Report recommends Boston Public Schools look into forming its own police department
BOSTON - An outside consulting group is recommending that Boston Public Schools should look into forming its own police department.
As part of the state mandated improvement plan for the district, the Council of Great City Schools took a look at how to make Boston schools safer.
Some of the recommendations they presented in their report to the school committee Wednesday night include:
- Creating a focus group to consider if BPS should form an internal, sworn police department
- Designing a process for Boston Police and BPS to share information
- Speeding up the recruitment of hiring safety specialists
- Creating an anonymous reporting hotline
"We are grateful for the work of the Council of Great City Schools on this report which provides clear recommendations as to how to improve safety at Boston Public Schools. We're committed to doing everything we can to create safe learning environments for our students," Superintendent Mary Skipper said in a statement. "We are actively reviewing the potential risks identified within the report to map out strategies to reduce and eliminate those risks."
The recommendations come after some disturbing incidents recently.
In December, a teacher at the Murphy K-8 school in Dorchester found a man described as "homeless" in her classroom closet, prompting safety concerns and questions about how he was able to enter the school undetected.
In October, a student was shot near the Jeremiah Burke High School in Dorchester and another student was arrested.
A relative of the student who was shot says she would like to see police officers in school.
"This high school particularly, it would be great that would be something good. I would feel a little bit safer with my son being here if that were to happen," parent Shanika Withers told WBZ-TV Thursday. "My little cousin was shot in front of the school. Anything can happen, so to have them here would be a good thing."
Jammari Riccaro, a Jeremiah Burke senior, is against police returning to schools. "You get people more stressed out because of lot mistakes and misjudgments can happen," Jammari said.
"That's going to make students feel terrified and targeted," said Benilde Barros, another Jeremiah Burke senior.
"Everything has to be on the table," said Boston city councilor at-large Erin Murphy. She is one of four councilors who co-signed a letter to Mayor Michelle Wu calling for metal detectors and police officers in schools.
"I think the conversation needs to start knowing that the police are not the enemy," she told WBZ. "We're losing so many of our families in our Boston Public School(s) and one of the reasons is because they don't feel their kids are safe in the buildings."
In response, 14 organizations signed a statement saying metal detectors and officers are ineffective measures. Opponents say it feeds into what they call the school to prison pipeline.
Jay Blitzman, a retired juvenile court judge, is the interim executive director of one of those groups, Massachusetts Advocates for Children.
"The consequence of putting police in schools unfortunately, almost invariably, results in arresting more children, criminalizing children and adolescents, not making schools safer which is the key issue, and dramatically exacerbating racial, ethnic and gender disparities," he told WBZ.
"There have not been many conservations between the Boston Public Schools and students and families. Instead, the first approach is punitive," said Shakira Rogers of Massachusetts Advocates for Children. "It will lead to disproportionate discipline, disproportionate harm to Black and Latinx students and their families and the overidentification of black and Latinx students in gang involvement."
