For Immediate Release

Friday, March. 15, 2019

Media Contact: John Guilfoil
Phone: 617-993-0003
Email: john@jgpr.net

Burlington Police and Schools Partner to Bring National School Safety Speakers to Teacher Development Day

BURLINGTON — Chief Michael Kent and Superintendent Eric Conti are pleased to share that the Burlington Police Department and Burlington Public Schools partnered earlier this week to hold a staff development day for educators featuring two nationally renowned school safety speakers.

On Monday, March 11, every educator in the Burlington Public School district, along with custodial and clerical staff members, attended a staff development day at Burlington High School that focused on school safety. Members of the Burlington Police and Fire Departments also attended the event.

Alissa Parker, who lost her daughter Emilie in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting, and Frank DeAngelis, the retired principal of Columbine High School, spoke at the event. Parker and DeAngelis are both speakers for Safe and Sound Schools, an organization founded by the parents who lost children in the Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting. Safe and Sound Schools works to keep students safe by supporting crisis prevention and response initiatives. The group also helps schools recovering from tragedy.

Parker and DeAngelis both shared their personal stories at the staff development day, and also offered their own insights on how communities can work to respond to and recover from similar emergencies.

DeAngelis is also a speaker for the I Love U Guys Foundation, a group that has created school emergency response procedures including the Standard Response Protocol and the Standard Reunification Method. The Standard Response Protocol offers four action based responses for schools to take in the event of an emergency: lockout, lockdown, evacuate, and shelter. The Standard Reunification Method is a procedure that gives educators the tools to ensure that students are reunited with a parent or guardian in the event of an emergency.

“It was incredibly powerful to listen to Alissa Parker and Frank DeAngelis share their stories, and their thoughts on how communities can work together to prevent disaster, prepare to act in the event of a tragedy, and recover,” Chief Kent said. “School safety is of the utmost importance to us all at the Burlington Police Department and at Burlington Public Schools, and it was an inspiring learning experience for us all to hear their remarks.”

Partial funding for the program was donated by Oracle. Presentations by Parker and DeAngelis were funded by the Burlington Police Department.

“Burlington Public Schools has a great partnership with the Burlington Police Department, and together we have undertaken a comprehensive series of initiates to keep students and staff safe at school,” Superintendent Conti said. “Monday’s school safety day was incredibly insightful, and the ideas the Alissa Parker and Frank DeAngelis shared with us were incredibly helpful and valuable moving forward.”

For more information on the Burlington Police Department’s collaboration with Burlington Public Schools to promote school safety, click here.

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