Boston school to increase security as students return a day after stranger found inside classroom
Students at Richard J. Murphy School in Dorchester returned to their classrooms Wednesday morning one day after a strange man was discovered inside.
Boston 25 News was first to report the security breach on Tuesday.
“It’s quite alarming that someone has entered the building, a homeless man, and no one knows how he entered, where he entered, no alarms went off,” said Siere Godfrey, whose child attends the K-8 school. “Fingers crossed, hopefully they amp up their security in making sure that everything is legit and alarm systems are up and running up to par.”
According to a police report, a teacher came face-to-face with an unknown man inside her classroom around 7:30 a.m. Tuesday.
When the man saw her, he ran out of the school. The man was not wearing any socks or shoes.
No one was hurt in the situation, and the only thing missing from the classroom was some cereal.
According to police, there were no signs the man forced his way into the building.
Investigators said it appears he entered through an open door in the back of the school. Boston 25 News crews saw what appeared to be two homeless people standing under an overhang at the school early Wednesday morning. They said they were drying off from the rain and walked away from the building an hour later.
The school district said additional staff will do a full sweep of the building to verify the school is empty every night for the foreseeable future.
“We were troubled to learn our security was breached in a way that allowed an unknown individual to be in the building,” a Boston Public Schools spokesperson told Boston 25 News in a statement. “Safety and security of our students and staff are of utmost importance. Following an investigation into the matter, we will determine what additional safety measures can be taken at the school to ensure that this does not happen again.”
There will be a virtual Boston School Committee meeting Wednesday evening, where school security is expected to be discussed.
“This is a wake-up call, this is a great learning event for the school,” said Boston 25 News Security Analyst Daniel Linskey. “Kudos to the staff member who saw somebody out of place and intervened, that is exactly what we want our staff to do.”
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