The Rochester School Committee on January 16 adopted a resolution directing Superintendent Michael Nelson and Police Chief Michael Assad to craft a communication to parents and guardians on the safe storage of firearms in their home.
The resolution stems from an incident a week before at Rochester Memorial School, said committee member Kate Duggan. A Rochester Memorial School student brought an unloaded BB gun to school. The Rochester Police Department responded promptly to the situation and the matter was quickly resolved, she said. The result was a resolution proposed by the Massachusetts Association of School Committees, of which Duggan is a member, to put adults on notice about safer, secure storage of firearms away from the reach of children. “This will be our way to assure families that our school is safe,” she said.
The only push back before the vote came from committee member Josh Trombly, who objected to some of the language in the resolution. He said he loves the resolution and its point at the end. But he noted statistics within the preamble that might not be accurate and wanted them stricken from the RMS resolution.
“I have some concerns about some of the statements here,” he said. He noted one of the 12 preambles where-as statements declare 5.6 million children live in homes with loaded, unlocked firearms. “I looked into that statistic, and it’s based on a small sample size,” he said. In reaction to another section, he noted Massachusetts actually has a lower incidence level of gun violence compared to other parts of the country. “Can we get rid of the preamble?” he asked and added, “It would get us the same plan without a whole lot of the extra stuff. Some of it gets political. We are here to represent 100-percent of our community.”
Other board members agreed to revise the final language before issuing the resolution to Superintendent Nelson to implement in cooperation with Assad. The resulting vote to approve supporting the resolution was unanimous.
In other action, the committee honored RMS fourth grade student Maggie Sommers, age nine, as winner of a Feinstein Foundation Golden Ticket, which earned her a $500 check that she will donate to the Doug Flutie, Jr. Foundation for Autism. The honor also earned Rochester Memorial School a $5,000 grant from the Feinstein foundation, an organization based in Cranston, RI whose Leadership School program has attracted over 60,000 young participants for promising “to do good deeds and the make the world a better place.” Five student Golden Tickets are randomly selected by drawings held on WPRI Channel 12 each week. Sommers was also awarded certificates of congratulation from the Feinstein organization and RMS.
The committee recognized the recent retirement of Lisa Mazzuca after 17 years of service at Rochester Memorial School and awarded her the book “The Summer Nick Taught His Cats to Read” by Curtis Manley and Kate Berube. Also, the committee was introduced to Rochester Memorial School’s new secretary, Alison Rotella.
The committee accepted the following grants: a $7,800 openSciEd grant that supports a pilot science program at RMS and $2,244.33 from Shutterfly for fall school pictures.
The committee approved accepting book donations from the RMS PTO: “Because of Mr. Terupt” by Rob Buyeas, “Zinnia and the Bees” by Danielle Davis and “The Last Mapmaker” by Christina Soontornvat.
The committee approved Robin Rounsville as its representative on the new Health and Wellness Committee.
The committee announced its next meeting will be March 20. The next district Joint School Committee will be January 23 at ORR Jr. High School, Mattapoisett.
The Rochester School Committee will meet next on March 20 at 6:00 pm in the Rochester Memorial School band room, 16 Pine St., Rochester.
Rochester School Committee
By Michael J. DeCicco