Students around the city are returning to school this week after the holiday vacation. New mask policies will be in place for students to use on school grounds and school transportation from Jan. 4-13.
This is all to decrease the transmission of COVID-19, flu, and RSV inside the Boston Public Schools.
Students will not be sent home or punished if they do not follow this guideline. The policy does not appear harsh or unreasonable to me, especially as it protects BPS students, is not mandatory, and is temporary.
It’s encouraging to see that Mayor Michelle Wu and Superintendent Mary Skipper value the well-being of BPS students. Pandemic or not, it would be wonderful if Mayor Wu and Superintendent Skipper were also concerned about the daily safety of children and BPS staff.
A mask may prevent the spread of COVID-19, influenza, and RSV. However, masks do not provide protection against bullying, school shootings, stabbings, sexual assaults, and other forms of misconduct.
BPS reported 440 incidences of bullying and 744 cases of sexual assault and misconduct in 2020-2021. Staff, parents, and students at BPS are all on edge because of students who bring weapons to school. Who could ever learn or teach in a place like that?
It’s no surprise that Boston Public Schools has a long-term drop-in enrolment for the eighth year in a row. However, not all parents can transfer their children to different schools, and some are forced to send their children to BPS through no fault of their own. It would be reasonable to expect Michelle Wu, who is not only the Mayor of Boston but also a BPS mother, to take action on these safety concerns.
Despite the fact that Patricia Lampron, a principal at William Henderson Inclusion School, was knocked out by a student, Wu continues to be opposed to school police because she believes that officers have no place in schools and because she called for the “end of criminalizing students” during her campaign.
What Wu doesn’t see is that the violence, sexual assaults, and misbehavior that afflict BPS are criminal acts, and if they aren’t addressed as such, they will continue, and these students will grow up to occupy jails across Massachusetts and the country.
Additionally, it took the discovery of two firearms at Charlestown High School for Wu to reinstate metal detectors at the school. Will it take a major shooting at a school or the death of a teacher or student before she addresses these safety concerns citywide?
School police and metal detectors won’t solve the problem on their own; more disciplinary measures and more severe repercussions are needed. Students with behavioral issues at BPS tend to come from homes where they were not raised properly or at all. The lack of concern shown by these parents for their children’s conduct at school is nothing new.
COVID-19, the flu, and RSV are genuine hazards to BPS kids that can be minimized with masking, but masking cannot cure the fundamental safety concerns they face every day.
