Fast Movers

The School District is only efficient when it wants to be.

by Isaiah Thompson

Last Wednesday, 65-year-old Suong Nguyen appeared before the School Reform Commission to plead that the School District of Philadelphia clear the name of her grandson, Hao Luu —you might know him from last week's cover story as "Guy," the student implicated by District officials as a possible provocateur of the Dec. 3 attacks on more than 20 Asian students at South Philadelphia High School, even though, he says, he was himself the victim of a racially motivated attack the day before (see "The Fall Guy," March 18). After his grandmother reported the attack, you'll recall, the school suspended Hao, tried to transfer him out, and told his family they believed him to be a gang member.

Hours after Nguyen's testimony, Hao's full story appeared on City Paper's Web site, and by the next morning had been picked up by the city's daily newspapers. The District, it seems, can move fast when it wants to. Within 24 hours, the District informed The Philadelphia Inquirer — though not Hao, his grandmother or their attorney — that they'd place a note in his file confirming that he was not in a gang after all. And with that, the District relinquished one thread of its version of the Dec. 3 attacks. But what about the whole flimsy web? Why was Hao Luu suspended without being interviewed? Why did officials try to transfer him to an alternative school? Why did they say he was in a gang in the first place?

More importantly, why didn't the District's $100,000 report on the incident address the more than 20 incidents of anti-Asian violence since 2008 cited by Asian community advocates? And why, as CP has learned, did officials fail to attend agreed-upon meetings to discuss these concerns months before the Dec. 3 attacks?

Chinatown Development Corp. community organizer Xu Lin says that SPHS principal LaGreta Brown and Regional Superintendent Michael Silverman agreed last August to monthly meetings with Asian advocates — but the meetings never happened. Brown, he says, was 40 minutes late to the first meeting in September; when Lin tried to reschedule, his phone calls to the school went unreturned. Silverman, he says, promised to contact Brown, but Lin never got any answers.

Neither, for that matter, has City Paper. The District says it won't comment until it responds to the SRC's questions about Hao's case.

The District moves fast — when it wants to.