The stabbing of a 16-year-old boy outside DeWitt Clinton Campus was the talk of the four schools housed in that storied campus: DeWitt Clinton High School, World View High School, a D75 school, and Bronx Collaborative High School, where the victim’s enrolled.

The stabbing stood at the heart of an hour-long discussion into ways violence can be reduced outside the school, with the commanding officer of the 52nd Precinct, Thomas Alps, taking a pragmatic look at the situation he’s tasked to quell. It was a frank discussion given the belief that no reporter was expected to show (Sirio Guerino, the former PTA president of Bronx Collaborative High School, who has two sons enrolled at the campus, called the meeting, inviting this publication’s editor to attend), and it revealed a full-throttled attempt by Alps to keep order at a school that’s sadly seen spurts of violence.

To Alps’ credit, he appeared to take the issue seriously. And he was transparent enough to outline some detriments to his strategy: the large crowds during dismissal, the night tour schedules that begin as school lets out forcing officers to hotfoot it out of the station house, an ongoing feud between gangs at Walton High School, and the lack of respect for its officers. The work Alps is pouring towards the problem will continue, he noted. Our hope is that the presence of police officers is enough to keep the peace.

But with police cars routinely spotted, often strategically stationed outside the school, is this what students want to head out to when dismissed?

Could the remedy be more pronounced outreach to more parents demanding they do right by their children by denouncing violence? Can there be a broader conversation framed around how students from schools can help not hurt each other? Can the city Department of Education reconsider a policy where four schools are crammed into a building, creating a kind of tribalism that breeds isolation from within?

DeWitt Clinton High School is often the school that gets singled out for its unfortunate history of violence. That perception continues to this day, as media reports of the stabbing indicated the incident happened at DeWitt Clinton High School. The school’s alumni association has called out those errors in the reporting of the stabbing, even calling out this paper numerous times, for making such a call despite reports from the Police Department claiming it happened at DeWitt Clinton High School.

Such a group is welcome in this discourse as it tries to reverse an image of violence that’s been burned onto the school. Since the stabbing, the alumni association has tagged this paper on social media, showcasing the increase in test scores, now on par with the rest of the city, a robust debate team, and an infectious pride. If only the principal, Pierre Orbe, or the city Department of Education were so bold as to invite this paper to look at the progress the school’s made firsthand. Only time will tell.

And perhaps the association, school officials, police, and parents can build on that momentum, amplifying an anti-violence message before the year’s out, hoping that the summer months can be incident-free. Perhaps there could be a day where the police wouldn’t have to be stationed outside the school.