Going to public school in urban areas in America is not pretty.  I would know, I had to deal with the New York City public school system.  To say I was miserable there was an understatement.  My junior high school was Middle School 226 in South Ozone Park, Queens, New York.  At the time I was there, the school was dangerously overcrowded with 2,800 students jammed into a building built to house half that many students.  Those students were a collection of different ethnicities from various neighborhoods in South Queens.  African-Americans from Jamaica, Puerto Ricans and Dominicans from Ozone Park, Sikhs and Guyanese (West Indians) from Richmond Hill as well as various other Indians, Pakistanis, and a smaller number of East Asian and Caucasian students.  Overcrowding creates a dangerous situation and students quickly became disposed to violent behavior, acts of vandalism and joining gangs.  Even something as small as pulling the fire alarm (that happened at least twice a day), was disruptive to the point students weren't even required to leave the classroom when it rang.  While the students of various ethnicities tried to get along, there was ethnic based bullying, most frequently against the turban wearing Sikh students as well as the Hispanics and Indians.  Basically, anyone different, and almost usually, completely innocent.  Fights were a spectator sport, getting "jumped" was all too common while an air of defeat hung around the school's teachers, principals and security staff. 

Rather than finding constructive ways of dealing with the situation, the staff (as is typical with most NYC junior and senior high schools) decided to lock the school down, limit the freedoms of the "good students" while giving up on the perpetually delinquent students.  Meanwhile, the violence increased, and the school failed at providing a safe learning environment.  Such was that hopelessness of the situation, that the teachers threatened to strike after several incidents of assault against the staff.  It was a hopeless situation.  How can any student learn when they're worried about going into the hall?  Such was the gravity of the situation, that even the teachers threatened to walk out.

Yes, kids are stupid.  Many thug-wannabes (only 12 or 13 at the time) encouraged rumors that they belonged to the "Bloods" or the "Crips" street gangs while others formed gangs of their own.  I remember quite vividly a gang of students burning a Puerto Rican flag while daring someone to stop them.  I remember crowds in excess of a hundred students refusing to disperse because they "heard" a big fight was going to take place.  That's not stupidity.  That's dangerous.  School admins refuse to admit that racial-based bullying happens in their schools.  The worst part about it is that it draws innocent students into the violence.  That was the case in South Philly, where innocent Asian students were drawn into the violence after two Asian students reportedly beat a handicapped black student.  a few black students retaliated by pulling Asian students from classrooms and beating them up.  Rather than trying to find ways to "reach out to the community" like the school officials did, how about you GET YOUR OWN HOUSE IN ORDER.  How could a gang of students go room to room, INSIDE school property to select their victims?

I don't believe its a stretch to compare city schools to prisons.  There are guards at the door, many of which pick favorites or turn a blind eye to the internal struggles.  Not unlike prison.  Students learn that they must have ethnic solidarity (and for some, by extension, gang membership) if they want to feel "safe".  Not unlike prison.  Collective punishment reigns when a few students misbehave.  Also, not unlike prison.

I identify with these students.  The helplessness they feel, the fear.  They had the courage to walk out of school, to demand change, to take matters into thier own hands.  It's something I wish I had done.

For experts to dismiss the Philly School violence as "kids being kids" trivializes a larger phenomenon in our urban schools.  A dangerous system that FAILS the students.  Only a small fraction of students (my estimate?  less than 20) went on to better, academically rigorous high schools, while the other 2,780 were funneled into the two local high schools, themselves also overcrowded and rife with violence.  The system FAILS the students, I cannot stress that enough.  It hampers their emotional and academic development while cultivating a culture of failure, ignorance and violence.  Kids are stupid, but in those conditions, kids can also be dangerous.  After a new junior high school was built, MS 226's problems lessened while the quality of education improved in South Queens.  Its time to end overcrowding in ALL American schools and its time for real, constructive and comprehensive training of school staff to solve these problems, rather than trying to cover their asses.