Legal Commentary

30 Asian Students Beaten at South Philadelphia High School

By Eugene Volokh

The incident apparently happened on Dec. 3, and has been covered in the Philadelphia newspapers, but I?ve only now heard about it (in an AP story, published a few days ago, about a civil rights complaint stemming from this incident and filed with the Justice Department). The attacks were apparently racially motivated, and the students allege that in many of the atacks, ?school staffers stood by, encouraged the attackers, or hurled racial slurs.?

Naturally, these are just allegations, and they may well prove unfounded. There seems to be broad agreement that there were 30 Asian students beaten, and apparently at least 11 were hospitalized (though it?s not clear whether all of the hospitalized were victims of the assaults, or whether some might have been attackers themselves). But the allegations about the staff misbehavior seem less certain, based on my quick check of the news stories. Do others know more about this? News accounts suggest that this is being treated ? quite rightly ? as a big deal in Philadelphia; perhaps this has yielded more facts about the matter, and I?d love to hear them.

Full post as published by The Volokh Conspiracy on January 25, 2010 (boomark / email).