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Mayor Responds To Attack At High School

Adults Accused Of Entering School, Attacking Student

POSTED: 12:10 pm EST March 5, 2008
UPDATED: 12:35 pm EST March 5, 2008

Mayor Tom Menino responded Wednesday to safety concerns after four adults entered a Boston high school and attacked a student.

News Center 5's Shiba Russell reported that Menino said that West Roxbury High School is safe, but there are some steps that can be taken to make it safer. Officials plan to install a buzzer system at the front enterence in an effort to beef up security at the education complex.

Menino Discusses School Violence

"We haven't had an incident like that in a while at the West Roxbury complex. Those things do happen, but my goal and the superintendent's goal is to make it safe," Menino said.

Some students said that they have seen strangers walking around the school.

"It's like the security there -- they don't do anything," Parkway Academy freshman Sasha Dowman said. "Anybody goes in and comes out."

Last week, police said four adults walked into the unlocked doors of the Urban Science Academy, one of four schools inside the West Roxbury High School, and helped a student beat up a classmate in the cafeteria, police said. Three of the adults were allegedly relatives of the juvenile suspect, one of them his father, police said.

"There are a lot of doors around the school. There are doors everywhere, and it's pretty easy to get in there," Urban Science sophomore Christopher Borgella said.

"I definitely think that there should be more security and more people that would be willing to protect us rather than just stand by watching and not really doing anything," Parkway Academy sophomore Amanee Wornum said.

"People bring knives. They bring guns. They bring whatever they want," Parkway Academy sophomore Eliza Lopes said.

Police said they are searching for the adults involved in the attack.

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