‘Persistent lawlessness’ will not define Northeast High, principal says two weeks after students were shot at a bus stop

Two weeks after eight Northeast High students were shot at a busy bus stop on their way home from school, student attendance is creeping back up. Visits from politicians have slowed, and there’s a “steady return to a semblance of normalcy,” the school principal said.

But the shooting is still fresh, and it has affected everything from safety plans to academics.

Principal Omar Crowder addressed reporters publicly for the first time since what he called “a tragedy on a scale that we have not seen in the history of the school district.”

The shooting happened March 6 just before 3 p.m., when three people wearing masks fired 30 shots at a group of students approaching the bus stop. One 16-year-old was shot nine times, another 16-year-old sustained multiple gunshot wounds to the chest, and a 15-year-old was shot in the spine.

All four suspects have been arrested.

Crowder and his team of assistant principals have focused their attention on their students — the 3,300 pupils who attend Northeast, as well as the victims, whom the principal has visited in hospitals and at their homes.

“We are grateful that all of them have survived,” said Crowder. “These students are beginning their long road to recovery and healing.”

Gov. Josh Shapiro visited victims, and Mayor Cherelle L. Parker spent time with Northeast students. Extra mental health resources have been called in by the Philadelphia School District.

Students learned virtually in the immediate aftermath of the shooting, then returned to school in phases. The school is working closely with the Philadelphia Police Department and SEPTA police to keep a close eye on activity at arrival and dismissal times, Crowder said.

At a recent meeting with Northeast parents, Crowder said he told them staff is “in constant contact with both agencies,” and district school safety officers have also stepped up their patrols along the Cottman Avenue corridor.

And even as they process their own reactions to the trauma, Northeast staff, including Crowder, are supporting their students.

“I have met with our entire student body to remind them that we are not going to be defined by what feels like persistent lawlessness in our city,” said Crowder.

Flags flapping in the wind outside the massive building on Cottman Avenue remind students, neighbors and visitors that Northeast High has a proud history, dating to 1890. It is by far the city’s largest school, diverse and growing.

“I am proud of the fact that we are the top-performing neighborhood high school in the city of Philadelphia, with exemplary academic and extracurricular programming,” said Crowder, who has worked at Northeast for eight years, the principal for six. “Our school community has continued to show up for one another, and that will not change.”