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Friday, March 19, 2010

District's South Philly High story unravels | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

District's South Philly High story unravels | Philadelphia Public School Notebook

District's South Philly High story unravels

by Helen Gym on Mar 19 2010

Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/17144034@N00/4445639446/
On Wednesday, December 13th, 2009, students from South Philly High told the School Reform Commission what they think.
It’s hard to imagine that a story that first comes to public light exposing a day-long series of attacks against dozens of Asian immigrant kids can get any worse with time. But indeed, somehow the story about anti-Asian violence at South Philadelphia High School keeps getting more and more outrageous as a relentless pattern of school and District misrepresentation becomes more apparent.
In riveting testimony earlier this week at the School Reform Commission, the grandmother of one of the Asian student victims wept as she described the calculated efforts of school personnel who had scapegoated and unjustly forced out her grandson following a brutal assault upon him Dec. 2.
Her grandson was harassed in school then severely beaten outside of school the day before the Dec. 3 attacks at South Philadelphia High School. The school never investigated the incident yet somehow punished the student, arguing first that t