After months of hearing public testimony from local students, parents and public-school staff, the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations released its report on intergroup school conflicts, providing a bevy of recommendations to counteract school violence.
Following reports of widespread racial tensions at South Philadelphia High School, the commission held 11 hearings throughout last year — eliciting oral testimony from 130 witnesses and written statements from 40 — that examined classroom conflicts that stem from race, sexual orientation and a number of other factors.
The commission found intergroup conflicts to be “widespread” throughout the public-school system and said the school district does not employ an effective framework for resolving or preventing such conflicts.
A number of LGBT students testified about their own experiences, along with teachers, who saw firsthand the treatment some LGBT students faced.
One transgender college student said she experienced violence from both students and staff throughout high school, a pattern she said many LGBT students face.
“With my situation and others, I’m just a little upset that it took this long for this situation and this hearing to come up because even before now this has been happening, and I don’t see why it took so long to be recognized,” she testified.
Mayor Nutter testified directly after several of the LGBT students at one hearing and apologized to them for the harassment they faced.
“It is unfortunate that your lives have been affected by the few who damaged the reputation of our great city, our state and our country through their demonstrations of ignorance and intolerance and often through violence,” he said. “It is our work, it is our mission, it is our collective responsibility to addresses these issues.”
One consensus that emerged from the hearings was that, while the district has adopted a multicultural policy and newly strengthened bullying and harassment policies, they are rarely enforced uniformly, with patterns of bullying often going unaddressed by those in authority.
One high-school teacher said she noticed LGBT students at her school faced an unusually high number of suspensions and other disciplinary issues, which she attributed largely to a basic lack of enforcement and confusion over reporting practices.
“If you could really take a look at it, it’s because they’re defending themselves. They’re being bullied, and they retaliate physically. And there’s no support system that they can go to and complain about these issues,” she said.
The district has a zero-tolerance policy that mandates suspensions for those involved in intergroup conflicts, but many witnesses testified that this policy is ineffective in creating positive change.
Most of the witnesses instead advocated for an approach that involved collaboration among students, staff and faculty in addressing issues of integroup conflict head-on and in an open manner.
One high-school teacher testified that he conducted a presentation on LGBT issues last year in which he came out as gay and “encouraged everybody to take a more active role in making sure that our schools are safe places for people of all sexual orientations or gender identities. Whether it’s due to my efforts or it’s just a new crop of students, I think I’ve seen a great improvement in, as far as a reduction, in the amount of homophobic language that I see in my classes.”
The commission laid down a number of recommendations, primarily the need for the district to recognize that intergroup conflicts require a comprehensive and uniform approach to resolve, track and prevent future conflicts.
The commission recommended amending the district’s bullying policy to clarify reporting procedures, and suggested the district publicize a simple reporting procedure so victimized students know how and where to seek help. The report says multicultural education should be incorporated in all district curricula, and policies should be implemented that include constructive discipline, suggesting the abandonment of the zero-tolerance policy.
It also put forth that each individual school should adopt an antidiscrimination policy and procedure for reporting discrimination, consistent with the district’s plan and the one put in place with the intervention of the Department of Justice at South Philadelphia High School. The report suggests allowing students a greater role in the conflict-resolution process, with the institution of peer-mediation groups at every high and middle school, as well as the creation of student committees to address intergroup conflicts.
To track complaints, the report said all incident reports must list if the conduct was based on motivators like sexual orientation, gender identity or gender, and the district’s compliance officer should be tasked with ensuring all schools are properly documenting conflicts.
The district already employs an annual survey from students and staff, and the commission suggested asking the participants to self-identify a number of factors — such as sexual orientation and gender identity — and solicit information on intergroup conflict experiences to help the district better track progress.
Jen Colletta can be reached at [email protected].