La Greta Brown, the principal of South Philadelphia High School resigned Thursday. The high school was the site of widespread violence against Asian American students and the subject of a federal civil rights lawsuit, most notably in December, when primarily African American students attacks dozens of Asian students at the school.
A Philadelphia native, LaGreta Brown's resignation, effective immediately, was precipitated when the Philadelphia Inquirer raised questions about her expired state principal certification. The district has already chosen a replacement from a neighboring town high school - Otis Hackney, who will start in September. An assistant to Brown will serve as interim principal.
The South Philadelphia High School Asian Student Advocates issued a statement
As a coalition of adult advocates and youth organizers, we have felt strongly that administrative change was a necessary first step to begin the process of healing and the work of positive change towards racial and cultural learning, respect, and community building within the school. Under Ms. Brown’s leadership, language access policies have been deliberately violated. Even post-Dec. 3rd, there is ongoing harassment and violence and a hostile environment that has exacerbated existing racial tensions in the school.
While we are hopeful about Mr. Hackney’s appointment, we believe the District has missed an important opportunity to engage the broader community in an important dialogue on finding the best leader for South Philadelphia High School at this time. We have been in this position before. The problems at the school are serious, there is ongoing violence and harassment of students, there is a basic lack of policy and procedure, and what is needed is a real change in the way that the District has been approaching the problems at S. Philly High.
In spite of this missed opportunity, we intend to continue our work with the District on finding real and lasting solutions. We hope for the sake of students, staff and community of South Philadelphia that this change in the administration will signal a renewed effort to address the real and deeply rooted problems which plague this learning community.
A federal civil-rights complaint filed against the district cited several instances where Principal Brown showed a biased attitude toward Asian students, disparaging English language learners and Asian American students to teachers and staff. Since the December attack, there have been repeated attacks on individual Asian American students.
Teachers had also planned to take a no-confidence vote on Brown after school Thursday.
Date of first Azine posting:
05/14/2010
