Boston superintendent calls for school’s closure following report detailing sexual misconduct
Boston’s top education official is calling for the closure of a Jamaica Plain school amid a report into sexual and physical misconduct dating back to 2014.
Superintendent Brenda Cassellius is recommending to the School Committee Wednesday night that the Mission Hill K-8 School permanently close at the end of the school year. That would mean transferring some 200 students to other schools in the district.
The recommendation follows a report from Boston law firm Hinckley Allen that found school leadership “cultivated and tolerated a culture of pervasive indifference to sexual misconduct, bullying and bias-based conduct and toward rules, regulations and policies.” The report was commissioned by Cassellius last fall.
In a statement, the superintendent’s office referred to the investigation as an “independent report.”
“Ensuring the safety, health and wellbeing of all students is the most important obligation a school district has,” a spokesperson for the district said. “Based on the persistent pattern of abuse confirmed in this independent report, the only viable option is to close the school and support students in their transition to other schools in the district. This action indicates how seriously the Superintendent takes this responsibility. BPS’ immediate priority is to work with each Mission Hill family to determine where their child will continue their education.”
Investigators conducted 65 interviews and collected more than 2 million documents, including 3,500 from the Boston Public Schools that spanned nearly 14,000 pages. They found that school leadership “created a climate of hostility and intimidation toward parents and staff who questioned or disagreed with that culture, and that all of the above undermined the safety and educational aspirations of Mission Hill students” according to the report.
The Boston Public Schools has formed a transition team to work with families during the transition to another school. The district anticipates there will be about 400 seats available in K-8 schools within 1.5 miles of the Mission Hill School.
Families will have access to a special enrollment period to find a new school placement.
Staff at the Mission Hill School who were directly involved in the cases detailed in the report either no longer work for the district or are on leave while their actions are further investigated. Staff not related to those incidents will be able to seek employment elsewhere in the district.
Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts.
Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW
