Slight increase in violence seen in Philadelphia schools

There was a slight uptick in violence reported in and around Philadelphia public schools during the first six months of this academic year.

The district's total violent-crime index showed a 2.8 percent increase from the same period a year earlier. But Philadelphia School District data show larger jumps in some categories. The number of reported assaults on students rose 13.2 percent, and robberies were up 22 percent.

And a year after a spate of serious attacks on educators - including math teacher Frank Burd, whose neck was broken during an assault inside Germantown High School in February 2007 - fewer teachers reported being injured.

The district's data, reported yesterday by the Philadelphia Daily News, show a 1.2 percent decline in assaults on teachers through the end of February.

But some educators say violence in city schools is worse than the numbers indicate. Despite recent efforts to crack down on district administrators who fail to report serious incidents, as is required by state and federal law, critics say teachers and other staffers are still reluctant to report attacks.

"The numbers are flawed because teachers are afraid to tell what's going on," said Mimi Shapiro, a veteran teacher who left her position at the Elkin Elementary School in Kensington in April 2006.

Now cochair of a fledgling local chapter of the National Association for Prevention of Teacher Abuse, Shapiro said her group had attracted teachers who said they were punished by administrators for reporting abuse, as well as educators who were fearful of reprisals.

"That feeling should not exist, but it is real," Jerry Jordan, president of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, said yesterday. "The other side of the coin is it's a Catch-22."

He said that when principals report serious incidents, they are warned by superiors that their schools are on the way to landing on the list of "persistently dangerous schools" under the federal No Child Left Behind law.

Jordan said: "Principals are getting mixed messages as well."

James B. Golden, the district's chief safety executive, said the district encouraged educators who were victims and were fearful of reprisals to report attacks directly to the district's violence hotline.

"We have worked hard over the last year and a half to mitigate that kind of concern among teachers and staff," Golden said yesterday.

"I think on another level there is some confusion about what is reportable vs. what is innocuous and does not necessarily rise to a reportable offense," he said.

Golden and Jack Stollsteimer, the state-appointed safe-schools advocate, are cochairs of a safe-schools advisory committee that is examining the reporting process and other school-safety issues, including discipline.

Stollsteimer said the group had been working for four or five months on developing a "transparent and legally proper reporting process for school crimes."

Golden added: "Part of the committee's work is to clear up any confusion and provide more specific guidelines."

He said he expected that a final report with recommendations for improving school safety would be presented to the Philadelphia School Reform Commission in the next few months.

According to Golden, the district's violence data for the first six months of the year are "not unlike what we have seen in previous years."

He said the district examined individual categories looking for patterns and trends so it could respond in a tactical way. For example, Golden said, school district police, the city's Police Department, and SEPTA police are working together to address the spike in robberies.

"We have had a number occur on school property," Golden said, but many others have occurred on buses and subways while students were heading home from school.

"We do count those," he said, "because the student has not arrived home."

Fernando Gallard, a district spokesman, attributed a 27.5 percent jump in fires to trash blazes and copycats. Following a fire in January at Martin Luther King High School, there were five others two days later at West Philadelphia High.

Gallard said the 27.1 percent increase in morals offenses may stem from a recent reminder to principals to report all incidents including exposure and indecent touching.

Golden said no student shooting was included in this year's violent-crime index to date, and he pointed out that the number of weapons confiscated in schools dropped 19.7 percent. He said only about four or five of the 518 weapons found were firearms.

"That's about half where we were last year in terms of firearms in and around schools," he said.

And as part of the district's effort to make schools safer, Golden said, the district increased the number of nonteaching assistants, school police, and other noninstructional employees at the 40 most-troubled schools. Each of those schools also was assigned an administrator who is responsible for overseeing the school climate and safety.

Golden said he believed that approach had helped reduce the number of teachers, administrators and school police who reported being assaulted this academic year.

The district made the changes after Burd, the Germantown High math teacher, was assaulted by students. He was punched by one student and pushed by another, and he fell and broke his neck in a school hallway on Feb. 23, 2007. Both students pleaded guilty and were sent to state juvenile facilities.

Burd said yesterday he was still recuperating and had not returned to work. He declined to comment further.

Shapiro, the former teacher involved with the National Association for Prevention of Teacher Abuse, said she had invited Burd, other injured teachers, other educators, and parents to a public planning meeting for the group on March 30.

"Violence is not down in Philadelphia schools," Shapiro contended. "It has increased. However, if you report it, you are blacklisted."

Information about her group's meeting is available at

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