Implement the Crisis Support Team at Brockton High School
Implement the Crisis Support Team at Brockton High School
The Issue
To: The Brockton Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Tahiliani, The Brockton School Committee and BHS Principal Mr.McCaskill
The Ask:
Brockton Interfaith Community’s Youth SOL Leaders urgently call upon the Brockton Public Schools Superintendent, the School Committee, and BHS Principal Mr. McCaskill to implement a Crisis Support Team at Brockton High School (BHS), with the intent to model this system across the entire district.
Who is Youth SOL?:
Youth SOL (Youth School of Liberation), founded in 2021, is the youth organizing program of Brockton Interfaith Community, a social justice organization serving Brockton since 1990. Our mission is to develop young people to lead and organize our community toward real, long lasting change around issues that impact youth, chosen by youth. After listening to our peers, we have focused our organizing on addressing the issues of school safety, mental health, and community violence, especially their impact on young people.
My name is Isabela Lauture and I am a student at Brockton High School and a leader with Youth SOL. For the past 2 years, Youth SOL has been meeting with BHS Principal Mr. McCaskill and other school administrators to get a Crisis Support Team implemented at BHS. We started working on this my sophomore year because of everything that had been going on at BHS.
Even before the school year began, the community became aware of a significant budget deficit within the district. Over the course of that year, BHS lost both its superintendent and principal, cycled through multiple interim leaders, and ultimately appointed a new principal midway through the year. During this time, the school received national media attention due to the budget deficit and a viral video of a fight on school grounds, which led to the National Guard being requested by our School Committee, creating a narrative of the students at our school as “violent.”
The events of the 2023-24 school year took a toll on the community. Students had to go through many stressful events and parents worried for their children. Not only were the events stressful, they had lasting impacts on how students were treated by other high schools. The events reinforced the idea that Brockton was a place to be looked down on, a place for others to pity or fear the children of. All of this impacted BHS students greatly, yet no one came in and checked in on us. There was no support through any of it, instead we were met with cameras shoved in our faces.
Our team spoke to other students and listened to their thoughts, their wants and needs, and what emerged from our deep listening was the Crisis Support Team. Students desperately craved help to overcome these events that occur more frequently than we would like. Through research, we developed an outline for a team of medical providers, mental health professionals, educators, administrators, BHS peer mediators, Youth SOL leaders, community organizations, parents and families, and mentors.
This past June, Mr. McCaskill publicly committed to collaborating with us in implementing the Crisis Support team. The team is intended to create a coordinated, sustainable system that addresses not only individual crises, but the broader and lasting impact of crises on the entire school community.
I am asking our school leaders, the Brockton School Committee, Superintendent Dr. Tahiliani, and BHS Principal Mr. McCaskill to honor their commitments, center student voices, and take action now.
I am now a senior and have been working on this for half of my high school career. I want to graduate knowing that the students after me, my siblings, my cousins, my friends, will feel the direct benefit of this Crisis Support Team. This is necessary and incredibly beneficial to us. I am urging you to stand with us and sign our petition to make the Crisis Support Team a reality.
To read our full outline, click this link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vT9b21q0RzfTTjUuhpw1DoWwsa_ofmhrXDmc8Ul2_hjMo0nGXCQzcFXK-9bhdWUGysvMR2owJGT1P_2/pub
Sign this petition to tell the Superintendent and School Committee that Brockton students deserve this vital support system now.
Get Involved
Contact us to connect with a youth leader about our work and how to get involved!
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/youthsolbrockton
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/youthsol.brockton/?hl=en
45
The Issue
To: The Brockton Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Tahiliani, The Brockton School Committee and BHS Principal Mr.McCaskill
The Ask:
Brockton Interfaith Community’s Youth SOL Leaders urgently call upon the Brockton Public Schools Superintendent, the School Committee, and BHS Principal Mr. McCaskill to implement a Crisis Support Team at Brockton High School (BHS), with the intent to model this system across the entire district.
Who is Youth SOL?:
Youth SOL (Youth School of Liberation), founded in 2021, is the youth organizing program of Brockton Interfaith Community, a social justice organization serving Brockton since 1990. Our mission is to develop young people to lead and organize our community toward real, long lasting change around issues that impact youth, chosen by youth. After listening to our peers, we have focused our organizing on addressing the issues of school safety, mental health, and community violence, especially their impact on young people.
My name is Isabela Lauture and I am a student at Brockton High School and a leader with Youth SOL. For the past 2 years, Youth SOL has been meeting with BHS Principal Mr. McCaskill and other school administrators to get a Crisis Support Team implemented at BHS. We started working on this my sophomore year because of everything that had been going on at BHS.
Even before the school year began, the community became aware of a significant budget deficit within the district. Over the course of that year, BHS lost both its superintendent and principal, cycled through multiple interim leaders, and ultimately appointed a new principal midway through the year. During this time, the school received national media attention due to the budget deficit and a viral video of a fight on school grounds, which led to the National Guard being requested by our School Committee, creating a narrative of the students at our school as “violent.”
The events of the 2023-24 school year took a toll on the community. Students had to go through many stressful events and parents worried for their children. Not only were the events stressful, they had lasting impacts on how students were treated by other high schools. The events reinforced the idea that Brockton was a place to be looked down on, a place for others to pity or fear the children of. All of this impacted BHS students greatly, yet no one came in and checked in on us. There was no support through any of it, instead we were met with cameras shoved in our faces.
Our team spoke to other students and listened to their thoughts, their wants and needs, and what emerged from our deep listening was the Crisis Support Team. Students desperately craved help to overcome these events that occur more frequently than we would like. Through research, we developed an outline for a team of medical providers, mental health professionals, educators, administrators, BHS peer mediators, Youth SOL leaders, community organizations, parents and families, and mentors.
This past June, Mr. McCaskill publicly committed to collaborating with us in implementing the Crisis Support team. The team is intended to create a coordinated, sustainable system that addresses not only individual crises, but the broader and lasting impact of crises on the entire school community.
I am asking our school leaders, the Brockton School Committee, Superintendent Dr. Tahiliani, and BHS Principal Mr. McCaskill to honor their commitments, center student voices, and take action now.
I am now a senior and have been working on this for half of my high school career. I want to graduate knowing that the students after me, my siblings, my cousins, my friends, will feel the direct benefit of this Crisis Support Team. This is necessary and incredibly beneficial to us. I am urging you to stand with us and sign our petition to make the Crisis Support Team a reality.
To read our full outline, click this link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vT9b21q0RzfTTjUuhpw1DoWwsa_ofmhrXDmc8Ul2_hjMo0nGXCQzcFXK-9bhdWUGysvMR2owJGT1P_2/pub
Sign this petition to tell the Superintendent and School Committee that Brockton students deserve this vital support system now.
Get Involved
Contact us to connect with a youth leader about our work and how to get involved!
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/youthsolbrockton
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/youthsol.brockton/?hl=en
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The Decision Makers
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Petition created on December 17, 2025