Kids feel safe in Boston public school environment :: Journalism School Papers

Kids feel safe in Boston public school environment A Boston high school student stood alone, waiting for a public bus to take him home after school had let out. When he was approached by a group of kids who attempted to assault him, his first instinct was to run. He did not run to a neighbor's house. He did not bother to look for a police station. He simply ran to the safest place he knew — his school. He proceeded to bang on the double doors until a custodian reluctantly opened them. But it didn't matter. The kids had already dispersed when the student reached the school grounds. "He clearly thought it was a safe-haven because he ran back to the building and begged to get in," said John D. Sisco, the chief of school police in Boston. Sisco said students over the last 10 years have come to view their schools as an escape from the outside world. "In general, I believe the kids do feel safe," Sisco said. "Kids tell us that it's dangerous in the streets." In September, a 15-year-old Charlestown High School student was shot in the leg while walking to volunteer at a Boys & Girls Club after school. Boston Police Captain Bernard O'Rourke said the shooter was standing on the corner of Bunker Hill and Polk Streets, about 150 yards from the school, at about 2 p.m. when school let out. After the incident, extra police officers were temporarily assigned to cover the school, but they were soon called away to deal with other incidents. "It would be nice if they would have a police car there at dismissal but it just happened that day that there was no police car there," said Headmaster Michael Fung. Nathalie Martinez, who has lived in the development behind the school for 10 years, told the Boston Globe right after the incident that "usually it's pretty quiet around here, except when it's during the school year. It's crazy, and it's only the beginning of the school year. What's going to happen in the middle?" In response to this comment, Fung said of his 1,190 student campus, "it's always quiet if there are no people around." "Charlestown has the lowest crime rate in Boston," Fung said. "Lower than Beacon Hill." He said things like the shooting are "unpredictable" and that it was an "isolated case." "I usually go home real late, at like 8 or 9 [p.m.], and just go there to the bus stop and nothing ever happens.