Creating Safe Havens

“Our job has changed in that we’re taking the necessary precautions to protect the students and essential personnel who remain on campus,” said Sgt. Corin Bourque, a Suffolk alumna from the Class of 2007. “Although it’s a much quieter environment around here, we still have to follow our responsibilities.”

Bourque thinks about her two young daughters as she works the night shift but knows they are in the caring hands of her husband and colleague Michael McCartney, a Suffolk University crime prevention officer who works days.

Lt. Ramon Nunez also has his four children in mind; three of them are current Suffolk students. They are following in the academic footsteps of their dad, who graduated with the Class of 1995.

“We still have a job to do to take care of people and their needs,” said Nunez. "We have to pick each other up and have a positive mindset that we’re going to get through this together.”

Patrol Officer Gisela Rodrigues, a single mother, has established a strict schedule for her four children, ranging in age from 7 to 18, to make sure they are safe and occupied at home. They are all required to follow a game plan that sets out a timetable for mealtimes, homework, and play time each day.

“I’m a hands-on mom so what’s going now is pretty hard and overwhelming,” she said. “I’m trying to teach them life lessons, like discipline, perseverance, and hard work. I want them to learn those foundations for success.”

Rodrigues’ daughter sometimes gets a bit nervous when it’s time for her mom to go to work, but the officer knows how to calm her child’s emotions.

“I tell her that police officers are like superheroes in the community and that our job is to go out and help other people.”

Suffolk Police Chief Ken Walsh noted that, in these unprecedented times, the nearly 70 members of the Police and Security Department continue to do an outstanding job.