Emergency meeting called to address violence in Lawrence Schools

Elected officials in Lawrence have called an emergency meeting for Monday evening to address violence in their schools and they want state Education Commissioner Jeff Riley to join them.

Mayor Kendrys Vasquez, who also chairs the Lawrence School Committee, called Thursday for the committee and the Lawrence City Council to sit jointly for the meeting, and asked that Riley, or his designee, and Lawrence Schools Superintendent Cynthia Paris, be in attendance.

"Members of the public are deeply concerned about the developments at Lawrence High School," Vasquez said in a statement. "I have done everything in my power to provide aid to the district within the constraints of receivership."

Vasquez added that "while the District and DESE have scarcely participated in the City's public forums, School Committee or Council meetings, when asked to appear," he hopes that "in this opportunity they will participate and at the very least acknowledge the concerns of community members."

The purpose of the meeting is to address "the altercations at Lawrence High School over the past few weeks and the District's response to the incidents," the mayor said, and to allow the public and elected city officials to ask questions of Paris and Riley "relative to the state of receivership in Lawrence and the overseer's relation to Lawrencians particularly during times of crisis as the ones our schools are living through today."

Monday's meeting begins at 7 p.m. at the Lawrence Public Library, 51 Lawrence Street, Lawrence.