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ABC's Diane Sawyer to profile Strawberry Mansion High

Strawberry Mansion High School was one of the few schools spared closure a couple months ago when the Philadelphia School District decided to shutter 29 educational facilities.

(left to right) James Royal, Tyrone Williams, Tanya Parker, and Donnell Tillery stand outside Strawberry Mansion High School in Philadelphia on January 2, 2013.  ( DAVID MAIALETTI / Staff Photographer )
(left to right) James Royal, Tyrone Williams, Tanya Parker, and Donnell Tillery stand outside Strawberry Mansion High School in Philadelphia on January 2, 2013. ( DAVID MAIALETTI / Staff Photographer )Read more

Strawberry Mansion High School was one of the few schools spared closure a couple months ago when the Philadelphia School District decided to shutter 29 educational facilities.

Strong neighborhood support and a reluctance to close a school that many students had just arrived at after transfers from two recently-closed schools were cited as reasons.

Now, Strawberry Mansion High is back in the news, this time to be broadcast across the nation tonight on ABC's "World News with Diane Sawyer." For those who missed the 6:30 p.m. broadcast, an extended segment on the high school will air on Nightline at 12:35 a.m. Friday morning.

Sawyer, the broadcast television channel's lead news anchor, brought her "Hidden America" series to Philadelphia's second most dangerous school to examine what it's like to attend and work at — in the words of an ABC press release — "one of the most dangerous high schools in the country for the last five years."

Strawberry Mansion had more than 10 violent incidents per 100 students in each of the past five years, according to a recent Inquirer report on how school closures could affect district violence.

ABC News paints a bleak picture in its press release of what will be profiled:

"435 high school students beginning the year. 94 cameras. 6 school police officers. 2 metal detectors. Welcome to Strawberry Mansion," the release said. "Most parents believe that our nation's schools should be a safe haven for children — an environment that helps its students grow, develop, and learn what it takes to be successful as an adult — but at this school students have to be reminded not to bring their weapons into the school."

The high school, along with soon-to-close L.P. Hill Elementary School, takes up the entire block of Ridge Avenue between 31st and 32nd streets.

Despite the persistently dangerous environment, students and staff at Strawberry Mansion were thrilled when they heard Strawberry Mansion High was spared closure.

"It's better to keep the students here, where they know each other," Sally Hart, a member of the instructional-support staff told the Inquirer in February. "When you mix students from four, five, six different neighborhoods, you're asking for trouble because there's going to be conflict."

Still, the high school has its fourth principal in four years and Sawyer takes a look into the daunting job facing current Principal Linda Wayman, according to the release.

"Linda Wayman who, together with a group of impassioned teachers, is looking to chart a new course for the school," the release said. "As a former assistant superintendent of public high schools in Philadelphia, she knew the task would be daunting, but her love of the students drew her to Strawberry Mansion. Sawyer asks what her most nerve-wracking time of the school day is — her answer: lunch."