Judge is soft on Black on Asian hate crimes

http://articles.philly.com/2010-12-16/news/25293155_1_asian-students-racial-h...

http://www.thenotebook.org/blog/102271/no-resolution-violence-south-philly-hs
A report detailing the racially-motivated attacks at South Philadelphia High School was released on Tuesday.

The Philadelphia School District requested the investigation after Asian students said they were being targeted.

However, there was mixed reaction from those involved in the fray.

The early December ethnic violence at South Philadelphia High School led to mass walkouts by Asian students and a civil rights lawsuit. Those students said they are constant targets of violence and harassment at the hands of, for the most part, black students.

The report, detailed by retired judge James Giles, was narrow and focused only on violent confrontations on December 2nd and 3rd, not a probe of past incidents leading up to the December rash of violence.

"Care has to be given to bringing up old issues, old wounds, because that can be opened to cause present conflict," Giles said.

The school district's CEO says she has increased security and added staffers and programs to help students reach across cultural lines.

"We put in place lots of additional resources and staff, looked at our discipline problem and policies at South Philly," said Dr. Arlene Ackerman.

Within moments after the judge finished his remarks his report was under attack by Asian-American activists who called the report inaccurate and not credible because he was paid by the school district to do it.

"There's no sense of the history of violence that's been going on at South Philadelphia High School against Asian immigrant students," said Helen Gym of Asian-Americans United.

The Asian activists say they will press with their lawsuit against the school district and continue to demand more attention to the issue of ethnic violence.

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