Four days after a massive brawl involving 30 girls forced the Feb. 29 lockdown at University Prep 6-12 in the Hill District, and three days after an alliance of clergy met to denounce the incident, the Pittsburgh Public Schools issued a statement on the matter and what it is doing to prevent similar mayhem in the future.
In part, it read:
“All students involved in the altercation face school-based disciplinary action and some may face criminal charges. While multiple and conflicting stories for the cause of the fight have been provided, we know primarily the conflict stems from a rivalry involving some students who live in the Garfield and Hill District areas of the city.”
The statement also said the district had already added an extra security officer prior to the melee, so it would not be adding more. It would, however, add an additional vice principal, an additional central office staff member and may contract with an organization that specializes in setting ritual and routines.
Brandi Fisher, whose Alliance for Police Accountability had already scheduled a meeting on restorative practices in the schools for March 2, said the U-Prep incident naturally took over the meeting. As to the district’s response, Fisher said we can’t turn schools into “police states” without damaging their educational duty.
“We’ll release a generalized model in about two weeks, but we also have specific recommendations and suggestions we’re sending to U-Prep on how they can best handle these kids,” she said. “Suspension or expulsion isn’t addressing the problem.”
The Hill Clergy want more action also. Those who met following the Feb. 29 brawl called the entire incident “unacceptable.”
“There is a breach in the moral, ethical and justice issues that go beyond the punches thrown and beyond the blood that was shed yesterday,” said Rev. Victor Grigsby, president of the Hill District Minister’s Alliance and pastor of Central Baptist Church.
He said that the true culprit of the bedlam from Monday is a failed and broken school system that managed to produce one of the worst education systems in the state.
“What we saw yesterday was unacceptable and intolerable on every level,” said Rev. Grigsby.
School Board President
Hill District Education Council Executive Director Davonna Graham said, “Not in any scenario should a parent be forced to send a child to such an unsafe, underperforming environment.”
She said it is the responsibility of the adults in school district to ensure that children are not placed “in an environment where their only resource is their fists.” She also said that the school system is set up for the children to be unsuccessful, and demanded that University Prep be the top priority in all of Pittsburgh.
“This is an emergency. We are in crisis,” Graham said. “If we don’t do something now, we’ll all pay for it later.”
Lifelong activist and former city councilman Sala Udin said that the school system brings together various neighborhoods into one school without taking precautions to ensure that those communities are “well integrated and well prepared” to dwell in the same school. Udin brushed-off claims that there is a ‘turf war’ going on inside the school.
“There are neighborhood tensions, but what is needed is an organized plan provided with adequate resources to relieve those tensions,” he said.
Udin lamented on the fact that at the inception of the school, it was assumed and that since it teamed with the University of Pittsburgh, it would have adequate resources and staff “to prepare students for a university experience.”
“Right now, people consider the name of the school a joke. It is not preparatory for university, as much as it’s preparatory for the penitentiary,” said Udin.
He said that the objective is to remove the irony from the name.
Celeta Hickman, a member of the Equity Advisory Panel that advises the Pittsburgh Public School Board Cabinet, said that she wasn’t surprised about the fight on Feb. 29.
“I had emailed my staff members and my supervisors last week to say that the lid was getting ready to blow up here with the girls,” she said.
Hickman has worked with girls at University Prep for three years, and she said, “Some of the girls there are just brilliant.”
“When I got the list of who fought, it was the brilliant ones,” said Hickman. “There is inequality in this district for girls—especially African American girls.”
Hickman said that millions of dollars are pumped into the “We Promise” program for boys, but there is no program for a “She Promise” program for girls.
“(The girls) know it and they feel it,” said Hickman.
(Christian Morrow contributed to this story.)
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