Since last week — when a group of Asian-American students walked out of South Philadelphia High School after being targeted in a series of attacks that have been escalating now for months if not years — many of us have been watching and waiting, hoping that somewhere along the line, someone in the School District of Philadelphia would do the right thing and give these kids the assurances they need to do something so basic (go back to school) we can’t even believe this has become an issue that’s still dragging on. But drag on it has, and well, we’ve seen things like this play out before and mark our words: This will be a national story, on CNN, FOX, the whole magilla, before the week is out. And this time, Philadelphia will have earned its new national shame. And Mayor Michael Nutter — who’s yet to issue a formal statement on the matter, and whose recently departed father actually attended South Philadelphia High — will have earned his little piece of it too. And more than anything, the school district will have earned that federal civil rights complaint it’s gonna get slapped with, via the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund. And those kids, those poor kids who are still covering their faces at every public action concerning South Philly High, still out of sheer fear that they may yet catch more beatdowns because they were simply there: Should they, at this point, just start trying to find somewhere else to go to school? They’re not back at South Philly High today, even while Philadelphia Human Relations Commission is trying to put them together with the same school district officials who, thus far, have fostered no faith whatsoever. That meeting may be happening right now, and according to this report, the kids might not be there, either. At this point, can you blame them?

This entry was posted on Monday, December 14th, 2009 at 12:26 pm.