STOP RACIAL VIOLENCE AGAINST ASIAN STUDENTS IN PHILADELPHIA.
Summary of Facts (Dec 2, 2009 - Dec 15, 2009)
Wed, Dec 2 - At least one Asian student at South Philadelphia High School reportedly attacked.
Thu, Dec 3 - Series of assaults continued inside and outside of the school building, with at least 26 Asian students victimized. At least 7 injured students received medical treatments at area hospitals. Source: New York Times; ABC video.
Fri, Dec 4 - A student group met with school officials but received inadequate response regarding safety measures from school officials. Source: Philly.com.
Sat, Dec 5 - BPSOS-Delaware Valley started contacting high school students, gathering eyewitness stories, and coordinating with other APA community organizations.
Mon, Dec 7 - Approximately 50 Asian students did not go to class for fear of violence or in protest of school officials' failure to provide safety measures. School suspended 10 of those students who committed violent attacks. Asian students, after an unproductive meeting with school and local officials who failed to address their safety concerns, officially launched a week-long boycott of school. Source: CBS.
BPSOS met with other community groups, such as the Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corporation and Cambodian Association of Greater Philadelphia, to discuss next steps of action.
Tue, Dec 8 - A second student/parent/community joint meeting is held at undisclosed location in Chinatown to gather a list of demands for school officials. At the school, principal LaGretta Brown holds separate meetings at 10 AM and 5 PM. Source: Philly.com
Wed, Dec 9 - Community rallies with Students as they plan to bring their demands to the School Reform Commission (SRC) at 2 PM. Watch video of students organizing and marching to speak out against racial violencehere. Ackerman laid out a wide array of remedies for the racial tension and violence, including (source: The Notebook):
1. A 50-member Task Force for Racial and Cultural Harmony -- including parents, students, religious leaders, immigrant groups, and others -- has been named and charged with addressing racial conflict in the District, beginning at South Philadelphia. Several of the task force members were introduced at the meeting.
2. The Department of Justice will be implementing a new Spirit Program to address racial and ethnic conflicts at the school.
3. The District will conduct listening tours that will target young people.
4. The District and police are bringing in extra patrols around the school, more school security officers, and extra school staff to maintain a safe environment.
5. A new office of diversity has been charged with working on issues at the school; the office is headed by Theos McKinney.
6. The District is publicizing its telephone hotline, 215-400-SAFE.
Fri, Dec 11 - School district officials refused to meet with injured and concerned students at a safe and neutral community location and kept up pressure on students participating in the boycott to return to school. There were reports of intimidation, from students, parents, and even school teachers.
Sun, Dec 13 - Students continued to work closely with Asian Americans United, BPSOS and other community and student organizations. Today, they wrote down stories and shared thoughts going through this campaign. Despite strong cold winds and rainy weather, they held a successful rally on Sunday evening, with over 100 people attending and representatives from the Philadelphia Students Union, attending to stand in solidarity with victimized Asian students.
Mon, Dec 14 - Philadelphia Chief Superintendent Dr. Ackerman earlier today acknowledged that this is no longer a school district issue, but a community issue. She agreed to meet with the students, parents, and advocates tomorrow at 4pm in the Chinese Christian Church. Joining Dr. Ackerman are Ozzie Wright, the newly hired consultant with experience turning around trouble-schools before, and the new head of security to listen to students concerns and needs.
Tue, Dec 15 - Today, after a two-hour meeting with Chief Superintendent Arlene Ackerman and school district officials, students of South Philadelphia High School have agreed to suspend their boycott of the school. For the first time, approx. 50 students, along with a number of community advocates and leaders, such as: Helen Gym/Ellen Somekawa, Asian Americans United; Nancy and Michelle Nguyen from Boat People SOS; Xu Lin, Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corporation; Mia-Lia Kiernan, Cambodian Association of Greater Philadelphia, Thoai Nguyen, SEAMAAC, Allan Wong, Mayor's Commission on Asian American Affairs, were able to discuss their grievances frankly with Chief Superintendent Arlene Ackerman, Superintendent Mike Silverman, South Philadelphia High School Principal Lagreta Brown, and Asst. Principal Ozzie Wright.
Below is the students' statement:
Through our trials and struggles, we pushed the school to hear us. We have made change by standing together. We are proud of what we have done. If something happens again after all this, we know that we have strong wills and we will stand together again.
We have came back to stand with more students. We want to start a dialogue with other student organizations. We will continue to work with the community organizations. The struggle will go on until all the demands are met; we won't give up. We ask everyone to continue to pay attention to what's going on at SPHS. We hope that school can change their attitude for the benefits of all students. We thank our supporters. Without the support of everyone we could not go this far. We are excited for the future. We now believe in hope and change, like president Obama
We want a safe school for everyone; we want everyone to have a good education. This is not the end, but just the beginning of the fight for better futures and better educations for all races of students.
~ Students of the South Philly High boycott
The Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund has filed a civil rights complaint, on behalf of the injured students, with the U.S. Department of Justice against the Philadelphia School District for failing to address the ongoing racial violence. The responsible school district officials are taking some of the action steps and we look forward to turn things around in Philadelphia for our youth, our future.
Philadelphia Weekly: Asian Students Under Assault (Sept. 1) - providing detailed accounts of the longstanding racial violence at Philadelphia South High School and in the city's neighborhoods months before the mass attacks began in early December 2009.
The Notebook: Gearing up for a long struggle at South Philly (Dec. 13): "Nancy Nguyen of Boat People SOS, who has been meeting with 50 or more of the boycotting students this past week and emceed the solidarity rally, noted, 'What we've started is not going to finish any time soon.' But she added, 'We are strong, we are united, and we will win the changes we need in South Philadelphia High School.'"
Philadelphia Inquirer: 100 rally to support S. Phila. High's Asian students (Dec. 14): "It would be easy for them to pursue a narrow strategy, but they're not. They really have an eye toward making change for all the district," said Fred Pinguel of Philadelphia Student Union, who attended with several Student Union members from around the city. The Asian students, he said, are "very brave."
AALDEF Files Civil Rights Complaint Against Philadelphia School District
The Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund (AALDEF) filed a
complaint on January 19, 2010 for civil rights violations with the U.S.
Department of Justice charging the School District of Philadelphia and
South
Philadelphia High School (SPHS) with discrimination against Asian
students on the basis of race and national origin in violation of the
Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
Read the full press release by downloading the PDF.
Philadelphia Human Relations Commission holds its first citywide school violence hearing.
Frustration with District failures marks public hearing on school violence
by Helen Gym, The Philadelphia Public School Notebook, Jan. 28, 2010
Helen Gym writes about a hearing that is a “damning indictment of the School District.” Read the full story »
HRC Hearing on School Violence Held in South Phila.
By Pat Loeb, KYW1060, Jan. 28, 2010
Fels student, Vu Le, testifies. Read the full story »
Commission hears of violence in many city schools
By Kristen A. Graham, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Jan. 28, 2010 Read the full story »
Violence has students attending in fear
By Dafney Tales, Philadelphia Daily News, Jan. 29, 2010 Read the full story »
Stories of Violence in Philly Schools
NBC Philadelphia, Jan. 29, 2010 Read the full story »
Listen to Here and Now
Feb. 9th: Boston’s “Here and Now” radio show features Philadelphia Inquirer reporter Jeff Gammage discussing the South Philadelphia High School situation. Find it here and scroll to the story at 25:50 »
Other Phila. schools handle racial, ethnic tensions
By Kristen A. Graham, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Feb. 4, 2010
Mia-lia Kiernan makes a strong appearance in The Philadelphia Inquirer
front page story on February 4, 2010, showing that one of the first
steps to addressing racial violence is to recognize it then tackle it. Read the full story »
Tepid response to attacks against Asians is nothing new
By Gustavo Martínez Contreras, The Philadelphia Public School Notebook, Feb. 2010
The Public School Notebook features a retrospective on anti-Asian violence in the District, featuring Debbie Wei. Read the full story »
Earlier this week, Judge James Giles released the findings of a
District investigation into the violence on Dec. 3 at South Philadelphia
High School. Among the findings was confirmation of widespread violence
at the school starting before 9 a.m. and continuing throughout the day
on Dec. 3rd with clear knowledge of that violence by school officials.
The violence was acknowledged to have some relationship to race. The
report also revealed that it could not substantiate a highly publicized
charge that Asian students had beaten up a disabled African American
student the day before. That allegation was based on hearsay, according
to the report, and the Judge could not determine whether the African
American student was a victim or an attacker in that situation.
At the same time, Asian Americans United and advocates who have
worked on addressing violence at South Philadelphia High School for more
than a year raised serious concerns about the inadequacy of the Judge’s
report, including:
the report’s focus on two dates, Dec. 2 and 3, ignoring a much
longer pattern of anti-Asian/anti-immigrant violence at the school;
the failure to interview the majority of student victims as well as a number of witnesses on the scene Dec. 3;
limited attention paid to racial bias and language access concerns with regard to official school action; and
short-sighted recommendation that are mostly punitive towards
students and fail to address how to build a more supportive and
inclusive academic and social environment for all students at South
Philadelphia High School.
The gravest concern, however, is that the report essentially absolves
the District and school leadership of any responsibility. In fact, the
report seems to imply that if we were to revisit that day on December
3rd the administration of SPHS could have made the exact same choices –
and that is a frightening analysis. Without some measure of
accountability and understanding of what could and should have been done
differently, we have no way to move forward, as we have been urged by
District officials. In fact, the refusal to address responsibility is
part of the reason we have seen repeated violence at South Philadelphia
High School. The report underscores that we still need an independent
and thorough investigation by the Department of Justice and other
entities to responsibly understand and address the violence at SPHS.
It took three months of work, the tearful testimony of a committed
grandmother, dozens of supporters and front page media coverage to clear
the name of a young immigrant student falsely accused of contributing
to the violence at South Philadelphia High School. He was a convenient
scapegoat for a District looking to avoid responsibility.
City Paper: The Fall Guy – by Isaiah Thompson, Mar. 17, 2010
“Though never mentioned by name, this student, who speaks little
English, became part of a convenient narrative for a District that
wanted to paint these events as being less about the long-standing
victimization of a targeted ethnic minority than the result of a feud
gone haywire. After all, with the latter explanation, school officials
couldn’t be blamed for ignoring the powder keg that was about to blow.”
16-year-old Lin De Liu arrived at South Philadelphia High School
post-Dec. 3 and was assaulted in the school’s bathroom March 16. Since
then he has suffered serious injury including memory loss and blurred
vision. The School District however calls it a “careless” accident, and
has failed to investigate. The incident shows how little has changed at
S. Phila. High School.
‘I will fight,’ says girl, but denies report:
The “Cambodian female” was accused of instigating the S. Phila. High
assault. – By Jeff Gammage and Kristen A. Graham, April 11, 2010
S. Phila. High School Principal LaGreta Brown Resigns
U.S. Dept. of Justice issues complaint against School District of
Philadelphia alleging bias and reaches groundbreaking settlement
establishing safe schools free of bias as a right.
“The US brings this civil action pursuant to Title IV of the Civil
Rights Act of 1964 and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth
Amendment to the Constitution of the United States to remedy and enjoin
named Defendants’ unlawful discrimination against Asian students based on race, color and/or national origin at South Philadelphia High School
. . . These students were repeatedly and consistently harassed based on
race, color and/or national origin, which barred the students’ access
to equal educational opportunities. Defendants had actual knowledge of
this severe and pervasive harassment and were deliberately indifferent
to the harassment . . .’
—U.S. vs. School District of Philadelphia, Dec. 15, 2010
Phone: 215-400-4000 | Email:
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Michael Silverman
Comprehensive High School Regional Superintendent The School District of Philadelphia 3133 Ridge Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19132 215-684-5132
Principal LaGreta Brown South Philadelphia High School 2101 South Broad Street, Philadelphia PA 19148 215-952-6220
440 North Broad Street, Suite 101, Philadelphia, PA 19130
Phone: 215-400-4010
Commissioners: Robert Archie (Chairman), Johnny Irizarry, Joseph Dworetzky, David Girard-DiCarlo, and Denise Armbrister.
Philadelphia Mayor's Office
Mayor Michael Nutter:
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(City Ed Secretary),
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Contacting the Media:
Philadelphia Inquirer. Email:
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Philadelphia Daily News. Email:
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Philadelphia Public School Noteboook. Email:
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For more information, please contact:
BPSOS-Delaware Valley Branch (Pennsylvania Office): 856-486-7770
Nancy Nguyen:
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Candice Lombardi:
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BPSOS-National: 703-647-6462
Shandon Phan:
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