Adam Sennott
Wicked Local
Editor’s note: The following is the first article in a two-part series examining tear gas use by Cambridge law enforcement.
Although tear gas was officially banned only recently in Cambridge Police policy, there s no record of its use by law enforcement in Cambridge since the Harvard Square antiwar riots of the early 1970s, according to the department and archived newspapers.
The first anti-Vietnam-War riot occurred in April 1970 and was so serious that it prompted then-Councilor – and former mayor Walter J. Sullivan to propose several controversial orders, including one requiring protesters to post a bond to the city before future demonstrations could be held, according to a Cambridge Chronicle article from the time.
Dennis Deerkoski outside his Mattituck High School classroom in 2018. (Credit: Rachel Siford)
Dennis Deerkoski was fully prepared to return to his classroom for a new school year last September. That is, until he sensed that his profession had suddenly become a job.
When it was determined that Mattituck High School would adopt a hybrid instructional model (part remote, part in-school instruction) for the 2020-21 school year, that pretty much made the decision for the math teacher. When Mr. Deerkoski returned to the school in August, it was to clean out his old classroom, Room S109 in the science wing.
In the end, it all added up to retirement time for Mr. Deerkoski. His 47-year teaching career (39 at Mattituck) was over.