Kids Will Have To Cut School To Attend Obama’s Inauguration

I woke up this morning to the soothing sounds of KYW 1060 and heard that school superintendent Arlene Ackerman and her staff had been agonizing over a decision. Mike DeNardo reported Ackerman said it was an “excruciating decision.” What was it, you ask? Why, naturally, whether to close schools on Inauguration Day!

Naturally, schools will be open on Jan. 20, and “a curriculum is being developed for every grade level.” Ackerman says she hopes all the kids get a chance to watch it live, in school. (Chances of this happening: 0%. Prove me wrong, Arlene!)

If that does happen, it’s probably the best of both worlds. Kids whose parents drive them down to Washington, D.C., and get stuck in traffic somewhere in Maryland, will have excused absences for the day.

Schools in Phila. Will be Open on Inauguration Day, Jan. 20 [KYW 1060]

Great Moments In Guest Columns

Well la de da! Last week, Alan Butkovitz had one of those wacky press conferences where he talked about ending the student TransPass program and other SEPTA-related ideas. Fair enough, I guess. Earlier this week, Butkovitz responds in an editorial about how great he is, and how shoddy he thinks the Daily News editorial was. And look who has has backing him!

THE BEST response to the Daily News editorial criticizing me for exposing problems with SEPTA’s student TransPass program and subway security measures came from Maude, a reader who posted this online comment: “The writer of this editorial obviously doesn’t have to depend on SEPTA like the rest of us. Try riding the system before forming your opinion.”

More than 80 percent of the comments posted on the newspaper’s own Web site expressed a similar bewilderment that the People Paper would be so out of touch with the reality of crime and violence in our subways.

Yes, that’s right, Alan Butkovitz is using Philly.com commenters to defend himself. But what does the KKK think about the SEPTA TransPass program?!

On SEPTA safety, don’t shoot the messenger [Daily News]

School District Never Expels Anyone

Hey! Did you notice that little gem apparently dumped right at the start of the weekend, where nobody would see it? Fortunately, I’m a loser who reads the media on the weekend, and I did.

KYW 1060 reports school district officials are going to start expelling students in violent incidents, instead of just sending them to Shallcross or wherever. But here’s the fun fact: Nobody has been expelled in the past three years.

Despite thousands of violent incidents over the last three years, no Philadelphia students were expelled. Those who were disciplined were sent to alternative disciplinary schools.

Mayor Nutter told the SRC this week he couldn’t fathom that: “I believe upwards of 20 percent of our schoolteachers had some form of assault or aggressive activity against them last year. And how no child in the school district could have been expelled from school is impossible for me to understand.”

We should probably separate the “assault” from the “aggressive activity” but: Um, wow. Pretty awesome.

Phila. Public Schools to Enforce Strict Discipline [KYW 1060]

Chickens Loose At Northeast High!

Pranksters, you are going to have to do a lot to top this one. The prank of the year: 50 live chickens were let out in the halls of Northeast High School.

Some time this morning, someone broke into the school and released 50 live chickens and chicken feed into the school. Maintenance men discovered the chickens just before light this morning. A school spokesman said: “At this point, we don’t know when someone broke into the school but someone did break into at the start of school this morning and dropped off fifty or more chickens into Northeast High School and spread chicken feed all over the school.”

Someone is going to have to put penguins in Audenreid in order to top this, honestly. I think we have a unbeatable front-runner right now.

50 Live Chickens Set Free Inside NE High School [KYW 1060]

Kids Learn Important Pissing Lessons

Classes started yesterday in the public schools in Philadelphia, and the kids are already learning important life lessons:

As the school year opened at Logan Elementary in Philadelphia yesterday morning, teacher Jeneen Crawford, as one of her first tasks, reviewed with her second-grade pupils the rules for good behavior when visiting the bathroom.

“Do not scream out the window,” one student said, getting a nod of approval from Crawford.

“Do not go on the floor,” said another.

“Don’t pee out the window,” added a third.

They were also told not to take a wide stance in the lavatory; you just don’t know if there’s an officer in the stall next to you.

Adding rules to the three R’s [Inquirer]

School Officials Don’t Eat Cafeteria Food

As we all know, whenever an official is accused of spending too much public money on something, the official returns fire with something about how the $50,000 he or she spent on giant marionettes was actually a very important public service. Such i the case with James Nevels, head of the Philadelphia School Reform Commission, who has spent over $15 grand on the SRC credit card on meals since 2004.

In this case, Nevels couldn’t be reached for comment, but his associates told lies for him anyway.

“All of these expenses have been audited by [City Controller] Alan Butkovitz,” Carey Dearnley, the commission’s spokeswoman, said yesterday.

“Yes, Alan Butkovitz got all of it, pored through it, and tried to find something out of line, and didn’t. He didn’t disapprove,” concurred commission Chief of Staff Frank Siefert.

Reached at home last night, Butkovitz said that although he has asked, he has not been provided with any commission members’ credit-card statements.

On the plus side, we can be happy he’s not slumming it at Perkins or anything.

“Those aren’t people who do business at IHOP,” Dearnley said. “This is where business is done in this city.”

I know. Morning Glory for breakfast, baby!

Nevels’ wining & dining: 15G+ [Daily News]

Vallas To Exit; District Looks For Kid-Friendly Leader

Paul Vallas is packing his things, has rented a U-Haul truck and will be outta here as soon as possible. The superintendent of the school district, the guy with a plan to turn every other building in Philadelphia into a magnet school, says five years is enough.

His loss will most likely be celebrated by some, and sadden others, but the main thing is: The School District of Philadelphia needs a new superintendent who cares about the students.

“I think it’s a major blow to the city of Philadelphia and the school district,” Greg Wade, president of the Home and School Council, the district’s parents’ group, said of Vallas’ departure. “Say what you want about the man, he had our best interests at heart. I truly believe that.”

Yeah. I mean, what about all those school superintendents who hate kids and routinely beat them with rulers? Paul Vallas wasn’t one of them. Whoo!

Vallas to leave city schools post [Inquirer]

Parental Guidance From 1997 Sci-Fi Movie

From Phillyblog comes the end of the debate about how to make Philadelphia schools better. The solution: Parents should spank their kids! From a user we’ll call RuggerAl, since that is his username:

My parents hit me when I messed up bad, the total number of times could be counted on two hands or less. And as a direct result, the thought went through my head before I did something questionable… “Am I going to get a whopping for this?” My sister, much wiser and four years younger, learned many a lesson through me. To quote my dad quoting my grandmother “A soft head makes a soft behind.”

Okay, fair enough. But, I mean, do you have any reasoning for it besides of the fact you were hit? Oh, you do? Carry on, then.

More »

W. Philly High Getting Lots Of Practice With New Policy

After a teacher was assaulted outside the school on Friday, West Philadelphia HS began a zero tolerance policy as well as new evacuation procedures. (Before, I guess, attacking teachers was worth a slap on the wrist.) The policy meant, uh, zero tolerance for foolin’ around.

Well, they had a pretty easy job of testing it.

West Philadelphia High students were evacuated Monday after two small fires were intentionally set inside the school. These incidents were the latest in a string of violent acts involving students on campus.

Lt. John Walker of Southwest Detectives said students were evacuated at about 11 a.m. while firefighters extinguished a fire in a second floor locker. Students reentered the building and moments later were re-evacuated when a second fire was set inside another locker on the second floor.

“Both fire have been ruled incendiary and the fire marshal is here with us and the police department’s conducting the investigating as to who’s going to be responsible for starting these fires,” Walker said.

Expect about two or three more fires by the end of the day.

West Philadelphia High Violence Continues [CBS 3]

215-400-SAFE Is A Joke

Jill Porter’s column in today’s Daily News describes how, just two days after a policy of allowing the teacher who was attacked to choose whether to press charges instead of the principal, the rules pretty much entirely changed. A tip hotline, 215-400-SAFE, for reporting violence also was instituted.

First, let’s go back to Wednesday’s Daily News:

And from now on, principals no longer decide whether a student - or parent - who harms or threatens a school employee is arrested, Police Commissioner Sylvester Johnson said.

If police are called to a school because a teacher or school worker has been assaulted, only the person making the complaint gets to say whether to press charges, Johnson said.

In the past, principals decided whether a student was arrested, the commissioner said.

Now, today’s column by Porter describes an incident yesterday at a Southwest Philly middle school:

A teacher at a Southwest Philadelphia middle school, for instance, called in late in the morning yesterday to report that a student had menaced her with his fists and threatened to “get her.” The teacher reported it to her principal. The principal called police.

But when the detective arrived, he declined to take the student into custody, explaining that Police Commissioner Sylvester Johnson was trying only to “make people feel better” when he promised to arrest students, “but that’s not what we’re going to do.”

Now, I don’t know if a policy of arresting students is a bad idea. But what I do know is that saying you’re going to arrest students on Tuesday and then saying on Thursday the Police Commissioner was only trying to “make people feel better” is most certainly a bad idea.

Okay, so student not arrested, let’s move on, right? No. The district’s safe-schools advocate, Jack Stollsteimer, phoned Southwest Detectives to straighten things out after the incident. And, later, the student was arrested for threatening his teacher. So, basically, it appears Jack Stollsteimer is controlling who gets arrested now in schools. Hooray for progress!

Jill Porter | Teachers’ safety is on the line [Daily News]
A threat would bring a felony charge; principals no longer decide on arrests [Daily News]