Griffin said he has a “tremendous amount of respect” for the ADL.
“This event speaks to the work that ADL does to combat extremism and hatred,” he said. “I am very honored and humbled to receive this award from an organization I have deep respect and admiration for. I also respect the work they do to fight anti-semitism on a daily basis. Peabody has a huge Jewish population, so this is important work, as that population is important to our community. It just feels great to finally be back together after not being able to meet together the last two years.”
Griffin had a strong showing of support from family and friends. Joining him were his wife, Patty, his children, Michael and Caitlin, and their spouses, his niece Jessica and three-week-old grandson, Ronan (Michael’s son).
“It was really a nice day, especially with my family,” Griffin said.
While the scheduled theme of the event was book censorship, much of the talk focused on the elementary school shooting in Texas that left 19 children and two teachers dead.
Marblehead Village School Principal Amanda Murphy, the ADL New England Educator of the Year honoree, said she was worried as her students are the same age as the children who were murdered, saying she felt “a bit out of place” because she wanted to “take care of our students this morning.”
Griffin said the department is constantly working with the schools to keep students and staff safe.
“We’ve done a lot in the last several years since Sandy Hook and the Majorie Stoneman shootings and have more school resources officers (SRO) than many cities our size,” Griffin said. “With four, we are able to try to find the balance because we want to be sure the students know what they should do, without scaring them. Our presence in the schools is so important because students see the SROs and it’s not scary. Our schools have done a great job keeping up with security. Supposedly, the Texas shooter went through a door that wasn’t secure, but door security has been on our radar for years here in Peabody.”
Griffin feels that finding a solution to eliminating hate crimes and gun violence is complicated.
“Whenever things like these school shootings happen, two sides form, and in fact, they are both right to some extent,” Griffin said. “It is about mental illness and it is about too many guns. But screaming at each other doesn’t work; the parties need to work together to enact legislation. People need to talk, not yell, and if they do that, we all should be able to figure it out. Five-second snippets on Twitter aren’t productive and are not going to change this.
“We are still where we were 10 years ago. Nothing in our lives is the same as it was 10 years ago except for this, not cell phones or technology or cars. Those things are nothing like what they were 10 years ago. It’s crazy when you think about it, but something has to change or these problems will never be solved.”
