Victoria Brownworth

 The stand-off between Asian students at South Philadelphia High School and the school’s administration ended after eight days. But the issues raised by an attack on 26 Asian students at South Philly High in early December have not–and will not–go away.

 The violent attacks on Chinese, Vietnamese and Cambodian students at the school drew widespread attention due to the extent of the violence–more than two dozen Asian students sustained injuries. This particular attack also uncovered a pattern in which Asian students were repeatedly targeted by African-American students at the school.

 One in five students at South Philly High is Asian, a majority of them recent immigrants to the U.S. Three in five students are African American. The school services a large and disparate Asian immigrant community and Asian students have regularly been bullied with taunts and physical attacks. These attacks often occurred, as many Asian students reported, while teachers and even school administrators looked on, unresponsive.

 Asian community leaders have stated that it was only a matter of time before this pattern escalated into the full-scale attack that occurred in early December.

 When 14 African American youths attacked two Chinese students on Dec. 3, followed by another attack on 26 students several days later, Asian students asserted that this proved they were in constant danger at the school. They–and their parents and Asian community leaders–demanded action.

 South Philly High has been listed by the state for the past three years as “persistently dangerous.” Throughout that period an influx of immigrant Chinese, Vietnamese and Cambodian students has increased exponentially. 

After the December attacks, more than 50 Asian students refused to return to classes until something was done by the Philadelphia School District to ensure their safety. In 2008, attacks on Asian students at the school were so prevalent, student Wei Chen started the Chinese American Student Association to help bolster solidarity among Chinese and other Asian students at the school. The group demanded more security for Asian students.

After the December assaults, School District spokesperson Michael Silverman said that assaults in the school were down 50 percent since the previous year. 

 But in the aftermath of the December assaults, the School District and Nutter Administration officials repeatedly characterized the attacks as not racial in nature. Yet if the assaults were perpetrated solely against Asian students, how could they not be racially motivated, regardless of who was doing the attacking?

 The incidents at South Philly High made local and national news, but it is–regrettably–not really news. Ethnic intimidation and racism toward Asian students, particularly recent immigrants to the U.S., have, according to Asian American groups nationwide, been escalating in recent years. The situation at South Philly High was not anomalous–either in Philadelphia or nationally.

 Racism in the schools has traditionally been characterized as a white/black dynamic. But in recent years–particularly in urban centers where public schools are most likely to be comprised largely of students of color–racial conflicts have most often been between African-American students and either Asian or Latino students, often from immigrant populations.

 In Philadelphia, with its continually growing Asian and Latino communities, conflicts like those at South Philadelphia High School are bound to arise. The question is, how are school officials handling these racial and ethnic tensions?

 If the South Philly experience is any indicator, the answer is succinct: badly. How could it be that assaults at South Philly High are down 50 percent from the previous year if in December 2009 alone there were 40 Asian students assaulted in a matter of days at the school? How many students need to be attacked before an individual school or the School District itself takes the matter seriously?

 In recent years Germantown High School and Simon Gratz were both sites  of violent, racial attacks. Other racial attacks between Asian and African American students have occurred at Olney, Roxborough and Frankford High Schools–other neighborhoods with growing Asian immigrant communities.

 In August 2009 the state released its list of the 25 most “persistently dangerous” schools in Pennsylvania. Every one was in Philadelphia. Philadelphia School District officials said the increased number of schools on the list–up from 20 in 2008–was because of a greater effort to report all violent incidents. But that only acknowledges that Philadelphia schools are more violent than not. Hardly comforting for parents or for prospective or current students.

 What is the School District doing to address violence in the schools? Sexual assault, for example, is on the rise in both high schools and middle schools in Philadelphia. And with ethnic and racial tensions like those at South Philadelphia High and other schools in Philadelphia on the rise, does the School District have a plan?
 District officials point to greater accountability with regard to reportage of incidents and stepped up security and other interventions. But if the South Philly incidents are any indicator, principals, teachers and other school personnel need sensitivity training to better deal with problems that might be unique to their particular neighborhood or student demographic.

 Each year there are reports of bullied students deciding to fight back against their attackers–often with guns or other weapons, often with tragic results. In 2010, no one can pretend a lack of awareness of the impact bullying and intimidation have on students, either as individuals or as a group–be it an ethnic, racial or sexual minority. Teachers and school officials certainly cannot be ignorant of these cause and effect situations.

 The South Philly incidents caused relatively little damage only in that the Asian students who were attacked suffered no serious or lasting physical injuries. But these are students who are relatively new to the U.S. and whose experience of their adopted country is increasingly being characterized by violence. These attacks will have a lasting emotional and psychological impact on them. What’s more, the characterization of all black students at South Philly High as racists is far from accurate. Yet in not addressing the conflicts as they have arisen, school officials have allowed an atmosphere of suspicion and blame to fester.

 In Philadelphia, the School District and the Mayor’s office need to work in tandem to provide not merely a semblance of safety for all students, regardless of race, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation, but they have to address the source of the conflicts. Schools must hold forums where students can speak out without fear of intimidation about the ethnic and racial biases they are either subjected to or feel toward other students.

 The South Philly incident should have been a wake-up call for the School District that serious problems exist not just at that one school but are incipient in every school where there is a complex ethnic and racial demographic.

 The Asian students at South Philly High were right and courageous to stand up for themselves and boycott a school with so little obvious concern for their welfare. Conversely, school officials made the situation worse by appearing to support the students who perpetrated the attacks, thus inflaming racial tensions between the two groups. It’s difficult to imagine that an attack on 26 black students by gangs of white students would have been treated as anything other than what it was: racial intimidation. So why did school officials pretend this was something other than a racial attack?
 The colors may have shifted in the spectrum of racial tensions in the schools, but what remains the same is that children and teens learn from the adults around them. If parents and teachers are fomenting racism–either overtly or indirectly–then there are bound to be clashes between students. Asian parents fear for their children’s safety, but African-American parents need to be equally concerned that all their children are being tagged as violent racists, whether they are actual perpetrators or not. In addition, violence begets violence: The South Philly students responded with a boycott, but the next group of targeted students may choose to retaliate with their own assaults.

 It’s easy to blame the students who attacked the Asian students. Far more difficult is examining what led to the attacks and how those tensions can be diffused in future. The adults at South Philly High and all the other schools that didn’t make the news for the same kind of attacks are the ones who need to address the problems. Kids don’t learn on their own–and that includes tolerance of difference. It’s 2010, not 1954. Racial tension has no place in our schools. It’s way past time the schools to be accountable to all their students, regardless of race.