They told police why they refuse to go back to South Philadelphia high school.
Investigators say 30 Asian-American students at South Philadelphia High were assaulted last week by a group of African American students, 10 of whom have been suspended and sent to alternative schools.
This week as many as 50 students are boycotting classes because they claim the Philadelphia school district isn’t taking the case seriously. Instead, the students are meeting with Asian community leaders and detectives demanding more school cameras and better security. Leaders in the Asian-,American community say things must change.
“We’ve been telling them if you work with the school district and be patient, things will turn around and this happened last week. What am I going to tell the students today?” asked John Chin of The Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corporation.
The Asian American students’ boycott is being felt by the school district.
“If they boycotted or didn’t boycott, I got the message. To me the bottom line is that whenever kids get in a fight and a lot are injured I get the message. To me the most important thing about this is to make sure it doesn’t happen again,” said Michael Silverman of the Philadelphia school district.