ARCHIVES OF LEAD STORIES
January 13, 2005
Teens organize against violence
on Orange Line
By Yawu Miller
Youth coordinators with the Hyde Square Task Force have long complained
about the conditions in the Jackson Square MBTA stop. The lights
were dim, windows were dirty and call boxes for MBTA police were
inoperative.
Teens with the Task Force were robbed and girls passing through
the station were routinely harassed.
After a 14-year-old girl was stabbed in front of
the station in March last year, the teens had a meeting with MBTA
officials, Boston police and State police.
Many of their recommendations — including
improved lighting, cleaning of windows and increased police presence
— were implemented over the following months. And the results
have been palpable.
“Now there’s more police presence,”
commented Lillian Casillas, a teen community organizer with the
Task Force.
Last Wednesday, Casillas and five other teens dressed in royal
robes to honor the tradition of the day of the three kings, a
traditional post-Christmas holiday that marks the visit of three
wise men to the manger where Jesus was born.
The teens handed out buttons calling for peace
on the MBTA as well as candy and books in a gesture aimed at fostering
goodwill in the station.
“Basically, this is to make our community
more welcoming,” said Gian Gonzalez, another youth organizer
with the Task Force. “We want to unify the community and
make the station a little more friendly and safer.”
In May, the Task Force coordinated a clean up of
the area around the station, using volunteers from City Year and
local corporations. In July, the teens worked with an artist Roberto
Chao to paint flowers on the columns in front of the station.
Another change the teens suggested that has had
a positive effect on the station was the removal of a bank of
telephones near the turnstiles that attracted a groups of teenagers.
Since the phones were removed, the group has not been congregating
there.
MBTA spokeswoman Lydia Rivera said the changes
in the station demonstrate the effectiveness of the agency’s
collaboration with the community.
“Jackson Square has gone through a complete
transformation for the better since the MBTA has been working
with Rep. Jeffrey Sanchez and the community,” she commented.
MBTA police initiated a program call Operation
Stop Watch in September of 2003 after an MBTA poll found that
35 percent of teenagers who use the system said they were afraid
to ride the T. While the Task Force teens say the station has
gotten better, in November a teenage girl was reportedly abducted
from the station by a group of five youths and gang raped in the
basement of an apartment building in the Bromley Heath housing
development next to the station.
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