'Incredibly challenging,' Burke High School students return to class day after shooting

BOSTON - Students returned to class at the Jeremiah E. Burke High School in Dorchester Wednesday, a day after a student was shot on campus.

The 17-year-old is in stable condition, according to Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden.

"We need a full community response to this sort of situation. It's simply unacceptable to have a shooting happen at 9:30 a.m. on schoolhouse steps in front of a school in our city," he told reporters Wednesday.

Prosecutors say the suspected shooter was a 17-year-old classmate of the victim. The teen was set to be arraigned in Juvenile Court Wednesday on multiple charges, including assault with intent to murder.

While a Boston Police cruiser was parked out front, a team of social workers and additional city and district staff were brought in to the high school Wednesday to support students and teachers.

"What happened yesterday was tragic, changed lives, it changed the community," Boston schools superintendent Mary Skipper told reporters. "What's important this morning is that our students and our staff feel safe to be able to pass and to go back to school, which is what they're here to do."

Before classes got underway Skipper and Boston Mayor Michelle Wu sat down with school staff for breakfast.

"This is a time that's incredibly challenging for a community that had an unexpected, horrible situation happen. It's a time for coming together and drawing support for that entire community and not finger pointing," Wu said.

"I'm definitely on edge," Christine Rooney, the mother of a eleventh grader, told WBZ.

"I think it's really terrible, not safe to go to school that's awful," said Trina Fox, who lives near the high school.