Another youth shot in Roxbury; school safety group calls for specific plan from Wu, Skipper

A boy was shot and injured in Roxbury on Wednesday night, making him the city’s fourth juvenile shooting victim this month.

Boston police responded to the area of 21 Rockland St. shortly after 7 p.m. and found a boy with a gunshot wound, a police spokesperson said. ShotSpotter technology also alerted police to the shooting.

The boy was taken to a local hospital and is in stable condition, the spokesperson said. No arrests have been made in connection with the shooting, and the investigation remains active. 

Earlier this month, a teenage boy was shot near the Jeremiah Burke High School in Dorchester on Oct. 4, and a 14-year-old boy died from injuries sustained in an Oct. 10 shooting in Roxbury that also wounded another juvenile.

“We are in a school safety crisis,” community movement Boston S.O.S. (Safety of Our Schools) said in a press release Thursday morning.

The group called on Mayor Michelle Wu and Boston Public Schools Superintendent Mary Skipper to give parents, students, school staff, and community members a plan to keep the city’s schools safe.

“We have joined with others across the city to sound the alarm that there is a school safety crisis in Boston and that we need a new safety plan,” the Rev. David Searles, a Boston S.O.S. member, said in a statement. “We have been calling for a new plan since January and we still don’t know what it is. If you fail to plan, you plan to fail. What is the Boston school safety plan?”

On its website, BPS provides information on its procedures for various school emergencies, including acts of violence. 

“Senseless gun violence has again impacted our community,” Skipper said in a statement to Boston.com. “Any act of violence involving our young people has a traumatic impact on our school communities. We know our young people need support now more than ever, and it’s up to all of us to create and sustain safe neighborhoods for our young people.”

She said BPS is making resources available to the boy’s classmates and educators as they process the incident. 

“We will continue to collaborate with City agencies and community partners to ensure our students across Boston have trusted adults and programs in their lives they can turn to for support,” Skipper said.

Boston Public Schools officials engage weekly with a cross-departmental collection of agencies to address safety concerns, strategize new tactics to keep students safe, and focus on teamwork in emergency responses, according to a BPS spokesperson. 

The district has increased its number of social workers and is investing in social and emotional learning supports, as well as security cameras, according to the spokesperson. Skipper will ensure the cameras do not infringe on school culture or student privacy rights, they said. 

Boston S.O.S. has called on BPS to install metal detectors districtwide and return school-employed police officers, among other steps. According to the BPS website, some schools use metal detectors as part of their overall safety plan, though that decision is made between the school community, school site council, and the principal or headmaster. 

The City of Boston is also taking action, according to a city spokesperson.

“Any incident of violence in Boston is unacceptable and the trauma ripples through our communities, especially for our young people and their families,” the spokesperson told Boston.com.

The city is “working relentlessly alongside our public safety officials and community partners to support youth development, safe streets and violence intervention,” the spokesperson said. “This requires a whole community approach, and I know our residents and partners share the urgency for public health and safety.”