By Robert M. Penta
Posted Feb. 16, 2016 at 7:29 AM
http://medford.wickedlocal.com/news/20160216/sitting-in-residents-have-right-to-voice-concerns-at-public-meetings
MEDFORD
This past Tuesday evening I appeared and spoke at the Medford city Council meeting to support council resolution 16-063 offered by Council Vice President Breanna Lungo-Koehn.
It was a resolution that addressed parental notification if and when a school bomb threat has been activated.
My comments at that meeting were directed to the safety concerns of the children and the lack of open transparency by the school administration. This was the third time in most recent months that our public schools have had public safety issues that were not timely addressed by the school administration.
On all of those three occasions it was many days after the fact that any acknowledgement was ever made.The two new council members, George Scarpelli and John Falco, acknowledged that a protocol procedure that both had worked on as School Committee members had to be investigated to see if protocol had been operative during this most recent school bomb incident.
My response to their comments was, that if whatever protocol was not met then whoever was the decision maker of not following such protocol should be held accountable even to the point of being fired.
I said that our children’s safety is the highest responsibility of elected officials and nothing should never compromise that responsibility.
The Tuesday council meeting was an insulting attempt by certain council members to shut off public, citizen participation on this matter. The council had to be embarrassed to allow citizens to speak.
The council needs to be reminded that the podium at the City Council meeting is the open forum for any elected official and/or citizen to speak on any subject at any time.
After the council meeting, School Superintendent Roy Belson sent out a libelous e-mail accusing Councilor Lungo-Koehn, Councilor Michael Marks, myself and citizens who spoke out on this matter of “trying to provoke fear among parents“ because we expressed our first amendment right of freedom of speech.
A review of the council meeting on this subject matter clearly shows the concern regarding the delay of notification and the lack of transparency.
We live in a world today that can be turned upside down in a matter of minutes. Any action that challenges the threat of one’s safety is the highest of priority.
Our school system should have an Amber-type telephone system that calls all parents and /or guardians of children in a school within a timely period after a bomb threat. Since time is of the essence to any threat launched at any school, the lives of those children and school personnel affected is at risk and the responsibility for their safety presents serious consequences for timely failing to do so.
In this matter, we should not be talking about this after the fact but rather parental/guardian protective actions should have been in place to have avoided this serious problem. Calling student’s parents’ homes some eight hours after the incident is unacceptable, unprofessional and a true cause for discussing student’s and school personnel’s public safety.
Mr. Belson’s suggestion that several councilors and citizens, including myself, were provoking fear among the parents during a City Council meeting was uncalled for.
Expressing concern for the safety of the children, timely notification to parents and guardians and the protocol for insuring the building’s safety and security is a parental and citizen right. That is what the discussion was about.
As a matter of fact, these are the same concerns expressed by parents and guardians of students from Everett High School as to that schools recent bomb threat.
Transparency and communication … it’s that simple!
— Medford resident Robert M. Penta is a former almost 40-year member of the Medford City Council.
