Mayor Street inspected the troops at the 12th Police District roll call for the cameras yesterday afternoon and announced a plan to flood the streets of violence-plagued Southwest Philadelphia with officers and social services.
What Street did not mention, until asked by a reporter, was the recent rash of violence inside city schools.
"We are going to be very aggressive. . . . When you make things better in the community, you have an impact on children and violence," he said in response.
Before yesterday, Street had made few, if any, public comments about school mayhem since a pair of students broke a teacher's neck at Germantown High School nearly three weeks ago.
This week, students assaulted at least four teachers in district schools, and there were seven attacks at West Philadelphia High alone over the last 10 school days. The issue has dominated nightly newscasts and appeared on newspaper front pages.
The mayor's relative silence on the issue of battered teachers stands in stark contrast to the badgering he gave schools chief Paul Vallas late last year over the district's $73.3 million budget deficit.
Then, Street spent nearly 14 hours over four days sitting in the front row during public hearings on the fiscal problems, interjecting his criticisms. He also testified before City Council on the issue.
In some ways, aides say, the disparity arises from Street's leadership style: He's no Rudolph Giuliani-style tub-thumper, preferring to tinker with the machinery of government rather than exhort the public - and grab headlines - through the mass media.
The Street administration has launched a $3 million program to hire more truancy officers and also is establishing 12 curfew centers that will give youths safe havens from the streets. Education Secretary Jacqueline Barnett also participated in a March 6 meeting with Vallas and Police Commissioner Sylvester M. Johnson that spelled out a tough new security policy for schools.
"The mayor takes a systems approach," Barnett said. "For him it's how do you get at the root of the chronic social issues we have. He's absolutely passionate about it."
But some continue to wish Street displayed that fervor more often in public.
"The mayor can use that bully pulpit for folks to rally around," said State Rep. Dwight Evans, a candidate in the Democratic mayoral primary, who has developed programs in Harrisburg to combat youth violence.
