Report: City schools unsafe, unjust

Philadelphia public schools are unsafe places where students who commit violent crimes are rarely punished and rehabilitated and with a disciplinary system that is "dysfunctional and unjust," according to a report by the district's safe-schools advocate.

In a blistering 72-page document obtained by The Inquirer, Jack Stollsteimer describes a district where students who assault teachers or come to school with guns are not removed from classrooms, a violation of federal and state law.

School crime, he says, has been historically underreported, victims do not receive proper rights, and the increasing violence against teachers and employees is not taken seriously.

Prompted by questions from The Inquirer and two months after receiving Stollsteimer's report - which he is required by law to complete - the state blasted the safe-schools advocate's document and said it would release its own version next week.

"The draft report has serious problems - some of the data analysis is inaccurate, the legal analysis is flawed. We are releasing the official report on Monday," said Sheila Ballen, a spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania Department of Education.

Stollsteimer vehemently defended his work.

"It is the district's data, what they reported to the Pennsylvania Department of Education. If the Pennsylvania Department of Education has a problem with the data, it's their problem," said Stollsteimer, a Department of Education employee. He was appointed by Gov. Rendell in 2006 to be a watchdog for the city's school crime victims.

He stood by his report but declined to comment on its contents.

Stollsteimer's report paints a grim picture. Last year, more than 5,000 students committed offenses considered criminal acts under Pennsylvania law, he concluded, using end-of-the-year district data. None was expelled, and just 29 percent was transferred to alternative schools, he said.

Stollsteimer characterized the district as having "an organizational culture that has become tolerant of violent behavior and dismissive of the rights of its victims."

He echoes complaints made in recent years by his predecessor Harvey Rice and Ellen Green-Ceisler, who in a 2006 report criticized the district for its dysfunctional disciplinary system.

School officials say that though they have not formally expelled students in recent years, they have removed troublemakers by transferring those students caught with weapons to alternative schools. A loophole gives officials discretion in expulsions.

"The district does not believe that expelling students to the street is the appropriate action to take for the welfare of the child and the community," said Fernando Gallard, a district spokesman.

A School Safety Advisory Committee has been meeting since January to consider changes to the district's policies and expects to make recommendations in June. The group is led by Chief Safety Officer James Golden, a former police officer and police chief, and Stollsteimer, a former federal prosecutor.

Schools will remain unsafe, Stollsteimer said in the report, "unless the district is forced by some outside power" to make changes.

In his report, Stollsteimer chastised the district, which he believes is in violation of state law and the federal Gun-Free Schools Act for "refusing, as a matter of policy, to expel students who bring guns and deadly weapons to school." As evidence, he points to only two expulsions in the last three years despite incidents in which students possessed 3,242 weapons, mostly knives.

Gallard said the district is not in violation of the act, that officials are permitted to make exceptions on a case-by-case basis.

The federal law mandates a year's expulsion for students caught with firearms on school property, and state law extends that policy to all weapons.

The district could lose millions in aid if it is found to have violated the federal act.

Stollsteimer said Philadelphia should use discretion sparingly not as a matter of policy, as it has been. Expulsion better protects victims while still giving offenders legal rights, he wrote.

A complaint has been filed with the U.S. Attorney's Office, and federal officials have been collecting information on the district's expulsion policy, though it is not certain whether a formal investigation will be launched. A U.S. Department of Education spokesman declined to comment.

In part, Stollsteimer said, the district's hands are tied by a series of "consent decrees" hammered out over the past 30 years. The legal agreements call for several hearings before a student can be transferred to an alternative school.

Len Rieser, codirector of the Education Law Center of Pennsylvania, the nonprofit that negotiated the agreements with the district, said that consent decrees do not keep schools from holding problem students accountable.

Of the 5,207 fifth- through twelfth-grade students who committed serious offenses last school year - classified as criminal acts under Pennsylvania law - 29 percent were transferred to alternative education schools, and none was expelled. Of the remaining students, 39 percent had some other form of discipline - suspension for example - taken against them, and the remaining students either had no action taken against them or the case's outcomes were not recorded.

Students were last expelled in the 2005-06 school year, when two were formally ejected.

Those students who assault school employees are largely staying in classrooms, the report shows. Of the 1,898 who attacked teachers last year, just 22 percent were transferred to alternative schools.

Violence against school staff rocked the district last year, with Germantown teacher Frank Burd as a touchstone. In February 2007, a student's punch caused Burd to fall and break his neck.

Among those who brought weapons to school, 34 percent of the 1,008 students were transferred to alternative schools.

District records also show that serious incidents are not always reported to Philadelphia police, as is required. Last school year, the district failed to notify police of 36 percent of all such violent events.

Golden, the top safety official, said the district takes safety very seriously.

"We believe the district acts appropriately when it comes to discipline in providing a range of disciplinary measures, up to and including expulsion," he said.

Stollsteimer also criticized the district for failing to establish a cabinet-level discipline czar. Currently, Golden does not have authority over safety and disciplinary staff at the school level, just school police officers and community groups.

Golden said the School Safety Advisory Committee will also take up this issue.

"I believe that there are disparate functions that are related to school safety that probably should be better integrated than they currently are," Golden said.

Though Stollsteimer's office was created to be a watchdog for victims, he has been hamstrung by state oversight, he wrote. Stollsteimer noted that his job was threatened by a state official when he made recommendations about consent decrees.

Stollsteimer makes several recommendations - from elevating Golden's job to fixing the disciplinary system and going to court to eliminating consent decrees.

The report also calls for an expansion of alternative education placements. Currently, there are about 7,000 spots in disciplinary schools.

In addition, the report calls upon the Pennsylvania Legislature to close loopholes in existing law and enact tougher, more specific laws that would keep children safer. It also suggests making the Office of Safe Schools advocate an independent agency, separate from the district or state.

Rice said things have not changed since his tenure, which ended in 2005.

While Rice would like to see more violent students expelled, his problem is the number of students who commit violent acts without being removed permanently from classrooms.

"A kid assaults a teacher, and then in a few days is back in the same classroom? The message that sends is it's OK to do that again," Rice said.

The district's practices, he said, impede learning.

"If I go to a classroom every day worried that a student is going to beat me up, sexually harass me, assault me, I'm not going to be able to learn well," Rice said.

Jerry Jordan, president of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, said Stollsteimer's findings match the daily reality of life inside city classrooms.

"We get complaints daily about teachers' concerns for their safety," Jordan said. "Discipline is inconsistent. No teacher should have to work under these conditions."