Tina Chery: A pioneer in citywide efforts to curb violence, Chery's son Louis was killed in a December 1993 shooting, not far from her current office in Fields Corner..

The numbers are deeply disturbing: Nearly eighty percent of the shootings in Boston in 2010 have taken place in the three police districts that cover Dorchester, Roxbury, and Mattapan.

Last year, 223 people were killed or wounded by gunfire in Boston, and 174, or 78 percent, of the shootings took place in districts B-2, B-3 and C-11. This year, with several weeks to go, the number of shootings in the city has increased to 258, and, again, 78 percent of them were in these three districts.

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These stark numbers only convey part of the story. The real story, those on the front lines of the battle tell the Dorchester Reporter, is the impact this violence is having on those who live and work in these neighborhoods – and whether they will assert strongly to families, friends, and acquaintances that they will not tolerate the continued presence of guns or further criminal activity in the homes and on the streets of their neighborhoods. And, too, there is the overarching question of the role of the rest of Boston in this enterprise: Will they join Dorchester, Roxbury, and Mattapan – or abandon them – in taking on the challenge of saving the streets.  Read more

Superintendent Carol Johnson is delaying a vote on plans to close schools, giving parents opposed to the closures a month to regroup. Dorchester schools on the chopping block include Roger Clap Elementary and the East Zone Early Learning Center. School officials had also been pushing to merge the Lee Academy Pilot School and the Lee Elementary School.

“Overall, I’m optimistic that we have the extra month or so to get them to change their minds, and hopefully this opens up more of a debate,” said Kenny Jervis, one of the parents leading the charge to keep Clap Elementary open. “We’re happy we got the extra time but it’s nowhere near a victory yet.”  Read more

As school officials weigh plans to close six schools, parents of children at Lee Academy Pilot School, due to merge with the elementary school they share a building with, pleaded for more time to up flagging test scores.

“Many of us, we could have fled,” said Glenna Malkemes. “But we are committed to the philosophy of the school.”

The school, which has 266 students, was founded in 2004 with a research-based focus on early education and care. It serves Codman Square, Franklin Field, Ashmont and Lower Mills in Dorchester and Mattapan.  Read more

It's time to get healthy. Visit the Dorchester YMCA for special membership offers as well as programs for families and youth. Visit us on the web at www.ymcaboston.org/dorchester. Call 617.436.7750, or just come visit the branch at 776 Washington Street, Dorchester, MA 02124. Free parking, directly on bus Rt #26 and a short walk from the Ashmont T.