I’ve had enough of this. The superintendent goes rogue and the school committee does not pull rank on him.”

Tiverton Town Council chairwoman Denise deMedeiros

Someone has directed Lt. Murphy not to meet with us ... Are we placing politics in front of the safety of the students?”

Tiverton school superintendent Peter Sanchioni

Calling his actions “an insult,” Tiverton Town Council Chairwoman Denise deMedeiros on Monday sharply criticized Tiverton School Superintendent Peter Sanchioni for turning over a confidential school safety and security report to the town’s fire marshal before the town council and other town officials had an opportunity to review it.

Synergy Solutions, a safety and security consulting company hired by the school district to conduct a  security assessment of Tiverton High School, had recently completed and submitted its report to the district. According to deMedeiros, she and school committee chairman Jerry Larkin had been trying to schedule a joint meeting of school and town officials to review the report, since funding for some of the recommended security upgrades, which are expected to come from casino revenues, ultimately requires council approval.

deMedeiros said school officials, stressing the confidential nature of the report, asked for the joint review to take place in executive session. Additionally, they stipulated that the report was to be released to councilors just prior to the meeting and it should not leave the room afterward. This was problematic, she said, because the council’s deliberations regarding expenditures of casino revenue would take place at a public meeting.

Because of the district’s restrictions, deMedeiros said she was surprised to learn from town administrator Chris Cotta that Sanchioni had already released the report to Tiverton Fire Marshal Daniel Murphy, along with the request that Murphy keep the report confidential and not give it to anyone else.

“I’m going to be very blunt about this,” said deMedeiros. “Chris was upset and rightfully so,” because he, along with the police and fire chiefs, should have been notified first. The superintendent’s failure to follow appropriate chain-of-command guidelines, she said, was unacceptable.

“That would be like Chris giving it to a principal and saying ‘Don’t tell anybody you have it.’”

deMedeiros said that when she expressed her concerns in a phone conversation to Larkin, he told her the superintendent had released the report without the authority of the school committee or the district’s attorney.

“I’ve had enough of this,” she said. “The superintendent goes rogue and the school committee does not pull rank on him.”

Superintendent responds

On Tuesday morning, Sanchioni said Larkin “absolutely” knew in advance that he intended to reach out to Murphy, and that his purpose in doing so was to ask for the fire marshal’s perspective on two items the district was considering purchasing, based on recommendations in Synergy’s report.

One, he said, was a locking mechanism that would secure doors from the inside if a shooter was in a school building.

“Because we are getting so close to the start of school, for us to use this mechanism, purchase it, and have it installed, we needed to act now.”

It was a simple request, Sanchioni said, and if Murphy said yes, the district would move forward with the purchase.

“What’s interesting, though, is someone has directed Lieutenant Murphy not to meet with us ... Are we placing politics in front of the safety of the students?”

The district’s emphasis on confidentiality is not unusual, he added.

“It’s a classified report. You don’t want the bad guys to know what you’re doing to protect the students. Every school system that I know operates in the same way.”

Sanchioni said the district has been trying for weeks to set up a meeting with the council to review the report, and he intends to ask Synergy officials to attend as well. 

While it is important, he said, to presume good intentions, he questioned why deMedeiros didn’t call him directly to discuss her concerns.

“My intentions are always pure. We are just trying to keep the schools safe.”