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Assault on Learning Central

 
Two
Underreporting Hides Violence
Cases of students fighting, hitting teachers, making threats are discovered much later.
 
Safety post still needed, former advocate says
Three
Young and Violent, Even Kindergartners
Children ages 5 to 10 assault staff and classmates. Some commit sex offenses.
 
Search: School-by-school violence data
Four
Teachers, staff attacked
In the last school year, 690 teachers were assaulted; in the last five years, 4,000 were.
 
TEACHER SURVEY: see the results here
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AN INQUIRER INVESTIGATION

By John Sullivan, Susan Snyder, Kristen A. Graham, Dylan Purcell and Jeff Gammage 

INQUIRER STAFF WRITERS

 

Five
A Flawed System Of Intervention
An effort to help students and limit violence is seen as little more than paper-shuffling.
 
CSAP fails to aid a learning-disabled boy
 
At Philly disciplinary school, students face a strict day
Six
Antiviolence efforts that work
They are being applied haphazardly across the Phila. School District, but not being used on a wide scale.
 
A Fla. district leads in violence prevention
 
Philadelphia looking to decrease its reliance on use of out-of-school suspensions
Seven
Healing South Phila. High's wounds
Principal Otis Hackney strives to remake the school’s spirit following the 2009 violence against Asian students.
Data
Search For Schools Here
Search our unique database for schools by name, zip-code or school type. Find detailed data about each school including totals for violent incidents, totals by crime type and how each school compares to other district schools in its violent crime rate.
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"No one will know our schools are getting safer unless they can trust the data we collect and report is valid and consistent, and that there is no ´down-coding´ or under-reporting in an attempt to make a school look safer than it is," Mayor Nutter wrote in the report, discussed before the School Reform Commission.
Report: Philly schools fall short on crime
By Kristen A. Graham, Inquirer Staff Writer
The findings echo an Inquirer investigative series that found crime was widespread and underreported.
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How this series was reported

Five Inquirer reporters devoted a year to examining violence in the Philadelphia public schools, conducting more than 300 interviews with teachers, administrators, students and their families, district officials, police officers, court officials, and school violence experts.

The Inquirer created a database to analyze more than 30,000 serious incidents - from assaults to robberies to rapes - that occurred during the last five years. That information was supplemented by district and state data on suspensions, intervention and 9-1-1 calls. Reporters also examined police reports, court records, transcripts, contracts and school security video.

The Inquirer also enlisted Temple University to conduct an independent survey of the district's 13,000 teachers and aides. More than 750 teachers and aides responded to questions about violence and its impact on students' education.

The newspaper also obtained internal district documents detailing violent incidents during the past five years. On specific cases, reporters interviewed victims, perpetrators, police, attorneys, witnesses, and attended court hearings.

One reporter had regular access over nearly six months to students, teachers and administrators inside South Philadelphia High School, one of the city’s most dangerous schools.

Recent Reports

Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations report on Philadelphia School District’s response to violence and intergroup conflicts

Pennsylvania Auditor General’s Audit of the Philadelphia School District (Pa. Auditor General)

Zero Tolerance in Philadelphia (Youth United for Change and The Advancement Project)

Pushed Out: Youth Voices on the Dropout Crisis in Philadelphia (Youth United for Change)

The African American and Latino Male Dropout Taskforce Report (Philadelphia School Reform Commission) – September 2010

Platform of the Campaign for Nonviolent Schools (Campaign for Nonviolent Schools)