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Asian students attacked over the course of two days at South Philadelphia High School blamed what had happened on a lack of action by the administration, according to previous testimonies by the students and community leaders.
Weeks after the incidents, the school at 2101 S. Broad St. announced numerous safety precautions that included 63 new cameras; more police; and groups such as the Rams Head Think Tank to solve problems and create school harmony. These measures have been effective, students said Monday as they left the building.
“It’s a lot better,” an 11th-grader who declined to give her name said. “Everything is organized now. There’s hardly any fights, more security guards, cameras — all that stuff. It got a lot better.”
A 10th-grader from West Philly was not even aware of any disruption at the school, which occurred in early December, until she got home.
“I was just going to the school minding my own business and then I heard about my school on the news,” the 17-year-old said, adding she agreed the atmosphere has changed and the added cameras are a deterrent.
The Feb. 23 release of the 38-page report by the School District of Philadelphia followed a 10-week probe investigating what happened Dec. 3 when dozens of Asian students were attacked at Southern — both inside and outside the facility. The result of that day was an eight-day walkout by the students, several meetings with school and district officials and the Human Relations Commission to address their concerns about feeling safe in their own school and the filing of a complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice against the district for violating the students’ 14th Amendment that requires states to provide equal protection to all people within their jurisdictions. Violence in local schools and across the city were the topics Jan. 28 when the commission convened the first of 11 public hearings at Guerin Recreation Center, 2201 S. 16th St., that addressed the issue of discrimination, as well.
Since the meetings and hearings, Southern has taken various measures to ensure safety and the report has offered even more suggestions and recommended students and staff stand united in support of student and school safety.
After a lengthy description of the assaults detailed in the report, former U.S. District Judge James T. Giles, who conducted the independent investigation, provided 15 recommendations, such as the need for punishment for aggressive actions; counseling on school safety prior to enrollment; the use and creation of an anonymous safety tip line; and the prohibition of hoodies and lunch-line cutting. The ideas have been submitted to the district, but there were no plans at press time for their enforcement or creation.
While Giles admitted the report did not look at the historic racial tensions at Southern, it did conclude some who participated in the attacks lacked fear of consequences. During the attacks, even the presence of an adult or police did not deter the aggressors, he said.
“The lack of respect and fear for authority is a core problem that presents danger for SPHS and portends life-altering consequences for the assailants themselves,” Giles said in the report. “This mindset must be changed, somehow, to enable all students to appreciate that school safety is a mutual endeavor that is essential for everyone and that actions threatening this protective shield cannot be tolerated and must be punished.”
Another problem that day in December was poor communication between safety officers and school staff, which included a misconception of how many police were on site and the severity of the problems that occurred in school that day and outside the previous day, Giles said, adding a “reliable, rapid system of communication should exist.”
“Effective intervention and avoidance opportunities are dependent upon the acquisition and sharing of information,” he added.
The accused from the December incidents were mostly freshman and a few sophomores, totaling about 10 to 20 pupils inside the school and another 20 to 40 outside.
“That observation does not diminish the seriousness of the events, but might raise some educational, maturation or placement issues regarding the process of transitioning from elementary school to high school,” Giles said. “According to SPHS administrators and [English as a Second Language] teachers, generally speaking, upper-class students at Southern get along very well irrespective of race, color, ethnic origin, cultural heritage or immigration status.”
The event that supposedly initiated the Dec. 3 attacks kicked off Dec. 2 in the stairway on the second floor where a few Asians allegedly bumped into two African-American students, which then led to a verbal confrontation that school police broke up. Those involved placed blame on the other group and, after school, another scuffle was broken up by a passerby in front of Walgreens and seemed to involve some of the same students, Giles said in the report.
Giles, of the Center City law firm Pepper Hamilton, never uncovered the truth about the drug store fight. The stories of who were the instigators varied from it being a group of African-American students, that included a handicapped pupil, to the Asian students, the report stated.
“While we cannot say that this controversy was gang-related, there was concerted activity by one discrete group versus another discrete group reminiscent of a street-gang conflict,” Giles said.
The next day at school, police and school administrators were unaware of the fight, but rumors began to circulate with the two sides of the story.
During first period Dec. 3, African-American students allegedly walked into classrooms seeking specific individuals. At about 8:45 a.m., one or two allegedly attacked an Asian student in room 424 after the bell rang and, as the day wore on, some Asian students sought permission to go home early because they feared escalating violence.
At about 11 a.m., Principal Lagreta Brown saw African-American students on the second floor who did not appear to be there for class. Seeing her, the students dispersed and, while she did not see any overt actions, she had a hunch trouble could be looming. She called Regional Superintendent Michael Silverman and community activist Wali Smith to help “lockdown” the school.
Hall passes were revoked, bathrooms were locked, an officer presence was increased and no African-American students were permitted on the second floor — where many ESOL classes are held — unless they were there for class. However, about 30 to 40 African-American students managed to swarm the floor, although no Asian students were attacked since they were quickly directed to the closest classroom, the report stated.
Lunchroom attacks occurred almost simultaneously, Giles said. Security footage shows “a rather sudden, seemingly orchestrated wave of as many as 60 to 70 students, mostly African-American, surging forward with a much smaller faction attacking a small group of Asian students,” he added.
One teacher, who emerged from her classroom after hearing commotion in the hallway, ran to aid an Asian student by “wrapping herself around him to protect him from further attack,” Giles said.
Not all Asians were targeted, but those who were could not identify their attackers since they curled themselves in a ball during the assault, the report said; many may have been mistakenly identified as involved in the previous day’s incident.
The building was secured shortly after 1 p.m. and Brown decided to conduct a silent dismissal that would allow a separate dismissal for each floor beginning with the second. The Safe Corridors program, which has been in place for several years, provides the school with beefed up police presence 30 minutes before dismissal and includes City, SEPTA and school officers, as well as two 4th District officers.
Dec. 3, the staff expected that presence to be even more so. However, due to a drive-by shooting near Audenried High School, 3301 Tasker St., in Grays Ferry, officers were dispatched there without the Southern staff’s knowledge, Giles said.
A couple Vietnamese students were unsure if they would be safe walking home, so school officers proposed to take them inside when Brown, Smith and two staff members offered to escort them and a few other Vietnamese students. They tried to get an escort from the City’s police sergeant stationed in front of the school, but he declined. During interviews, he said he was unaware of the previous incidents and that knowledge would have altered his decision, Giles said.
The escorts continued up the east side of Broad, but soon some students picked up the pace by running up Broad and separating from the escorts. Those who ran, though their reasons are still unclear, were followed by a group of 20 to 40 mostly African-Americans who pushed, punched, shoved and kicked some of the students in front of St. Agnes, Broad and McKean streets. It is unknown if all of the alleged offenders were students, but a female Cambodian student, who was present Dec. 2, was the first to attack the Asian students and the most violent, according to those interviewed.
Although none were severely injured, Brown insisted the students be transported to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. She later met with the 4th District police captain on the effectiveness of the Safe Corridors program.
While it is possible the attacks were planned and may have partially been racially motivated, further analysis and investigation will be needed to determine the “real motivations,” Giles said.
“Race and/or ethnicity were contributing factors to some degree in all the attacks on Asian students that occurred on Dec. 3,” he said in the report. “There is, however, insufficient evidence to conclude that Asian students were attacked based solely on their immigrant status.”
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