Superintendent criticized for failing to notify parents

By George P. Hassett

A 14-year-old boy was stabbed walking home from class at the Winter Hill Community School on Tuesday Feb. 26 by a classmate wearing a black ski mask, according to police. In the aftermath of the attack Superintendent Anthony Pierantozzi has been criticized by parents and school officials for not informing them of the incident.

‚ÄúNobody told me a thing,‚Äù said Parent Teacher Association President Danielle Anderson. ‚ÄúSomething should have gone out to the parents. Rumors start when there is no official announcement, parents were asking me what had happened and I couldn’t give them any answers.‚Äù

Two weeks before the incident the victim found a threatening note on his desk at school that said, "I’ll kill you" and was signed "MS-13," the boy’s father said. School officials and a police officer assigned to the building were alerted to the threat but, according to the father, did not do enough to prevent it.

"I told them he was afraid to come to school. [Police and the school principal] said he was safe, well he wasn’t safe on Tuesday [the day of the attack]," he said.

Police said the victim, a 14-year-old student at the school, was walking home minutes after school ended when he was approached by a male wearing a black ski mask. He was then jabbed with a sharp object by the suspect, possibly a knife with a black handle and a silver blade, police said.

The victim then turned and ran back to the school where he got help from the principal and the police were called. Police said the boy had  a red puffy abrasion on his left abdomen but the skin had not been broken. The sweatshirt did have a puncture hole in it, police said.

According to police, the boy’s father refused medical attention. City spokeswoman Jackie Rossetti said that is why no information on the incident was disseminated to the public.

“If the injury had been severe it would have been immediately disseminated,” she said.

Police arrested a 14-year-old juvenile on Friday after the victim picked the boy out of a lineup.

The victim’s father, who asked that his name not be used, said his son has recovered physically but still fears retaliation. A group of students at the school claiming an affiliation with the violent Central American gang MS-13 had been harassing his son for months, the father said. Now, the boy won’t be going back. The father said he is removing him from the neighborhood school the boy attended since Kindergarten and he attended himself as a kid.

"It’s pretty sad. It had been a great neighborhood school all these years and now it’s not even safe for me to send my kids to," he said.

The Somerville Police Gang Unit is part of the investigation but Capt. Paul Upton said middle school students who claim affiliation are not always genuine gang members.

“Just because someone says certain words does not mean they are necessarily gang members,” he said.

A week after the attack, many city officials and Winter Hill school parents were unaware it had ever occurred. Alderman-at-Large Dennis Sullivan said he first learned of the stabbing when a news reporter called him for comment.

And at the school on Monday as parents waited for their children, steps away from where the boy was allegedly stabbed, some expressed unease that they were not notified while others said the situation seemed under control.

‚ÄúOf course I should have known,‚Äù said Eusebio Botelho who was waiting for his daughter, a seventh grade student at the school. ‚ÄúWe should know what’s going on at our children’s school, it’s a crazy world.‚Äù

Kathey, who asked that her last name not be used, said she has been satisfied with the official response from the school. “There seems to be more security and monitoring [since the incident]. It was handled in relatively good fashion,” she said.

Pierantozzi said security and monitoring of students as they leave the school has been increased since the incident. However, at Monday’s School Committee meeting he faced criticism from committee members who said they should have been told of the attack earlier.

“I am disappointed I was not informed and that the community in general was not informed of this incident,” said Ward 4 School Committee member James Norton.

“This happened on a Tuesday,” said Ward 2 member Theresa Cardoso. “We met in executive session on Wednesday. We could have been informed then, that is my highest level of frustration.”
However, Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone came to Pierantozzi’s defense.

‚ÄúIn the past four years this superintendent has always kept us informed. This is one incident where we were not informed as to our expectations but let’s not let anyone leave with the perception that Superintendent Pierantozzi does not give the community and this committee the information we need,‚Äù he said.