BOSTON — Boston Mayor Michelle Wu is responding to the demands of a community group that’s calling for more security measures in the state’s largest school district.
According to Boston Safety of Our Schools, eight guns have been found in Boston Public Schools since September. Several of those firearms, including one found in an elementary school, have been loaded.
Boston S.O.S is urging the city of Boston to install metal detectors and surveillance cameras across the district as well as bring back plainclothes officers into schools.
“We need to be working on all fronts not just to immediately put in place the safety measures and respond but to really get at root causes,” said Mayor Wu.
Mayor Wu said in her regular visits to Boston Public Schools she routinely hears about a need for more mental health support staff.
“If you speak with any school nurse you’ll hear the depth and need and urgency that many of our young people are coming in with,” explained Wu.
Back in 2020, police reform legislation ended the requirement for Massachusetts districts to have at least one resource officer in each school. BPS’s Office of Safety Services now assigns unarmed safety support specialists to provide security across the city’s 121 schools.
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