philly.com watch: The School District’s Response

The School District of Philadelphia responded to the Inquirer’s series on school violence with some important words of wisdom:

As we go through this week, the intention is not to pass blame, but more to point out that this issue is bigger than, “the District is failing” to do this or to do that.  It is about the greater problem affecting not only the students in our schools, but those affecting their parents, grandparents, siblings, neighbors, and anyone else who has had the misfortune to be swept up into a cycle of poverty that has laid waste to the hopes and dreams of countless Philadelphians over the decades.  As a community, we have to do better by our young people and we have to put our heads together to focus on solutions to the problems that exist instead of this constant finger-pointing.  Their future, and our own, demands that we do this.

You can read the complete response at http://bit.ly/ghHH9K

I look forward to the Inquirer’s suggestions to improve the schools. That story is supposed to run tomorrow.

philly.com watch: Teachers Disagree About School Violence

Day 4 of the Inquirer’s series includes a survey of teachers and their attitudes toward the level of school violence in Philly. It seems as though the teachers–at least those who responded to a 27-question survey–were divided about a variety of items.

The survey included the following questions and results:

In each of the following areas, do you think your school is doing an excellent, good, only fair, or poor job? Keeping order and discipline in the hallways.

Only fair 29 percent
Poor 28 percent
Good 26 percent
Excellent 17 percent
Don’t know 1 percent

Violence and other disruptive behaviors have been getting worse in my school over the past three years.

Strongly agree 31 percent
Somewhat agree 24 percent
Strongly disagree 18 percent
Somewhat disagree 10 percent
Don’t know 9 percent

Violence and disruption hinder my ability to do my job.

Somewhat agree 28 percent
Strongly agree 27 percent
Strongly disagree 23 percent
Somewhat disagree 13 percent
Neither agree or disagree 8 percent

It would seem that a slight majority of the teachers see school violence as a problem. It would seem if the situation were as out of control as the Inky series seems to indicate, the respondents would be a far larger majority.

The survey included 750 out of 13,000 teachers through the Philadelphia School District, or roughly 6 percent of the total number of teachers.

As part of full disclosure, it should be noted that the survey was done by a professor at Temple University, where I teach. I do not know him.  See the full results at http://bit.ly/e8Xs9x

philly.com watch: An Interesting Trend

philly.com came back to the Inky series about school violence for its lead at 8 p.m. It is the first time I have seen this trend in the month I have been tracking the newspaper. It is a good choice. Far better than the leads chosen throughout the day–even though the story has its flaws.

phillycom.watch: Good News, But You Have to Wait

philly.com had an online chat about the first three days of its investigation into school violence. Kristen Graham, one of the reporters, was handling questions.

I joined in the discussion. I asked if any schools had done well in dealing with school violence. The answer was that I had to wait until Friday’s stories to learn about what schools are doing well.

[Comment From Guest]  What schools are doing well in dealing with school violence in the district?
4:44	Kristen Graham:   Check out Friday’s part of the series for a look at this very question, Guest.

Unacceptable!

If you trash the School District for five days, you can’t wait until Friday to say what it is doing right. The School District may not be doing well, but it is a bit much to answer my question six days into the series.

philly.com watch: School Violence Series Has Yet to Prove the Case

The second day of the Inquirer’s week-long series on school violence, which can be seen at http://bit.ly/gP7ni4, makes the following statement:

“By examining district data and school police incident reports for a five-year period dating to the 2005-2006 school year, The Inquirer was able to identify numerous examples of tardy notification, failure to report, and statistical discrepancies pointing to the active suppression of information that would reveal how violent Philadelphia schools really are….”

It is clear that school violence remains a problem in city schools. But the Inky depends far too heavily on anecdotal evidence, anonymous sources and individuals who have personal rather than objective opinions. Also, the target is the central administration, which may or may not be to blame.

The main story begins and ends with an anecdotal story about a former sixth-grade student in Tioga’s Cleveland Elementary School. The girl was taunted. Her breasts were fondled. Her attackers did not face punishment for more than two months.

The story is sad. She should have gotten justice far more quickly. One parent complained that she had to take her daughter to the hospital after a fight broke out. She said the school should have called an ambulance to take the child to the hospital. Another parent complained that her son suffered a broken finger in a fight. The Inky needs far more serious incidents than these to prove its case.

The sources include the former head of security who was replaced, a former advocate who got fired, the teachers’ union leader, angry parents and teachers who requested to remain anonymous. That’s just not good enough to make the allegations set out in the article that the district has been engaged in “the active suppression of information that would reveal how violent Philadelphia schools really are.”

The newspaper needs more sources on the record from people without agendas.

Buried deep in the story is the following:

Michael Lerner, recently retired head of the district’s principals union, said his members face difficult situations every day.

He cited an example: A fight breaks out. The loser alleges he or she was assaulted. Is it an assault?

Or perhaps an employee “provokes” an assault by a child, he said. Or maybe a child has learning or emotional disabilities.

“It isn’t all that simple,” he said. “There are so many mitigating factors in many of these cases, that it isn’t black and white. It is a very, very difficult position for many principals. I know for the most part they do report.”

Although he is a former union official and principal, his comments seem to make the most sense of anyone in the story.

It seems clear that the district administrators, principals, teachers and security personnel have become distant and disconnected from each other–like a poorly run business. It seems, however, that the newspaper, like many of us, consider schools as the primary place to learn respect for others. The schools cannot correct what is not learned at home. The schools simply become a mirror of the troubles at home and can do little to mitigate the underlying problems within our society.