The 61-year-old principal of a school in Boston's Dorchester neighborhood was hospitalized Wednesday after being knocked unconscious in what police describe as a "very violent attack" witnessed by students, staff, and parents. Sources tell CBS Boston that Upper Campus Principal Patricia Lampron of the Dr. William W. Henderson Inclusion School suffered a head injury and broken ribs in the attack during dismissal, which also injured another staff member. A 16-year-old female student was arrested and faces charges including assault and battery.
Witnesses told police that the student repeatedly punched Lampron while grabbing her hair, WCVB reports. According to a police report, the student's mother had threatened the principal the night before the attack. Police say that when a Boston police officer arrived at the scene, Lampron was unconscious and the teen was being held down by two school safety officers. Classes at the school's Upper Campus, which serves students from grades 2 to 12, were canceled Thursday. Boston Public Schools Superintendent Brenda Cassellius called the incident "completely unacceptable" and said violence "will not be tolerated in the Boston Public Schools."
"This absolutely unbelievable violence against a headmaster should be condemned in the strongest possible terms, and what is more tragic is this is the tip of the iceberg," said the Rev. Eugene Rivers, founder of the Violence Reduction Task Force, per the Boston Herald. Rivers, who is Black, urged Mayor-elect Michelle Wu to "visit some of the schools in the poorest Black sections of the city to see what is happening and to listen to what the Boston Police deal with on a day-to-day basis." (More Massachusetts stories.)
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