Boston School Dean Recruited Students for Latin Kings, U.S. Says
Amanda Holpuch, New York Times, August 10, 2022
A former Boston public school official who recruited at-risk students into the Latin Kings gang and had the students distribute drugs on campus pleaded guilty to racketeering charges on Tuesday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts said.
The former official, Shaun Harrison, 63, faces 218 months, or more than 18 years, in prison under the plea agreement, which was made in a case that targeted dozens of members of the Latin Kings. Mr. Harrison is currently serving a prison sentence for trying to kill one of the students, whom he shot in the back of the head at point-blank range.
Mr. Harrison was hired to serve as an academic dean at English High School in Boston in 2015, months before the shooting. He worked with families to help struggling students and ran an anger-management program for 10 boys at the school, using his position to recruit “a number of the at-risk students” into the gang, prosecutors said.
Mr. Harrison, known as “Rev” or “King Rev,” directed the students he recruited to sell marijuana and other drugs, which he provided, at the high school, prosecutors said.
“This former high school dean and self-professed anti-violence advocate was supposed to be looking out for the best interests of his students, when in reality he was living a double life as a Latin King, engaging in violence while recruiting at-risk students to traffic drugs and further the insidious needs of the gang,” Joseph R. Bonavolonta, special agent in charge of the F.B.I.’s Boston office, said in a statement.
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{snip} He continued to associate with other members of the Latin Kings in prison, including to try to identify who contributed to his conviction, prosecutors said on Tuesday.
In 2016, while awaiting trial for the shooting, Mr. Harrison denied that he lived a double life in an interview {snip}
“I never, never sold drugs, I never sold guns, never turned kids into gang members,” he told the station. “Me? I would not even know how to do that.”
