Wow. The Philadelphia Inquirer has won for the Pulitzer Prize for its investigation into the climate of violence in Philadelphia's public schools -- including the pervasive anti-Asian violence that plagued South Philadelphia High School: Inquirer wins Pulitzer Prize for school violence series.
The Inquirer's seven-part series, "Assault on Learning," revealed that violence in city schools was widespread and underreported, with 30,000 serious incidents over the last five school years. The report shone a light on how administrators were severely ill-equipped to deal with violence in their schools, and absolutely clueless when it came to racial and bias violence:
In its announcement, the Pulitzer committee said the series used "powerful print narratives and videos to illuminate crimes committed by children against children and to stir reforms to improve safety for teachers and students."Congratulations to the Philadelphia Inquirer. As someone who has been following the situation from afar, the coverage has been invaluable. The entire seven-part series can be found here: Assault on Learning.
The idea for the series, which ran March 27-April 3, 2011, emerged after racial violence erupted among students at South Philadelphia High School in December 2009.
"The future of any great American city depends on providing a safe environment in which young people can learn," said Inquirer Editor Stan Wischnowski. "Our series exposed in graphic and painstaking detail the ways in which we are failing this generation."
Part seven of the series specifically focused on the aftermath of the worst of the racial violence at South Philadelphia High School, one year later: Healing the Wounds of South Phila. High.