Pols stunned shooting range operating at high school
Aim to stop it
By Mike Underwood
Saturday, January 5, 2008
Shocked city councilors are probing how school officials have allowed a Southie classroom to be used as a firing range by Junior ROTC students.
Education and public safety leaders were stunned to hear that a basement classroom in Monument High School on G Street is used by the military group to teach teenagers how to fire air rifles at targets.
“I’m shocked and surprised to hear that this is even happening. I don’t think it is appropriate at all,” said Councilor Chuck Turner, chairman of the council education committee.
Ten city schools run junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) programs, designed to promote citizenship and teach youngsters self-discipline, and Monument High has approved the firing range.
A total of 186 students at the South Boston Education Complex are currently enrolled in JROTC with 29 from Monument High - 18 of them on the marksmanship team.
East Boston High School has also had a marksmanship range and team for about three years.
Councilor Stephen J. Murphy, chairman of the city’s public safety committee, is a fan of the ROTC program but wants to put an end to classroom firing ranges.
“It has to be stopped inside a public school and there has to be a question over who supervises this. It definitely needs to be called into question,” he said.
A youth worker who works to steer kids away from gun violence was stunned by the news.
“I can’t believe a school could condone the use of any weapons. What kind of message are they giving to the kids?” asked Maurice Nobles Jr., a life skills manager at Bird Street Community Center in Dorchester.
A school employee notified the Herald about the practice after seeing two teenagers firing weapons at targets without supervision or warning signs in a locked classroom in early December.
But Boston Public Schools spokesman Jonathan Palumbo said,“There is no state law that prohibits such activities. Every safety precaution is taken, both for the students involved and anyone else who may be in the building at the time of the practice.”
ROTC spokesman Paul Kotakis said individual schools decide whether marksmanship training can be given on school property and that it is not unusual for schools to allow the practice.
JROTC regulations require students to have completed a training course before being allowed to fire weapons on a range, and they must be supervised by an instructor at all times.
Kotakis said students train using model 853 Daisy air rifles, which use manually pumped air to fire .177 caliber pellets. The weapon is designed for high accuracy.
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