PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — In his first comments since eight students were shot at a bus stop two weeks ago, the principal of Northeast High School said he won’t let the shooting define his school community.
At a news conference outside the school on Wednesday, principal Omar Crowder called the shooting a tragedy on a scale not seen in the history of the school district. While counselors have been available, he said the school community has been supporting each other, and attendance has almost returned to normal, around 85%.
“The mood has gone from very somber and very sad to one of students just wanting to get back to normal,” he said.
Since the March 6 mass shooting, two of the eight students who were injured are still in the hospital.
“We’ve made numerous hospital visits, home visits,” said Crowder. “We have fundraisers that have been happening within our school. We’ve been able to also provide them with financial assistance as well.”
Crowder, who has been Northeast’s principal for six years, said he told his students that the narrative of this shooting belongs to them, not the streets.
“I have met with our entire student body to remind them that we are not going to be defined by senseless street violence,” he said. “We are not going to be defined by what feels like persistent lawlessness in our city.”
About half of the school’s 3,300 students take SEPTA to school. According to Crowder, students have felt safer with the increased police presence that was added at the school and area SEPTA stops since the shooting.
Crowder’s press conference came one day after the fourth and final shooting suspect was arrested. U.S. marshals apprehended 17-year-old Asir Boone about 150 miles away in Alexandria, Virginia.
U.S. marshals told Boone’s family on March 12 that if they didn’t turn him in, they would release his identity. By the following morning, Boone had not surrendered. He was at large for roughly another five days before his arrest in Virginia.
Boone and three others are accused of firing into a crowd of people after school at a SEPTA bus stop near Cottman and Rising Sun avenues. Police have not yet said which three are charged with firing the shots and which one was the getaway driver.
Also charged are 18-year-olds Ahnile Buggs and Jamaal Tucker, and 19-year-old Jermahd Carson.