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

"What needs to happen," Hackney said, "is me as a new principal setting the tone early, about my expectations about safety and how students should be treated."

His bottom line: harassment and violence are unacceptable.

Helen Gym, a board member at Asian Americans United, said she's encouraged by Hackney but wasn't convinced that the steps announced Tuesday would change the school.

"It feels like from the school district that there are a lot of proclamations," she said. "What hasn't been happening is any significant dialogue with community members. ... It's hard to tell whether these things are positive or not, or what they are."

School officials said yesterday that one of three new "Newcomer Learning Academies" for immigrants will be based at Southern, a potential boon to a changing neighborhood. Since the 1980s, South Philadelphia has experienced waves of immigration, melding a traditionally Italian enclave into a place full of arrivals from China, Vietnam, Indonesia and Myanmar. Many arrive knowing little English.

They can expect help from a new district hire - Deborah Wei, a veteran Chinese activist and until recently the principal of FACTS, the Chinatown charter school.

She's now director of the new Office of Multilingual Curriculum and Programs. She was asked what she expected this school year.

"I'm actually very hopeful," Wei said, praising Hackney as "fabulous. He sets the right tone. He approaches the job with his sleeves rolled up, and with the gravity this place requires."

Students were wary or not.

"I think I'm going to make some new friends," said Venus Joyner, 15, who is African American.

Sue Liang Lin, 15 and newly arrived from Fujian, was not focused on making friends. He was, he said through a translator, "a little bit nervous."