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Minutes after celebrating with her first-period English class Jan. 22 for scoring higher on a standardized test than the rest of their fellow students at Audenried High School, as well as the School District of Philadelphia’s average, teacher Brynn Keller felt powerless.
“About halfway through the period, a group of about 20 students — both male and female — burst into my classroom and jumped one of my female students,” Keller said as she tried to hold back tears during her testimony at last Thursday’s Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations hearing on school violence. “After calling for security, there was nothing I could do but standby and watch the attack.”
The female student ended up on the ground with a male classmate lying on top of her to protect her from the repeated blows.
“There was no worse feeling for me as a teacher than to stand helpless and watch my students become victims of violence,” Keller added.
Though no one was seriously hurt in that incident, it is the most recent since the school at 3301 Tasker St., which currently holds ninth- and 10th-graders, opened with a new building last year.
Violence in local schools and across the city were the topics Jan. 28 when the Committee on Human Relations convened the first of 11 public hearings to address issues of discrimination that were brought to the forefront when Asian students were attacked Dec. 3 inside and outside of South Philadelphia High School, 2101 S. Broad St., resulting in their eight-day walkout.
The Commission’s Executive Director Rue Landau, Chairwoman Kay Kyungsun Yu and commissioners Marshal E. Freeman and Rabbi Rebecca T. Alpert heard almost three hours of testimony at host-site Guerin Recreation Center, 2201 S. 16th St.
“It’s frankly shocking to me to hear these stories and the level of violence in existence at this school, as we speak, it seems,” Yu said about Audenried.
Jan. 22 resulted in Audenried’s third lockdown of the school year when a fight broke out later that morning on the other side of the building, Keller testified. Later that night and long after closing for the weekend, Tyree Parks, of 33rd and Wharton streets, was murdered after leaving the school, where he was attending a community basketball game.
Zorita Brown said her son, a 10th-grader at the school, was followed home Jan. 27 and beaten up the next day.
“My son was attacked and the school did not call me,” she testified before the commission. “It was a parent that called me and, when I got to the school, they waited a half-an-hour until I could see my son. The vice principal would tell me, ‘we’re going to settle this here, but don’t send your son to school tomorrow.’ I think that’s very unfair.”
Now Brown wants answers since she fears what may happen if her son ever returns to the school.
“I need help because my son is not going back to Audenried because his life is in jeopardy,” she said, holding back tears.
The school has repeatedly requested additional security, but, as of last week’s meeting, the requests were not fulfilled, Keller said.
“It is only a matter of time before there is a retaliation from the events on Friday both inside and outside of our school,” Keller said. “Why are our students not a priority for the school district?”
John Frangipani, the district’s chief of school operations, said the district was in talks with Chief Education Advisor Lori Shorr, Deputy Mayor of Public Safety Everett Gillison and Police Commissioner Charles Ramsey to address the violence in that area, as well as throughout the district, that has escalated in recent weeks. Inside Audenried, extra police and a climate manager, oversees safety in the building, were set to be in place Feb. 1 with extra officers patrolling the neighborhood.
“A lot of this is deep-rooted in the community,” Frangipani, who began his teaching career at the old Audenried in 1979, said to the crowd. “It’s deep-rooted in gangs. It’s been around for more than 30 years … Dealing with the same issues today, we haven’t done our job as school district folks and as City leaders, so we need to come together on this and we need to put together the plans that we are working on to make change.”
The hearings will be held in each district’s region to encourage a dialogue as the commission aims to be part of the solution following last year’s attacks at Southern.
“The right school culture cannot happen, though, with the implementation of a single program or even with the conduct of a single public hearing,” Yu said to the crowd. “The challenge of creating a safe school requires an ongoing focus and sustained attention to it.”
The next meeting is 4 p.m. Feb. 25 at Myers Rec Center, 58th Street and Kingsessing Avenue, in Southwest. Those who wish to submit testimony may do so in any language by e-mailing it, along with contact information, to hrcommissioners@phila.gov. Upon completion of the hearings, the commission will report its findings to the district, which is doing its own independent investigation.
Southern students, including senior Wei Chen, junior Duong Ly and sophomore Bach Tong, testified before the commission.
“At first, we didn’t know anything about organizing, so we just stayed home one day after the fight and everything was forgotten,” Ly, who has been at Southern for two years, said of the October 2008 altercation where six Asian students were attacked outside of the school.
With the help of community organizers like Thoai Nguyen, CEO of Southeast Asian Mutual Assistance Associations Coalition (SEAMAAC), 1711 S. Broad, about 60 Asian students boycotted the school last month and brought citywide attention to the lingering issue that was glossed over a year before.
“People have referred to them as victims, but I don’t see them as victims,” Nguyen said. “I see a transformation from when I met them 18 months ago, transforming from victim to witness to advocate and now to organizer. They organized an effective boycott from a situation where they felt they were no longer safe to go to school.”
The boycott resulted in additional security, as well as programs to promote diversity and resolve conflict. The students do feel safer as a result of the heightened security, but tensions have not yet been resolved, Ly said.
“After the boycott, we came back to school and we felt a little safer just because there are tons of cameras installed in every single corner of the school and there’s a lot of security officers in our school,” he said. “That’s the only reason why we feel safe. But the relationship between us and the other students still remains the same. It doesn’t seem better. They all still treat us like before.”
While the violence is not always as intense as it was Dec. 3, students still are fearful within the walls of Southern, he added.
“[The violence] happens every single day in our school, like in the cafeteria. It happens every day when the students bust in line without [staff] intervening,” Ly said. “We feel scared.”
Due to the continued fear, the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund filed a complaint Jan. 19 against the district stating it and Southern violated the students’ 14th Amendment, which requires states provide equal protection to all people within their jurisdictions.
The aggressive students need to be informed of the hurt caused by their actions, instead of just individually disciplining each action, Tong said.
“Most of the time it just keeps happening,” he said, referencing lunchroom line-cutting. “Stopping a problem right after it happens doesn’t mean it will not prevent it from happening in the future.”
Dwindling funds have drained resources in the neighborhoods as community centers, libraries and pools have either closed or reduced their hours whereas playgrounds are not often safe anymore, Nguyen said. Even for SEAMAAC, less funds from the district, city and state have forced the elimination of programs, but those that remain such as after-school programs for DJing and break-dancing at Andrew Jackson Elementary, 1213 S. Eighth St., have brought students of different backgrounds together, he said.
“Black students, African immigrant students, Asian students, Latin students are playing, are having great relationships with one another, are breaking together, are DJing together and they speak to the fact that there are very, very few of these programs around to help them have a venue where they actually can build relationships, build community together,” he said.
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