We had a school shooting in Dorchester last week.
Like communities all over America, a gunman pierced what should be a sacred sanctuary for our kids and teens and changed the lives of a teacher, a student, and everyone who saw them get shot. And all of us should be outraged.
The setting was the parking lot of Tech Boston Academy, the old Dorchester High on Peacevale Road, overlooking Roberts Playground. The characters: High school kids amped up to board a school bus for an excursion to root on their school basketball team, which was favored to win in a state semi-final contest against a tough suburban foe, Watertown. The team bus had already pulled off and now the fans were piling into their seats for an hour-long ride out to Framingham. It was just after 5:30 and the mood was upbeat.
And then: The pop of gunshots, screams, terror, pain. Blood. Then, a scooter screeching away with at least one gunman and his accomplice making good an escape that persists to this moment. Unknown assailants, uncertain motive, unspeakable actions.
The victims: a 17-year-old who should have been cheering from the student section at the Final Four; a History teacher, who should have been watching his star pupils on the court and in the stands; a bus-full of mainly Dorchester kids, who should have been having a night to remember, but for a decidedly different reason.
Two hours later, the Tech Boston Bears carried on with the basketball game, a decision that was theirs to make, according to coaches, referees and officials from the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletics Association (MIAA). The players, understandably, pressed on in their playoff quest. The outcome on the scoreboard was not what they’d hoped for: 59-50, an upset for the Watertown side. Theirs was, their coach later said, “a triumph of a different level.”
No doubt. But while few can quarrel with the boys’ mettle and competitiveness, there are legitimate reasons to wonder if perhaps the game should have been postponed. What about the fan bus that was left behind surrounded by police tape? Even if there was a win posted, much of the school community could not be on hand to celebrate. And what of the unknown, yet potentially still lingering threat from assailants on the loose?
Dorchester’s Rachele Gardner, for one, has some questions. She represents Emerson College in a recently-launched collaboration called Transforming Narratives of Gun Violence. Along with Mass General Hospital and Dorchester’s Louis Brown Peace Institute, it’s concerned with “root causes and rippling effects of violence, not just focusing on the gun and the crime scene.”
She told the Reporter’s Seth Daniel last week: “I can imagine circumstances in which either decision might be the right one. But, I think the critical question is, how and by whom was the decision made? If it was made by coaches and players, did they have adequate support from trauma responders in making that decision?…If the team was expected to carry on as normal without acknowledgement of the trauma, then that is extremely problematic.”
It’s a tough call. But, our kids shouldn’t be expected to “soldier-on” minutes after witnessing their peer and teacher get shot in their schoolyard just because they’re from the city.
Our school district should have protocols in place to serve our kids better in a moment of crisis like what befell TechBoston last week. We can’t allow that to be seen as normal here in this neighborhood— because it’s not.
