Since just prior to the start of the school year, 28 complaints have been lodged with Bridgewater police regarding incidences involving Bridgewater State students, the Boson Globe reports. The largest of which was a Sept. 10 brawl that grew to include more than 150 students and their friends. At one incident, a gun was fired. A second melee found one student in the emergency room after being struck in the head with a glass bottle.
Meanwhile, a second, Sept. 28, Boston Globe article addresses separate stabbing incidents at two area colleges that left one young man hospitalized and another 18-year-old student dead. The article also reported on several other assaults, including a homicide, that have happened on or near campuses in Massachusetts, New Jersey and Wisconsin since late August.
Boston premises liability lawyers and Massachusetts negligent security attorneys know there is a fine line between providing acceptably open public access and student independence and creating and maintaining an appropriately safe and secure environment for student, staff, educators and visitors who consider college campuses a cross between a public space and a home-away-from-home. With that said, students, friends and families have a right to expect a safe learning and living environment and school administrators and campus security officials have an obligation to provide for and meet that expectation.
At Boston College, the hospitalized student required surgery to repair abdominal injury sustained during a stabbing, which reportedly occurred after the student informed four men attempting to enter a dormitory that they were not supposed to be on campus. A 29-year-old fellow Boston College student was kicked in the head after coming to assist the stabbing victim. At Regis College, the early morning parking lot stabbing death of one of their students has put campus security on high alert. Dormitories are now under 24-hour surveillance and all visitors are screened before entering the campus.
Meanwhile, across the state, school officials and campus security administrators are working to add additional safety protocols to campuses already steeped in expanded security teams, key-card only building access points, blankets of campus surveillance and checkpoint-clearance-only access for non-residents.
Our Boston-area personal injury lawyers at Jeffrey Glassman Injury Lawyers, LLC are here to investigate the history of any property associated with causing injury to establish a pattern of negligence and liability. If you have been injured, or someone you love has been injured or killed due an inadequately secure campus environment, schedule a free initial consultation, by contacting us online or calling our offices at (617) 777-7777 to discuss your rights.