Officials, parents meet at South Philly High

Administrators are holding closed meetings today at South Philadelphia High School with parents and community leaders concerned about the safety of students at the school and in the neighborhood.

At the 10 a.m. session, principal LaGretta Brown assured a gathering of about 60 people that school cared deeply about improving the situation with the help of parents and students.

Another session was set for 5 p.m.

Some Asian students are boycotting classes at the school, claiming school officials have done little to protect them from attacks, primarily by black students.

Ten students were suspended for an incident last week in which seven Asian students required treatment for minor injuries.

During the meeting, a handcuffed teenager was taken out of the building and placed in a police car, but apparently the arrest was unrelated to the meeting or the attacks.

No one has been arrested because of the recent incidents, police and district officials later said.

Al Sorchetti, a former assistant principal at the school, said Brown did a good job explaining what the school was doing and the difficult task ahead.

Brown spoke of starting a home and school association, as well as a think tank, composed of students and members of the community, to recommend some remedies.

Chief Inspector James Tiano said the police are taking the criminal investigation very seriously, but suggested that media reports exaggerated the extent of the problem, according to some attendees.

More school and city police officers have been assigned to the school and neighboring streets, according to district spokesman Vincent Thompson.

Concerned that officials aren't examining the problem deeply enough was Han Pan, 45, of Willow Grove, the former deputy director of the governor's Asian American Advisory Committee. The school seems to be continuing the same measures begun after similar troubles a year and half ago, he said at the meeting.

"I asked them, 'Are you sure the school is safe now?' " he said afterward.

"They just don't have the right approach," he added.

Before the meeting, a South Philadelphia engineer on his way in said that violence against Asian students isn't new.

As a fifth grader at Barrett Middle School, he himself was assaulted by eight older youths, said Chi Tu, 29.

"First week of school, I got jumped," he said.

About 70 percent of the school's students are black, 18 percent are Asian, 6 percent are white and 5 percent are Latino.

Also at the meeting were representatives of the Anti-Violence Partnership, the school district's Office of Translation Services, and the district's Comprehensive High School Region.