BRISTOL — Superintendent Ana C. Riley and Principal Michelle King are pleased to announce that Mt. Hope High School Media Communications students have partnered with the Bristol Police Department to create a video PSA series.
In 2021, Bristol Police Sgt. Ricardo Mourato reached out to Mt. Hope High School Media Communications students to see if they would be willing to create a recruitment video for the Bristol Police Department as a class project. This began the class’ ongoing partnership with the police department as students enthusiastically created a recruitment video that is still in use today.
This past February, Media Communications students once again partnered with the department to create several new PSA videos to be shared with the public. In about one month’s time, 12 students, under the direction of teacher Brian Latessa and with support from School Resource Officer Greg Silva, produced three engaging and informative PSA videos that will be shared with the entire community.
Throughout the process of creating each video, students had several meetings with Sgt. Mourato. During these meetings, he described what the project entailed and shared the criteria for the videos before students began working in small groups to research and develop the content and plan for filming.
The first video, which was released on April 25 on the Police Department’s Facebook page, the town’s page and the Mt. Hope High School Husky News Network, shared information about provisional licenses. To view the video, click here.
On the day of the video release, a viewing party was held during which Bristol Police Chief Kevin Lynch congratulated the students on their efforts and let them know how important their work was as an avenue to communicate directly with students, peer-to-peer, about the importance of driving safely.
Two other videos about texting and driving and white lines are available to be watched now and will be shared on the aforementioned platforms at a later date.
“Student involvement in projects like this creates a sense of community pride and provides an opportunity for students to apply their skills to a real-world, industry problem,” said Assistant Superintendent Diane Sanna.
Mt. Hope’s Media Communications students have also partnered with the Warren Police Department and Maria Ursini of the Warren Prevention Coalition over the past years to produce videos. To see all of the videos that have been produced by students to date, click here.
“The Bristol Police Department is beyond pleased to once again partner with local high school students at MHHS (Media & Communications Class) to deliver thought-provoking public safety announcements,” Chief Lynch said. “It remains our goal to promote traffic safety not just through enforcement but education, messaging, relationships, and collaboration. I remain certain that our teenage and young drivers garner a great message when they see their peer students as leading actors in a traffic safety announcement. The students were truly engaged and took the responsibility of traffic safety champions and I salute each of them, including their teacher Mr. Brian Latessa. Thanks for making a difference.”
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