Pruitt Won’t Resign from School Committee

School Committeewoman Donna Wood Pruitt said this week she will not resign and would make no comment until after her June court hearing, despite a 5-0 vote by the Committee on May 12 calling for her resignation.

“Right now, I’m not saying anything until I go to court (in June),” Pruitt told the Journal on Monday.

That followed a vote by the School Committee on Tuesday, May 12, at a regular meeting where the Pruitt situation was brought up. That discussion led to a vote whereby five members called for her resignation from the board due to the charges against her of selling non-narcotic medications to an undercover State Trooper two weeks ago.

All members of the Committee voted for the resignation, including Mayor Dan Rizzo – who is the chair. One member, however, Stacey Rizzo, voted present without comment.

Mayor Rizzo said this week that he feels it would be appropriate for Pruitt to resign, and that’s why he led the call for her resignation from the Committee.

“We had 13 overdose fatalities in all of 2014 and so far, through mid-May of 2015, we have already had 15,” said Rizzo on Monday. “For the first time in our nation’s history, the number of overdose fatalities across the country has surpassed the number of people killed in traffic accidents. In my opinion, this is the biggest public health crisis of our time. We spend an incredible amount of time working on strategies that could curb drug use and the notion of a School Committee member selling prescription drugs out the front door of her house to an undercover state trooper is just unacceptable.

“Our administration talks often of ways to safely and properly dispose of expired or unused medications through public service announcements and medication ‘take back’ events,” he continued. “There are certain incidents that rise to the level of asking for someone to resign their position and this is certainly one of them.”

Supt. Paul Dakin said the schools really had no comment on the matter, but he indicated that the situation wasn’t distracting from the daily work of the schools.

“My only comment is that despite the situation, the teachers and administrators and students continue to do the things they always do with respect to teaching and learning,” he said.

It is new territory as to whether or not the Committee can forcibly remove Pruitt from here seat with the appropriate process and the required number of votes. That has, apparently, never happened in Revere, and some members have indicated that the will to investigate that avenue is not there.

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