Safety in Boston’s schools calls for action, not words

What will it take for Mayor Michelle Wu to step up with substantive action to ensure safety in Boston Public Schools?

Two more guns were found Thursday at Charlestown High School, and a young teen is in custody.

Add those to the eight firearms found in Boston Public Schools since September, a figure that a group of parents, clergy and community leaders cited when they sounded the alarm on school safety last month.

Boston S.O.S. (Safety of Our Schools) said Boston faces a “school-safety crisis,” noting that at least one of those guns was loaded and found in an elementary school, the Herald reported.

Ammo has also been found at schools over the past few weeks.

Firearms aren’t the only problem bedeviling Boston schools — there have been reports of a teacher getting boiling water thrown on her by an angry student, and students turning new city-issued Chromebooks into bludgeons.

Boston S.O.S. gave a statement last month: “We challenge our leaders to not simply say that they are for safe schools but tell us their specific strategy to keep guns out of schools. We need results not just rhetoric.”

“The position is we have to look at the larger issue of violence in our community, to which I say absolutely,” said the Rev. David Searles, pastor of Central Assembly of God Church in East Boston. “And at the same time, we need to look at the immediate danger of guns in our schools. We want Mayor Wu to tell us specifically how she plans to prevent guns from being brought into schools. To my mind, guns in schools are not safe schools. Give us specifics.”

But specifics are in short supply in the Wu administration when it comes to guns and acts of violence in Boston schools.

“The safety of our students is a top priority of the administration,” a spokesperson for Mayor Wu said in April. ”Our young people must have safe and healthy environments to learn in, which is why we’re focused on investing in all aspects of our students’ lives — including food access, mental health services, affordable housing and climate and transit justice.”

Mayor Wu told Boston 25 News in response to the community group: “We need to be working on all fronts not just to immediately put in place the safety measures and respond but to really get at root causes.”

But immediately putting safety measures in place is what is needed. Access to food, affordable housing and mental health counseling are all important — but keeping the focus on the big picture of equity and access does nothing to address firearms in schools right now. And time is of the essence.

Kids don’t bring guns to school to use as paperweights — at some point a firearm will be detected after only after it’s been fired on school grounds. The time is now to stop this worst case scenario and take concrete steps to make schools safe.

The BPS web site states that “Some schools use metal detectors as part of their overall safety plan. The school community, School Site Council, and principal/headmaster decide together if the school will use metal detectors.”

But one can’t predict where a gun will show up. Outfitting all schools with metal detectors may seem like overkill, but as a step to prevent gun violence, it’s worth it.

Also worth it — returning Boston Police to schools. Children have the right to learn in safety.