School finishing year remotely in Boston after shooting may have targeted student
DORCHESTER - Students at a charter school in Boston's Dorchester neighborhood will be finishing the year remotely after a shooting at a nearby MBTA station may have targeted a student.
Student may have been shooting target
There's now a strong private security presence at the Neighborhood House Charter School on Centre Street.
"I think it's important right now because we have had some incidents lately," said Dorchester resident Jim Horn.
School officials said the threat of violence shut down the charter school this week, forcing students in the eighth to 11th grades to attend classes remotely. The 12th grade finished its classes earlier this month.
The school released a statement saying, in part, "Police believe one of our students, who is not currently attending school in person, may have been the intended target. We also became aware that individuals associated with the alleged assailants from last week's incident were communicating that they intended to return.
The statement went on to say the allegedly assailants are not associated with the school but officials were concerned enough to close the school on Tuesday and Wednesday.
"It's also hard on the community"
"The school realizes that the threat is so high that they got permission from the state...to force students in the last few weeks of school to go remote, it's also hard on the community," said Boston City Councilor-at-Large Erin Murphy. She said she's been in touch with both faculty and parents at the school, who are very concerned about their safety. "They say it's too scary that they don't even want to share their concerns, they're that afraid about it, so we have to stay on top of this, we want to make sure these students, staff are safe."
Horn lives down the street from the school, where his son graduated from years ago. "I think it's a good idea, it's only for a short period of time and it'll give the community time to deal with the overall problem. You've got all summer to figure out what we're going to do next fall."