1-23-2025 7:33pm

Crim Primary Receive Special Guests at School

Donnella Tilery Editor

In his role as the D.A.R.E. officer in the Somerville Police Department, Vittorio Spadea is a frequent visitor to local schools.

His visits are to enforce the program D.A.R.E., which stands for Drug Abuse Resistance Education. The program is a collaborative effort between schools and law enforcement agencies as officers educate students about drug and violence prevention.

Officer Spadea’s visit on Thursday, January 9, was welcomed by many familiar–and smiling—faces at the Crim Primary School.

He and 10 other officers from all branches paid a call—a non-emergency one–to the school in observance of Crim’s Law Enforcement Appreciation Day.

For Officer Spadea, his visit was happily greeted by his two daughters—Amelia, a 3rd Grade student, and Giuliella, who is in 2nd Grade.

“I put a lot of time in schools as the D.A.R.E. officer so it was awesome to be able to visit and see my daughters and their friends and for them to see me,” Officer Spadea said. “You could see how excited they were.”

“It was cool,” Amelia added while she stood by her father’s side after he spoke in the 3rd Grade classroom of Dara Stivala and Tate Hoffman.

He and the other honored guests sat in on a total of 14 classes during the day and shared various topics with the eager pupils.

They reviewed their duties and roles, spoke about their uniforms and safety procedures and then answered a slew of questions.

“It is great that the kids can see you in your uniform and you can explain your job to them,”’ said Danny Costa, who is a Captain of the Newark Police Special Victims Unit. “To see the excitement in their faces was great.”

Captain Costa spoke to his daughter Leah and her 4th Grade classmates in Jessica Gallucci’s room and he also visited the 1st Grade classroom of Jennifer DeStefano and Angela Jones, who teach his son, Lucas.

Crim Principal Kelliann Ten Kate is a strong proponent of honoring our heroes.

“January 9 is National Law Enforcement Appreciation Day. National Law Enforcement Appreciation Day is a way to show law enforcement officers that the difficult career path they have chosen is recognized by the people who they protect and uphold the law for,” Principal Ten Kate revealed.

She shared the importance of law enforcement officers and how they are viewed by her and her school.

“To show law enforcement officers how much we value them, the Crim School community invited parents/guardians/family members of students and/or staff at Crim School to visit a classroom to talk about the difficult work, role in safety, and sacrifice of law enforcers,” Principal Ten Kate stated.. “We had 11 of these heroes visit Crim School throughout the day to meet with our students to: read a book about law enforcement, explain the components and purpose of police uniforms, answer questions from students, and/or share a law enforcement officer's path (schooling, academy) to this essential role in society.”

Here are the Law Enforcement officers who visited Crim Primary School and their positions.

Steve Levash, Sgt. Major with the New Jersey State Police

Wydell Register, U.S. Federal Air Marshal

Vittorio Spadea, Officer with Somerville Police Department

Evan Visone, New Jersey State Police Trooper

Kyle Feigley, New Jersey State Police Detective

Danny Ciastm Captain of Newark Police Special Victims Unit

Christopher Guenther, Captain in the Linden Police Department

Anthony England, Detective for Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office

Rigoberto Gonzalez, Crime Scene Investigator Detective

Brian Kuzel, New Jersey State Police Trooper

Bob Mathusek, Bridgewater-Raritan Regional School District Security Officer