School-related beatings becoming a pattern?

Bradford Jordan was e-mailing his fiancee - an actress and a former classmate of the Columbine High School killers - about her ideas for a screenplay on school violence when he heard a thunderous commotion outside his Kensington rowhouse around lunchtime Wednesday.

When he opened his door to investigate, he got some unwanted firsthand experience on the issue.

Several teens from Kensington High School were beating a neighbor's son while a crowd of 100 or more watched.

Jordan jumped in to intervene. But the mob turned on him, and within seconds, the 35-year-old fell to the ground while as many as 30 teens punched and kicked him. The assault ended only when Jordan's bat- and stick-wielding neighbors came to his aid.

The melee was one of a rash of violent incidents in recent days involving packs of teens in the School District of Philadelphia.

Yesterday, an eighth-grader at FitzSimons High School was jumped by two other male students in a hallway at the North Philadelphia school. The attackers were arrested, suspended and face expulsion to a disciplinary school, said James Golden, the district's chief safety official.

On Wednesday, 20 students were arrested at Sayre High School in West Philadelphia following a near-riot sparked after students clashed with police over the uniform policy.

And last Friday, three male students from Masterman High School were the targets of an attempted strong-arm robbery shortly after dismissal at 19th and Spring Garden streets, two blocks from the school. Six young males were being sought, said Golden, who didn't know if they are students from another school.

The attack by the Kensington students continues the pattern.

"I just got swarmed - it was like a hurricane of kicking and punching," said Jordan, who suffered a bruised rib, numerous bruises and cuts, and a possible broken nose. "And the kids who weren't participating were either watching or videotaping it, saying they were going to put it on YouTube.

"Kids today have a thirst for violence, it seems like."

Classes ended early districtwide on Wednesday for teacher training. In Kensington, the students moved in a mob down Firth Street near Emerald, about a block from the high school.

"You couldn't move on this street, that's how jam-packed it was," neighbor Ray Rodriguez Sr. said.

Several students from Kensington High's business school jumped a 16-year-old student, and that's when Jordan intervened.

"I shouted: 'Yo, f---ing knock it off! Don't bring this f---ing s--- on my block!' " recalled Jordan, who renovates houses for a living.

That didn't go over well with the students, one of whom then reportedly yelled: "Get the white oldhead!" Dozens swarmed, and Jordan's friends and neighbors sprang into action.

One grabbed a long paint pole from a home they were renovating on Firth Street and came outside swinging and yelling. Rodriguez grabbed a baseball bat.

"A kid came up on my step, and I said: 'C'mon, I haven't hit a home run in a while!' " said Rodriguez, 78. "He just turned around and left."

Some teens retaliated by throwing rocks, but within minutes, the crowd dispersed and moved on.

The drama was caught on a surveillance video one neighbor mounted on his rowhouse about two weeks ago, after he tired of vandals and thieves preying on the block.

Yesterday, Jordan said that he visited the high school with police and identified several of his attackers. Sgt. Tom Walsh of East Detectives said that a warrant was being prepared for at least one suspect. Police also are enhancing the surveillance video to try to identify more suspects, Walsh added.

School district spokesman Fernando Gallard said that the students involved could face suspension or transfer to a district disciplinary school.

Jordan hopes his experience can be a lesson for students.

"These kids need to just choose the right path and not be afraid to stand up for somebody," Jordan said.

The victim in the FitzSimons incident was jumped in retaliation for telling his teacher that the two attackers were shooting rubber bands in class, said Donna Thomas, the boy's mother.

"I really don't feel that enthused about sending them back to school," she said. "Who's to say they are not going to be waiting for him on the street?

"I know there are more parents who are concerned about the violence, they just have to speak up." *