Judge: Ban Hoodies, Curb Violence
Last month, I blogged about the brouhaha at South Philadelphia High School (a school designated “persistently dangerous”), where groups of mostly black students beat up students of Asian descent. The Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund filed suit against the school district, alleging “deliberate and discriminatory indifference.” The district suspended about 10 students.
The group said the district not only failed to protect the students, but covered up and downplayed the attacks.
According to Philly.com, a retired federal judge named Judge James T. Giles released a report this week that sounds to me like more downplaying. Although it appears the black students attacked the Asians primarily because they’re Asian, the judge said race or ethnicity “were contributing factors.” What were the other factors?
According to the story, there were rumors that a group of Asian students attacked a “popular, disabled” black student, and this attack, which may or may not have happened, triggered the attack on Asian students.
“We believe that in some instances, [the Asians] were randomly attacked or attacked because someone in their group was identified or misidentified as being connected to the earlier events.”
So, after black students “identified or misidentified” the Asian(s) responsible for allegedly attacking the disabled black student — although the judge couldn’t determine whether the disabled student was the victim or part of the mob — the black students retaliated? Sort of convoluted, but there you go.
As for the cover-up allegations, the judge apparently found no evidence of a cover-up but recommended the school ban hoodies, put more cameras in the school, and set up an anonymous tip hotline for students. To keep down the violence.
Good luck with that.
Philly.com columnist and blogger Will Bunch calls the judge’s report a whitewash and “complete joke.” Bunch, who’s no conservative, writes:
“A racially motivated mob can rampage through a high school in Philadelphia for two days, amid a much longer climate of violence and harassment, even from adult staffers, and not only is no one from the school district accountable but none of the perps is even arrested…Let’s move forward!”
Assigning blame would shed light on the darkness, Mr. Bunch, and nobody wants to do that. Not only would it be politically incorrect to call the problem by its name, but complaining about it will cause people to wonder whether you’re…racist.
