<p>I was under the impression from press reports that CRLS did the heterogeneous classes for more than two years. If they have totally abandoned it, good for them. By all accounts the faculty considered it a disaster.</p>
<p>You’re right, the chances are vanishingly small of Harvard girl dating that guy… unless there was a pre-existing social connection, such as attending (or having dated at) CRLS together.</p>
<p>It is always tragic when a young person is killed—and in all honesty, I think the initial reaction to “its not a Harvard student” was more the sense that it was “other” and not, somehow, a safety threat to our own children. Its also tragic that the perpetrator, a 20 year old, is now facing murder charges. Put a gun in a young person’s hands, and this is what you get.</p>
<p>My point was to underscore that Harvard students who are buying drugs are putting themselves, and their school community in danger, regardless of whether possession of marijuana is a criminal offense or not. It may have only been a matter of luck that a Harvard student wasn’t killed or injured here. </p>
<p>I think de-criminalization by Mass is more a function of the fact that there are so many colleges in Mass, Boston in particular, and they have parents who can pay to beat the charges. Its a reflection of the enforcement difficulty.</p>
<p>I don’t know that much about Cambridge Rindge & Latin, except that marite’s kids don’t sound like any Menace 2 Society, and my daughter has a long-time friend who went there and who is graduating from Yale on his way to Harvard Law School. However, in my city my kids attended both a high-prestige private school and a public magnet. I can tell you with 100% certainty that the chances of a high performing student at the private school having a close relationship with a drug dealer are much, much higher than with a high-performing student at the public school. Drug use was close to universal at the private school (and at all of its peer schools), and relatively rare (and less frequent, for those who did use drugs) among the ambitious public-school students. All of which tells me that, while this particular drug dealer may have come from CRLS, there is probably more of a chance that he was meeting someone from BBN than one of his classmates.</p>
<p>Whatever the poor choices made by the CRLS graduate, Justin Cosby, who is the victim of homicide, they pale in comparison to the bad decisions of those suspected of killing him.</p>
<p>There is no evidence that those suspects are Cambridge locals, and in fact, the Crimson is now reporting that Jabrai Copney, the suspect who turned himself in yesterday, was from New York City and that he had a prior connection to Harvard students based on those NYC roots.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>[The</a> Harvard Crimson :: News :: New York Man Arrested for Murder at Harvard](<a href=“http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=528263]The”>http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=528263)</p>
<p>JHS:</p>
<p>And I know another CRLS grad who went to Yale and has been admitted to a Ph.D. program at H, another who went to Yale undergrad and is now a Yale grad. One who went to Yale from CRLS and was a Rhodes scholar. Still another who went to Yale and is currently in grad school. And on and on.</p>
<p>Update from Boston.com
</p>
<p>[DA:</a> Drugs ‘common denominator’ in Harvard slaying - Local News Updates - The Boston Globe](<a href=“http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2009/05/da_drugs_common.html]DA:”>http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2009/05/da_drugs_common.html)</p>
<p>It might also be useful to remember that the last town/gown confrontation that led to murder involved a HARVARD grad killing a local man. Maybe Cambridge residents should consider the danger posed by Harvard students (besides noise, that is).</p>
<p>DA: Drugs ‘common denominator’ in Harvard slaying
May 22, 2009 10:05 AM Email| Comments (19)| Text size – + By John R. Ellement and Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff </p>
<p>CAMBRIDGE – A “drug rip-off” over a pound of marijuana and $1,000 in cash led to the fatal shooting this week of a man inside a residence hall at Harvard University, according to Middlesex District Attorney Gerard T. Leone Jr.</p>
<p>The victim, Justin Cosby, 21, had been selling drugs to students at Harvard and went to Kirkland House on Monday afternoon with the marijuana and money, Leone said today at a press conference at Cambridge police headquarters. Three men traveled to Cambridge from New York City with the intention of robbing Cosby, he said. </p>
<p>One of the men, Jabrai Jordan Copney, is scheduled to be arraigned today in Cambridge District Court in connection with the killing. The other two men returned to New York City and remain at large, Leone said. </p>
<p>“It was that encounter between the four men that went bad,” Leone said, adding, “The common denominator that led to the intent to rip-off Justin Cosby of both money and drugs was that Justin and Jordan were known to each other through Harvard students.” </p>
<p>Leone did not release the names of the two female students at Harvard who were the nexus between Cosby and Copney. They have not been charged with a crime. </p>
<p>Police recovered one pound of marijuana and $1,000 in cash near where Cosby was shot and have also found the handgun used in the shooting, Leone said. Cosby was shot inside the J entryway of Kirkland House around 5 p.m. After being hit, he ran up Dunster Street to Mount Auburn Street, where he collapsed. He died Tuesday morning in Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.</p>
<p>Copney has been charged in connection with the killing but he has not been identified as the person who actually pulled the trigger. Because the other two men returned to New York City, there is not an ongoing security threat at Harvard, Leone said. Investigators are working with the New York City Police Department to apprehend the other two men. </p>
<p>Electronic swipe cards are needed to enter all Harvard residence halls, Leone said, and students at the university allowed Cosby, Copney, and the other men access to the building. The district attorney, who graduated from Harvard in 1985, acknowledged that drug use and dealing is a problem in and around the Ivy League campus. </p>
<p>Cosby’s mother, Denise, did not return calls to her home on Thursday, but the family issued a statement defending the reputation of her son, a 2005 graduate of Cambridge Rindge and Latin School.</p>
<p>"He was not a ‘hoodlum’ or ‘gangster,’ " the family said. “Justin was a fashion trendsetter, basketball player, student, and self-admitted ‘mama’s boy.’ He was looking forward to picking up new studies … and marrying his longtime girlfriend.”</p>
<p>According to court records, Cosby had at least one minor brush with law enforcement when he was arrested by Cambridge police in 2007 and charged with possession of marijuana after a small plastic bag and two marijuana cigarettes were found in his car. The drug possession charge was continued without a finding and then dismissed in June 2008 because Cosby had no new arrests during that time, records show.</p>
<p>A private wake and funeral service will be held for Cosby on Saturday. Nearly a dozen Harvard students interviewed on Thursday said they do not believe drugs are a pervasive problem on campus, just an element of undergraduate life and something nonusers could easily ignore, until this week.</p>
<p>“People make personal choices, and as long as they don’t harm other people, they can do whatever they want,” said Alan Ibrahim, a sophomore and a resident of Kirkland House who attended high school with Cosby but did not know him. “But to actually see something go bad, it’s really frightening.”</p>
<p>Can someone please tell me what CRLS is and how it affects Harvard and it’s students? </p>
<p>thanks in advance</p>
<p>I don;t know much about it. Just it’s name. Here is a link:</p>
<p>[Cambridge</a> Rindge and Latin School | Cambridge Public School District | Cambridge, MA](<a href=“http://www.cps.ci.cambridge.ma.us/crls/]Cambridge”>http://www.cps.ci.cambridge.ma.us/crls/)</p>
<p>Maybe other CCers can provide specific details.</p>
<p>PS I can speculate that it is like Tufts who has a relationship with the public schools in the town(s) that it is located it. Extra consideration is given to Medford (and maybe Somerville?) students when applying to Tufts.</p>
<p>CRLS is the one public high school in Cambridge, resulting from the merger (around 1979?) of the Rindge School of Technical Arts and Cambridge Latin (the second oldest school in the US, or something like that). It’s a stone’s throw from Harvard Yard. Harvard gives a tip to Cambridge residents (not just CRLS graduates). This is a fairly common practice among colleges. Additionally, a fair number of Harvard faculty who reside in Cambridge send their children there. And, of course, a lot of Harvard alumni stick around after college and also send their kids to CRLS. As a result, it is not always easy to figure out how much of a tip/hook graduating from CRLS in and of itself gives applicants as opposed to being facbrat or legacy (or sometimes both). One way of thinking about it is to look at where else a CRLS admit to Harvard was admitted.</p>
<p>CRLS is a large public hs in Cambridge with a diverse student population. Ben Alfeck attended as well as Matt Damon as well as my nephew who still has many intelligent talented friends who graduated from there… Students there are varied as in any public high school. To its credit Harvard does make an effort to give a chance to many deserving students from local public high schools. A young man lost his life. His family is devasted.To suggest that this tragedy is somehow associated with this policy is disturbing in too many ways to discuss.</p>
<p>Yes, Harvard gives a tip to students who apply who go to school in Cambridge.</p>
<p>So much for the CRLS connection:</p>
<p>
[Student</a> link cited in Harvard killing - The Boston Globe](<a href=“http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/05/23/police_say_harvard_killing_was_drug_rip/?page=2]Student”>http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/05/23/police_say_harvard_killing_was_drug_rip/?page=2)</p>
<p>I am glad that Harvard is not just looking to bury this like the public expects.</p>
<p>Marite - Thanks for the link to the latest news</p>
<p>CCers - the link does go to the second page, scroll to the bottom and you can get back to page one for the whole story</p>
<p>Maybe I am wrong, but I love how the Kirkland house woman was “devastated by the school’s decision to punish her even though she has not been directly implicated in Cosby’s killing and has a solid academic record”. If it were not for her, the shooters would not have her keycard to gain access into Kirkland house and the shooting would have at the very least not happened in that location.</p>
<p>Question? If she gave the keycard to the shooters, then how did Cosby get in? Must be some further help by her or someone else.</p>
<p>I think that people should stop speculating about all this (myself included). It is possible that the consequences for this young woman are extremely unfair and tragic. We don’t have the facts. We may not ever have the facts.</p>
<p>I do believe that there is so much more that the media and Harvard administration is not telling the public. They can’t tell us too much as to not ruin the investigation and the trial.</p>
<p>Dear Harvard College Community,</p>
<p>I write to update you on developments following Monday’s tragic shooting
at Kirkland House and about preliminary steps that we will be taking to
address some of the issues that the ongoing investigation has raised.</p>
<p>The Middlesex County District Attorney made clear this morning (May 22)
that drugs were at the center of the events that brought Justin Cosby
together with his assailants on Monday.</p>
<p>It appears that the parties involved gained access to Kirkland House
with the help of Harvard students.</p>
<p>The district attorney and police have assured us that this violent
encounter was an isolated incident, and that there is no reason to fear
a continued threat to the security of our students.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, there are important lessons to learn from this sad episode. I
intend to work with student leaders and others to address the nature
and risks of illicit drug use on campus, to underscore the importance
of safety and security practices for the entire College community,
and to examine the adequacy of existing policies relating to student life.</p>
<p>The safety and security of our students, staff, and faculty are
fundamental University priorities. Despite the recent decrease in overall
crime on campus, we must never be complacent. We have taken a number of
steps over the past two years to improve security across the University,
but as an urban campus we must work continuously to maintain a safe and
secure environment.</p>
<p>We also want to make sure that our residential-life staff have the tools
they need to help students take full advantage of their Harvard education
and deepen their sense of responsibility to the Harvard community.</p>
<p>Finally, I know many students and parents may have questions or thoughts
they want to share, and I welcome those inquiries. Please feel free to
contact my office at <a href=“mailto:hcdean@fas.harvard.edu”>hcdean@fas.harvard.edu</a>.</p>
<p>Sincerely yours,</p>
<p>Evelynn Hammonds</p>
<p>Here’s an update:</p>
<p>WOBURN — When Brittany Smith’s longtime boyfriend sought entry to her Harvard University dormitory, allegedly for a drug deal, she handed over her electronic-access card, prosecutors said yesterday. But Smith did not stop at that, they said.</p>
<p>She watched as assailants loaded the 9mm handgun used to kill 21-year-old Justin D. Cosby last May, according to prosecutors and court papers. After the slaying, she took the gun — allegedly handed to her by her boyfriend, Jabrai Jordan Copney — and hid it in a friend’s dorm room, prosecutors said.</p>
<p>Smith then hailed a taxi that took her, Copney, and two other suspects to South Station and paid their bus fare back to New York, said the prosecutors.</p>
<p>Smith, an aspiring lawyer from Harlem, pleaded not guilty yesterday to charges of being an accessory after the fact of the murder of Cosby, a suspected drug dealer from Cambridge whose killing inside Harvard’s Kirkland House dorm shattered the quiet of campus as students studied for final exams.</p>
<p>Smith, a 22-year-old scholarship student whom Harvard barred from graduating last spring after she was linked to the case, was also charged with lying to police investigating the killing, the first committed inside a Harvard facility since 1995.</p>
<p>The “indictment of Brittany Smith is a significant step in unraveling the truth in this case, and holding her accountable for her alleged complicity in, and subsequent attempts to cover up, the murder of Justin Cosby,’’ Middlesex District Attorney Gerard T. Leone Jr. said in a statement yesterday.
[DA</a> says student aided killers at Harvard - The Boston Globe](<a href=“http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2010/03/17/da_says_student_aided_killers_at_harvard/?page=1]DA”>http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2010/03/17/da_says_student_aided_killers_at_harvard/?page=1)</p>
<p>NSM - Thanks for the update. I always suspected that Harvard would not have barred the student from graduation w/o evidence.</p>