Posted on 12/09/2009 5:34:36 PM PST by DBCJR
Several dozen Asian students say they don't feel safe at South Philadelphia High School, after several fights here last week where Asian students said they were targeted by African-American students.
Senior Duong Ly (right) says the racial tensions at his school are real:
"Even if the Asian students and the African-American students study together, they still don't like us. Because why? Because we are Asian."
Senior Amina Velasquez saw the fights:
"They just were jumping people who were Asian. And it was really horrible because a girl who was close to everyone, they just turned on her and jumped her."
The Asian students say they'll boycott classes here all week. Math teacher Dean Coder supports the students:
"I think they have to have a zero tolerancy for any ethnic slurs and any intimidation. Why isn't this called a hate crime? When you have a bunch of black kids picking on an Asian kid strictly because he's Asian, why isn't that a hate crime?"
School district officials met with the Chinese American Student Association here last week, but the students were not satisfied. The Asian students plan to meet and study at another location during school hours.
Regional superintendent Michael Silverman (right) says that security has been beefed up at the school, and the district is reaching out to the Asian students to help them feel safe again:
"The reality is, on Thursday there was fighting and on Wednesday evening there was fighting. What we're trying to really focus on right now is to bring everybody back to school, to make the school safe, and have kids learn to work with each other."
Ten students were suspended and several sought medical treatment.
Silverman says he'll continue to talk with Asian student leaders but doesn't know how long it will take to convince the students to return.
School officials say the clashes are an aberration that contradicts efforts to improve race relations.
My district has a very large Asian population. There used to be brawls in the hallways of the high school because white kids were upset that the Asians were getting all the good grades, scholarships, prizes, etc. Eventually, it all calmed down and now the high school is supposed to be one of the best in the country. The Asian kids were the ones who raised the bar — not the teachers or the administrators.
Philadelphia is more dangerous than Iraq.
Barbaric animals is the term that comes to mind. And I’m not talking about the Asian students.
All schools should start with a first grade lesson that needs to be reinforced at the beginning of every school year; nobody owes you anything! You have to work for what you get.
Ping
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“The Asian students plan to meet and study at another location during school hours.”
And when they figure out they are learning more on their own than at school, what will they do then?
Don’t know how many asians there are at that school, but they could start a group academy and let the parents teach the subjects they can.
“I wonder if they actually are hypocrits, or if maybe they are so poorly educated that they actually believe that the word racism only applies to black victims?”
A large percentage of University professors believe that only whites can be racist.
Idiot. If it's an aberration, then why the efforts to imporve race relations. They wouldn't be needing to improve race relations if they were already good.
I’ll bet some of those Asian parents are pretty well qualified, better qualified than the teachers the present school has.
The Asian students filed a civil rights lawsuit against the school district.
The school had a retired judge do a full report. The full report can be read here, with the details beginning on page 8: http://aaunited.org/downloads/sphs/2010/201002_giles_report.pdf Most of the attackers were black, although some were Cambodian and some were white. One particularly violent attacker in the middle of it all was a Cambodian female. OTOH, most of the victims that day were Vietnamese and Chinese immigrants who were ESOL students.
Some people are saying the report is designed to protect the school staff and deflect a lawsuit. Probably so. But, the Asian organization that filed the suit has a motive to slant the story in its direction, too. Neither is denying a racial element to the story, but the report does give more info into the story.
(I'm SO GLAD we moved out of Philly and decided to homeschool!)
Well that is a genuine possibility since that is what Jesse et al has taught them.
no doubt
The current purpose of public school in this country is not to educate, it’s purpose is ethnic cleansing.
>racism always rears its head.
Yes, and the power of the written or spoken word rears its head.
Properly, this is called “tribalism” and is, and has been, obvious for tens of thousands of years.
change the name to racist and it becomes a tool to advance an agenda, hence it is “dogma.”
They did it with “gay” as well.
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