Schools pledge to act on teacher violence

In the midst of criticism of its handling of teacher assaults, the Philadelphia School District yesterday announced a crackdown, including the immediate establishment of a teacher safety hotline and more stringent penalties for offenders.

The heightened vigilance will extend to the Police Department. Police Commissioner Sylvester M. Johnson emerged from a one-hour private meeting with district officials and union representatives at police headquarters and promised to have police respond to all calls of assaults at schools and make arrests if the victim approves. Previously, principals or other disciplinarians were given some discretion on whether an assault should result in an arrest.

"The judgment of some of our principals is being questioned. I want to limit their discretion so there is no question," Paul Vallas, the district's chief executive officer, said at an afternoon news conference just before the meeting with Johnson.

Any student 10 or older who assaults a staff member or threatens an assault will be suspended for 10 days and recommended for expulsion, Vallas said. Younger students will be dealt with on a case-by-case basis, he said.

"There will be no debate or discussion. The student will be suspended immediately," Vallas said, adding that the new policy would be communicated to all parents in the next 24 hours. ". . . We would rather err on the side of overreacting. The hearing process will sort it out."

In addition, staff members who have complaints about how their assaults have been handled can call the new hotline - 215-400-STOP - and report them directly to a state-appointed monitor based in Philadelphia.

"That will give teachers and other personnel another avenue of communicating complaints," Vallas said.

The announcement followed a serious teacher assault at Germantown High School last month and subsequent allegations by teachers that not all violent acts in the 173,000-student district were being reported and dealt with appropriately by principals. Staff members at West Philadelphia High School said this week that a student who had threatened to stab a teacher was only told by a vice principal to apologize and that other incidents of assault were downplayed.

"Now is the time to do something before somebody gets killed," said Ted Kirsch, president of the 18,000-member Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, who spoke before attending the meeting with Johnson, Vallas and Jacqueline Barnett, Mayor Street's education secretary. "It is that serious."

Kirsch said that he didn't think the hotline would help and that the district instead should add nonteaching assistants and other security staff to schools to prevent problems.

"Put the money in the schools," he said.

After the meeting, however, Kirsch said: "We will encourage our members to use the hotline to ensure all incidents will be reported."

Len Reiser, codirector of the Education Law Center, a Philadelphia-based advocacy group for parents and students, also criticized the new effort.

"Taking away a principal's judgment? I think that's a mistake. I think the vast majority of Philadelphia principals are experienced professionals. We're talking about people who are more capable than they are being given credit for," he said.

But some welcomed the proposals.

"I'm just so glad to hear that they are taking this that serious and there will be some consequences attached," said Pat O'Hara, a West Philadelphia High School teacher and teachers union representative. "It's nice to know they're trying to bring formality to it."

"It's a good thing, probably overdue in some respects," said Ed Monastra, a longtime district principal who retired but is providing administrative help at Northeast High School. "If for no other reason, the public is more aware of it."

He said that, in the case of assault, the only discretion he used was whether the teacher or staff member affected wanted to press charges. He recently had a case at Northeast in which a teacher was threatened but didn't want the student arrested, he said. The student was suspended.

Greg Wade, president of the Home and School Council, the parents group in the Philadelphia School District, said he also supported the move but had heard parents complain that the students who got the blame weren't always the guilty ones.

"It seems like some of the kids who are the victims are the ones who are getting transferred out, and the kids who start the stuff are still in the schools," he said.

Jack Stollsteimer, the state-appointed safe-schools advocate whose office will monitor the hotline, and Vallas promised to propose legislative changes soon that will ease disciplinary procedures in the district. Vallas, for example, wants to be able to expel students permanently to alternative schools. Now they can return to their original school or another regular school after 180 days.

Vallas noted that one of students accused of attacking Germantown teacher Frank Burd had been expelled from Roosevelt Middle School but allowed to return to return to a regular school; he ended up at Germantown High.

Vallas said the district was reviewing the records of 150 students who had recently returned from the disciplinary schools to see whether they had "toed the line" or should be transferred out again.

Stollsteimer also emphasized that any assault of a teacher is a felony offense and by law must be reported. He said the assaults on teachers reflect "a violence surge in this city that is finding its way into our schools."

Vallas emphasized that serious acts in the district were down 3.3 percent this year and that the district had expelled 6,800 students to alternative schools since his arrival as CEO in July 2002.

Kirsch, of the PFT, countered that "the reporting is down, not the incidents."

Vallas acknowledged that problems persisted, more acutely at some schools than at others. There were 489 reports of teacher assaults this year through Feb. 28 and 141 arrests, the district said.

"I like to think we've come a long way," Vallas said. "We still have a long way to go."

The district's hands remain largely tied if a special-education student commits a serious offense and that offense is attributed to the disability, allowing him or her to remain in the school, he said.

"You have particular obstacles," Vallas said, referring to federal laws and other statutes, "when it comes to special-education students who have all sorts of special protections which really delay the intervention process."

A teacher safety hotline - 215-400-STOP - for teachers and other staff to report complaints directly to the office of the state's safe-schools advocate. Complaints will be dealt with the day they come in before 5 p.m.

An immediate 10-day suspension and move to expel any student who assaults or threatens to assault a staff member.

Proposals to change legislation to allow for students to be expelled permanently from the district to disciplinary schools. Now they can return after 180 days.

A review of the records of 150 students who recently returned to regular schools from disciplinary schools to make sure they are following rules. They could again be sent to a disciplinary school if problems are found.

A call for more funding for alternative and disciplinary schools and community policing.

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