Northeast High School students return to classroom after 8 teens shot near SEPTA bus stop
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Some students at Philadelphia's Northeast High School returned to in-person learning Monday, days after eight students were injured in a shooting at a SEPTA bus stop at Rising Sun and Cottman avenues.
Following the shooting Wednesday, March 6, the school moved to virtual learning for the rest of the week and canceled all weekend events.
In a message to families over the weekend, Northeast Principal Omar Crowder said 11th and 12th-grade students would be back in the building Monday and 9th and 10th graders would remain virtual. Then on Tuesday, March 12, the two younger grades will return to the building and the 11th and 12th graders will have another virtual learning day.
The phased return to in-person learning is meant to "provide more small group and individualized support" for students, Crowder said.
Crisis counselors will be at the school this week to "support our students with grief counseling and whatever emotional assistance they need," Crowder added.
The principal also said there will be a "highly visible" Philadelphia Police Department and Office of School Safety presence around the school. SEPTA Police is also increasing patrols on bus routes near Northeast High School and have additional staff remotely monitoring bus cameras.
"They actually look like they have their eye out, they are walking around," Luis Zambrana, whose daughter attends the school, said about the additional police. "It feels good."
Carmen Nussa, a parent with a child at the school, told CBS Philadelphia Monday morning the increased police presence makes her feel more secure. "Maybe it'll deter these kids from doing things that they shouldn't be doing," she said. "But it's a sad thing."
Nussa and some other parents said they would be driving their children to and from school until they feel the buses are safe.
The eight students, who range in age from 15 to 17 years old, were hurt after a group of people in a stolen Hyundai drove up to the SEPTA bus station at Rising Sun and Cottman avenues around 3 p.m.
Police said three masked shooters got out of the car and fired more than 30 shots in the direction of the SEPTA bus. Surveillance video showed three people running out of the car, firing shots and then fleeing the scene with a getaway driver. All of the shooting victims are in stable condition now, police said Monday.
Philadelphia Police Commissioner Kevin Bethel said on Monday in a news conference two suspects have been arrested and two still remain at large. Bethel said the two 18-year-old suspects, Jamaal Tucker and Ahnile Buggs, were both taken into police custody over the weekend and charged.
"Enough is enough," Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker said at a press conference following the shooting. "Every law enforcement partner that we have here in the city of Philadelphia is actively engaged and working together to ensure that every resource that is needed is readily available so that the work can be done to solve the crimes."
Philadelphia Eagles right tackle Lane Johnson added his voice to the calls to end violence, writing on social media Thursday "This HAS to stop! This is right outside the same school that I visited back in November to meet students & talk about my mental health journey."
The shooting was just one of several gun violence incidents involving SEPTA buses that happened last week.
On Tuesday, March 5, 37-year-old Carmelo Drayton was fatally shot on a SEPTA bus in South Philly at the intersection of Broad Street and Snyder Avenue.
Five people, including three teens, were shot at a SEPTA bus stop in Ogontz on March 4. The three teenagers were students at Imhotep Institute Charter High School. Seventeen-year-old Dayemen Taylor was killed.
And on Sunday, March 3, police said a man was killed in Oxford Circle after getting into an argument with someone on a SEPTA bus. When the victim got off the bus late Sunday, he was fatally shot.