Updated at 8:30 a.m. April 28
Boston Public Schools Superintendent Brenda Cassellius is recommending that the school district close Mission Hill K-8 School in Jamaica Plain at the end of the school year. The proposal follows a district-commissioned investigation into reports of student-on-student sexual and physical misconduct dating back to 2014 and the administration’s failure to intervene.
“The Mission Hill School failed many students, but the search for accountability does not stop at the doors of the school,” Cassellius said.
Cassellius presented her recommendation at the Wednesday night school committee meeting. Also Wednesday, the district released a 189-page report, which has been in the works since September, detailing a slew of misconduct incidents at Mission Hill. Investigators found the school’s administration failed to protect students “in the face of substantial risks to their physical and emotional health and safety,” and that the school has failed to provide an adequate education.
Independent investigators from Hinckley Allen & Snyder LLP met with more than 60 Mission Hill current and former parents, staff, administrators and BPS employees over concerns regarding improper use of force by staff, sexual misconduct, school culture, pervasive bullying and the school’s failure to provide special education services. Many of the concerns first surfaced during the 2014-15 school year.
BPS previously paid $650,000 to settle with the families of five Mission Hill students in August over complaints, including “alleged physical and sexual assaults” between 2014 to 2016. The district also removed four teachers from the school earlier in the school year. Mission Hill ranks among the bottom 5% of all schools in Massachusetts based on MCAS scores, according to a report submitted to the school committee.
“How many adults were asleep at the wheel?” school committee member Brandon Cardet Hernandez asked at Wednesday night’s meeting. “Since 2015, there has been incredible inaction. ... We have broken a lot of trust.”
One self-identified parent thanked the superintendent and the committee during the public comment time for investigating the school and taking action.
“‘Mama, guess what? Nobody hurt me today.’ This is the first thing my daughter said to me after her first day at a new school, after transferring from Mission Hill in 2016,” Asha LeRay said. “Tears ran down my face. I hugged her, and I felt grateful that I could afford to move out of district so she could be safe at school.”
She said there were “countless incidents” of her daughter being abused in her time at the school, whether physical or attempted sexual abuse. To this day, LeRay says her daughter cannot be on Mission Hill’s street without panicking and dry heaving.
Andrew Iliff, the family representative to Mission Hill’s governance board, was distraught by Cassellius’s announcement.
“I cannot believe we’re in this position,” he said, speaking during public comment. “I can only say that these reports do not reflect any aspect of my six years of experience at this school. I can only say that I, my colleagues on the governing board, every family that I know at this school, cares [as] deeply about student safety and student well-being as anyone on this meeting.”
He wondered what reflection there will be at BPS to consider how the situation got to a point where a school could possibly be closed with just weeks to go until the end of the school year.
Also speaking at the meeting, Allison Cox, the co-chair of the school’s governance board, wondered why the school's successes were being ignored.
She said the wrongs of past years cannot be corrected by removing the opportunities of current and future students.
“When considering the superintendent’s recommendation to close the school, I ask that you please listen to the many families and staff who have spoken here this year, sent letters and signed petitions in support of the good at Mission Hill,” she said. “In my three years, I’ve seen a lot of good there and it’s a shame the district is also unable to see it.”
School committee chair Jeri Robinson said the members will review the report over the next week and “intend to come to a swift resolution.” If closed, the school’s roughly 200 students would be moved to other schools.
The school, which is a public pilot school run by the district, was founded in 1997 with an emphasis on inclusive learning and democratic decision making.
This is a developing story.
This story has been updated to correct the type of school Mission Hill is categorized as, which is a pilot school.
