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Exactly one year after Asian students ended an eight-day, violence-induced boycott of South Philadelphia High School, 2101 S. Broad St., the School District of Philadelphia vowed to keep them and their educational brethren free from harassment, agreeing to guidelines from two probes into its safety procedures.
Acquiescing Dec. 15 places the district under federal and state observation through 2013 and will instigate changes, some already begun, inside Southern, a school wishing to replace its dubious past with a stellar future.
The School Reform Commission ratified stipulations from the U.S. Department of Justice and the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission that stemmed from the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund’s complaint that district officials fostered apathy toward Asian-American students, especially after two days of attacks inside and outside the school in December ’09 that left 13 Asian students in need of medical assistance.
The DOJ and state human relations commission issued separate agreements containing similar language and ample reminders that neither will permit racial discord. The former determined the fund’s claims of district neglect had merit in August, stating the educational entity had remained “indifferent to known instances of severe and pervasive student-on-student harassment of Asian students based on their race, color and/or national origin.”
Courtesy of the agreements, inaction will become idle. The DOJ’s agreement states the district must develop an action plan for Southern to address harassment by Jan. 14 including clearly defined measures for handling it, such as topics for preventive trainings. The district also must provide the federal government access to Southern’s building and district personnel to gauge the plan’s implementation.
“Our students deserve a harassment-free learning environment, and we strive every day to provide this for them,” district Superintendent Arlene Ackerman said through a statement. “We thank the Department of Justice and the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission for working together with us to create a settlement agreement with the best interests of the students at its core.”
Having already crafted Southern’s anti-harassment policies and procedures, the district must continue to implement them and, to appear in student and faculty handbooks, translate them into Burmese, Cambodian, Chinese, French, Nepali, Spanish and Vietnamese by Jan. 31.
The combined decrees rewarded the diligence of community groups and students who have chided the district, who denied the DOJ’s findings, and the administration at Southern where 22.4 percent of its more than 800 students are Asian, according to the district’s website.
“We celebrate the lasting gains of these agreements; we hope they are also welcomed with a measure of abiding humility and deep sorrow for the lack of action that required them,” Helen Gym, an Asian Americans United volunteer, said.
Among other elements, the DOJ’s agreement places the onus on district personnel to investigate fully and promptly any complaints of harassment, establishes a prohibition regarding retaliation against those who in good faith report alleged harassment incidents or assist in an investigation and warrants that Southern take reasonable steps to halt witnessed harassment.
With reasonable effort, the district is to invite members of community-based organizations with a “regular presence” at Southern to staff sessions and consult with the organizations for recommendations on future trainings. Multicultural awareness and diversity training will assist Southern personnel and the student body in appreciating differences and giving credence to similarities. All Southern staff must receive instruction on the policies in addition to diversity training by June 30, with subsequent sessions to occur at least annually. Students will also partake in the latter training occurring twice a year.
The training component pleases Wei Chen, a 2010 alumnus and prominent voice in the Asian Student Association of Philadelphia.
“We know other students suffer from racial biases in schools or from other biases as well,” he said. “Recently, many LGBT students have been harassed all around the country, many of whom have committed suicide because nobody spoke up against bullying. We hope we can share this victory with all those students who have been victims of bias.”
Chen graduated not having had the guidance of first-year Southern Principal Otis D. Hackney III, who has won plaudits from Gym and other Asian figures for making the school more enjoyable. If an incident of student-on-student harassment based on race, color and/or national origin occurs, an alleged or reported victim and/or a parent can request to meet with Hackney or a designee.
“I know we need to go deeper,” Hackney said of continuing his school’s upgrade. “I see Asian students walking the hallways with their heads up, smiling with each other, laughing, looking like normal students. Before they were trying to hide.”
The DOJ’s agreement also calls for Hackney or a designee to report complaints of student-on-student harassment to either the district’s compliance officer within 10 days or to the police within 72 hours if the incident involves criminal conduct. Interpretation services for harassment issues also will look to involve parents more, and, by Feb. 13, the district must develop a crisis response and emergency preparedness guide for staff.
The DOJ, which handles many civil rights issues, vows its agreement will serve as a nationwide standard for school systems aiming to prevent bullying. Its agreement mandates that the district submit four reports periodically by Jan. 15, ’13 on all pertinent harassment issues.
In its “Scope and Duration of Settlement Agreement” section, the DOJ states, “The court shall retain jurisdiction over this action during the term of the agreement. Upon conclusion of the term of agreement, the jurisdiction of the court shall end, absent an extension for good cause.”
Gym would like for no good cause to arise.
“While racial and ethnic violence is always reprehensible, it is important to remembers that its continuation is made possible by institutional response,” she said. “We understand that schools have both a responsibility and a moral charge to engage students in unlearning such behavior, to build multiracial, multicultural communities that can tackle what must be the toughest issue of our time, race.” SPR
Contact Staff Writer Joseph Myers at jmyers@southphillyreview.com or ext. 124.
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