But many of the students, and teachers, end up hunkering down to avoid violent confrontations with out-of-control kids.

While hysteria should not guide the response to new reports of school assaults, district and city officials need to improve their response when incidents occur.

Germantown High math teacher Frank Burd knows the pain of a serious attack. Two students punched and tripped him last month, breaking two bones in his neck, after Burd had taken an iPod from one of them.

This week, The Inquirer reported, a student slapped a West Philadelphia High teacher who walks with a cane - the second time in six weeks the teacher had been assaulted.

Who knows in how many classrooms in the district's 268 schools, or on how many days, do kids talk and disrupt class just enough to make it impossible for teachers to teach and earnest students to learn?

A few points need to be made before the conversation continues. Most schools remain safe havens for children. School violence is a problem nationally, and it's likely that Philadelphia schools aren't the worst.

The school district cannot control societal factors that contribute to student misbehavior. Family dysfunction, drugs and violence inside and outside the home are models for too many children.

But, as a recent report showed, the district should revise its anti-violence policies and procedures.

The process for transferring violent kids to alternative, more structured programs needs to be more clearly presented and streamlined.

A drawn-out hearing process that flowed out of a consent decree now hamstrings that streamlining. Even the most unruly students deserve due process, but it should not crawl along so slowly that the school year ends and the incident is left unresolved.

The process now protects the rights of the assailant far better than it does the rights of assaulted children or teachers, who could end up in the same classroom with their assailants during the slow proceedings.

There should be no question that incidents are to be reported promptly. Here's just one example of outrageously late reporting: It was not reported until the following December that a student had come to summer school with seven steak knives.

Schools CEO Paul Vallas yesterday announced a new hotline that teachers can call (215-400-7867) to report incidents. That may serve as a check on principals who don't report trouble at their schools. So may a new policy that requires students who commit a verbal or physical assault to be suspended immediately, initiating the transfer process.

Better still, don't make principals responsible for reporting incidents. Some try to improve their schools' or their own images by underreporting violent incidents. Vallas should explore giving school police officers or another third party the authority to report incidents to the district.

The district has made some improvements to its disciplinary process in recent years. But are they enough? Ask Mr. Burd.