High school dean-turned-dealer sentenced for maiming student

Shaun Harrison was a Boston high school dean and anti-violence advocate known by students as ‘‘Rev’’ for his pastor-like demeanor. But the pious facade hid a dark double life.

He boasted to students of his gang ties, drugs and guns. He recruited one of them, a 17-year-old student from a broken home, to deal marijuana in school, authorities said.

But after a dispute over slumping sales, Harrison shot the teen in the back of the head with a .380 pistol as they walked on a snowy city street in 2015 and left him for dead, prosecutors said.

Except Luis Rodriguez didn’t die. He dragged himself up and flagged down a passing car. In the hospital, Rodriguez uttered the name of his would-be killer: ‘‘Rev.’’

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Harrison arrived at English High in Boston in January 2015, just two months before his arrest and after stints at other city public schools over about five years. He had been a community organizer and youth minister in Boston for decades, a familiar face who often worked with police and other law enforcement and helped gang members turn their lives around.

High school dean-turned-dealer sentenced for maiming student