It took Sam Pettineo 35 years of involvement in Evanston law enforcement to find his ideal position inside a 1.2-million-square-foot building surrounded by more than 3,000 students.
And as the safety director of Evanston Township High School concludes his first year in that position, his occupational satisfaction has barely faded.
“Without a question, this is my dream job,” Pettineo said. “I really love being involved with youth issues in Evanston.”
But he added he recognizes the ETHS community faces countless challenges that cannot be overcome within the span of a single school year – or his active efforts alone.
“Certainly I think this issue of violence is something that we need to have a community-wide conversation on,” Pettineo said. “It has been an issue that, really, we’ve been dealing with for quite a while.”
A former ETHS resource officer, Pettineo joined the Evanston Police Department’s juvenile investigations unit in 1980. After a 15-year tenure within that operation, he served seven years as an EPD community policing supervisor.
Upon EPD retirement in 2008, Pettineo accepted the director of police training position at Northwestern’s Center for Public Safety, a job opportunity that would be abbreviated by yet another one. In 2010, the ETHS safety director position became available, and Pettineo said he didn’t hesitate to apply.
More than seven months after he officially started at ETHS, Pettineo reflected on his job experience thus far as the product of decades spent combatting youth violence in Evanston – but with a few modern nuances, including the increasing role of social media in student conflicts.
“There’s a lot of factors on the table now that, frankly, when I was here in the ’80s, you didn’t have to deal with because the technology wasn’t available,” Pettineo said, referencing the oft-cited assertion that today’s younger generation is comprised of “digital natives.”
He added monitoring thousands of students’ online interactions is a nearly impossible task, especially when the social networking learning curve remains steep for his adult cohorts. Administrator cognizance of how Facebook can act as a pretext for violent altercations will become increasingly key, Pettineo said.
He described this unique dynamic as “new territory” and an “unexplored topic” for school leaders faced with similar crises.
Another youth violence aspect that has evolved since his first EPD hire in 1976 is students’ apathy toward tragic incidents, Pettineo said. This apparent desensitization was especially prevalent in the wake of a juvenile shooting at the Dempster Street McDonald’s in early April, he added.
That seeming indifference poses a critical obstacle in initiating a community dialogue on such violent behavior, Pettineo noted.
“It’s very hard to get a collective response in the community when a large part don’t really see it as an issue,” he said.
But when certain scenarios do command widespread attention, Pettineo admitted he must walk a delicate tightrope of public relations. He said he cautions against announcing every single disciplinary case, particularly when some are matters of extremely isolated conflict.
Plus, there’s no immediate need to unnecessarily alarm parents and pupils, Pettineo added.
“I get fearful that if two kids had a disagreement and got into some kind of physical altercation, we don’t treat it situationally,” he said. “Every incident we have in this community should be viewed on its own merit and on its own set of facts.”
This general concept also applies to perceived gang activity within ETHS hallways, Pettineo explained. He said gang affiliations have become more and more subtle in the past few decades, resulting in a harder-to-gauge community impact.
However, Pettineo deferred to previous statements by Evanston Police Chief Richard Eddington, who has repeatedly claimed gang activity is only prevalent among a minuscule segment of the city’s population.
“There definitely is an existence,” Pettineo said. “But it really doesn’t present itself all that much in the building.”
And with these various factors animating his first year as ETHS safety director, Pettineo added comprehensive public information and discussion will lead to feasible solutions. He also emphasized the efficacy of peace rallies and marches such as the one hosted by the ETHS NAACP chapter following the April McDonald’s shooting.
“I’ve been to hundreds of marches here in Evanston over my 35-year involvement with the community,” Pettineo said. “I never thought a march as a bad idea or something that we shouldn’t do. I think it brings attention to the issue.”
Nonetheless, he said his first school year has been a thrilling experience that allows him to exercise his extensive experience with youth conflict.
“This is a really great place to work,” he said. “I feel challenged in my position. I love being around kids. And it’s pretty exciting.”
