DORCHESTER, MASS. (WHDH) - A man was found sleeping inside a school in Dorchester Tuesday morning, Boston Public Schools confirmed.
Police said the trespasser was found by a teacher around 7:30 a.m. inside a classroom at the Richard J. Murphy K-8 School.
According to the police report, the teacher assumed the door to the classroom was closed by a colleague. She called out their name as she entered the room, and froze when a man unfamiliar to her walked out of her classroom closet instead. The man then ran out of the room and out the rear door of the school.
There were no signs of a break-in, investigators said. They suggested “it is possible that the rear door was left ajar on accident.”
Parents said they were alarmed not only by the incident, but the delay in notification as well.
“We didn’t receive that email until closer to two in the afternoon,” parent Kirstin Gifford said, “which is a little alarming to me because the incident did happen before school, and if I knew beforehand I probably would have kept my kids home.”
In an email, Principal Courtney J. Sheppeck said in part: “No students came into contact with this individual, and no students or staff were in any danger due to this finding. We are actively working with BPS Facilities and Operations staff to increase security of our school building.”
“We were troubled to learn our security was breached in a way that allowed an unknown individual to be in the building,” a statement from Boston Public Schools said in part. “Safety and security of our students and staff are of utmost importance.”
The district said staffers will start to double check the building with full sweeps to make sure it is empty, but parents are less than assured.
“I’m very upset, I’m very alarmed, I’m concerned” parent Siere Godfrey said. “No one knows how they entered, what doors. Usually everything is locked up, sealed up pretty good.”
“Until they fix that, I don’t know if my child will be back in school.”
Boston Police said they will continue to investigate and work to identify the trespasser.
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