A Boston City Council hearing on how Boston Public Schools handles BPS sexual misconduct and bullying reports drew testimony from parents, advocates, students and district officials at City Hall on Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2026. In the days since, councilors and BPS have offered different accounts of whether the district’s recent policy changes are enough.
The Committee on Education held the hearing under Docket #0407. Its chair, Councilor Julia Mejia, sponsored it. It came days after the independent newsletter Contrarian Boston published district records describing 2,015 reports of student-on-student sexual misconduct over six school years. BPS said in a statement that it investigates every report under district policy and state and federal law.
What the Hearing Was Set Up to Review
According to the city’s public notice, the hearing was meant to review BPS policies, procedures, training, staffing, data systems and accountability measures for preventing and responding to bullying, sexual harassment, sexual assault and sexual misconduct. That covers both student-to-student and adult-to-student incidents.
The hearing order, filed Feb. 25, 2026, lists Mejia as lead sponsor, joined by Councilors Breadon, Culpepper, Durkan, FitzGerald, Louijeune, Murphy, Pepén, Santana, Weber and Worrell. The order says students and families have raised concerns about inconsistent reporting experiences, uneven follow-through and fear of retaliation. It asks the committee to examine reporting pathways, supportive measures for students who report harm, safeguards against retaliation, discipline practices, staffing and public data. It also calls for oversight that protects privacy and due process.
What Parents and Advocates Told Councilors
The hearing included an advocates’ panel, a BPS administration panel and a youth panel, according to The Daily Free Press, Boston University’s student newspaper.
Several parents described cases involving their own children. One mother of an autistic, nonverbal child who was injured at a BPS school asked for cameras, better training and qualifications for school staff, and higher pay for teachers and caregivers. Another parent told the committee that a BPS staff member had sexually assaulted her child at school and that the school did not respond when the child reported it. NBC10 Boston said it had not independently verified the parents’ claims, and The Boston Report has not verified them either.
Keo McClay, executive director of the Boston Education Justice Alliance, testified that Boston Latin School mishandled complaints from Black students about racial slurs and threats, calling it “a failure of institutional accountability,” the Free Press reported. Leon Smith, executive director of Citizens for Juvenile Justice, spoke about the effects of bullying and about restorative practices, and urged early intervention. Tatiana Begault of the Massachusetts Coalition for Occupational Safety and Health also testified.
What Councilors Said
Mejia said at the hearing that schools should be safe for students, educators and staff and that the district must work with organizations that are on the ground, according to the Free Press. Councilor Erin Murphy, a former teacher, asked how the district is preventing harm, not just reviewing and reporting it.
After the hearing, Mejia told NBC10 Boston that pointing to policy changes was not enough. She said she wants BPS to say what has gone wrong, name three things it will do differently and explain how it will measure success.
What Boston Public Schools Says
In a statement to NBC10 Boston, BPS said it takes all reports of bullying and sexual misconduct seriously and investigates each one thoroughly in line with district policy and federal and state law. The district said that over the last few years it has adopted new reporting and investigation rules that apply to all schools and staff, including schools with autonomies, and that students and adults now have several ways to report concerns safely.
A BPS representative also told NBC10 that the records described by Contrarian Boston were not concealed. The representative said they had been protected under the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act until a court ruling found they fell outside those protections. A spokesperson for Mayor Michelle Wu referred questions to the district’s statement.
The Records Behind the Debate
The Contrarian Boston report, published Oct. 17 and written by freelance reporter Colman M. Herman, says BPS records contain 2,015 reports of student-on-student sexual misconduct from the 2018-19 through 2023-24 school years. The report says Herman obtained five years of the records after suing the district in Suffolk Superior Court, with the Pioneer Institute representing him for part of the case. He got the sixth year through a later public records request. The report argues that the total understates the problem because in-person classes stopped for about a year during the COVID-19 pandemic and because such incidents are often underreported. BPS has not publicly confirmed or disputed the 2,015 figure in the statements cited here.
The hearing is part of a busy fall of council oversight of the district. It follows a hearing this month in which the council examined BPS spending on English learners, and it came one day after Wu’s State of the Schools address, where she said BPS would release five-year targets later this fall, including one on school safety. The city is also taking applications for two Boston School Committee seats, the appointed board that oversees BPS policy.
What Comes Next
Committee hearings do not by themselves change BPS policy. A recording of the hearing is posted on the City Council’s meeting calendar, and written testimony sent to the Committee on Education becomes part of the docket record. The full council next meets Wednesday, Oct. 28, at noon.
Sources
- Boston.gov: City Council Committee on Education Hearing on Docket #0407 (Oct. 20, 2026)
- Boston City Council: Docket #0407 hearing order (filed Feb. 25, 2026)
- NBC10 Boston: Boston Public Schools report on sex abuse, bullying allegations (Oct. 22, 2026)
- The Daily Free Press: Boston City Council hosts hearing on assault and sexual violence in schools (Oct. 23, 2026)
- Contrarian Boston: BPS records on sexual misconduct allegations (Oct. 17, 2026)
- Boston City Council meeting calendar (Legistar)
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