By Megan Woolhouse
The Boston Globe
BOSTON — Police arrested the father of a West Roxbury High School student yesterday and were looking for other relatives after they allegedly stormed into the school last week and angrily confronted a 15-year-old student.
Reyes and the others came through the front door of the school, which was not locked, school officials said.
Boston school officials said they would speed up their plans to beef up security at the school.
“We clearly have to move forward very quickly,” School Department spokesman Jonathan Palumbo said. Plans include possibly installing intercoms and buzzers at building entrances, as well as metal detectors and security cameras.
Two police officers were on duty at the school at the time of the confrontation. Palumbo said it was unclear if anything could have prevented the fracas. “The accused is the father of a student,” he said. “Generally we do allow access to our schools by our parents and encourage them to visit.”
According to the Suffolk district attorney’s office, the school has seen rising tensions between two groups of students. Reyes’s son told his family that he had been jumped by another student earlier this year. Reyes, his two brothers, and an unidentified woman responded by showing up at the high school cafeteria at lunchtime Feb. 27 to find the other student.
School police officers working in the cafeteria at the time persuaded Reyes and the group to leave, but in the hallway, they spotted the teenager they had been looking for.
Jake Wark, spokesman for the Suffolk district attorney’s office, said Reyes punched the 15-year-old. The unidentified woman tried to kick the youth. Then the group, including Reyes’s son, headed outside and got into a 1996 Honda sedan.
A school officer tried to stop them by standing in front of the car, but Reyes stepped on the gas, Wark said. He said the officer fell onto the hood before rolling off, and Reyes drove away. The officer was not seriously injured.
Police tracked the car to Reyes using the license plate. A warrant for his arrest was issued Monday. Wark said Reyes turned himself in to police yesterday. He is scheduled to appear in court March 31. Police are still looking for the other family members and the woman.
Attorney Fritz Pluviose of Quincy represented Reyes but said he did not yet have enough information on the case to comment.
Copyright 2008 The Boston Globe