It's official: Report says Philadelphia schools fall short on dealing with crime

The facts are sobering, if not surprising - the Philadelphia School District has failed to report crime consistently, offers too little help for students traumatized by violence, and fails to implement the most effective methods citywide.

The promises are lofty - more focus on violence prevention, more transparency concerning violence data, improved reporting, more and better training.

More than a year after the Blue Ribbon Commission on Safe Schools was convened by Mayor Nutter and then-Superintendent Arlene C. Ackerman, its work was made public at a School Reform Commission meeting Tuesday night with the release of a 41-page report.

The report echoes the main findings of "Assault on Learning," an Inquirer series that found that Philadelphia School District violence was widespread and underreported, with reporting standards varying widely from school to school. Some cases in which students were seriously injured were downplayed and not counted in the district's serious-incident tally, which stands at 30,000 over five years.

"No one will know our schools are getting safer unless they can trust the data we collect and report is valid and consistent, and that there is no 'down-coding' or under-reporting in an attempt to make a school look safer than it is," Nutter and acting Superintendent Leroy Nunery II wrote in the report's opening section. "We need to reverse the current incentives so that people are not punished for being honest, and if our data has no credibility, our actions will have no legitimacy."

SRC member Lorene Cary, chairwoman of a new committee on safety and public engagement, introduced the report.

"What has happened in the last week and a half gives urgency to this safety work," said Cary, referring to the recent shooting death of three teenagers in Juniata Park.

Cary said the report was only a start; a steering committee made up of herself, district staff, and community organizations will continue to monitor safety matters and seek community input.

The district has begun implementing some of the report's recommendations, including establishing a new protocol for reporting serious incidents and crime, modifying the zero-tolerance and expulsion policies, and making monthly school-by-school violence data publicly available.