Vacation Ends Early for Swampscott Teachers

Vacation will end a little early for Swampscott teachers, who were hoping to extend their break until after Jan. 2. The Swampscott schools committee voted at its Monday, Dec. 15 meeting that teachers in the district will have to return to school on Jan. 2 for a previously planned teacher training day, according to itemlive.com.

The required training will teach school officials what to do in the case of a school shooter, following the ALICE model.

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The ALICE model encourages teachers to take five steps in the event of a shooter at the school: Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter and Evacuate. Greg Crane, a Dallas, TX police officer, started the program after Columbine to keep his wife, a school principal, safe.

Teachers in Swampscott previously requested the training day be moved to the end of the year and their Winter Vacation be extended until after Jan. 2.

Swampscott Education President Nancy Hanlon told itemlive that school Superintendent Pamela Angelakis had already approved the switch and that she assumed the school committee vote was nothing more than a formality.

Swampscott School Committee member Amy O’Conner, however, said to itemlive that the vote was not to make teachers’ vacations end early, but “we can’t hold this training day on the last day of school.”

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