Dirty needles found scattered near Brockton school

BROCKTON, Mass. — A local elementary school continues to deal with dozens of dirty needles scattered at an adjacent park.

Last month, FOX25 reported about the dirty needles scattered near Barrett Russell Elementary in Brockton.  City officials said it would be clean before school started on Sept. 15.

At the park on Wednesday, the day before kindergarten began, FOX25 found the problem hadn't gotten much better.

While FOX25 was at the park Wednesday, three Brockton Police officers drove out to see what our crew was doing. Mayor Bill Carpenter eventually came out to the park to talk about the problem with dirty needles.

"Very few needles have been found anywhere near the school. We are in an area here, the children of that school never come to. We're over 200 yards from the school," Carpenter told FOX25.

The mayor said the problem is concentrated towards the back of the park, hundreds of yards away from the school. However, one of the first needles FOX25 found was right out in the open along a concrete wall, a little more than 100 yards away from the elementary school, the parking lot and the playground.

"Listen, we don't want any needles anywhere in the city," Carpenter told FOX25.

The FOX25 crew showed the officers all the needles they found. All together, they picked up 14. City workers then came and began picking up the garbage and drug paraphernalia. Mayor Carpenter said it's hard to keep people out of the park.

FOX25's Jason Law asked Carpenter whether it was acceptable to have heroin addicts in a park within sight of a school, using, then disposing of their needles.

"You're saying 'sight' right? S-i-g-h-t? Because we're 250 yards from the school," Carpenter replied.

FOX25 asked if yardage is going to matter to parents.

"No, you keep twisting the question. It's not acceptable for anyone to ever come across an improperly discarded hypodermic needle. We're zero tolerance on this," Carpenter said.

The Brockton School District turned down FOX25's request for an interview but did release the following statement.

"School and city police and maintenance teams continue to work together to sweep the area every morning and throughout the day to dispose of any needles that are found and monitor the area for illegal drug use and people who may be loitering and trespassing."

As school resumed Thursday morning, parents told FOX25 they had spoken with their children about picking up needles, but still had concerns.

“They know not to pick anything up off the ground. I’ve spoken to them many times," Leeanna Dyson said. "It’s still part of the school. And even if it wasn’t it’s still on the street. The kids are everywhere.”

Cox Media Group