Salem Police Chief, Superintendent To Talk School Safety

SALEM, MA — As school and public safety officials reflect on and look to learn from the mass shooting in Texas last month they want to hear from students, staff and families about ways they can help make buildings feel safer and be safer for the school community.

Salem Police Chief Lucas Miller and Superintendent Steve Zrike want input on those issues as part of a community conversation about safety in the schools Monday from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at the Saltonstall School.

"It's going to help inform some of our safety planning — clearly in response to what happened in Uvalde," Zrike said. "But also as we try to get better at ensuring that our schools are as safe as possible and we protect our staff and our students as much as possible."

Salem Access Television will record and broadcast the community conversation.

"Chief Miller and I are still newer to the community and I think it's important for us to get a pulse together," Zrike said. "So then our two organizations can work in concert with each other.

"I'm excited about the opportunity to work with Chief Miller. I think he brings a lot of experience (as a former New York City police commander). I think the relationship and the communication are strong between the schools and the Salem police."

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)