January 15-21, 2004

city beat

Gale Warning

by Daryl Gale

Reclaiming the Dream

A few months ago, I had the bright idea to go back to my alma mater -- John Bartram High School in Southwest Philly -- exactly 30 years after I first walked in as a freshman in September 1973, and write about the changes in public-school life since then ("You Can’t Go Back to School Again," Sept. 18, 2003). While researching the story, I found the Pennsylvania Department of Education’s list of the state’s "persistently dangerous" schools, and wasn’t particularly surprised to find Bartram among them. Even more troubling, though, was the fact that of the 28 schools on the list, 27 of them are in Philadelphia.

During the last school year, there were 7,229 serious incidents of violence in Philadelphia public schools, resulting in 976 confiscated weapons and 2,639 students arrested.

If most Philadelphians were shocked at those statistics, Ed Schwartz went absolutely ballistic.

Schwartz, a former City Councilman who now runs the Institute for the Study of Civic Values, a community-action think tank, says that with the community's help, we can strike all 27 Philadelphia schools from the persistently dangerous list by next summer.

"Violence in the schools spills in from the surrounding neighborhood," Schwartz told me Tuesday afternoon. "It's not just a school problem, it's a neighborhood problem, and it's a city problem. Students, parents, teachers, school administrators and community leaders have to all get on the same page here."

What Schwartz decided to do to get everyone on the same page was first, get everyone in the same room. So he, along with other antiviolence activists and organizations, organized an event scheduled for Monday to coincide with the holiday celebrations for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday. Dubbed "Reclaim the Dream: Voting Not Violence," the event is actually a kickoff for an ambitious campaign to completely rid Philadelphia of violent schools.

Starting at 9 a.m., student and faculty representatives from all 27 persistently violent schools will gather in the Kirby Auditorium at the National Constitution Center, along with community activists, parents, politicians and concerned citizens. There, they'll all sign a pledge to work together to end violence in public schools.

"The idea was to get every school to participate," said Schwartz. "There are schools who aren't on that list, but certainly could use some more assistance in curbing violence in and around the school. We're encouraging everyone, whether you live in a neighborhood with one of these violent schools or not, to come out and participate in the program and sign the pledge. I just got off the phone with someone who told me that there would be several busloads of people coming from all over the city, so that's very encouraging."

Schwartz said that the motto for the campaign, "Violence No More in 2004," was coined by one of his event co-organizers, Queen Mother Falaka Fattah, founder of West Philly's House of Umoja, and one of the most respected and effective antiviolence activists in Philadelphia history. The phrase, he said, was a takeoff on Fattah's "No Gang War in '74" campaign, which virtually eliminated street gang turf wars three decades ago.

If it worked then, he reasoned, it can work again, and Fattah agrees.

"Ed and I go way back," laughed Fattah, when I told her that Schwartz suggested I give her a call. "I was happy to help with this campaign. It really is a quality-of-life issue, you know. Violence, especially when perpetrated by our young people, adversely affects the quality of life in our communities. It's obvious that we need to bring the level of violence down in order to bring the quality of life up. Even if we just work in our own neighborhoods, with the kids you see every day walking to the school down the street, we can change things."

She told me that she thinks scheduling the kickoff for the traditional Martin Luther King Day of Service, and at the Constitution Center, was a brilliant idea, and credits Schwartz with the timing.

"What better tribute could there be to Dr. King's legacy than working for nonviolence?" Schwartz asks. "Most King Day events are one-day, one-time activities, like having the kids clean up a playground or paint over graffiti. We wanted an event that involved a lasting commitment from everyone. We're taking the pledge of nonviolence back to the neighborhoods and schools."

There's also a pragmatic element here, in addition to the quality-of-life argument.

As a city, Schwartz told me, we spend more than $1 billion per year on crime in one form or another. When you take into account the prisons, police, district attorneys and court costs, it really adds up. So how much could we save in taxpayer dollars if we could dramatically reduce school crime? Probably enough to rebuild the schools, replace the old textbooks and hire lots of new teachers.

And even if that's an unrealistic pipe dream, it's still one worth shooting for.

Daryl Gale’s weekly radio show, Dialogues, with co-hosts Rotan Lee and Bill Miller, is burning up the airwaves Fridays 7-10 a.m. on WURD (900 AM) in Philadelphia.