Following a shooting that led a Dorchester charter school to go fully remote for the rest of the year, community members are asking how the situation escalated so far and how it may be able to be addressed.

“The severity of the threat, that the state would allow a school to stop coming in person, to me, that speaks volumes,” said City Councilor Erin Murphy on Sunday. “And I think it speaks volumes to how, as a society, we’ve just kind of become numb to school violence.”

Neighborhood House Charter School announced the state had approved their request to go fully remote for the remainder of the school year after shots were fired at a student near the school last week.

The threat of gang violence has been at present at the charter school since 2022, Murphy said, speaking of her conversations with parents and staff at the school. She noted that families have said they’re too afraid to speak up publicly for fear of repercussions.

Parents said last year 20 armed guard were present at the 8th grade graduation, Murphy recounted, and families were not notified of the location until an hour before and told not to share the information. For over a year, she said a parent told her, students families have not been even notified of locations of field trips out of safety precautions.

A meeting was supposed to be held on Friday to address safety issues at the school but was canceled Friday morning, the councilor said. The gang unit of the Boston Police has been involved at the school and was intended to attend the meeting, she said.

Murphy said she knows of no other situations in which a school had to go remote because of safety concerns.

Rev. Eugene Rivers, a pastor in Dorchester and local activist, called the situation “crazy,” saying “if you cannot provide safety for these kids the city has failed them.”

“We need patrols in the area and police should be back in the schools,” Rivers said, noting that police are already on college campuses across the city. “We need to provide a safer environment for our schoolchildren.”

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Metal detectors and police in schools have often been among the discussions in the wake of safety incidents at BPS school in recent years.

The city does not oversee or have the power to make direct changes at charter schools like Neighborhood House, Murphy said, but as a city official, she noted the importance of keeping lines of communication open with the school community. The councilor said she’s also working on a letter to the state education department regarding safety concerns at Boston schools.

“Communication has always been a big part,” said Murphy. “It’s part of the culture that administration and teachers probably feel like their hands are tied, because when they try to share the truth, they’re often ostracized. And then, if they try to handle it themselves, like in this situation, it got out of control. The children are in harm’s way.”

Joe Dwinell contributed.