A Boston youth summer jobs fair is back on the schedule at the Reggie Lewis Center in Roxbury after massive crowding and violence disrupted the first go-around late last month.
The city-sponsored FutureBOS Youth Jobs and Resource Fair is slated to be held on May 10, weeks after the Boston Police Department shut down the annual event early on March 29 due to the chaotic mess.
Organizers had scheduled the fair to take place from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., allowing 14-to-24-year-olds to connect with over 100 summer employers and job resources, but the BPD called off the event by 1:30 that Saturday afternoon.
City councilors are set to hold a hearing on Thursday about what led to the overcrowding and reports of violence in the first iteration, and how planning could be enhanced to ensure future youth employment events are “conducted in a safe and effective manner.”
City Councilor Erin Murphy, who attended the March event, said there had been a notable “absence of Boston Police details, leaving the venue’s security personnel overwhelmed when altercations erupted.”
In a release posted on her website Tuesday, Murphy, who filed an emergency order for Thursday’s hearing, said the fair’s rescheduling is a “direct result of my dedication to confronting challenges head-on and ensuring that Boston’s youth have access to the opportunities they deserve.”
“Initially, the administration attempted to downplay the severity of the situation,” Murphy wrote, “suggesting that school-level outreach would suffice to address the issues arising from the premature shutdown of the job fair.”
“Moving forward,” she added, “it is imperative that comprehensive security measures are integrated into all large public gatherings to provide a secure environment for our community.”
Mayor Michelle Wu said the city had started to rethink how to manage the annual youth summer jobs fair when she hit back at criticism from her mayoral opponent Josh Kraft that a lack of security and poor planning exacerbated the chaotic situation.
Wu told reporters last week that 2,200 students attended the March event, compared to 1,800 last year, and anticipates that interest will continue to grow. She added that police officers were on site “as part of the programming, interviewing and providing access to jobs.”
Over 10,000 young people participated in the city’s summer job program last year, and the fair maxed out available early registration ahead of the event, though city staff encouraged unregistered students still to come.
Boston Police said they received a call about a disturbance at the Reggie around 1 pm. that Saturday. Responding cops “observed about 1,500 youths inside and leaving,” an incident report stated.
A “large fight” broke out at the Malcolm X Blvd. exit, BPD said, and officers requested city-wide Emergency Deployment Teams to help clear the scene.
The crowd eventually left the area peacefully, police said, and the scene was emptied by 1:40 p.m. Boston Police reported no arrests, injuries or property damage.
A day after the event, Kraft questioned how the event could have been “so poorly staffed” and why there was “no plan to manage the crowds,” given that Wu’s office had “boasted about how the turnout at this year’s job fair was going to be the biggest ever.”
“The mayor’s favorite talking point these days is her ‘safest city in America’ claim,” Kraft said. “But if your teenager can’t show up at a job fair without the fear of being hurt, how safe of a city do we really have?”