Violence is Key Topic at School-Reform-Panel Meeting – Philadelphia Daily News – February 18, 2010

Superintendent Arlene Ackerman praised a youth group during yesterday’s School Reform Commission meeting for launching a campaign to quell youth violence. She vowed to stand behind the student group – which plans to present the district with recommendations – to gauge from the youngsters an effective way to deal with an issue she called a “public-health threat to this city. “If we had an outbreak of more than 15,000 cases of measles in the schools this would be considered a health threat,” she said, referring to the number of serious reported incidents in the district. “We’ve had 15,000 incidents and nobody is talking about this as a public- health threat.” Read more…