Hub schools’ violence crisis: Officials urge strong response to increasing attacks, seized weapons
By Jessica Van Sack
Tuesday, August 7, 2007 - Updated: 12:24 AM EST
An alarming rise in Hub youth violence has spilled over into Boston Public Schools, according to a Herald review that found more than 500 illegal weapons turning up on school grounds last year in a surge of criminal activity that has BPS cops clamoring to wear body armor and carry pepper spray.
“It’s dangerous and it’s not getting any better,” said Troy Askew, head of the Boston School Police Patrolmen’s Association, which represents some 60 officers who Askew said are thinly spread throughout the Hub’s 139 public schools.
While a tentative pact will allow officers to carry pepper spray when school opens next month, union officials and city councilors are calling for more manpower and bulletproof vests, saying the safety of students, teachers and staff hangs in the balance.
“No kid is going to be focused on learning when they’re focused on protecting their own life,” said City Councilor Stephen J. Murphy, chairman of the public safety committee.
Yesterday, 15-year-old India Jessamy described an environment at Roxbury’s New Mission High School in which weapons are the norm, from girls concealing butcher knives in Timberland boots to the boy who pulled out a gun last October and stashed it in a drawer between classes.
“I basically thought it was normal because everybody does it,” Jessamy said regarding the boy. “There’s not one person in that school that doesn’t have drama. It’s crazy. School isn’t about learning.”
All told, police and school staff seized a staggering arsenal of weapons this year: 452 knives, two handguns, one rifle, four other firearms and 16 pellet guns, along with 46 other potentially dangerous items such as a full magazine of Glock ammunition, which Askew said was recovered in May at the entryway to Madison Park Technical Vocational High School.
One of the most highly publicized incidents involved an 11-year-old Holland School student who stashed a short-barrel, .44-caliber gun in his backpack March 26, which was found when he flashed it to classmates.
“For every weapon taken, there’s one that’s not,” said Brian Simoneau, attorney for the school police union, who said the 15 walk-through metal detectors citywide provide a false sense of security.
Indeed, the Herald review also shows that while student-on-student attacks with weapons this year dipped slightly, student assaults on one another climbed by 13 percent, to 303 incidents from 267 the year before.
School administrators and city officials downplayed the growing safety problem suggested by their own data.
James P. McIntyre Jr., chief operating officer of Boston Public Schools, attributed the rise in reported incidents in most categories to repeat offenders and strict orders for teachers and staff to report absolutely everything.
“School and student safety is one of our highest priorities,” McIntyre said.
As it did last year, Madison Park topped the list of crime-prone schools. Still, student-on-student assaults in the school dropped dramatically this year, from 19 to 7, and overall crime decreased, hailed by the school’s headmaster as a byproduct of increased communication with outside agencies and a full-time mediator funded by the Suffolk District Attorney’s Office.
“We don’t hide anything. We write up our incidents,” said Headmaster Chuck McAfee. “We own it.”
Students who spoke to the Herald differed on how safe they feel. One Charlestown High student who declined to give her name said school police officers should “have pepper spray, tasers, nightsticks - whatever’s necessary.”
But another Charlestown student, Ashley Castro, 16, described stringent school security.
“Our school already has metal detectors, video cameras, and there’s surveillance in every corner of the halls with a person watching all day,” she said. “How can we harm each other if you take everything from us at the door?”
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