REVERE, MASS. (WHDH) – Educators in Revere presented a series of petitions Monday after a staff member was injured in a brawl involving more than a dozen students at Revere High School last month.
The Revere Teachers Association in a statement said its educators and allies presented their petitions at Monday night’s Revere City Council meeting.
The teachers association said educators already delivered petition signatures in May in response to what the association said is a “safety crisis” in city schools. This new round of petitions calls on city officials to act “after the School Committee refused to protect students and educators,” the teachers association said.
The recent brawl at Revere High School happened on Aug. 29 in a school hallway.
During the scuffle, cell phone video showed a student elbowing a school staff member who then fell to the ground.
Witnesses said the brawl spilled from the hallway into a nearby street, with one witness reporting seeing between 50 and 75 students in the street.
The Revere Teachers Association later said an assistant principal was injured.
The Revere Public Schools responded to the fight, saying in a statement “We have zero tolerance for violence in our schools.”
The district continued, saying it was coordinating closely with officials at Revere High School and the Revere Police Department “to ensure all parties involved are held accountable.”
On Thursday of last week, exactly one week after the fight, Revere Public Schools superintendent Dianne Kelly confirmed 18 students were facing disciplinary actions.
“They will not be back in school for the foreseeable future,” she said during a meeting of the Revere School Committee’s safety and security subcommittee.
City officials including Mayor Patrick Keefe and Police Chief David Callahan joined in condemning the fighting.
While city leaders have spoken out, the Revere Teachers Association has continued to voice its frustration, accusing the school committee of refusing calls for more transparent tracking of in-school violence, more social workers and wraparound services for students, and safe spaces for dysregulated students who need to de-escalate.
The teachers association has said it also wants the school district to develop a health and safety task force.
The teachers association said it started collecting signatures for its soon-to-be-delivered petitions over the summer after previously raising concerns during bargaining sessions in February.
“Revere educators saw this coming as we have consistently raised these concerns,” said teachers association co-presidents Michelle Ervin and Jane Chapin in a statement after the Aug. 29 brawl. “Now our schools are being impacted by this avoidable incident.”
Monday’s Revere City Council meeting took place at 6 p.m. at Revere City Hall.
The meeting agenda also included two motions from Council President Anthony Cogliandro related to school safety.
One motion asked Mayor Keefe, Chief Callahan, and Superintendent Kelly to explore the prospect of hiring a security company and/or adding extra student resource officers at Revere High School “to help combat the ongoing and worsening issue in and around RHS.”
The second motion asked Keefe and Kelly to begin exploring the cost of installing metal detectors at Revere High School.
“I firmly agree with the metal detectors. I am a teacher. I am not a shrinking violet. I am not a small person. I will step in and break up a fight. I’ve done it before. I will no longer. Weapons have been found in our building on numerous occasions over the last few years. I am not stepping into a melee to get a blade in my ribs,” a teacher said at the meeting.
Though it was decided those motions need to be explored further to pass, the City Council did agree on two things — school safety is paramount and the council stands with the teachers.
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