The records, obtained after a three-year court battle over public access, cover the 2018-19 through 2023-24 school years, according to reporting on the documents. The cases involved students across K-12 grades and included incidents on school grounds and buses. The records describe a range of misconduct; the figures do not, by themselves, establish that every case was a sexual assault.

Councilor Ed Flynn said the district should be more transparent and proposed a community-led task force to address student misconduct. He argued that withholding information undermines public confidence and makes it harder to confront ongoing problems. Councilor Erin Murphy also criticized the district’s reliance on student privacy, saying it should not be used to avoid accountability.

Parents at the Education Committee hearing described what they said were serious failures in the district’s response to harm against their children. Monica Murchison told councilors that her daughter had been raped by a BPS staff member during school hours. Murchison said the incident was not handled according to district protocol: police were not called, a child-abuse report was not filed and she was not notified. She said she learned about the incident later, sought information from the district and ultimately withdrew her daughter from BPS to homeschool her.

Murchison also alleged that the district retaliated against her after she pressed for answers, including barring her from her daughter’s school and filing child-abuse reports against her. Those claims were presented as her account at the hearing; no further details about the specific case were provided in the hearing testimony included in the records reviewed for this report.

Tia Washington said her 8-year-old daughter had been physically assaulted and bullied repeatedly, and that sexual misconduct occurred on her school bus in two consecutive years. Washington said families who raise concerns need support and timely information, and described the problem as widespread.

Councilor Julia Mejia, who chaired the hearing, cited a survey in which 18% of student respondents said it was quite or extremely difficult to get help from an adult when bullied during the past school year. Mejia said students continue to report feeling unsafe at school.

BPS Senior Deputy Superintendent of Operations Sam DePina apologized to families and said the district had fallen short in some cases. He said the district has worked to strengthen its response through collaboration with families and is updating its code of conduct, a process that takes place every three years. District administrators also said student and family privacy must be protected in cases involving sexual misconduct and bullying.

Councilor John FitzGerald said the accounts at the hearing reflected a persistent public perception that problems at BPS are “swept under the rug.” Councilors and parents said the district’s challenge is to protect students’ privacy while giving families and the public enough information to assess whether reports are being handled properly.