City to try to start steering East Boston kids away from gangs as early as first grade

When federal officials announced the indictments of 56 alleged MS-13 members on charges that included the murder of three teens in East Boston, city and school officials began working on programs to keep kids at East Boston High School out of gangs.

But after hearing parents and residents complain at a community meeting tonight that gangs were reaching kids even younger than that, Mayor Walsh said he's going to insist efforts begin in first grade.

One resident, of Salvadoran descent, said that's vital because Salvadoran gangs start recruiting kids still in El Salvador - and keep up the pressure when they come here. Cristofer Perez de la Paz, 16, murdered in East Boston in January, was only days away from returning to his native Guatemala because of the violence in East Boston and neighboring cities.

Police Commissioner William Evans told the roughly 200 people in the East Boston High School auditorium that school police and the BPD gang unit will play close attention to paygrounds and soccer fields once it gets warmer, both to show kids another path - and to watch out for the gang members that residents said were pressuring kids to join up. He and Walsh pointed to programs where police officers team up with kids who might be at risk for long talks and other activities.

East Boston High School Headmaster Phillip Brangiforte said the time between his students leave school roughly around 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. is when kids are most at risk. After the meeting, Brangiforte said he was unaware of gang recruiting in his school and said his staff and school police have worked to keep students safe - at a school that now has more applicants than seats, with rising MCAS scores and graduation rates.

One resident urged the city to provide "trauma" services for kids whose friends are gunned down or shot at - they need help dealing with being scared and other feelings. Walsh said the city seet up trauma teams at community health centers, but said the city realized that isn't working well and so is looking at re-allocating several million dollars for new trauma services. She said some kids now are scared to just stand outside their own homes because of the recent violance, which, in addition to the murders, include even more attempted murders and a recent shooting at the Maverick T stop, allegedly by an MS-13 member, that sent two to the hospital,

Evans and Suffolk County District Attorney Dan Conley described a two-pronged approach to dealing with the estimated 50 to 100 kids still on the street who are either involved in gangs or who are on the edge: They will come down hard on the 5% they estimated are hard-core gang members already seriously involved in criminal activities, the "impact players" - but lend a hand to the majority of the kids who really are on the edge and try to get them into jobs or activities that could lead them away from criminal activitiy.

"We have to be safe" from the hard-core gang members, such as the 56 charged two weeks ago, Conley said. "They do not deserve a break."

Evans added police need tips and other help from residents. He added it's especially important for the immigrants who live in East Boston to know that "we're not the immigration police . ...Nobody should be afraid to approach us." US Attorney Carmen Ortiz urged parents to talk to their kids.

"We are sorry," Alba Azucena López, El Salvador's consul general in Boston, said. She said the vast majority of Salvadorans in Boston and the US are hard-working people just trying to get ahead, and offered her office's help to steer kids away from gangs.

Despite the "uptick" in gang-related violence before the mass arrests, Evans and other officials said East Boston remains safe and that major crime continues to drop

"East Boston is a safe neighborhood, in a very safe city of Boston," Conley said.

Ortiz assured residents that almost all of the people now in custody following the indictments will stay there pending their trials.

BPD A-7 Capt. Kelly McCormick said a man responsible for a series of arson fires along Falcon Street is now in custody. He said the man had nothing to do with with gangs; he has his own set of mental issues.

Salvadoran Consul General Alba Azucena López offers her help: