Boston Mayor Michelle Wu said the findings of an investigative report into abuses at Mission Hill K-8 School in Jamaica Plain revealed "the stuff of nightmares."
“It’s devastating. I am just appalled and so deeply heartbroken for the families who had to experience this, for the young people who have had to experience this,” Wu said Thursday while appearing on Boston Public Radio.
The Boston Public School district on Wednesday released a scathing investigative report detailing how the Mission Hill school endangered and failed children for years by overlooking allegations of sexual abuse and bullying, and failing to provide an adequate education. Investigators found the school’s administration failed to protect students “in the face of substantial risks to their physical and emotional health and safety."
Wu said the investigation into the school, which began in October 2021, took a long time because initial accounts triggered an “outpouring” of complaints of abuse.
"It unearthed and opened up what had been it seems covered up potentially for some time," she said.
Wu, whose children are enrolled in public schools in the city, said the report contains "the stuff of nightmares."
"Sending your most precious cargo off every day and needing to trust and know they're going to have every resource and every support and, of course, a baseline of safety at school," she said.
Superintendent Brenda Cassellius has recommended the district close the school at the end of the school year. Wu called that decision an “awful” one and added that the city is “putting every resource in place” to match students to high-quality open seats at nearby schools.
"That component is also very important," she said.
Wu also responded to the news this week that former Boston Police Patrolmen’s Association head Patrick Rose Sr. pleaded guilty to child abuse charges, and was sentenced to 10 to 13 years in prison. Allegations of abuse had been levied against Rose in 1995 and were later substantiated by a Boston Police Department internal investigation, but he was allowed to remain on the force and ascended to the presidency of the patrolmen's union.
As a candidate for mayor, Wu had blasted the city over a "breach of trust" in the case. On April 12, 2021, she called for then-acting Mayor Kim Janey to release internal affairs records. Later in the day, Janey vowed to do just that; a week later, Janey released a limited batch of redacted documents. As of today, the full file remains unavailable to the public.
When pressed whether she, in the interest of transparency, would be open to releasing more documents from the internal affairs file, Wu said it is not something she has "actively engaged on yet,” but added she would "never turn down an opportunity for the city to try and make good and repair harms of the past and having that information available."
Wu said the internal affairs file and city's handling of Patrick Rose falls "squarely in the purview" of the Office of Police Accountability and Transparency, or OPAT, which last year issued
recommendations based on a review of the Rose case.
