Part 2

SPORTS
SPORTS
VCU UPSETS KANSAS
PUZZLING PAIN
Kentucky tops North Carolina. C1.
Uncertainty for Utley. C1.
The Philadelphia Inquirer
B
Monday, March 28, 2011 ★ PhiladelphiaMedia Network ★ $1
181st Year, No. 301 8 Regional Edition
PART
2 OF 7
Inquirer
ASSAULT ON LEARNING
INVESTIGATION
$1.25 in some locations outside the metro area
Corbett stand
on shale tax
standing out
The industry likely would yield to one, but he
remains resolute in his no-tax campaign vow.
By Joseph Tanfani
and Angela Couloumbis
INQUIRER STAFF WRITERS
SHARON GEKOSKI-KIMMEL / Staff Photographer
Tamika McNeill drew a picture of herself after the attack. The boys who assaulted her
THE SERIES
Underreporting
Hides Violence
SUNDAY
were allowed to remain in school. “It was hard to walk past them,” she said.
Cases of students fighting, hitting teachers,
making threats are discovered much later.
By Susan Snyder, John Sullivan,
Kristen A. Graham, and Dylan Purcell
INQUIRER STAFF WRITERS
Tamika McNeill, who had just turned
12, contemplated killing herself last April
after classmates at Cleveland Elementary
School grabbed her in the cafeteria,
wedged their hands under her shirt, and
tried to fondle her breasts.
“It made me feel like: End it all right
there,” said Tamika, then a sixth grader,
who had been teased and taunted for
months before the attack. “But I knew
that it would make my family feel worse.”
Administrators at the elementary
school, in Tioga, didn’t take the incident
as seriously. They failed to report the assault to the district’s central office, a violation of district policy, until 21/2 months
later and permitted her attackers to stay
in school.
“They didn’t handle it the way they
should have,” said Tamika’s still-angry
mother, Eloine, who with her daughter
discussed the incident with reporters.
“She had to endure a lot on top of being
assaulted. … They [her attackers] were
threatening to hurt her if she told the
truth. They were threatening to jump her
after school and her little sister.”
A yearlong Inquirer investigation of violence in Philadelphia schools uncovered
dozens of cases like Tamika’s — 183 during the 2009-10 school year alone: Cases
of students assaulting each other, punching teachers, kicking school police officers, and threatening to harm staff.
See SCHOOL VIOLENCE on A8
City schools
no sanctuary
MONDAY
Violence
unreported
TUESDAY
The young
and violent
WEDNESDAY
Teachers
under assault
THURSDAY
Flawed
intervention
FRIDAY
Solutions but
no simple remedy
SUNDAY
Rebuilding
South Philly High
ONLINE EXCLUSIVES
philly.com/
schoolviolence
On Facebook,
search Assault
on Learning
Ephemeral art, sustainable future.
Installation out to serve
the environment
By Dianna Marder
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
SMALL BUSINESS
Blinging to success
High-end Glen Mills
boutique glitters amid a
bleak economy. D1.
WEATHER
High 45, Low 27
Sunny and chilly today.
Late clouds Tuesday.
Full report and exclusive
NBC10 EarthWatch
forecast, B7.
INDEX
Comics …E6
Editorials A14
SideShow E3
Obituaries B5
Express C12
Lotteries C12
ClassifiedsD6
Rally
C11
Business D1
Television E4
On Friday, when a former
diner at Second and Girard reopens as the Soil Kitchen, you
will not be asked to eat dirt.
This “kitchen” is more art
installation than eatery.
It’s a place where folks can
bring in a soil sample from
their backyards (see graphic
instructions at soilkitchen.org)
and enjoy a free bowl of soup
made with fresh local ingredi-
ents (courtesy of Cosmic Caterers) while waiting for scientists from the federal Environmental Protection Agency to
see if their dirt is safe.
Odd, yes, but this is what
happens when you set out to
become the Greenest City in
America by 2015 (Philadelphia’s goal) and create an Office of Arts, Culture, and the
Creative Economy: You get a
combination soup kitchen and
See SOIL on A10
As new taxes go, a levy on
natural-gas drilling in Pennsylvania would seem like a
pretty easy political sell.
Two-thirds of the state’s
voters support the idea, several polls indicate.
Politicians are desperate
for money to plug a $4 billion
budget gap and prevent deep
cuts in the state college system and other programs.
Even the industry, not shy
about throwing its weight
around the statehouse, might
not put up much of a fight.
Every other major naturalgas-producing state has some
sort of tax, and some of the
biggest drillers have said
they wouldn’t oppose one
here so long as it was reasonable.
Former Gov. Ed Rendell
says he struck a deal with industry leaders in an evening
meeting at the governor’s
mansion in the fall — only to
see it evaporate the next
night in negotiations with Republican legislators.
“The Marcellus industry
has been clear and outspoken on this for a year or so,”
said Ray Walker, vice president of Range Resources in
Texas and chairman of the
Marcellus Shale Coalition, an
industry group. “We are willing to discuss a severance
tax.”
But the new governor isn’t.
In fact, Gov. Corbett, who
signed a no-tax pledge during
his campaign last year, is far
more resolute in his opposition to a tax than many in the
industry that would pay it.
“The governor absolutely
does not ascribe to the notion
that because everybody else
collects a severance tax, we
should as well,” Patrick Henderson, Corbett’s energy execSee SHALE on A4
NICOLAS-NELSON RICHARD / Associated Press
An air tanker refuels a French Navy fighter jet in flight over the
Mediterranean Sea as part of the Libya no-fly-zone patrol.
Air raids target
Gadhafi hometown
By Ryan Lucas
and Hadeel Al-shalchi
ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Soil Kitchen at Second
and Girard, opening Friday
for six days, will test soil
and serve free soup made
from local ingredients.
RAS LANOUF, Libya — International air raids targeted Moammar
Gadhafi’s hometown of Sirte for the
first time Sunday night as rebels
quickly closed in on the regime
stronghold, a formidable obstacle
that must be overcome for government opponents to reach the capital, Tripoli.
A heavy bombardment of Tripoli
also began after nightfall, with at
least nine loud explosions and antiaircraft fire heard, an Associated
Press reporter in the city said.
The attacks came as NATO offiSee LIBYA on A13
Inside
¢ Israel deploys
a rocket-defense
system against
Gaza. A6.
¢ Armed young
gangs roam
Syrian seaside
city. A6.
Libya speech
President Obama
will address the
nation at 7:30
Monday night on
the mission in
Libya.
N.J. health centers in bind on helping the poor
By Maya Rao
INQUIRER TRENTON BUREAU
BRIDGETON, N.J. — Kimberly
Bozearth cleans houses for a living,
but can’t afford health insurance to
cover the cost of treating her high
blood pressure.
Instead, the state pays most of the
bill. The Fairfield Township resident
picks up prescription drugs and re-
Sign up today at dealyo.com and
never miss out on another great deal!
$20 for $40
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& eats at Red Zone
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Philadelphia.
ceives checkups for just $20 a visit at
a community medical center run by
CompleteCare Health Network in
Bridgeton.
Rural Cumberland County, where
residents rank as New Jersey’s poorest and most unhealthy, is especially
reliant on the government’s policy of
reimbursing health centers for what
is known as “uncompensated care.”
$50 for 10 hours
of babysitting at
Basically Babysitting
South Jersey.
CompleteCare is among the busiest
facilities of its kind statewide.
But the system, designed to help
medically underserved populations,
faces challenges.
Gov. Christie has proposed reducing
community health centers’ reimbursement rates for treatment of the uninsured by 10 percent at the very time
they face increased demand because
Half Off
a round of golf
for two plus a cart at
Worcester Golf Club
Northern Suburbs.
© 2011 Philadelphia Media Network Inc. Call 215-665-1234 or 1-800-222-2765 for home delivery.
Half Off
a 30-minute helicopter skyline tour from
Independence Helicopters
Western Suburbs.
of the recession and budget cuts in
other health programs for the needy.
The number of low-income uninsured patients whom the state has
reimbursed the centers for treating
statewide has risen 35 percent since
2007, to 178,775. Further increases
are expected in the coming year.
Senate Health, Human Services,
See HEALTH on A4
A8 B
www.philly.com
PART
2 OF 7
Monday, March 28, 2011
THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER
Inquirer
ASSAULT ON LEARNING
INVESTIGATION
Ignoring violent incidents and …
SCHOOL VIOLENCE from A1
The incidents came to light —
weeks or months later — only when
city police issued arrest reports,
prompting district officials to ask
principals about them.
Teachers and union officials,
meanwhile, spoke of constant pressure from senior district and school
administrators — sometimes subtle
and unspoken, sometimes blatant —
to hold down the reported numbers.
At the same time Superintendent Arlene C. Ackerman has been trumpeting a decrease in school violence.
“My officers are very frustrated
out there because they’re being
told not to report things and that
everything must go through the
principal,” said Michael Lodise,
president of the school police
union. “If they don’t want to report
it, it doesn’t get reported.”
And when crimes aren’t reported,
the public doesn’t get a true picture
of school violence.
Lodise said the 183 cases had
come to light only when city police
made arrests.
Tamika’s mother said Cleveland
administrators had told her they
had a good reason for suppressing
notification of the assault on her
daughter: They didn’t want to disrupt students during state testing.
Ackerman said she was dismayed
to hear the details.
“Where were the teachers?
Where were the principals? If this
had been dealt with at the school
level — and I’m not trying to point
fingers,” she said, then paused.
“Getting to central office two
months later puts her in harm’s
way for a very long time.”
Principals get wide latitude
It wasn’t until June 22 that school
police finally wrote a report about
the Cleveland incident that stated:
“School did not report this incident.
… Spoke with AP [assistant principal] Renee Waring [sic]. Ms. Wearing was aware of the incident and
thought it had been called into the
ICU,” or incident control unit.
Wearing did not respond to telephone calls seeking comment.
School District policy says principals or their designees must report
all serious incidents to the district’s
central police office, where overall
crime statistics are tabulated.
Yet district officials concede that
not every incident has been properly recorded, and that Tamika’s case
is an example. At the same time,
they deny any pressure from district headquarters to underreport.
Deputy Mayor Everett Gillison
said principals had long had broad
latitude in running their schools.
So, depending on the principal,
schools vary widely on how they
report and handle violence and
whether they call city police.
“There is a tension because some
principals want to say, ‘I understand, and I think we can help,’
without involving the formal system,” said Gillison, who oversees
city police. “What we’re saying is …
it’s not necessarily going to hurt if
that report is made.”
Ackerman also has said publicly
that she doesn’t want a school-toprison pipeline.
In the last year, Lodise said, there
has been a noticeable change in
whether incidents are reported to
the city police: The district has increasingly left it to assault victims
to press charges.
His 635-member force of full- and
part-time officers is unarmed and
generally does not make arrests,
though it does detain suspects.
Last month, in response to questions from The Inquirer, district
spokeswoman Shana Kemp said:
“Individuals who are assaulted, parents, students, teachers, and staff
must file individual criminal charges. Not the school.”
One area that appears to be handled differently is aggravated assault. Under state law, assaults on
teachers and other school personnel are automatically classified as
aggravated assaults and are supposed to be reported to city police
as a matter of course.
Last year, 690 cases of teacher
assaults were documented. Yet the
district directly notified police only
half the time, according to district
records. In some cases, teachers
didn’t want to press charges, district officials said.
James B. Golden, the district’s
former chief safety executive who
was removed last summer after five
years, said that when in charge, he
had followed a simple rule:
Aggravated assaults — defined as
causing “serious bodily injury” —
were reported by school personnel
to city police when the crime occurred in front of witnesses and
could be documented.
The victims of simple assaults
were directed to contact police on
their own, he said.
Gillison similarly said that in
clear cases of serious assaults,
SHARON GEKOSKI-KIMMEL / Staff Photographer
Tamika McNeill near her home on West Venango Street in the Tioga section with her mother, Eloine (left), and friends. She now attends another school.
Students Assaulted Most,
Reported Least in 2009-10
Student
Although assaults on students account for
more than half of all assaults, they are
reported to Philadelphia police only 42 percent
of the time. In contrast, assaults on school
police are reported 84 percent of the time.
42%
Assault by victim …
The size of the circles represents the number of
assaults, with the percentage of each reported.
1,897 incidents
Teacher
School police
Employee
49%
690 incidents
84%
45%
372 incidents
236 incidents
Other person
Administrator
72%
71%
85 incidents 50 incidents
NOTE: Student assault is generally labeled as simple assault while staff assault is generally listed as the more
Reporting Assaults Varies by High School
The district’s 32 neighborhood schools, in 2009-10, varied widely in
reporting assaults to Philadelphia police. Some schools notified police
about most assaults, while others reported as few as three out of 10.
School
Most often contacted police …
Total assaults
2009-10*
Frankford
47
Horace Furness
15
Overbrook
50
West Philadelphia
18
Charles Y. Audenried
27
George Washington
31
… and least often
Olney West
48
South Philadelphia
70
Strawberry Mansion
46
John Bartram
35
Kensington Business, Finance
19
Olney East
67
Percent
reported to police
94%
87
86
83
81
81
50%
50
48
46
37
33
*Among schools that reported at least 10 assaults
SOURCES: School District of Philadelphia; Inquirer analysis
Theodore Roosevelt Middle School
District records show that serious incidents at the school were
down 62 percent in 2009-10 from the previous year, but some
teachers say they are discouraged from reporting.
Year
Assaults
Enrollment on teachers
Serious
incidents
2005-06
384
6
23
2006-07
386
5
25
2007-08
502
7
61
2008-09
386
14
49
2009-10
393
1
19
6.0
6.5
4.8
SOURCES: School District of Philadelphia; Inquirer analysis
schools should contact city police
and not leave that to the victims.
About 21/2 months after Inquirer
reporters talked to Golden, Ackerman replaced him with a city police
inspector, Myron Patterson, who reports to Ackerman and Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey.
She also asked the city police to
help the district develop a uniform
reporting system and, with Mayor
Nutter, named a commission of top
city officials that plans to make recommendations for the fall.
The new leadership arrangement
was intended to get the district and
city police to work more closely
and cooperatively. But Gillison — to
whom Ramsey reports — said some
schools still were not contacting
city police.
In an incident at M. Hall Stanton
Elementary School in North Philadelphia on Oct. 26, principal Malika
Brooks intervened to prevent a seventh-grade girl from arrest after
she “intentionally struck” school Police Officer Robert Miller in the
head with a telephone receiver and
kicked him in a leg, according to
Serious incident
rate per 100 students
12.2
12.7
MIKE PLACENTRA and DYLAN PURCELL / Staff Artist
the incident report filled out by
school district police.
Miller, the report said, wanted to
arrest the girl, but Brooks prohibited him from calling city police and
pressing charges. Instead, the girl,
13, was suspended and taken home
by a parent.
Brooks did not respond to a call
seeking comment.
Gillison said the school had made
a mistake — police should have
been called.
Unreported incidents
By examining district data and
school police incident reports for
five years dating to the 2005-06
school year, The Inquirer identified
numerous examples of tardy notification, failure to report, and statistical discrepancies pointing to the active suppression of information
that would reveal how violent Philadelphia schools really are:
8 On June 14, 2010, a seventh-grade
boy assaulted a female nonteaching
aide at Feltonville Arts and Sciences Middle School. The assault was
not reported until June 21. The prin-
cipal told the control desk, “It was curately before they could assess
an oversight.”
the problem and plan for improve8 On June 10, 2010, outside a class- ment. Delaney, former head of the
room at Kenderton School in Tioga, a trial division, is now the office’s liaifourth grader punched a teacher in son to the schools.
the face. The teacher suffered facial
The School District is “an institubruising, according to the school po- tion that lives and dies on report
lice report. Kenderton officials didn’t cards,” he said. “The kids who go
report the incident until 11 days later there, their progress or lack of
after a city Police Department report progress is measured and reported.
showed up.
… Well, the goal should be that ev8 On April 14, 2010, at Fairhill Ele- ery school should be safe.”
mentary School, a girl reported that
a classmate had grabbed her Is violence declining?
breasts in class. The assistant prinWhile district officials continue
cipal was told of the assault when it to tout a decline in violent incidents
occurred but did not call city police the last two years, teachers, union
or inform the principal. The school officials, and school police officers
police officer, Jose Crespo, report- say their daily experiences contraed the incident nine days later. Dis- dict the numbers.
trict spokeswoman Kemp said “per“If there is a drop, people don’t feel
sonnel action” had been taken it in the buildings,” Jerry Jordan, presagainst the assistant principal for ident of the Philadelphia Federation
failing to report.
of Teachers, said last summer.
8 On March 29, 2010, a seventh gradAt a September meeting of the
er assaulted a feSchool Reform
male teacher after
Commission,
hours at Locke
which oversees
School in West
city schools, the
Philadelphia, but it
district introduced
wasn’t reported una new safety effort
til April 19 when
with a goal of rethe district’s inciducing the schools
dent desk called
on the state’s “perthe school. Kemp
sistently dangersaid the incident
ous” list from 19 to
had happened bezero in two years.
fore spring break
That would be a
DAVID SWANSON / Staff Photographer
and had been rehistoric achieveported afterward,
ment; the district
but the break behas never had fewgan March 31 and
er than nine. Some
concluded April 2.
schools have been
The victim did
on the list for nearnot file a police
ly a decade.
report, and the
Those on the
student’s parents
front lines read
removed
him
that goal as putfrom the school
ting more presfor the remainder
sure on schools
of the school
not to report
year, Kemp said.
crimes.
8 Also March 29,
Lodise scoffed
Michael Lodise, president of
four fifth graders
at the notion that
the Philadelphia school police
robbed a classcrime could be reofficers union
mate after disduced so signifimissal just outside Pastorius cantly at these schools: “How do you
School in East Germantown. A do that?” he asked. “If it’s an assault,
teacher saw the robbery, but the it’s an assault.”
school failed to report it. It was reTeachers regularly complain that
corded after the incident desk school officials need to deal more
called the school April 8.
aggressively with the behavior that
8 On Dec. 11, 2009, a ninth grader causes the problems.
assaulted a 10th grader shortly be“There’s zero follow-through on
fore dismissal at Paul Robeson anything,” said a teacher at
High School in North Philadelphia. Roosevelt Middle School in East
The assault wasn’t reported until Germantown, who like many teachJan. 15. “Principal believed it to be ers interviewed, feared retribution
a mutual fight, and that fights are if named. “We’ve had kids hit teachnot to be reported,” the school po- ers and not gotten suspended. …
lice report noted. The principal sus- Nothing happens.”
pended both students.
Keith Newman said he had been
The Inquirer sought comment orally reprimanded for calling 911
from principals at all of these when a fight involving 50 students
schools, but only Robeson principal broke out after school outside MorHiromi Hernandez responded, dis- rison Elementary, where he previputing the account.
ously taught.
“We do an honest job,” she said.
“My principal came along, and he
“We’re not trying to hide anything. helped me break it up,” Newman
That’s the truth.”
said. “Afterward, he reamed me out
A former assistant U.S. attorney for calling 911. He said, ‘Only the
said that for years, the district had principal can call 911.’ ”
downplayed violence at the expense
That principal was Christopher
of the welfare of its students.
Byrd, who became principal of
“You can’t address the problem un- Cleveland this school year, after
til you’re honest about it,” said Jack Tamika left the school.
Stollsteimer, who was a watchdog for
Tomás Hanna, an associate superviolence in the Philadelphia district intendent, said any employee could
before the state eliminated the posi- call 911 if a crime was committed.
tion in 2009. He doesn’t believe the “There’s no having to clear it
district’s assertion that violence has through the principal,” he said.
declined and, now that his position is “That is totally unacceptable.”
gone, said no one was there to hold
Anger at school response
school officials accountable.
“I don’t have any faith at all in
Robin Taylor Sr. is one parent outwhat they say … and now that no- raged at the lack of response by
body’s watching, they can say what- schools.
ever they want,” he said.
Taylor, a U.S. customs officer,
John Delaney, a deputy in the Dis- faulted Sayre High School in West
trict Attorney’s Office, said district Philadelphia for the handling of his
officials must measure violence acSee SCHOOL VIOLENCE on A9
“IF THEY [THE
PRINCIPALS]
DON’T WANT
TO REPORT IT,
IT DOESN’T GET
REPORTED.”
Monday, March 28, 2011
www.philly.com
THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER
ASSAULT ON LEARNING
More at philly.com/schoolviolence
B
A9
Inquirer
INVESTIGATION
… a pressure to keep things quiet
SCHOOL VIOLENCE from A8
daughter Amber’s injury. He said
the principal hadn’t called an ambulance for Amber, then 16, who suffered a broken arm and wrist when
she inadvertently got in the middle
of a fight between other students.
Amber, a sophomore, was on her
way out of class when a fight broke
out just outside the room Nov. 9,
her father said. A male student
threw a girl into the door, which
swung open and violently struck
Amber, causing the injury.
Linda Taylor, Amber’s mother, said
she had first received a phone call
from principal Khalia Ames telling
her to meet Ames and Amber at a
hospital. Soon after, she said, Ames
called again, asking how far away Linda Taylor was and saying she wasn’t
calling an ambulance. Instead, Taylor
had to pick up Amber at school and
take her to the hospital herself.
Ames declined to comment, and
Kemp, the district spokeswoman,
denied that the principal had refused to call an ambulance.
Amber did not report violence
against her on the day of the incident, Kemp said.
The next day she returned to
school with her parents and said a
boy had slammed her arm in the
door, Kemp said.
In a meeting with Amber’s parents and the other students and
their parents, Amber said all the
students had been “taunting” each
other, according to Kemp. One of
the students was moved to another
class, a solution that satisfied the
parents, Kemp said.
Robin and Linda Taylor disputed
Kemp’s account, particularly the fact
that they had waited a day to report
the incident. If Ames had called her
the day Amber was injured, Linda
Taylor said, how could she not have
known about the incident?
‘It’s up to the parents’
Roberta Foxwell was angered
that Woodrow Wilson Middle
School in the Northeast failed to
call city police to report an assault
on her son, Jonathan Rojas, the day
it occurred in October.
Rojas, a seventh grader, suffered
a broken finger when another student assaulted him in the first-floor
hallway, she said. The boy swung
and missed, and when Rojas swung
back in self-defense, the boy
grabbed his hand and bent back his
fingers, Rojas said.
His mother had to go to police
and press charges.
“They told me they don’t get involved with the police,” she said.
“It’s up to the parents to do what
they have to do.”
District spokeswoman Kemp said
that police had been called the day
after the incident, and that school
police had told Foxwell that she
would have to go to the police district to file the charges. Rojas’ attacker was suspended for two days,
and mediation was held between
the families, Kemp said.
Pressure to keep quiet
When incidents climb at a school,
principals get pressure, too, from
regional bosses and other administrators.
“My administration used to be
very strict with discipline,” said Jennifer Freeman, an English teacher
and union representative at Martin
Luther King High School in East Germantown. “This year, they’re afraid
for their jobs. They’re being told
things, and they’re laxing up. They
don’t want to suspend. They don’t
want to have a high failure rate. The
climate in my building is changing.”
Teachers at King say assaults and
threats against them are mounting
and not being taken seriously.
This fall, a student hurled a clipboard at a teacher but received
only a one-day suspension, said
Freeman.
“The teacher was told it’s not an
assault because [it] didn’t hit you,”
she said.
At the end of last school year, a
teacher accidentally opened a set of
double doors and bumped a student,
Freeman said. The student became
irate and attacked the teacher. Administrators at King said it wasn’t an assault because the teacher had “provoked” the student by bumping him
with the door first, Freeman said.
Former King principal Kristina Diviny, who left her job in January to
become principal of Christiana High
School in Delaware, said that when
serious violence had occurred, students had been disciplined on her
watch and incidents reported.
“I’m never willing to sacrifice our
climate for numbers,” she said.
Michael Lerner, recently retired
head of the district’s principals
union, said his members face difficult situations every day.
He cited an example: A fight
breaks out. The loser alleges he or
she was assaulted. Is it an assault?
Or perhaps an employee “provokes” an assault by a child, he
RON TARVER / Staff Photographer
Jonathan Rojas looks at the finger broken during a school fight. School police told his mother that she would have
to go to the police district to file charges. The attacker was suspended for two days, and mediation was held.
Safety post still needed,
former advocate says
honest about it, and the district
is not honest about it.”
Fed up with violence in the
Incidents are “vastly underrePhiladelphia School District, ported,” victims’ rights are often
state legislators in 2000 created disregarded, discipline is unan independent watchdog to ad- even, and the district too often
vocate for victims.
uses “window dressing” — such
It was the first position of its as changes in personnel and imkind in the country, and hailed portant-sounding committees —
by national school safety ex- to mask its problems, Stollperts. Philadelphia’s safe-schools steimer said.
advocate worked out of district
But parents who have fled the
headquarters but was a state em- district in the past decade know
ployee who didn’t answer to the the difference, he said.
district.
“The Philadelphia School DisThe job was held first by Harvey trict is losing customers to charRice, then by Jack Stollsteimer, a ter schools every day. Parents
former assistant U.S. attorney and have no idea if these charters
often an outspoken critic of the are better academically, but they
way the district handled violence. know they’re safer,” said StollStollsteimer drew state ire in steimer, now an attorney for the
2008 when he released a report state Treasury Department.
that called the district’s disciplinRice, now deputy city controlary system “dysfunctional and ler, also questions the district’s
unjust” and said the district had violence statistics.
violated state law by refusing for
Even with a safe-schools advoa time to expel students who cate, there was underreporting,
took weapons to school.
Rice said. But when the position
Citing budget woes, state offi- was staffed, “I believe we had a
cials eliminated the advocate’s better picture of the level of viojob in 2009. Former Pennsylva- lence in the schools, the number
nia Education Secretary Gerald of incidents. There was an aveZahorchak later said Stoll- nue for people to report. We
steimer had spent too much time could check up.”
prosecuting the district and not
Pennsylvania Auditor General
enough time helping victims.
Jack Wagner this month called
The position remains unfilled. on the state to restore the posiStollsteimer worked with cur- tion and make it independent of
rent Superintendent Arlene C. the Department of Education.
Ackerman for a year and was iniIn an audit released this month,
tially optimistic about her leader- Wagner wrote that a “chronic
ship on safety.
problem exists within the School
But after an early bright spot District of Philadelphia in terms
— reinstituting expulsions for of violence” and called the job “a
the district’s most violent offend- vital position especially within this
ers — Ackerman disappointed, school district.”
Stollsteimer said.
“Things have gotten worse, not Contact staff writer Kristen Graham
better,” he said. “You can’t ad- at 215-854-5146 or
dress the problem until you’re [email protected].
EXCLUSIVE ONLINE
philly.com/schoolviolence
By Kristen A. Graham
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
said. Or maybe a child has learning
or emotional disabilities.
“It isn’t all that simple,” he said.
“There are so many mitigating factors in many of these cases that it
isn’t black and white. It is a very,
very difficult position for many
principals. I know for the most part
they do report.”
Surprised at the data
Some schools showed a dramatic
reduction in serious incidents during the last school year. Interviews
with teachers at those schools and
an examination of other records
show discrepancies.
Roosevelt Middle School was
among the most improved schools
from 2008-09 to 2009-10. Its serious
incidents dropped from 49 to 19.
But four teachers, who met with an
Inquirer reporter on condition of anonymity, said administrators routinely
discouraged reporting of incidents
and downplayed their seriousness.
“In the classroom, kids can curse
at us, throw things, and fight, and
nothing happens to them,” one
teacher said.
“We’re told it’s … a matter of
classroom management,” said another. “We’re told, ‘Fix it yourself.’ ”
Hanna, the district associate superintendent, however, attributed
the improvement to new “behaviorsupport” programs and to principal
Stefanie Ressler, who has been
there for several years. Ressler did
not return calls for comment.
Harding Middle School in Frank-
ford, which came off the persistently dangerous list in 2009-10, also
was among the most improved in
the entire district. Its incidents
were cut by more than half, from 93
to 42 in 2010.
“I’m surprised at the data,” said
Lisa Haver, who taught at Harding
last year and has since retired from
the district. “I didn’t see any drop
in violent incidents. It seemed to be
the same as the previous years.”
The School District keeps separate compilations of incidents and
suspensions. A comparison of the
data for 2009-10 reveals inconsistencies, raising questions about how
accurately information is reported.
For example, Carnell Elementary
in Oxford Circle reported 17 suspensions for sex acts through May 31,
but noted four morals offenses.
Richmond Elementary in Port
Richmond cited 15 suspensions for
sex acts but only two morals offenses, and 10 suspensions for weapons
but only one weapons incident.
District officials offered no explanation for Carnell. At Richmond,
spokesman Fernando Gallard said,
information was entered incorrectly into the computer.
Olney High School West and Olney High School East share a building, draw from the same neighborhood, and have almost the same
enrollment — about 900 in 2009-10.
Yet East reported 102 serious incidents last year, 31 percent more
than West, with 78.
Several educators at both schools
Videos: See the Audenried
assaults from school cameras.
Database of reported Philadelphia
school incidents: How violent is
your school?
Speaking out: Hear from
teachers and students.
Share: Your comments on
Philadelphia school violence.
Chat: Monday at noon with
schools reporter Kristen
Graham on her new blog,
“Philly School Files,”
www.philly.com/SchoolFiles.
Series: How it was reported.
said administrators on the West
side underreported incidents and
were more lax with discipline.
The district in 2005 split the building, one of its most disruptive and
academically troubled high schools,
into two schools with a wall down
the middle. They hoped smaller settings would lead to improvement.
The new Olneys didn’t qualify for
the persistently dangerous list because schools must have at least
two years of data to qualify for the
list. They have since returned.
Reporting the incidents
For years, the district has struggled with how to report crime consistently and fairly.
A case at Sharswood Elementary
in South Philadelphia in January
2008 illustrates how one incident
and a directive from the central office can significantly influence the
level of reported violence.
The principal failed to report an
attack on an eighth-grade girl in an
anti-bullying class, which spurred a
crackdown on reporting by the administration. The result was a spike
in reported incidents that has not
been matched in any other year during the last decade.
“The principals said: ‘You want
reporting? We’ll give you reporting,’ ” said Golden, the former
school safety chief.
Sometimes teachers report incidents that seem more like horseplay, said Benjamin Wright, the district’s assistant superintendent of
alternative education.
He cited a case of an elementary
student who dropped a play cell
phone. When a teacher confiscated
it, he grabbed her wrist.
“She called 911,” Wright said. “That
kind of stuff doesn’t fly with me.”
He also maintained that it’s not
an assault if a teacher is inadvertently struck breaking up a fight.
Tamika’s struggles
Tamika, the student who was
groped by classmates in the Cleveland cafeteria, had become a routine target for classmates. They
teased her about her training bra
and made fun of her because she is
underdeveloped for her age, her
family said.
A boy put her in a headlock during writing class, punched her, and
broke her glasses.
A student grabbed the glasses off
Tamika’s 8-year-old sister and
stomped on them after finding out
the girls are related.
Once, students followed Tamika
and her mother home from school.
“I don’t care if she’s with her
mom,’ ” Eloine McNeill recalled
them saying, “ ‘I’ll walk up and
punch that bitch in her face.’ ”
McNeill, 39, said she had spun
around on her heels.
“That’s it. This will be the last
time,” she told them. “If you hit my
child, you’re going to get the whooping you should have got at home.”
They just laughed, McNeill said.
The worst abuse happened in early April when Tamika went into the
cafeteria. She had sensed something was wrong because students
were staring at her.
So she wore her backpack on her
chest for protection.
“Bra stuffer. Bra stuffer,” she
heard someone yell.
Then several students came at
her. A boy tried to wrestle her knapsack away. He held her hands behind her back, she said. Two other
students wedged their hands between the backpack and her body,
one going up her shirt and the other going down in it.
They grabbed her chest, as she
yelled for them to stop.
Tamika pulled away and ran into
a bathroom. She collapsed to the
floor, crying, she said.
A female school police officer
who had followed her in asked what
was wrong.
She said she didn’t feel she could
trust anyone. The teasing had gone
on for too long. Tamika and her
mother said they had complained
to school workers about the problems at least a half-dozen times.
As soon as the officer left, Tamika
ran home — the one place she felt
safe. Her mother wasn’t home, so
Tamika called her on the phone, sobbing as she relayed what happened.
While waiting for her mother, she
drew a picture of a face, tears streaming down it, and wrote a poem:
In the schools, they’re always
bothering me.
But if they just take the time to
see how much of a good friend I
can be.
I’m smart and I’m really fun, and
I like to play
and you can speak to me all day.
But no one wants to talk to me.
No one wants to say hi unless
they’re saying bye girl, please or
goodbye.
I just hope one day I’ll have a
friend I can trust,
but I hope it’s soon because I think
I might combust.
When she heard what had happened, Eloine McNeill called city police and returned to school with Tamika that afternoon to register a complaint. Police met them at the school.
She was dismayed to find that no
one at Cleveland had even noticed
Tamika was gone, though an hour
had passed:
“I said, ‘Did her teacher call
downstairs to say one of her students didn’t return from lunch?’
None of that occurred.”
In the days after the attack, the
school didn’t remove Tamika’s attackers from her classes or stop
them from harassing the girl, McNeill said.
Nor did it notify district officials
at the central office — that wouldn’t
happen for 21/2 months.
City police from the Special Victims Unit took Tamika’s complaint
on April 9 but didn’t interview witnesses until April 22.
Near the end of the school year
— about two months after the assault — the school organized a
meeting for Tamika and her mother
with the attackers and their parents in an effort at reconciliation.
About the same time, arrest warrants for two boys — fellow sixth
graders — were finally issued, one
in June and the other in July.
Under a “consent decree,” the students were ordered to perform 25
hours of community service, spend
time with a court-appointed advocate, follow a curfew, and submit to
random drug screens, according to
court officials.
The drawn-out process was an ordeal for Tamika. She stopped going
out for recess because her mother
was too worried. Instead, she sat in
the school office. She never wanted
to take her coat off. She felt “violated,” she said.
The bright girl who had a knack for
drawing began to like school less.
She would cry frequently, wondering
why the classmates who attacked her
were allowed to remain in school.
“It was hard to walk past them,”
she said softly.
Tamika, now a seventh grader, has
since moved to Kenderton School,
which is only a slightly longer walk
than Cleveland, and she’s happier.
“The word needs to get out on
how violent the schools really are,”
her mother said, “and they really
need to take it seriously.”
Contact staff writer Kristen Graham
at 215-854-5146 or
[email protected].