South Phila. High teacher sues administrators, alleging retaliation

A teacher at South Philadelphia High School has filed a lawsuit claiming administrators retaliated against him for warning that Asian students were in danger - a warning that proved prophetic on Dec. 3.

That day, 30 Asians were attacked in a series of assaults by groups of mostly African American classmates. The repercussions continue.

A School District spokesperson had no comment on the lawsuit.

In the suit, filed in U.S. District Court, social-studies teacher William Aitken says he told principal LaGreta Brown in October 2009 that students were using cell phones to coordinate attacks on Asians. He said he told her that she needed to enforce the district phone ban.

Nothing happened - except that Brown publicly criticized his teaching skills, the suit says. Aitken was subsequently brought up on disciplinary charges, as yet unresolved, and assigned to a holding office that teachers derisively call "the rubber room."

Teachers sent to these sites while awaiting the outcome of disciplinary proceedings do not do any work, but continue to be paid. Aitken was paid $75,572 in 2008, the most recent figure available.

"I still want to teach," Aitken said Wednesday. "I want to go back to South Philadelphia High School. Most of the people there are good people."

The suit seeks unspecified monetary damages.

Brown is no longer employed by the district and could not be reached for comment.

She resigned as principal on May 13, after The Inquirer asked about her lack of state certification. In the suit, Aitken says he notified the teachers union the day before Brown quit that she lacked credentials.

The day after Brown resigned, Aitken said, two school police officers walked into his class, grabbed him by the arms and shoulders, and forcibly took him away in front of astonished students.

He was ordered to report to the comprehensive high school regional office, which the suit described as a school in name only, was assigned to sit in a windowless storage closet, and was never told why he was there, the suit says.

On June 8, he was summoned to a meeting and confronted with what he said was a false allegation that he had threatened a school police officer. He was then returned to the closet, where he continues to report, the suit says.

Some teachers can spend months assigned to administrative offices while awaiting the resolution of their cases.

Aitken is the first to assert that the Dec. 3 attacks were coordinated by cell phones - information he said he learned from students. He said he noticed students with phones in hand when incidents occurred.

Asian victims made no such claim in the wake of the violence, nor did a federal civil-rights complaint filed on their behalf.

Aitken, 56, of Churchville, Bucks County, filed the suit against Superintendent Arlene Ackerman, then-Regional Superintendent Michael Silverman, Brown, and assistant principal Juanita Johnson.

Aitken became a teacher five years ago, after 20 years as a Philadelphia police officer. His record as an officer and a teacher was "impeccable," said his attorney, Marc Gelman.

Aitken alleges that under Brown, the school year started bad and got worse. On Sept. 1, 2009, she introduced herself to staff by expressing a desire to break up the "Asian dynasty," the lawsuit says. In such comments, "Brown contributed to, and tacitly approved of, the hostile environment."

On Oct. 5, a mob came into Aitken's class and attacked a student, organizing the assault via cell phone and text message, the suit said. Aitken was injured. Seeing "the growing hostility toward Asian students and the apparent threat to their safety," he requested a meeting with Brown.

There he expressed his concern for Asian students and said they were imperiled by Brown's failure to enforce the cell-phone ban, the suit says.

At a teachers' meeting two days later, Brown publicly denigrated Aitken, the suit says.

On Oct. 15, the suit says, an Asian student outside his class endured "a violent attack . . . coordinated by multiple students using their unauthorized cellular telephones."

On Dec. 3, anti-Asian violence erupted, sending seven youths to hospitals and sparking three official inquiries.

The suit says that on Dec. 7, Johnson made a surprise visit to Aitken's class and later gave him a poor performance review. In January, he wrote a letter to colleagues warning of Brown and Johnson's "retaliatory conduct."

In March, the suit says, Brown ordered Aitken to a meeting where a district official said the principal was "offended" by his memos and that he was harassing her.

Aitken complained to the state Department of Education and gave a statement to the Justice Department, conducting a civil-rights inquiry that has since found merit in the claims of Asian students who said they were abused. He was not interviewed for the district investigation.