Partnering to Support Students, Build Prevention Programs

March 24, 2025
• Needham Public Schools and the town provide resources for students and families to discuss important topics that extend beyond the classroom.

Earlier this month, High Rock Middle School teacher Michael Ciccolella was charged with possession and distribution of child pornography.

Superintendent Dan Gutekanst wrote a letter to the community in which he stated that local law enforcement does not suspect any NPS students were involved. An investigation is pending.

“The safety and wellbeing of our students is always the district’s top priority, and we will cooperate with all law enforcement agencies as the investigation continues,” Gutekanst wrote in part. “Due to the disturbing nature of the charges, we encourage families to speak with their children and reassure them that they are safe at school.”

Gutekanst wrote that the district does not have an additional comment, and NPS staff spoke with Needham Local specifically regarding school resources.

In partnership with the district, Needham Youth and Family Services has community-based clinicians available for support, Director Sara Shine said. The department anticipates a potential “increase in need” as a result, she said.

“I think an incident like this can be traumatic for everybody involved, and so we would respond to this event just like we would any other event that’s similar,” Shine said. “We provide parent consultation, individual treatment. We could do some short-term work. Sometimes parents in a situation like this don’t know how to talk to their kids about what’s happening. We’re happy to consult in that, help conversations happen.”

Apart from their standard academics, students learn critical life skills and development to ensure they’re prepared for the world.

New to Needham kindergarteners this school year is a Child Protection Unit (CPU), wherein teachers facilitate lessons on personal safety. Over a series of six lessons, which started in December and January, the 400 kindergartners learned how to recognize safe and unsafe situations and how to report them to trusted adults. The unit is part of the Second Step curriculum, which focuses on personal student development.

Rocio Carmargo-Ruiz, the director of counseling for grades K-5, said those conversations, she said, reinforce what parents naturally speak with their children about.

“There is a part where it’s recognizing where your body’s covered with a bathing suit, identifying that as your private body parts, and just helping kids recognize certain rules, like never keep secrets about touching rules,” Carmargo-Ruiz said of the CPU.

The lessons also cover other safety components, such as wearing a helmet while riding a bike and wearing your seatbelt in the car.

The CPU lessons pick up where the Child Assault Prevention Program left off. Volunteers in the CAP Program, run by the Needham Community Council, would visit schools to teach students similar lessons. While “highly valued” and relatable for students, Carmargo-Ruiz said the CAP Program had one downside: volunteers would come and go, leaving students without another trusted adult they could confide in. The program no longer exists, leaving a gap the district chose to fill.

With teachers at the helm of that instruction, they can better monitor students and report a concern should one arise, Carmargo-Ruiz said.

Under Massachusetts law, teachers are mandated reporters, meaning they are required to report potential child abuse and neglect to the Department of Children and Families.

Needham teachers received training on how to identify warning signs related to child protection, Carmargo-Ruiz said. Teachers can look for changes in behavior, signs in children’s drawings, comments to their peers and markings on their body, she said. Teachers, who spend a significant amount of time with students, are instructed to be observant, she added.

The CPU empowers students to be assertive and fosters a “sense of connectedness, a sense of safety” for the school community, Carmargo-Ruiz said.

“Even if it’s, what we think in adult terms, a minor thing, it’s important that they understand that people there care, and that they’ll listen and support them,” she said. “Oftentimes, what we know about childhood trauma is that children have not, perhaps, been taught the ability to tell others and know how to do that.”

Shine said it’s important to emphasize personal space and boundaries, and those conversations can start at a very young age — for toddlers and young children, that looks like using accurate names for their body parts and explaining safe and unsafe touch during playtime, when kids might roughhouse.

With older elementary school children, parents could remind them about other personal safety, such as looking both ways before crossing the street and that “no one should ever touch your private body parts except to keep you healthy,” like a doctor, Shine said. As children grow up, those conversations can become more specific, she added.

“When news comes out, I think it’s important to help children recognize that this is unusual, and that’s why it’s getting so much attention,” Shine said, “and that parents are keeping their kids safe, and schools are working hard to keep kids safe, and talk about ways that they’re doing that.”

NPS plans to expand the Child Protection Unit through fifth grade, though they have yet to establish a timeline for that rollout, Carmargo-Ruiz said. Their goal is for children to have lessons each year until fifth grade, she said.

Social-emotional learning extends beyond elementary students with the wellness curriculum, said Alison Coubrough-Argentieri, acting assistant superintendent of Student Support Services.

“The wellness curriculum does explore boundaries, healthy relationships, being able to identify and define healthy relationships and decision making and problem solving in the event that there are concerns,” Coubrough-Argentieri said. Needham High School is also piloting a social-emotional learning curriculum in addition to its wellness instruction, she added.

When it comes to student safety, Shine advised families to “use your spidey sense” — significant changes in appearance and interests are typical for adolescents, she said, but pay attention and ask questions. In initiating a conversation, Shine said parents should find times to talk when children are comfortable, like in the car or, for younger children, right before bedtime.

In coming to an adult, children should know they will never be in trouble, she added.

“Keeping that open line of communication around everything is really important to have with our kids,” Shine said.