REVERE, MASS. (WHDH) - In the wake of several fights at Revere High School, parents, school leaders, and students came together Tuesday night to discuss classroom safety.
The meeting gave parents an opportunity to ask school officials direct questions and share suggestions about how to make campus a safer place for their children.
“We hear you. We understand. We’re here to listen to you,” Revere Mayor Patrick Keefe Jr. said at the meeting.
Fights in the halls of the high school, including one where a staff member was seriously hurt while trying to break it up, have a dozen students facing charges.
“Can you tell us how you’re going to keep the students safe in the building and prevent students coming in with weapons and things like that?” asked Naghe Nasra, a parent and teacher for Revere Public Schools.
Keefe said the fights are often personal, stemming from the summer.
“And then all of a sudden, 2,200 people are in the same building, over a very quick period of time,” he said.
The discussion soon focused on whether to install metal detectors in the school.
“A lot of the incidents we’ve had don’t involve weapons, so installing a medal detector isn’t going to stop two students fighting because they were dating the same girl, you know? So we have to also understand where our fights are coming from and what’s being involved, and when it’s not weapons, all that’s going to do is cost taxpayers dollars,” one woman said.
“What’s one life worth? It’s worth $3 million, I can tell you that. Especially if it’s my kid,” a man said at the meeting.
Revere is also planning to add another school resource officer, bringing the total to four. Officer Joseph Singer is the most senior of those officers. He’s also a graduate of the school.
“This means a lot to me. This isn’t just a job. It’s a lifestyle. It doesn’t end when we go home. My phone’s going all night. My email’s going all night, so it’s important to me,” Singer said at the meeting.
Nasra expressed that the meeting eased some of the worries that she had about the high school.
“At the beginning I wasn’t really sure but at the end I feel more confidence sending my kids to school here,” she said. “Especially when I listened to the police officers say how they are here for the kids and how they watch for our kids like they are their own kids.”
The recommendations from the parents will be recorded and presented at a later date. However, there does appear to be a push for an audit of the school’s security plans, the superintendent said.
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