Seeds of Change

By Rich Shea

Lowell, Mass.

Built nine years ago, in what was once a premier industrial city, the 700- student James F. Sullivan Middle School looks typical. It's a massive, boxlike structure sitting on a few acres of hilly land in the midst of a middle-class neighborhood. Composed chiefly of brick-colored cinder blocks, it does, however, offer a few distinctive traits—the green window frames, for example, and the diamond-shaped accents that punctuate the building's façade. But one detail is more notable than the rest.

At the base of the school's flagpole is a garden, which, each spring, is overrun with flowers—crocuses, tulips, irises, and daffodils. But by mid- October, there aren't nearly as many signs of life; in fact, the ground begins to glaze over with frost, the soil to tighten its fingers into a fist. Standing sentinel over the garden is a slab of granite that braves the elements 12 months a year. Inscribed in its smooth surface are these words: "McHugh Peace Garden, Dedicated Oct. 23, 1997."

Before he died, David McHugh worked at Sullivan, which is here in Lowell, 30 miles north of Boston. As a "behavior modification specialist," he was a combination guidance counselor, social worker, and disciplinarian responsible for supervising an in-school-suspension program. But four years ago, something terrible happened at Sullivan, something that forced district officials to tackle a discipline problem that many Lowell residents felt had reached a boiling point: McHugh—a husband and the father of 2-year-old Brendan—was beaten while attempting to break...