Herold, Benjamin, comp. "District wants to close 37 schools and relocate or reconfigure dozens more."Soundcloud. Public School Notebook, Dec 2012. web. 19 Feb 2013. <http://thenotebook.org/blog/125429/philadelphia-school-district-wants-close-37-schools-relocate-or-reconfigure-dozens-more>.


This source talks about how the district, in winter of 2012 proposed a 37 school closing effective because of financial reasons. Some information it includes is how a lot of neighborhoods and parents of the district are outraged and sad to see the district take this turn of events. In one of "Public School Notebook's" Podcast in December, information and stats were given on the school closings. I will be using the Podcast's comments on what's problem this is creating for much of the Philadelphia neighborhoods. This source is reliable because it has real responses and reasons for the school district 37 school closings.

. "School District of Philadelphia Facilities Master Plan: Summary of Recommendations ."cbsphilly.files.wordpress. CBS (Philly), n.d. Web. 19 Feb 2013. <http://cbsphilly.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/school_district.pdf>.


This source is helpful in ways as it shows the School District of Philadelphia proposal and overall plan for the school transformation. The document claims to help the school district as it will benefit the future of students. One of the benefits, is that the district choose to merge lower test scored schools, together the two merging schools can raise test scores. Also with the amount of kids transferring into charter schools the school district claims to not be able to run its current budget with the empty facilities. Thus they claim their budget and learning environments need to change.

Jackson, George. "Philadelphia Federation of Teachers President Jerry Jordan Responds to the SRC's School Closure Recommendations.". Philadelphia: Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, 12 Dec 2012. 1-1. Web. 19 Feb. 2013. <http://pft.org/Page.aspx?pgid=51>.


This source talks about how the district, is destroying the traditional neighborhood schools of Philadelphia, with proposed a 37 school closing. Some information it includes is how it's not surprising to see the district do this as they have use same tactic of defunding. I will be using the letter as the teacher prospectives, and their comments on what's problem this is creating for much of the school districts neighborhood. This source is reliable because it has real responses from the president of the teachers union of philadelphia on the school district 37 school closings.

Snyder, Susan. "Hite promises changes to Philly school-closings plan." Philly.com. Philadelphia Inquirer, 12 Feb 2013. Web. 19 Feb 2013. <http://articles.philly.com/2013-02-12/news/37060928_1_closings-school-district-school-reform-commission>.


This source talks about how the district's Superintendent William R. Hite Jr., promising changes within the district to lower the deficit of the budget. With proposed a 37 school closing, he claims the district will save 28 million over 5 years. I will be using the source as the Superintendent prospective, and his comments on the pro's of his plan. This source is reliable because it has real responses from the Superintendent of the Schools District of philadelphia.

​Interview with Mrs Laufenberg - How have you or your co workers within the Philadelphia school district, been affected by the budget of the district?

Budget cuts have caused a number of decisions to be made that affect teachers.  First, at SLA we needed to cut the budget and decided to reduce the number of Spanish classes taught by a teacher, replacing it with Rosetta Stone.  While this was not a great option, the budget left us few good options.  Additionally, the school has been running without a librarian for over two years.  This loss of resource for the teachers and students is noticeable and leaves us with a void for creating a vibrant space for media exploration.  Finally, the constant cuts have forced transfers, layoffs and shuffling of staff throughout the district that generally destabilizes the functionality of all district schools, which in turn makes it a less effective space for teachers to work with students.

- When you heard of the 37 schools closing in the district, what was your reaction on this, and why was that?

I felt like the number was high.  I was concerned about the confusion, pain and chaos that it will introduce into so many school settings that are already having difficulty with positive momentum.  I also wondered what other creative alternatives we could be pursuing so as to avoid this large number of closures.  

I am always concerned when neighborhood schools are on the chopping block for closure.  Many times the school is the anchoring institution in the neighborhood and the loss of that can affect the entire neighborhood.  


- Having worked in the school district of Philadelphia, over the years what would you change about the district decisions in choosing it’s leaders and making financial decisions?

I would like to see the district and the union be much more transparent about the decision making processes that impacts so many of Philadelphia's residents.  Since the SRC is not elected, there is not true responsiveness to an electorate and I think that it has led to some poor communication and transparency.  I will say, that as of late, I am encouraged that perhaps the district is headed in a more positive direction under the leadership of Dr. Hite. In terms of choosing leaders, I think Philadelphia is a particularly challenging place to hire for... huge district with massive money trouble.  Not many people are going to have a resume that speaks to our serious needs.  


- (Answer only if you have background outside the district) Having worked outside of the school district of Philadelphia, what differences have you notice about school districts outside of philadelphia?

I have worked in three other school districts in three different states and they were all quite diverse.  Each state has its own set of policies and procedures and then as it bubbles down to the local level, even more variety occurs.  One major difference was that the governing boards were elected in every other school system.  Having a school board that is responsive to the electorate is important, in my opinion, and not having that in Philadelphia creates a set of issues.  Philadelphia is by far the largest district I've worked in and navigating the large bureaucratic tangle at 440 is exasperating.  There will always be levels of bureaucracy, but the version I find in Philadelphia was particularly challenging to interact with.  

One thing I enjoy about Philadelphia is the ease with which an experienced teacher can transfer into the system and be compensated for their years of teaching experience.  This was not the case in two of my previous districts.  Additionally, our health benefits were superior to those that I was extended in my previous teaching placements.  Finally, the overall level of monetary compensation far exceeded the levels in my other districts.  

I joined the district and stayed through some incredibly tumultuous years.  I am hopeful that with a new superintendent at the helm, the district will start to stabilize and start functioning like an effective public service.

Schwartz, Ian. Philadelphia Mayor On Teen Violence: This Nonsense Must Stop, Philadelphia, realclearpolitics.com: 10 August,2011.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2011/08/10/philadelphia_mayor_on_teen_violence_this_nonsense_must_stop.html

This website is the mayor addressing the people in Philadelphia about the flash mobs that have been happening in recently. He talks to parents about controlling their children, and trying to keep the city as peaceful as possible. Everyone must work together for it to work.

White, Taesha M. "How Do You Help Teens." Personal interview. 14 Feb. 2013.

I interviewed my sister Taesha. She has been in city programs since she was 14 and has been working with teenagers ever since. She gave me a very detailed interview of what it like to wrk with teenagers. 

Socolar, Paul. District On-Time Graduation Rate Surpasses 60 Percent. Philadelphia Neighborhoods: The Notebook, February 2012. 

http://thenotebook.org/february-2012/124482/district-time-graduation-rate-surpasses-60-percent

This website shows a graph of the graduation rate of city from the years of 2002-2011. Most of the graphs shows a increase of people graduating in Philadelphia. The city has a goal to get an increase of students graduating between 4-6 years to 80% by 2014. What the city is doing to get their students to graduate on time is working.

Kefalas, Jason. Philadelphia Youth Solutions Project, Saint Joseph’s University: pysp.org 2011. 

http://pysp.org/

This website gives a bunch of information about teen violence and how they help teenagers. It shows statistics and gives information on the most type of violence that happen in the city. I wanted to find a source that helped teenagers in philadelphia and explained in details how they do it. This helps support my interview that I gave by showing that there are places for teens to get help. 

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Youth’s Violence: State Statistics, Atlanta Georgia: cdc.gov 13 May 2011.

http://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/youthviolence/stats_at-a_glance/PA.html

This website is the other website with graph. it shows homicide rates for mean and women between the ages of 10-24. One of the graphs that shows ethnicity proves that minorities/ blacks are the main reason for all of these homicides in Philly. 

Walsh, Sean Collins. City Christens Juvenile Justice Services Center. Philadelphia:

philly.com, 2012.

This article is from philly.com, a very popular website for Philadelphians to learn more about sports, news, entertainment, etc. Philly.com is also a very reliable source for local news. In this specific article, the author wrote about Mayor Nutter opening a new Juvenile Justice Center. The reason I chose this piece of news was because I wanted to learn what Philadelphia offered to teens. I wanted to investigate where bored teens would go when everything “fun” is illegal or has an age restriction. I’m using the Juvenile  Justice Center as an example of the city attempting to give troubled kids a place to go, which will be interesting to argue.

Mayor Nutter, City Officials Open Philadelphia Juvenile Justice Services Center. 

Philadelphia: City of Philadelphia Blog, 2012.

Like the first source, this blog post goes into detail about the Juvenile Justice Center. The reason I wanted two sources on this topic is because this specific source isn’t as reliable as the article on philly.com. When using a blog without a notable author, it’s better to have another source to compare it to. However, this blog post includes direct quotes, which I could use to support my thoughts and opinions. Also, blogs tend to biased; therefore, I’ll be able to compare and contrast my thoughts with the author. Although it covers the same topic, this source is different than the previous one. In this source, there are more specific quotes and facts about the actual building, while the philly.com article explains more what the building will lead to in the future.

CNN Wire Staff. Philly Mayor: ‘No Excuses’ for Flash Mob Attacks. CNN Justice, 2011.

CNN is a well-known source for news, both local and global. This article is about Nutter’s reaction to the flash mobs. I found this piece really interesting because it included direct quotes from the Mayor. I feel that the quotes could really help support my idea that this is a very serious issue because of the way Mayor Nutter spoke about the attacks. The article also briefly touches on the rules of the curfew. As a philly teen, I have strong feelings about the curfew and believe that other teenagers would too. Using the information from this article, I will be able to speak about the curfew from the point of view of someone who it applies to.

Goodman, J. David. Philadelphia Fights Violent Flash Mobs With Curfews. New York: 

The New York Times, 2011.

I have used the New York Times in many of my classes and to support many of my various projects. I can say with confidence that it’s very reliable. This source is also about how Flash Mobs lead to the city-wide curfew. I really enjoyed using this article because it included further information and videos from Mayor Nutter’s speech. This article will support the idea that violence will lead to repercussions; however, those consequences only make teens rebel. I’d like to use this source, along with the others, to support this idea of a vicious cycle. I’d also like to pin blame not only to places that create age restrictions, but also those who enforce a curfew that teens aren’t very fond of.

Philadelphia Flash Mob 2011: The List Keeps Growing. New York: International 

Business Times, 2011.

I’m not exactly sure how I will use this source yet, but I felt like it was very interesting. This source comes from International Business Times, which I believe is pretty reliable; even though they don’t put first name, last name of the authors. The content of this article is basically just accounts of different flash mobs. I thought it be interesting to include exact accounts of different attacks, instead of just talking general about said attacks. Also, under the general stories and dates, there are urls to other websites that contain more information. This will be useful for our project because we will be able to be 100% factual in our statements and ideas.

Dunn, Mike. Nutter Sets 9 PM Weekend Curfew For Minors In Center City, University City. August, 8, 2011.

In this article, the reporter talks about how Mayor Nutter is lowering the curfew in Philadelphia for minors 9:00pm on weekends. The curfew was put in place because of the rising mobs of kids joining in ‘flash mobs’. What I thought was interesting in the article was that it stated that Nutter himself said that it was only a small amount of kids joining in the flash mobs when there were many more than just the one they were reporting. 

The CNN write staff. Philly mayor hopes curfew plan brings back the love. August, 12, 2011. 

This article talks, again, about the curfew caused by flashmobs in Philadelphia, lead predominantly by minors. In this article, however, the mayor puts the blame on the parents as much as the children, saying that if they can’t control their kids then the children would be reprimanded by being prosecuted. The article states that minors caught breaking curfew would be sent home or to the police station and will be fined $100 to $300. 

Newall, Mike. Teen mod violence not a new problem. August, 8, 2011. 

This article speaks about the mob violence itself, specifically, flash mobs. It specifically says in the article that the kids, before the mob, had been roaming around West Philadelphia for hours. I picked out the article because it relates to what we’re talking about, how kids have nothing to do, therefore resort to their own forms of ‘entertainment’ which more often than not results in violence. 

Fiedler, Elizabeth. Officials In Phila. Plan Curfews To Curb Teen Violence. August, 11, 2011. 

This article speaks specifically on the topic that officials think that enforcing a stricter curfew will eliminate or at least drop the rate of teen violence. It also speaks about teenagers who were doing ‘anti-violence flash mobs’ where they just sit places and read books in large groups of kids. They’re tightening the curfew on Fridays and Saturdays, hoping to bring the kids in earlier and stop the violence that occurs later at night. 

Boyer, Dave. Philadelphia mayor talks tough to black teenagers after ‘flash mobs’. August, 8, 2011. 

This article basically reports on what the Mayor was saying to the kids that were in the flash mobs, telling them to stop acting like hooligans. He said he was adding extra police watchman to neighborhoods but made it clear that adding them and making a stricter curfew was not an excuse to harass any youth on the street. I added this because everything that’s a result of teens needing a way to spend their time ends up in more restrictions and keeping them locked away. 

Victoria Yarbrough
Annotated Bibliography

1) Murtha , Tara. " A Philly Teen's Letter About Life in a Violent City Is Hand-Delivered to President Obama| News and Opinion|Philadelphia Weekly ." Philadelphia Weekly. N.p.. Web. 13 Feb 2013. <http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/news-and-opinion/159617395.html>.
'
I chose this source because it allows me to see things from a teens perspective on teen violence. Although they are the people in question, they're opinions matter too, because those are the reasons why some of them act the way that they act. The fact that this teen wrote a letter to Obama puts things in the spotlight, and it's interesting to see how the government is willing to deal with this going problem.

2) Purcell , Dylan, and Susan Snyder . "Closings may worsen school violence." Philly.com. The Inquirer, 14 12 2012. Web. 13 Feb 2013. <http://articles.philly.com/2012-12-14/news/35822473_1_state-appointed-safe-schools-advocate-school-violence-neighborhood-rivalries>.

This just another source that will help me and my partner push the issue that the district does in fact play a roll in teen violence too. If schools close, kids have to be smushed together and from the looks of it, nothing good can come from that. If the teens become more violent, then why push them together like that?


3) "Philly mayor chides black parents over teen mobs." Fox News. Fox News, 13 08 2011. Web. 13 Feb 2013. <http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/08/13/philly-mayor-chides-black-parents-over-teen-mobs/>.
I believe that the parents are to blame as much as anybody else. Upbringing starts at home. I chose this article because it shows responses to this accusation. The Mayor really tries for the thousandth time to drill some words of wisdom into everyone's head.


4) Starr, Terrell- Jermaine. "Philly Cops Savagely Beat Teen To Bloody Pulp, Reportedly Splits Head Open." News one for black America . News one , 11 06 2012. Web. 14 Feb 2013. <http://newsone.com/2020081/marcus-warryton-philadelphia-cops-beat-teen-after-traffic-stop/>.

5) . "In the Line of Duty| Off Duty Philly Cop Shoots, Kills Teen Son of 2 Fellow Offcrs." In the Line of Duty. Philadelphia Inquirer . Web. 15 Feb 2013. <http://www.lineofduty.com/the-blotter/100935-off-duty-philly-cop-shoots-kills-teen-son-of-2-fellow-offcrs>.

The Philadelphia Police. Although they are here to prevent the violence, they indeed can be the cause of it. Teens are rebellious creatures. This video shows the police brutality that Philly Cops are showing against a ten driver. Outbreaks like these make teens want to rise up and rebel even more. There honestly should be some new tactics and protocol. Wailing on innocent teens isn't the way.