Dear Parents/Guardians,

I am writing to alert you to incidences that occurred in close proximity to the school, yesterday.  As you may have heard on the news last evening, police are searching for a suspect who groped two women in the Spring Garden neighborhood.  According to KYW, investigators say the first woman was groped at 16th and Spring Garden Streets and the second was groped near 15th and Green Streets. Both incidents happened minutes apart in the early evening. 

Today, we alerted students to the situation.  Three high school students came forward to tell us that when leaving school yesterday in the early evening, one of them was approached by a man who spoke inappropriately.  Given the description by the students, it does not appear that the two incidents were related.  However, we are taking the situation seriously and are committed to our students’ safety.

We have taken the following steps to address this safety concern:

1.     Students have been told of the incident and reminded to travel in groups, to remain in the building when waiting to be picked up, to let parents and school personnel know of any suspicious activity.

2.     We notified the Philadelphia and School District police of the incident involving our students.

3.    We informed the staff so that they can be vigilant in assisting us with after school dismissals.

4.     We will continue to follow our security procedures with regard to guests entering our building.

We are asking you to do the following:

1.  Make sure that your child is traveling with others when using public transportation.

2. Pick up students on time from all activities and after school.

3. Remind children to wait indoors with our School Police officer when waiting for pick up.

4. To report any suspicious activity to a staff person and the Philadelphia Police as appropriate.

Sincerely,

Marjorie G. Neff

Principal