years ago okay there are going to be instances and we hope that there'll be fewer and fewer every year and we'll continue to get better and better okay we know this world has changed public discourse has become more normal so what we will do and I hope that we hear from superintendent I'm sorry superintendent Kelly and and principal Bowen and our SRO and our team is the understanding and that we we will send this message to our students and our parents and our entire faculty that even though Public public discourse has been so normalized especially since post pandemic we are going to have a much less or zero tolerance policy moving forward with any of it and people will be held accountable so know that we've heard everyone loud and clear we've heard the parents we've heard the teachers we've heard the students we have zero tolerance if you're going to come to school to be disruptive you're not going to be allowed to come into our school understanding there are State and and federal guidelines when it comes to what we are obligated to do as an educational system we will continue to do that but please the biggest message I can send to anyone as a parent is not casting anything against them you have to get more involved in your in your in your CH children's lives you have to get more involved in your students lives and we have to work collaboratively to make sure that they come to school for the right reasons and they adhere to the rules and regulations that we we offer as a school committee and as a city and you're going to have my full support and the public viewing out there you're going to continue to have my full support and I know this body all feels the same thank you Mr K uh before I start I just want to recognize jaine Montero is for the school committee and chief Callahan recogniz oh thank you thank you um Mr ciano um so just just a few things I want to start by clarifying some misinformation that was replete in the media last week uh which included statements that a a staff member was knocked unconscious and that um people were taken to the hospital by ambulance neither of those things are true um and it's unfortunate that I think that's why we have so much attention uh right now is because the rumor mill Amplified uh what was a an unacceptable High School fight um that then expanded into uh the neighborhoods in the city and I want to thank the reia police especially our SRO and principal Bowen and Deputy principal uh Riley and the S staff who spent an unbelievable amount of work uh time sorry unbelievable amount of time on Friday s Saturday Sunday Monday and Tuesday along with Dr guchi um trying to sort this all out uh I I don't know where we would be if we didn't have the relationship that we have with the reia police department it's my colleagues are are are jealous of that relationship as they should be um so I want to give a little bit of information and update on where we are as a result of all of that investigatory work that we've done uh we've given some information already principal Bowen um sent an update to fam before the students returned um on Wednesday and so some of this information is out there but just in general I want to talk a little bit about the disciplinary action that we're taking relative to the students that were involved in this incident um and I'm going to talk in general terms because there is confidential student information uh that we can't share and what I what we can't do neither I nor principal Bowen can share specific ramifications for individual students what I can say is that we have identified 18 students who were involved in one way or another in this incident either in the fight that occurred in school or the issue that took place on Beach Street after school and in some cases they were involved in both of those um incidents we are um as principal Bowen put in his letter engaging the full level that the law allows and engaging um chapters 37h and 37h and a half around student discipline and for folks who might not be familiar with those pieces of legislation uh they allow long-term suspension and permanent expulsion for students who engage in particular activities or um in engage in hitting staff members which did occur I don't want to imagine that a staff member didn't get hit one actually two staff members got hit um but again nobody was knocked unconscious or taken to by ambulance to the hospital um um all 18 of these kids um are going to be treated individually we're going to look at students IEP to see if there are any disabilities that might have caused students to engage in this work that's through a a legal process known as a manifestation hearing um not all of the 18 students have IEPs a handful of them do each of them will have a separate manifestation hearing um and each of the families will be notified of our intent um to Implement significant disciplinary action um along the lines of what I just referenced um we're also working with the Rivier police on interventions to the aftermath the chief has graciously allowed us to have the behavioral health unit housed at rier high school for the next two weeks um that gives us two additional uh law enforcement officials who are working with our students and with our SRO and with the school administrative team to make sure everything remain stable as it has thankfully for the last two days since we come back um and they're also going to work with our social workers we have 11 social workers at the high school uh and the behavioral health unit will be able to work with our social workers uh to ensure that they have the full understanding of the resources available in the community that they can connect students and families to when they see a student beginning to ramp up um and I know that Captain O'Hara has connect has made connection with the DA's office office to see what resources they can provide to us and um I guess the last thing that I want to mention right now that we're already moving in the planning stages for is many of the parents who Ria high school students know that back to school night is next Thursday from 5:00 to 7: that's uh September 12th and as part of that event uh principal Bowen and his team are putting together a forum for the community for parents to speak to this issue and make sure that they have an opportunity for their voices to be heard and you know as um um Committee Member kajo mentioned this meeting is intended for us to relate to the school committee and the subcommittee what actions we're taking um but we don't want to disengage the rest of the community and so parents will have an opportunity both at the back to school night uh next Thursday and then the following Tuesday the 17th is the regular school committee meeting uh for the month of September okay uh would you like to speak on basically of what transpired during that on uh August 28th and yes going forward absolutely Mr kiano thank you very much for having me here today and like I can say just like Dr Kelly said and mayor Keef said we have a tremendous relationship in the city of Rivier with the school department and other City agencies everybody works together the sro's work very well with the school department and vice versa there's a a lot of Investigations that are being done in regards to this incident that occurred last Thursday there's two parallel investigations going on the police department is doing our criminal end of it the school department is doing their administrative end of it and we're going to put all the pieces together but I'll be honest it's we're still researching video identifying people that may or may not have been involved identifying Witnesses and as of yesterday we were still conducting interviews and that is ongoing today and there is numerous people that will be taken to court on various different charges and right now that I want to be careful what I comment on because a lot of them are juveniles I don't want to say anything out of context or that I shouldn't say but we're taking a very proactive approach and as the mayor said and as superintendent Kelly said we're going to have zero tolerance for this because you have a small percentage that have disrupted the whole school in the community and every person that we can identify that was involved they're going to be held accountable either on the school end the court end or both they're going to face consequences so as time goes on we're going to peel the layers back so to speak on the onion and keep identifying people Captain O'Hara has notified the court I know officers s and ser and the Nia have been involved with the court speaking to different folks I've had conversations with people at the the court that are going to assist us in whatever way they can in the juvenal court and you know I think one of the misnomers that people have we have to be careful what action we take there's a process the school has a process the police and the courts have a process and as time goes on and unfortunately things don't move as fast as people want them to but we are going to deal with this matter and it's going to be dealt with as best as possible and we're not going to let this go we're having a proactive approach just like Dr Kelly said we have the bhu assigned down here that's the behavioral health unit where the officer was assigned to that unit as well as a case worker who was also a social worker and has a lot of experience dealing with younger people he's going to be involved as well so maybe we can do some positive Community engagement and work through some of these problems that we're having in the community and try to ensure that it doesn't happen again like I said it's just an unfortunate incident that started in the school carried out in the neighborhood but we're going to deal with it as best we can and overall the schools here you know are very safe and it is a tragic and terrible incident that went on in Georgia yesterday and it's all too common in society we kind of look into all of these things very seriously and do the best we can and that's what we're going to continue to do and whatever support the school department needs from the police department they're going to get the full support uh did any other administrators before we let the uh School uh Safety Committee ask any questions can I one more comment that I think I forgot to say I might have said it but I don't think I did uh none of the 18 students that we have identified are currently in school they've already been removed they haven't been back in school since the incident happened last Thursday and um with the disciplinary actions that are currently underway they will not be back in school um for the foreseeable future uh I just have a couple questions and I'll turn to my committee members uh is there any expulsions right now going on and longterm or short-term suspensions I don't know if I can answer that directly without releasing confidential student information but um you know when I talk about uh chapter 37h and 37h and a half which are both being applied in this instance that's what they enable us to do I can just say it that way and then one other question is is to the SOS do we know why it happened or how this all came about you know what the what was behind it or this seems to be an ongoing dispute um something back excuse me from last scho year okay so um words being said and it's just reigniting and old argument that they're not even sure what this is about so so we really don't know the issues involved but this stem from last year well we're currently working on trying to dig down get to the source of the problem trying to resolve the issue again we just don't want this to keep going back and forth so we are going to be severe and swifted uh in our actions and we're going to make sure parents and students know that vengeance is not going to be called for we're going to handle this in the court of law rather than on the streets I just want to add to that if I can because I just want to recognize that as a really good question because you really want to find out the source of conflict where it came from the beginning so the SRO have a couple of ideas of what that is by speaking to some of the kids who are coming forward to them and I just want to recognize that because when kids come forward to the police that means they trust the police so one of the things we looked at I want to mention because we spoke about this with the superintendent is to get to the S of a conflict sometimes you need that the the support of an outside agency and that's where roer comes in so I'm in touch with Roker who's out of Chelsea which is a highrisk intervention model and they they work to bring kids together and work on and get into the source of that conflict so that's another alternative it's a sort of a a restora of Justice fece but it works on trying to find the source of conflict and deescalate these issues at school so that's part of the approach and then just one of my last questions is is what are we going to be going doing different going forward well we're going to continue to work on this matter and sometimes it's challenging dealing with young people because they get impulsive information travels very fast through social media and sometimes the information is not accurate but it gets the younger people upset well we're going to work on as Captain O'Hara said with some other avenues to do some intervention positive intervention with these younger folks and try to get to the bottom of the root cause of why this happened and try to prevent it from happening again and I think one of the biggest pieces is that you have a lot of people being excluded from school and these are some of the main catalysts for this and if they can be removed from school or the message gets out we may be able to kind of qu this issue but we're going to keep working on it we're not just going to put it away we're going to keep working on it for the immediate future thank you yeah um well you you actually asked one of the questions that I had but I would just Echo the importance of getting to the root of what was going on um and to make sure or to determine whether or not it was an underlying issue that is bigger than a fight that's happening so I would I would be interested in that seeing that play out and um and making sure that we're addressing any other issues that may be of byproducts or or other results of of the fight um the second question I had for you was do we have a medium um or a way in which individuals could upload videos anonymously or like like a tip line because I I've spoken to plenty of um kids who would do so so long as it was Anonymous yes okay we do we have a tip line people can go on our Facebook our social media account or website and there's our tip line people can send in tips to us and it's all Anonymous and can you do a can you upload a video like footage I believe they can on their phone but I can double check into that and maybe we will up if I'll update the information I have it updated on our social media our website about how they can do it but I believe they can put information in and I'm not 100% sure on your question about the videos you probably can and if not we'll make it yeah that would be great and if Dr Kelly if we could have a way to disseminate um information to the parents to let them know that we are looking for any information I would imagine you would want any video footage that that's out there most of it's probably duplicate but I happen to be on beach treat the second car in at the time of that alteration and I mean there was just tons and tons of kids and many of them had their phones out so depending on the angle you know I'm sure there's plenty of information but more so I just want to use this as an opportunity to come down with a hammer and to let the message be known that this type of behavior will not be tolerated accepted in any shape way or form and if you choose to engage in this type of behavior then you can expect to be removed I think that's the message that needs to go out that's the narrative because right now you know kids think that there's there's no consequences for their actions and that seems to be their belief but you know there's going to be a rude awakening coming to any any kids who choose to misbehave in that way that causes a safety risk to other students and staff and people in this building so I thank you all for the work that you do um I think our team here I just I just want that message to be heard loud and clearly and to the parents out there I would suggest that you speak to your kids know what they're up to know who they're they're hanging around with what kind of of activities they're involved with and if your kid is a part of this then you need to do your part as a parent and um take care of that that's my that's my two bit for this if I if I can add to that too and I know that I'm you know as the chair of the school committee but also mayor um I've reiterated and I just want to take away the misnomer that the school and or the superintendent and the school committee doesn't want to hold students accountable we know that we we can we can all agree that the last four years has been different and um I could tell you I had my students my my children you know many years ago uh in pop on Sports and if they missed a certain amount of days there's different consequences the world has changed a lot in the last 10 years more so specifically in the last four or five years but just recently with with this and last year I I have very good relationship with our sros and I have made them very acutely aware and understand that they are getting the full backing from our office from our team to hold students accountable and also hold parents accountable because I think that that is just like you mentioned you have wonderful children and I know that when they mess up you going to hold them accountable just like I do maybe twoo accountable But ultimately the this team is knows that we have we have their back and holding them accountable and if they and I've given them the green light if they feel that they're not getting that backup they can go right to the top right to me and the buck does stop here so I know that I have to own that and they're going to hold them accountable and I and i' we've gotten nothing but great partnership and collaboration with the school department and the administration and superintendent we really have yesterday I spent a lot of time in the school which I have spent a lot of time in the school over the last couple of years and I watched it I watched uh Educators and I watched people in leadership positions talking about if there are students that aren't coming to school regularly because their disciplinary problems there's ways to to to make sure that they either come to school and are responsible students or they are now no longer enrolled because typically that is this unfortunate 1 to two% of the student population that is disrupting this entire environment so we'll continue to stay on that and know that I am I the buck stops with me and you know the sro's chief chief Captain Lara the entire team here knows that I'm going to back that up and I've seen nothing but the same with this leadership team right here it's been exactly the same again two years three years ago we know that it was every the approach was a little softer not with necessarily with fights and things like that but which the approach to return to learning which was really challenging for the entire the nation but Reve was no different and it's continuously gotten back into a pattern of normaly and we have to send that CL message across the board that I mentioned this earlier public discourse just because you see it on social media just because you see it all over the place it's not normal it's not okay and we're not going to we're not going to allow it yeah not acceptable AG add to that um just want parents and to our students if they are students and they have videos feel comfortable reaching out to one other three of us Sr they're not comfortable with that reach out to a school administrator we're the bridge between the school department and the police department so we'll make sure that those videos are treated seriously they're reviewed and they get to the proper person handling the investigation if um their parents feel more comfortable so their child doesn't have to feel uh that they want to reach out reach out to any one of those people that can go to the police station they don't feel like coming to the school regarding it so this if if going online doesn't work contact one of us go to the police station contact an administrator they have our cell phone numbers they have our email addresses um there's many ways we could try to get those videos we would appreciate more absolutely thank you it's actually it's actually the student who came forth to Educators and police allowed us to take action so that's just a positive thing to look at when you review things like this that means they trust their teachers and they trust the police to help them so we're always going to look to improve and we're going to you know make sure there's an anonymous way if somebody wants to do that but that is actually positive because it allowed us to take action and we want Zero Tolerance when this type of behavior yeah absolutely thank you is anybody from the to say something um first of all I appreciate everything that the school side has done and I appreciate the SRO very much my good friend Mr mattier who passed away and was on the committee had left me his kind of his Playbook and one of the pages that he had was he had reach out to a security company to um enhance and support the SRO um I would like to discuss that idea um I I I I just like to discuss it because maybe that's something we should do um we we did put in the budget for I want the parents to know this we did put in the bug budget for a fourth SRO I know the police off Police Department is TR sta I get it my son's a police officer and I get it so I know you can't give us a fourth SRO officer but we've had three SRO officers since you were an SRO officer your s served so I know you understand the challenges um what I would suggest so in addition to possibly Mr mata's idea about the security company my second suggestion and something I'd like to discuss is um having a police officer on detail be here every day from 11:00 to 3 now I understand everyone's doing their best today but and we're going to do our best and I'm not faulting anyone but unfortunately a months from now some other problem may come up with some other school or something else may happen and things kind of I won't say go away but they kind of um they tend to drift off because there's a secondary problem so I know we put a full effort into the to the high school for security and I think that's great but I'd really I really think having an extra body up here would be helpful um and I think it's something that I think I think it would be helpful you obviously the right person but someone up here every day um literally walking the car is I don't want to see another staff member get hurt I really don't um is an enormous emotional and physical physical you know they're hurt it's just not something um that I think they should be I know some of them have um restraint training and all that but I don't want to see someone in their late 50s a woman um breaking up a fight between two uh you know healthy 18yearold so um I'd really like to see the school department um have a detail every day here I think there are more problems in my opinion there's more problems at dismissal than there are in the morning so I think a 4our shift every day 11: and 3 um just to help I have I have no I have no problems with the people that we have I appreciate them all I know them all I've known them all for a long time um so that's not the issue it's just there three people and I just don't think it's enough and I understand the chief's the chief's problem he doesn't have enough offices I get it so we can't get that fourth SRO I understand but I I don't think paying someone at detail of over the time I believe it be a detail rate um to be up the air I from the parents that I've spoken to and even the kids I've spoken to um I think they'd appreciate seeing that presence they're they're very happy with what they have they know the people um rsro are great they're at school events I go to things I go to football games and other things I see them there I see them interacting with the kids and they do a wonderful job but I I don't think they can honestly say if they had another person that they they wouldn't want it so I really think it's a short-term solution hopefully in a year so maybe we'll get some more offices in the academy and we can get off left SRO but I do think someone being up here all the time um that's just a sign here and doesn't get called away because let's be honest um you guys get called to a different school um to handle a problem or someone's on medication or someone's out sick that day so now we're down to two guys I know the I know the police department and the chief was very proactive he was a former SRO himself for for many years so I know he gets it and understands the problem but I do think um having an extra body um would be very helpful and I can't imagine in good conscious I can't imagine why that wouldn't happen we have we I mean it's expense I'll be honest the expense of someone going to a hospital or someone getting being out because they got hurt um it just isn't worth it to me do you want to talk about yeah one thing I wanted to also say in regards to that thing and I think we need further discussion on it one of the things I was looking at also was maybe looking at retired police officers that want to work for five hours so we have consistency every day and it doesn't cause an administrative issue so these are the things we need to talk about going forward and I do want to want to make can't make a motion on it that we could table this for further discussion on this because this is something we need if we can have consistency as well as have the sros back up whether be retired police officers or military or something we can put together that would be very beneficial you know for our school system and uh I don't know if any other school committee person would like to chair uh so I think just to start on one point I don't think it's okay that we're now jumping to talk about militarizing our schools and to reference back the security firms the late Mr MCA spoke to they were all exmilitary special ops and he went out and signed a contract on his own representing the district and school committee to bring them here which went against our procedures and also public Building Law so I think it's good that this is being tabled but I want the record to show that jumping over to bringing in a monitorization of our schools is not okay but that was just my point on that to derrive Contex on how that went about that's not okay now there's a few other points that I do want to bring about I think the first is I'm talking with our district team and our Police Department is parent accountability so my first question is what does parent accountability look like on the side of the police department I know other states have started to also prosecute parents when students commit certain actions of violence and create un environment so I think questions on that for you and then my two questions for the district team is when is um DCF triggered to go and visit homes when students are continuously committing the same actions and behaviors and my other question for the district team is when those re-entry conversations the parent when students are suspended happen are parents or caregivers required to be there so that they're constantly engaging that accountability so I have two other points but I'll stop on that first and I'll like to keep on well I will answer some of your questions about the parents uh on the legal end of it school teachers and administrators just like the police department a mandator mandatory with Works uh 51a which is basically gets file with the state and to for the state to we're mandatory reporter so we have to file it like immediately as soon as we can when there's an issue with a child or someone that's underage and they will investigate it they will open a case and if it's a child that already has a 51 case already opened there's probably a case work of assigned and things like that so that would probably get put off to that person so they can facilitate an additional investigation so those things are reported with any issue we have with a minor holding the parents accountable that's a whole another thing for another day yeah you know what I'm saying that's something that's a lot broader than this it goes with the State Legislative and changeing state law and things like that but every case we have with a young person and even juveniles involved with this we will file 51a with the state so there can be further investigation into the home and that's when the state agency you know DCF will go and look into the family and see what the living conditions are what the issues are with the family members and things like that and sometimes it's challenging when you have uh young people that are either living with grandparents Aunts Uncles other relatives things like that so that makes that piece a little challenging but it does get looked into so and that's where the state gets involved and also Alo if that young person has involvement with the juvenal court the juvenal court also will get notified and be aware of the issues that are going on and pending whatever stipulations they may or may not have against them with the court then that will be further looked into so on those ends it does get looked into but there's a process sometimes don't things don't move as fast as we would like and that's what part of the problem is and I mean we you know and if it's an issue with a child that's already in the system it makes it a little easier for us when they have a casew worker the captain can get involved the sergeant or the officers they will make multiple calls and a lot of times we are connected with those Folks At One Way or Another and to some type of recognition as well as a school they have an idea who's what case worker is working with what young person or child that answer your question and I'm sorry and I'm sure Dr Kelly can add to that yeah yeah I'll just add a little bit like one of the things that we find when we have um troubled students is that there's often uh some issues at home yes and um we like to partner with the families as much as we can often parents are very eager to see their children get some support and help because they're struggling to prevent them from going down the wrong path on their own uh and I would encourage parents like that to give us a call call the school um let us connect you with some of the resources that are available uh but we also like the chief mentioned we can file a 51a if we feel like the child is in need of services and we can also um file a CRA which is uh a child requesting assistance and that's typically what we file on a student who is has habitual behavior issues um and and just isn't able to regulate appropriately in the school environment the challenge is um the state is also very strapped with their resources in this area so typically if we file a CRA if we file it it's not paid as close attention to as if the family files it when a family files and says we're struggling to engage our child in appropriate ways and ensure that they're behaving appropriately that takes a little that has a little bit more presence in the fort and they might um assign a case for that child more quickly um but even then the court tends to kick those out once the kids are 16 years old and that's what we're dealing with when we get to the high school age kids is that the courts aren't going to really take jurisdiction unless there's a significant criminal element there because they don't have the capacity to support those kids who are older teenagers and that's another area that we really need to work on at the state level as Chief mentioned that's where we need greater resources in our uh in how the state functions in terms of helping older teens and young adults function appropriately oh sorry and one other thing the parents are required to attend the re-entry meetings after has been suspended thank you and then my next Point Mr chair was you know something for the subcommittee to look more into is we all know how um involved our community is especially you know community members who may not have students in the school but they recognize that it takes the village to you know support our students and so I was wondering if maybe it's uh good to just give quarterly updates on how the community can get involved right so all those constituents who email us about the concerns become a mentor for big brothers and big sisters apply to be Hall Monitor so that you're in there was a school I believe in Louisiana or Tennessee that a um a group of fathers started where there were voluntary Hall monitors and that drastically helped reduce the violence in the school so I think it's great that our community is concerned and I really invite them to just get more involved Beyond those emails and take those actions and so I don't know if maybe that's an idea you all wanted to flush out on working with the district on what are some opportunities that community members can get involved and then the post those quarterly so just people know so I think that was one thing and then my last point was just in terms of other steps I know we're exploring busting but when so many students don't qualify for busting and they walk home that that increases the idle time of them surrounding the high school so I know that that's being explor in the ways and means but if we can get students on buses and send them home and that also decreases the amount of students that are just idling around our school so I think I just urge us to continue that conversation as well with thank you any other questions no I I guess it was tabled but I don't know why it I didn't vote um I would still I don't think adding a a re police officer here on a daily basis to assist our road is milit militarizing the school I take offense to that um it's a r police officer um it's not you know whether retired or Not that we're can to's point that's fine I don't have a problem with that either but I just think they need some help and again um whether our administrators or teach have restraint training that's not their job the job is to educate the kids not break up fights and if there's weapons involves and things like that I'd rather have someone a trained professional handle something like that in the building if again this is a big building if Mr s is in the gym and the fight's on the third floor it's going to take them a little bit to get up there so if there's another person in the building may may may may be in that area and be a little closer to where things are going on so I don't think it's militarizing militarizing the school at all to add one re police officer as an additional person and again we'd have to do a detailer over time basis because the chief can't afford to give us another officer which I do understand and I stated before I don't think adding a military I don't think adding another police officer for security reasons to walk around the building and just be an assist to the staff that to the great SRO that we have now this is no reflection on them just they need another pair of hands that's how I feel I felt that way for a long time and um that's why it's in the budget so I don't feel it's militarizing I'm not saying have you know a SWAT team here but another police officer that would see every day um and again as far as relationship you know the kids will get to know that person too and that could help the community as well because there's 2,000 kids in this progr 2,000 kids are going to see this police officer every day so that's got to be a help thank you so clarify Mr chair I was speaking specifically about not our Police Department about the security firm that on its website says everyone is ex military special box that a contract was sign up about that without the school committee's knowledge to bring them in that's what I was referring to not our thank you can I just so one of the things that I think is really important is that we engage especially Juniors and seniors but older students and families teachers everybody in this conversation and one of the things Mr Pano and I had talked about this morning was really reflecting on the whole security system that we have in the radio Public Schools the sro's how many of them where they're located our security staff both at the high school but also at our other schools is it I think it's time for to really reflect on all of that holistically um and engage the voices of the community in determining maybe there's some money that that we could repr proportion that would make things uh better and easier and for everybody and um you know maybe that's what if table or move to another meeting or however we want to put it that might be helpful for all of us um a parent made the suggestion and I thought it was a great idea if I could um that the security folks that we currently have are given uniforms so that people know whether it's student staff whatever you know there's a lot of people in this building a lot of adults and I know teachers that don't know other teachers in the building just they haven't met them they're new no it happens so if you see someone in a hallway and you don't know what their function is if they have a you know a polo or whatever kind of gear we want to give them you know you'll give them one give them five so they have one for every day so people will know oh that's a security person that's who that is I know we can wear a landed like this but sometimes they're difficult to see but if you see a red shirt blue shirt whatever the color of the day whatever we decide to give them people will know who's that and that was from a parent and I said to him you know what it's a fairly low cost might be effective Solution that's something we can do fairly quickly Chris can do do they have security we have we have that cently right now we uh everybody he's soft spoken I know um Mr K through you to the the committee and to the whole just to reminder um you know I wouldn't say great minds think like but very very like Minds uh when it came to the behavior health unit which you know is a is a good unit Police Department uh I requested the chief and I know Captain Lara mentioned this uh that they'll be here for the next few weeks U that'll probably actually be extended um and uh to have them more housed out of here for a while um and how long that is you know we don't have a full commitment yet but they will be doing other case work but we're asking that they spend uh a majority of the time in the building and they can do case work from here we certainly have Wi-Fi and computers and they can look from here and uh that is um you know there's a social worker there's a police officer and uh another case worker so uh having extra hands and bodies and that have U that kind of understanding of the environment and also creating the relationships with students because you mentioned it that's one of the biggest things and I know that I know and I'm going to say Joe and Joe but because I know them so well but more eloquently sge nier officer officer brenis and officer officer singer have unbelievable relationsship with our students but just our entire youth population uh so having more of that will never hurt Captain lar you have a great relationships with with with residents of there as well and we'll we'll continue to do those things there's always like you know and I'd love to hear from the principle The Tool as well different princip but there's always going to be uh things that we we want to do there's always going to be things that we can do and that you know there things that we will do and uh but every time it's kind of like we talk about traffic and speeding someone blows a red light and hits a car the immediate reaction is more signs more this more that uh and then you do that and then three months later something else happens so it's one of those where we takeing that holistic approach really taking a SE serious step back and taking a look at how we can do things better and then measuring and then measuring it is really key and important is we have to make these Investments and and create these ideas put Implement them and then we have to stand back and measure it because one approach might work in reiv another approach might work in another city and it's always going to be see see how well it works and I think it's a really good time to look at our security system and measure it and see what working what's not working yeah I just have one yeah one final um we're we're talking about proactive approaches and this is a safety committee meeting um I am interested in having sweeps with the dogs um um unannounced you know on a more regular basis I understand that it takes a large amount of work and various different entities to make that happen but even if we did it several times a year I think not to say that you know we won't know what's going on unless as the mayor has said we're proactive in our approaches to things um so that's something I just want to put out there I know we did it before we talked about you know possibly doing it again so I just want to revisit that so um if we could if we could revisit that during a the next yeah safety meeting that we can schedule another safety meeting we can discuss more about uh helping out the SRO whether it be additional cops hiring retire cops M forward I can just add something real quick I know we focus a lot on deterrence and you want more it all starts here on this phone right the kids all the information is fought on that phone before it gets to us so the intelligence is here sometimes the kids don't want to come forward because they don't want to be labeled as a snitch or a rat so but the parents if you talk to your kids and you're you're in step with your children and you know you can come forward and talk to us so I I Hur you if you want to if you want to help this is the best way to do it you can be the one to come forward your kids under 18 they're not able to come forward and then or they're scared to come forward or whatever come to us like everybody's saying it takes a village right we want we're going to f everybody's focus on deterrence this is prevention right here um you don't hear often very seldom hear about a fire in school because we work on fire prevention so we work on police prevention and F prevention we're going to get all the information we need from the help of the parents but just we here the last thing the police want to do is give a kid a record especially a juvenile it's going to stick with him for the rest of his life the last thing an educator or a teacher wants to do is not give that kid the opportunity to come to school and be around his PE and learn so we're not waking up in the morning going no how can I put this kid out of school today no it's an Unwritten rule since you were a child you put your hands on somebody else you're going to get punished for now we've been doing you've been learning that since day one since you were taught them so it's going to keep carrying with you the rest of your life just know there's going to be accountability for your actions and if you got the information bring it to us we can't just make it come out of thin air something's happening somebody's threatening your kid come tell one of us and we'll investigate it and we'll hold them accountable thank you we're going to open it up to public open up a few things that have come up here that really connect when we talk about um the source of conflict between students whether it is in this instance other instances we've had um whether we talk about the approach to Safety and Security in the building there's then we talk about perimeter security we talk about SRO we talk about kids in Conflict we talk about um the horrific incident that happened in Georgia yesterday like I think a thing schools do and I think a thing policy does well is jump with ideas and solutions before we often really understand exactly what we're trying to solve and I think in schools particularly because I think the pace is so fast and everyone's back and we're just kind of running 10,000 miles a minute I think there is a very similar need whether it comes to understanding student conflict or understanding like the security needs in the building or the safety needs um there's a I think a way that we could as a community Community including families including teachers including everybody in this room kind of really take a more like designthinking approach of like how do the users of the school the students the families the teachers the Educators what do they need to feel safe what do they need to feel secure and then what ideas come in response to those needs and I think too often we go to oh here's an idea this is the thing we should try let's do this let's and we do that ourselves I think it's administrators we the number of iterations that we've pred of where are our campus supervisors station what bathrooms are open at what time and lunch where the kids go and like there's so many different combinations of that none of that really starts with the problem of well how are kids navigating the building and why right and I think that there's just a a need or rather an opportunity in this moment with all the people here to talk about what are the different needs we have and it sounds like that's the conversation you and Dr Kelly we're starting to have have this morning but you really do that inventory of what are the needs we have relative to people feeling say conflict not happening um and then from those needs say okay well these ideas might address that need and these ideas address that me so I I'm just excited that that's where this conversation is going because I think there's a lot of good people that and kids as well and family members as well that would join in on that conversation to understand how do we experience this buing how do we experience our day and then like what needs to happen to make that better for people so I'm excited to that where this is thank you thank you and I I just want to add one other thing too I know that Chris and his team have worked closely with the teachers over the last week to make sure that they're in the Halls that they're they're monitoring students in between periods and and that they're visible and listening and watching and that always helps ensure that uh nothing escalates too so I want to thank the teachers for the work they've done on that um and will continue to do going forward I'd like to open up the public comment first any El no public comment uh thank you all for attending a very productive meeting i' like to make a motion to agour motion second