‘Avoidable’: Cambridge Officials Address Accidental Firearm Discharge at CRLS

Cambridge Public Schools and Police Department officials said last month’s incident of a police officer accidentally discharging a gun in a Cambridge Rindge and Latin School bathroom was “unacceptable” and pledged accountability during a Tuesday School Committee meeting.

CPD Commissioner Christine A. Elow said that the department uncovered “policy violations” in its investigation into the accidental discharge.

“This was not OK. This was avoidable. This never should have happened,” Elow said.

CPS Chief Operations Officer David Murphy called the accidental discharge an “unacceptable incident” and said that the incident has “compelled us to take a long hard look at the program” to make sure it is achieving its goals.

Still, the incident is not likely to lead to armed officers being removed from Cambridge’s public schools.

The partnership between CPS and CPD to place Youth Resource Officers in schools is required by state law. YROs serve not to discipline students, but to investigate possible criminal acts and to respond to particularly unsafe situations, according to a memorandum of understanding outlining their responsibilities.

While in a staff bathroom at CRLS on April 2, longtime CPS officer Frank Greenidge took his gun out of the holster and hung it on a hook which “caused the firearm to discharge,” Elow said Tuesday.

Elow said that taking the gun out of the holster was a violation of CPD policies.

“As a police department we are taking these violations very seriously,” Elow said.

Elow also said that Greenidge has taken “full responsibility” for violating the policies and is currently on administrative leave.

Although during public comment two parents expressed concerns about having armed officers in schools, Elow said that because YROs are trained police officers, they “need to have their service weapons to be prepared to respond to any emergency that may come.”

CPD representatives also said the department has worked to make YROs “more inviting, more acceptable” within Cambridge schools.

At the beginning of the school year last year, YROs wore new uniforms, designed to “soften” their look, Elow said. New uniforms feature a polo with a falcon on the back, no patches, and with the officer’s badge stitched on.

“To us, that was a huge thing. The YROs were excited, elementary schoolers were excited when YROs were in schools,” CPD Deputy Superintendent Steven Magalhaes said about the uniform redesign.

Officers and committee members also shared anecdotes of instances where YROs’ relationships with students allowed for a more personal approach to managing juvenile crime prevention.

“The research is very clear that having a school climate where especially young people trust the adults — teacher, staff, and police — to talk about when they are concerned about something a peer has posted or said is the number one preventative factor in that space,” said James Barrett, CPD director of clinical support services and an assistant professor at the Harvard Medical School.

CPD Superintendent Frederick Cabral added that the YRO program has diverted young people from the criminal justice system.

“We’ve actually changed the culture of the Cambridge Police Department,” he said. “You don’t drop juvenile arrest by 80 percent without changing the culture of policing. Our YROs, especially, see themselves as the gatekeepers to the juvenile justice system.”

Still, School Committee members Elizabeth C.P. Hudson and Richard Harding Jr. emphasized the importance of clearly communicating the roles, successes, and “basic facts” pertaining to YROs’ presence in schools with a community distressed over the recent incident.

School Committee student representatives echoed their sentiments, suggesting district leaders and CPD representatives engage in a similar panel for students at CRLS.

“People have a lot of questions about why we have guns in the school, why we have police officers, and I think students would really benefit a lot from hearing from these police officers and everybody here and being able to pose questions,” student representative Naseem Anjaria said.

“It’s all about information and that will help people feel safer in our schools,” student representative Jeanne Alailima said.

—Staff writer Darcy G Lin can be reached at darcy.lin@thecrimson.com.

—Staff writer Emily T. Schwartz can be reached at emily.schwartz@thecrimson.com.