WPS: Silent on Elementary Student Safety.

Submitted by 7NerdAlert7 t3_ydnn8y in WorcesterMA

October 24th 2022 Less than 12 hrs after the murder on Burncoat Street, there was a drive by shooting of up to 6 rounds in the same neighborhood on Wawecus Road directly across the street from Wawecus Road elementary school.

October 25th 2022 There has been zero communication from Worcester PD nor the Superintendent's office to the general public. The staff at Wawecus Elementary did not know until they heard it from concerned parents who were asking questions.

There was no extra police presence at the school even though there was a shooting within 25 feet of school property.

Apparently Worcester PD let the district safety officer know, however, the district safety officer did not release a statement. It is not known if this was his choice or a decision made higher up.

Evening of October 25th.

Around 10pm. 10-12 shots fired in the same vicinity of Wawecus Road School.

It is disconcerting that both the WPD and Worcester Public Schools have remained silent. Communication is essential and this is an obvious breakdown of public trust.

Why isn't there a statement from any government entity in Worcester? Why isn't the safety of the students and AWESOME staff a priority?

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Comments

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doublesecretprobatio t1_itugr7p wrote

the shooting had nothing to do with the schools at all. i can understand some unease but again, the issues had nothing to do with the schools. do you have any articles about the second shooting because i can't find any.

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7NerdAlert7 OP t1_itusu3q wrote

You not being able to find anything is exactly the point I'm trying to make! All of this activity has been on the local neighborhood Facebook pages; not my choice for news. I prefer to use that platform as a keyboard warrior instead!

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doublesecretprobatio t1_itutgjl wrote

i don't disagree but something this newsworthy only being talked about on social seems awfully strange. something is off here.

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twistedredd t1_itv77ig wrote

and believe it or not, some of us don't even have facebook accounts, so no news at all! I heard about it here tho. and don't blame the concern at all. This is something to be concerned about. There is no greater concern than children's safety.

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legalpretzel t1_itv8rn0 wrote

The shooting was at 10pm. It wasn’t during the school day. Should the school have known? Sure, but this doesn’t feel like a major failure. And I say that as a parent of an elementary school kid at a different school in Worcester. I’d be unnerved if it happened near our school (mostly bc I live very close to the school) and extremely concerned if it happened between 8am and 4pm. But a call to the district to question their decision here is probably more impactful than complaining on reddit.

Edit: just to add, the new Superintendent doesn’t seem to be as quick to make district wide phone calls. It’s hard in the wake of Binienda, who utilized them often. Especially since some (most?) WP schools aren’t exactly forthcoming with information. I often complained about how often Binienda sent out district wide calls, so there needs to be a happy medium between too much and not enough communication from the district. Hopefully they figure it out 🤷🏻‍♀️

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tracynovick t1_itxosi8 wrote

I don't want to derail the conversation, but I'm honestly interested, because it's actively being gauged: do you want to hear more often from the district (rather than the school)?

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HistoricalSecurity77 t1_itulfm4 wrote

I wouldn’t blame the WPS… interdepartmental communication between WPD, City Hall, and WPS is likely to blame.

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bartnd t1_ituo65s wrote

I wouldn't say that the Worcester PD has remained completely silent; they did state that they don't believe there's a threat to the public.

It is odd that there isn't much mention of the Wawecus Rd shooting, though I wouldn't expect much from the WPS aside from acknowledging it as it happened well outside of school hours.

The thing that I found most odd was the focus on QCC locking down and barely anything about Burncoat Prep which is closer to the original shooting. The telegram article was updated to mention that they were also locked down, but still the focus was on QCC. That's where I'd have expected some recognition by the WPS.

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doublesecretprobatio t1_itur55m wrote

this may have been a conscious decision as to not alarm the entire school system about an unrelated, isolated incident where precautions were being taken only out of an abundance of caution.

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7NerdAlert7 OP t1_itusaxs wrote

You will always have that type of silence being put up against the rumor mill of the neighborhood Facebook pages. Multiple people in the community heard the shots and saw the activity. Wouldn't it be best for some government entity (at this point I don't care who) release a simple statement to say this happened, We're on it, You can send your kids to school?

This helps to control the narrative as well as bolsters the trust between WPS/WPD and the community!

Radio silence only hurts them.

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MattOLOLOL t1_iturwtc wrote

"No threat to the public," but there was another shooting in the same neighborhood within 24 hours. Next to an elementary school.

Yeah, sure. No threat at all.

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doublesecretprobatio t1_itusqio wrote

> but there was another shooting in the same neighborhood within 24 hours

it was 2 miles away [supposedly].

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legendofsteve t1_itwfata wrote

At 10PM.

Like, I'm not saying shootings are fine to happen but like, for public safety's sake that's a pretty good time.

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New-Vegetable-1274 t1_iu2obe0 wrote

That's right, that it happened at 10 pm is irrelevant. I'm sure the shooter didn't care what time it was. Any shooting near a school is a threat.

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tracynovick t1_itxp02z wrote

The communication on lockdowns from WPS (and it was a 'soft' lockdown) is done directly to parents (as it was in this case) rather than a public announcement.

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tracynovick t1_itxpztt wrote

I think we've already exchanged messages about this (hi, member of the school committee here), but just to say it here as well: I know the families have now received a message from the school. The police did let the school know that there was no threat to the school (as noted elsewhere, it happened the night before).
District and PD communication is part of what is being discussed with the MOU that is being sorted out between the two, and I asked that the superintendent flag this as an example.
(sorry not to have jumped on this yesterday; I don't always remember to check reddit daily)

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ewolpert t1_itxxn7h wrote

Hi Tracy!!! I know you and I connected. I hope that you were able to talk to OP, too! Thanks again.

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Ovaltene17 t1_itvrm7d wrote

Worcester is a very safe city overall, as far as cities go, so I hate to see an increase in shootings. I suspect there is a criminal element moving in as Boston becomes prohibitively expensive.

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munchieman21 t1_itunl9y wrote

How do you know all this? Sources ?

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7NerdAlert7 OP t1_itut9oq wrote

Mostly Facebook pages... Again, not a preferred source. Would rather have a clear record from an official source, which is exactly what I'm looking for!

Unlike the rest of my life, I'm 95% confident in everything that was written.

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munchieman21 t1_ituuo4m wrote

Gotcha. Might have to join the burncoat Facebook page as it seems that’s where I’ll have to go to know what’s going on unfortunately. An official source would be preferred. Thanks!

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radzioplx t1_itv3mrl wrote

If this happened during school hours, I get it, I'd be asking questions. This was at like 10pm, all the kiddos are sleeping. Also, complain to your city counsel. When there are no injuries , wpd is not obligated to release any info on the incident.

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tugaim33 t1_itvl321 wrote

Call/email the school committee. They won’t know these things unless you tell them. Some of them are very responsive

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slum_life_frownface t1_itujxlw wrote

yeah it's up to the schools to be on top of active shooter situations around the city

all of this is on the lazy idiot cops and the crooked city council

and obviously our country's ridiculous gun laws

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7NerdAlert7 OP t1_ituwcz9 wrote

I agree that WPS doesn't need to be responsible for the shootings. What I do expect is a brief statement saying "We are aware that a drive by occurred. WPD and WPS believe that there is not a threat to the community. When you drop your kids off, please don't get a flat tire on the bullet casings!"

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slum_life_frownface t1_itz3yps wrote

still not sure why you're singling out schools for this. also, that's a weirdly flippant statement for a school to make about shootings, so it's a strange thing to expect after Columbine.

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FirstOrderRouge t1_ituz0ie wrote

Glad we nixed School Resource Officers. No need to have cops in schools with all the gun violence in the city. None at all.

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7NerdAlert7 OP t1_itv5sd0 wrote

That's irrelevant to this issue. This occurred after hours. It wouldn't have mattered if there were 15 SROs on duty. I'm frustrated with the lack of communication.

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