A teacher’s severe beating at a Philadelphia high school led district officials to transfer the school’s principal and reassess school security measures.
George Washington High School Principal Gene Jones was reassigned to the Philadelphia School District’s headquarters a day after the severe beating, which left a teacher with a concussion, bruising and a swollen face, according to philly.com.
School staff and students have said incidents of violence have increased dramatically in recent years as the school has taken on more students and ignored failing security measures.
The teacher was beaten when he attempted to break up a dispute between a male and female in his classroom. After wrestling the unruly male student to the ground, two other students broke into the classroom and severely beat him. The three teens are being charged with aggravated assault.
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It was the latest example of uncontrolled behavior in a school that frequently experiences widespread fighting and aggression. Although assaults at the school are only slightly up from last year, many faculty members and students say fights and beatings often go unreported.
“There were fights every day,” said one 17-year-old student who is awaiting a transfer. “I’ve never seen anything like that. I wasn’t learning anything. They would pull the fire alarm every day for the first two months of school.”
The district appointed multiple former school principals to serve in Jones’ place temporarily.
A “climate manager” will assess the school in coming weeks and a Department of Justice training session will be set up to help faculty and staff deal with aggression. Philadelphia’s Human Relations Commission is also trying to help the school.
