Mission Hill just tip of iceberg
System has logged 1,925 incidents this school year
There have been 1,925 incidents at Boston Public Schools since September, including bullets found at four schools over the last two weeks, a city councilor said.
The ammunition was found this week at Boston Latin Academy and last week at the Young Achievers Science and Math Pilot School in Mattapan, the Maurice J. Tobin School in Roxbury and the James F. Condon K-8 School in South Boston, Councilor-atLarge Michael Flaherty said.
Incidents led some students to walk out of the Boston Arts Academy last week.
“We need to increase our public safety efforts and lean on our partnership with the Boston Police Department,” Flaherty said. “Victims who’ve been bullied or assaulted should not be the ones who have to leave.”
Councilor-at-Large Erin Murphy said she would like to see police safety officers in every school.
“Parents are worried,” said Murphy, a former BPS teacher. “If we’re not able to keep kids safe, we can’t even begin to start teaching them.”
Their comments came a day after the school committee voted to close the Mission Hill K-8 Inclusion School in June after a law firm Superintendent Brenda Cassellius hired last year released a nearly 200-page report, citing years of student-on-student bullying and physical and sexual abuse of children as young as kindergartners.
But one parent at Thursday’s school committee meeting said the Mission Hill School is not alone.
Deirdre Manning, the mother of two students at the Dr. William W. Henderson K—12 Inclusion School told the committee that children as young and fourth and fifth graders were being assaulted.
“I would like the school committee to be on notice that I feel the implosion of the Henderson Upper School will be the next embarrassment that happens,” she said of the schools, whose students include children who can’t speak, children with cerebral palsy and children with Down syndrome.
“These are children who are medically fragile and are at risk,” she added. “My fourth grade daughter reports that there are fights almost every day … We feel that the district is not providing the support to the administrators and teachers at Henderson Upper. Those educators are being threatened by families.
Flaherty said as many as three dozen students have not or do not plan to return to the Henderson in the fall since the principal was attacked by a student has year.
The district released a statement Friday saying: “Boston Public Schools is deeply committed to protecting the health, safety and wellbeing of our students, families and staff. Any incidents that occur on school grounds are handled appropriately by school staff.”