"I am not a shrinking violet. I am not a small person. I will step in and break up a fight. I have done it before," the instructor in AP government classes told the Revere City Council Monday night.

"Weapons have been found in our building on numerous occasions over the last few years, I am not stepping into a melee to get a blade in my ribs," Kingston said as he endorsed the idea of installing metal detectors at the city's public schools. "But I want to feel safe. I want my kids to feel safe, and that's what I call them, my kids. ...If they can't feel safe, I can't do my job."

Kingston was one of several current teachers in the Revere school system -- including the co-president of the teachers union -- to speak in broad support of a council proposal to study what it would cost to install metal detectors at Revere High School. The council, led by Council President Anthony Cogliandro, also wants officials to consider hiring a private security firm to supplement the school resource officers assigned by Revere police to the system.

But Revere Schools Superintendent Dianne K. Kelly said in a statement the union is raising the issue of security as part of contract negotiations.

The push for an intensified attention to security by individual teachers -- and the Revere Teachers Association -- comes in the wake of a fight at Revere High School among students on Aug. 29 that was captured on cellphone videos and shared on social media.

"We are at a breaking point. Last year, we saw more incidents of emotional distress, student dysregulation and mental health crisis among students. But we've been sounding the alarm for years," said Jane Chapin,the union co-president. "Unfortunately, the administration's response has been and continues to be, Band Aid approaches that treat each incident as isolated, specific to that particular school or that particular building, rather than addressing the systemic issues."

Superintendent Kelly firmly rejected the notion that the city's schools are unsafe and cited ongoing contract talks with the union as the actual motivation for teachers circulating a "false narrative" about security concerns.

"The Revere Teachers Association is using the media and the unacceptable fight that occurred at Revere High two weeks ago to amplify a false narrative that serves their bargaining platform. This was evident in their commentary at the city council meeting [Monday] night where they repeatedly referenced their contract proposals, including the false claim that I instructed them to refrain from speaking to the media," Kelley wrote. "It is incredibly disheartening to hear how this particular group of teachers characterize our school district."

In her response, Kelly wrote that there are times when "we have students who sometimes need more support than others. No occurrence of disruption to student learning is acceptable. When these instances occur, whether they are young special needs students or high school adolescents, we work with families and ensure resources are provided to help both the child and their caregivers. When necessary, we work with the Revere Police as we did in the case of the fight at RHS."

Kelly also sent a letter to union officials asserting they had provided false information to reporters about the Aug. 29 incident and for falsely claiming that school psychiatrists have 1,000 student caseloads and that an administrator was injured responding to the incident.

"No school psychologist working for the Revere Public Schools carries a caseload of 1,000 students," Kelly wrote. "The false statements pertain to a student conduct incident. The RTA's statements about the fighting incident elevate an event which is unacceptable in its own right into something even more likely to make our students and families feel unsafe."

Among councilors attending Monday night's hearing, there was strong support for focusing increased attention on safety in the city's schools although no consensus was reached nor was a specific request made of the administration of Revere Mayor Patrick M. Keefe Jr.

But Erta Ismahili,chair of the Student Senate, urged the council to dramatically increase the role students play in choosing what systems are ultimately used -- or rejected -- around the issue of school safety. She endorsed the idea of searching for more safety measures, but to do so without engaging students will have a negative emotional impact on them.

"If there are someday metal detectors at the high school then every time I go into that building, I'm not seen as a student, I'm not seen as a human. I'm seen as someone that needs to be stopped. Or someone that needs to be frisked. Or someone that needs to be analyzed...It doesn't feel humanizing to go into a school or to go into a public environment and to be seen as the enemy or as a criminal."