Branch Report of Recommendations
In November 2021, the Boston Globe printed an article revealing that the Danvers Police Department who also served as a School Resource Officer, was negligent in addressing the complicity of one of its officers in a racially motivated bullying incident at Danvers High School. After actively looking into the case, our Branch created and issued a report to the Town Manager and Chief of Police in January 2022. At the time, we did not share the report with anyone else. After a period of meetings and non compliance with the recommendations listed in the report, we regretfully felt the need to share our report and its contents with the wider public to make our work transparent because town leaders were not doing enough to address the harm caused. Below is a chronology of significant events in this work that ultimately led to the resignation of Officer Steve Baldassare from his position of School Resource Officer. It is important to note that the Branch did not act independently in this work. The Branch worked with a large group of concerned Danvers citizens, the Danvers Ad hoc Committee, throughout the entire process.
*Trigger warning: this report contains racially violent content that can cause a traumatic reaction.
Officer Resigns from School Position 4.22.2022
After two years of the community of Danvers protesting the way the incident was handled, and after six months since the NAACP North Shore Branch became involved, Sergeant Stephen Baldassare, who had originally resisted his ouster from police work in the schools over the scandal, finally relented and asked to be reassigned at the end of the academic year in June, according to Police Chief James Lovell. The Attorney General’s office has mandated that Danvers report all future incidents directly to their offices.
See article from The Boston Globe here.
Statement to the Select Board 4.5.2022
We attended the Select Board meeting to appeal to the members.
See the recording of the meeting here; view our statements from the 5-minute mark.
Press Conference 3.25.2022
We hosted a press conference to provide more context to our statement given at the Human Rights & Inclusion Committee, and an opportunity for media to ask questions about our report.
See the recording of the conference here.
Statement to the Human Rights & Inclusion Committee 3.24.2022
We decided to formally approach the HR&I Committee to seek their support and partnership in this work. We made brief statements in the public speaking section of the agenda to introduce the topic with plans to return to the committee in hopes they will conduct a formal vote.
See the See the statements by the Branch President Natalie bowers, Ad hoc committee chair Lisa Silva and Chair Djoko’s response starting at 16:15m