Ackerman: Zero tolerance for violence at S. Phila. High

Philadelphia schools Superintendent Arlene Ackerman made it clear yesterday that she's pouring people and resources into troubled South Philadelphia High, where 30 Asian students were attacked on Dec. 3.

There's a new after-school arts program, run by Asian Arts Initiative. Classes offering Chinese as a second language. An in-school center for new immigrants. The pending appointment of an Asian assistant principal.

But the superintendent's delivery of expanded programming couldn't steady the nerves of Asian youths who joined dozens of classmates for new-student orientation yesterday. The session was a chance to hear about rules and policies, but also a lesson in majority-minority dynamics at the school, which is 70 percent African American and 18 percent Asian.

In interviews, new African American students tended to say that while they might have qualms tied to last year's violence, they expected to have a great year at Southern, as the school is known.

"I feel confident," said Kassidy Ayler, 15, an 11th-grader who transferred from Delaware. "I feel like I'm going to do good here."

Asian kids said they were worried about being targets. Even Asian adults were wary.

"Definitely," said Cathy Cheng, walking into the school with her Chinese-teacher husband, Jenson Cheng. They said they had heard stories from Asian staff about violence at the school. "The safety issue really needs to get under control," said Jenson Cheng.

New 9th-grader Mei Hui Huang arrived in the U.S. six months ago from Fujian Province, China, and speaks little English. But she said in a translation provided by her sister, Mandy Huang, that she was concerned about violence.

Mandy offered her own opinion of what happens at the school: "They fight."

The sisters said they hoped violence was limited to boys, that girls would be left alone - unaware that several Asian girls have reported being assaulted during the last two years. And that a Cambodian girl was singled out as a violent aggressor on Dec. 3.

The school made national headlines that day, when groups of mostly African American students carried out a daylong series of assaults on Asians.

The assaults triggered inquiries by the district, the state Human Relations Commission, and the federal Justice Department.