The Philadelphia Weekly has a frightening, disturbing feature on persistent incidents of violence targeted at Asian immigrant students in the city's schools -- particularly South Philly High: Asian Students Under Assault.

Dozens of the alleged incidents are relatively minor -- name-calling, verbal threats, petty robberies, random punches in the head while walking down stairwells, and general intimidation. But according to Chen, at least six times last school year those minor incidents escalated into massive rumbles where outnumbered Asian students were pummeled by packs of teens, sending several of the victims to hospitals. Like the day last October when a group of around 30 kids allegedly attacked five Chinese students after school in the Snyder Avenue subway station, one block from school. That incident started when a black student walked up to a Chinese kid in the cafeteria, touched his hair and allegedly threw a carton of milk at him. Rumors of threats filtered through the school on the day after the subway rumble, and the notion of continued violence froze Asian students.

Students and activists say that Chinese, Vietnamese, Cambodian, Pakistani and other Asian youth have been singled out, assaulted in cafeterias, hallways, on city streets, school buses and everywhere in between.

The problem has apparently gotten so bad that many students -- some as young as 8th and 9th graders -- have simply stopped going to school. Gasp! Asians kids not going to school? Shocking. But it's kind of hard to learn or study when you're constantly in fear of getting your ass kicked, or worse.

Asians students have tried to stand up and take action. Last year at South Philly High, two days after the subway rumble when 30 kids attacked five Chinese students, a large group of Asian students staged a walkout, demanding that the school take action.

The violence is just occurring at South Philly High -- it's happening all over the city. Asian students getting jumped and assaulted by large groups for no apparent reason. They just happen to be Asian, and presumably perceived as a weak target. It's ridiculous. Excuse me, but what the fuck are school administrators doing to stop this?