We Want an Education in a Safe School: Students Demand Institutional Accountability for Anti-Asian Violence at South Philadelphia High School

Abstract

On December 3, 2009, dozens of Asian immigrant students at South Philadelphia High School (SPHS) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, were targeted and assaulted by their non-Asian peers throughout the school day. Sadly, this horrific event was simply another addition to the ongoing and pervasive anti-Asian and anti-immigrant violence at the school. Despite students' and community advocates' previous efforts to address bias-based harassment for over a year, in the days following the attacks, school and district officials endeavored to downplay the severity of these assaults and refused to acknowledge that the attacks were racially motivated. In the face of indifference by these officials, Asian immigrant students from the school, with the support of community advocates, began a campaign against the ongoing violence.