Asian students continue to boycott class

Dozens of Asian students from South Philadelphia High School continue to boycott class because of school violence.

Dozens of Asian students from South Philadelphia High School continue to boycott class because of school violence. The students told district officials Wednesday that school staff fail to protect them from ongoing attacks they say are racially motivated.

Listen:
[audio: 091210spasian.mp3]

The students described security guards who failed to protect them from attacks, and staff members who said it was not their job to get involved.

Jack Stollsteimer is the former safe schools advocate for the district, a position that the state eliminated in August.

Stollsteimer says he’s not surprised by the indifference of school officials. He says it’s a failure by district and school officials to back up their own code of conduct.

Stollsteimer: When I was the safe schools advocate we found that 70% of the time when the kids violated the student code of conduct in a major way, committed a school based crime, they Werner punished by the disciplinary system. That just sent a message to all the kids throughout the district that the rules are a joke. That’s what we gotta change.

Stollsteimer says the staff needs training in cultural sensitivity and they need to hold the kids to a certain standard of behavior.