South Philly principal receives an award
by thenotebook on May 07 2010
We have it on good authority that South Philadelphia High School principal LaGreta Brown was among those honored last week by Councilwoman Jannie Blackwell with the Lucien E. Blackwell Guiding Lights in the Community Award.
The Notebook asked Councilwoman Blackwell's office to confirm the list of honorees -- something we thought she would be eager to do -- but we did not hear back.
Amy Brisson, a correspondent for the Delaware County Times who wrote a story highlighting presentation of the awards to the mayors of Chester and Upper Darby, confirmed that Brown received an award. Brisson said she recalls a mention of "controversy" and the desire to show full support for Brown by giving her this award.
Brown has come under criticism for her handling of intergroup tension and harassment of Asian students at South Philly, which burst out into the open in December when 30 Asian students were attacked during and after school. About 50 Asian students subsequently boycotted classes for two weeks, saying they feared for their safety.
Throughout, Brown has largely stayed out of view. She has not been public or proactive in detailing how she is addressing the situation. She has not commented on or spoken publically about revelations of continuing incidents, including one in March in which an Asian student was hit in the head by a bathroom door and sufferd dizziness and headaches.
The Asian American Legal Defense Fund has filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice and the incidents are also being probed by the state and city human relations commissions.
Comments (10)
Submitted by Annonymous (not verified) on Fri, 05/07/2010 - 21:49.
Can it get any more Orwellian than this...??? What a slap in the face to all of the Asian American students at Southern who were and continue to be battered while LaGreta Brown and Ackerman hide.
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat, 05/08/2010 - 10:49.
WOW. Criminals get awards these days. Nice. What a fine example to the children of the Philadelphia School District.
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 05/09/2010 - 09:34.
A bit harsh to call her a criminal! Incompetent will do!
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 05/09/2010 - 15:55.
Her behavior in Atlantic City sounded criminal to me.
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 05/09/2010 - 16:35.
It was criminal to hire someone who has already proven herself so thoroughly incompetent already. To give her an award on top of this is the height of racist arrogance.
Submitted by Ms. Chips (not verified) on Mon, 05/10/2010 - 12:10.
She certainly was a guiding light in her first year. The path is now brightly lit on institutional & personal personal racism, discrimination and racism. Good aspirations for a communityl
Submitted by ex-teacher (not verified) on Mon, 05/10/2010 - 14:27.
PLEASE tell me that someone reported this travesty to the city papers. Mrs. Blackwell should be called to task for presenting this woman anything but a ticket out of town. Let's be frank, if the principal were white, she'd have been gone in disgrace months ago. (And that would have been the correct thing to do.) I gave 35+ years to this district and this is one of the most disheartening news items I have read in a long time. The public needs to be made aware of this. How can we expect reform if our city officials slyly reward incompetence?!
Submitted by ex-teacher (not verified) on Mon, 05/10/2010 - 14:33.
PLEASE tell me that the city papers have been made aware of this travesty. This principal should have gotten nothing but a ticket out of town. For Mrs. Blackwell to give her an award for such gross incompetence is pure and simple racism. A white principal would have been fired months ago- and rightly so. How can we expect reform when these kind of secret, racist actions are conducted by our elected officials?
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 05/10/2010 - 17:17.
Does Lagreta Brown live in Blackwell's district? Did they go to school together when they were young? Cronyism strikes again! Too bad it sullies the name of Lucien Blackwell, and any of the other, probaby more deserving, recipients of this award.
Submitted by R. U. Cerius (not verified) on Wed, 05/12/2010 - 11:58.
I can't believe LaGreta Clown won this award. What a slap to the Asian folks that got attacked in South Philly.
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