Attack prompts questions

Two weeks ago, on a typically crowded street in broad daylight, Nursing and Wharton senior Christina Zhang came face to face with two strangers.

But only for a moment. Without hint or warning, one of the strangers held up an aerosol can and sprayed a chemical on Zhang’s face, leaving her with an intense, burning sensation on her skin for five hours.

Zhang said she was attacked Jan. 21 by two black teenage girls near the Broad Street Health Center, located at 1415 N. Broad St., where Zhang was placed for her clinical rotation.

After she was discharged from the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, where she was taken for further treatment after the attack, Zhang said the swelling in her face went away after two days. What remained, however, was her dissatisfaction with the way the Philadelphia Police, the School of Nursing and the University handled the incident.

Zhang said while at HUP, personnel from Victim Services and Penn Police, sent by the Nursing School and the Division of Public Safety, respectively, took her statement.

She expressed beliefs that she may have been the victim of a race-related attack.

“My professor informed me that I may have been targeted because I was Asian,” she said, referring to the attack on 26 Asian students by several black students at South Philadelphia High School in December. The clinic Zhang worked at was a block away from William Penn High School, which has a predominantly black population.

“We have no reason to believe that Christina’s attack and the South Philly High incident are connected,” said Divison of Public Safety Director of Special Services Patricia Brennan, who visited Zhang in the emergency room. “We’re geographically removed from these locations.”

Nursing Assistant Dean for Academic and Student Affairs Christina Clark said all clinical locations are reviewed for safety by Penn Police before students are assigned to them, and Brennan pointed out the clinic where Zhang worked was “well-populated"

In response to Zhang’s having to travel relatively long distances alone, Clark said students have access to PhillyCarShare “when appropriate.”

“The Philadelphia Police arrived at the clinic half an hour after I left for HUP — it’s unacceptable that they had such a slow response time,” said Zhang, who added that the police have not contacted her since the incident.

She was also “disappointed” that the Nursing School and the University “had not done more to address the issue.”

“No alert was sent out to the student body regarding this attack,” Zhang said. “I was also informed about the racial tension after the attack had already occurred.”

“I was unknowingly putting myself in danger all this time,” she added.

Brennan clarified that Penn alerts are only sent out if an incident took place on Penn grounds, or if “there was reason to believe it would affect the Penn community.”

Despite her discontent, Zhang, who has been reassigned to HUP for her clinical rotations, acknowledged that the situation could have been “much worse,” given she was alone and the street was almost empty at the time of her attack.

“I just hope that my story gets out so that students will be aware of the situation outside Penn grounds,” she said.

Corrections & Clarifications: the print version of this article quotes Divison of Public Safety Director of Special Services Patricia Brennan as saying that the attack occurred near Drexel University. The incident in question occurred near Temple University.

Comments (8)

Welcome to the freakish world of political correctness created by the liberals and the news media, Ms. Zhang. You think the attack was racially motivated? Impossible. Hate crimes only apply to straight, white, and usually Christian males. Name one of the innocent people killed by a radical Muslim physician at Ft. Hood, Texas. Now who has ever heard of Matthew Shepard? If it's not committed by a straight white Christian male, it's just a plain old crime.

May I as a parent commend DP for reporting breaking news as well as routine write-ups of concerning events such as this "acid attack". Without your staff, the community would not learn about certain pertinent criminal events. DP media articles, however, are insufficient (though well-written) and do not replace the critical need for official departmental notifications about odd criminal activity. Notice is essential so that students, faculty, and staff may become alert and conduct themselves in a more vigilant fashion to avoid a similar odd encounter. It would be on a lower tier than PennAlert and automatic so that the affected student is not burdened with knowing information that rightfully should be shared with others. Other examples would be a taxi-driver forcing students to withdraw cash from ATMs, finding a hidden video camera in a shower, pills being found dropped in open drink containers, etc, (The third tier, the routine listing of thefts, etc., already exists.) Thank you.

>> We have no reason to believe that Christina’s attack and the South Philly High incident are connected,” said Divison of Public Safety Director of Special Services Patricia Brennan <<

Let's see, a young Asian student is minding her own business, she is attacked a block from the racial unrest by two high-school aged girls. It's interesting how Ms. Brennan was able to make that claim so quickly.

Penn (or at least Penn leadership) hasn't changed much since the 1980s...

John M Walker Hombrechtikon, Switzerland C¦SAS University of Pennsylvania Class of 1988

While the attack on Christina Zheng is clearly an upsetting and frightening incident, the article makes repeated and entirely unsubstantiated allegations of a possible racial basis for the assault.

What basis does the DP have for printing such inflammatory and unsupported claims? It is certainly not helpful in finding Zheng's assailants or preventing such attacks in the future. It is just a global smear, followed up by an equally disturbing comment by Zheng that she wants students to be aware of "the situation outside Penn grounds."

As a commuter student, I regularly came and went from the Penn bubble. I do not think it reflects well on the University community for the DP to print, uncritically, such a careless and sweeping statement about the space beyond Penn's campus. It is otherwise known as the City of Philadelphia. More than a million people live, work, play, and visit here every day.

Look up on the www (possibly with Yahoo or Google search engine)

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workshops/classes that would "prevent such attacks in the future."

It takes an inside job to create the outside environment that ensures

us being safe and secure under any and all conditions.

Being educated and capable of aborting crime encounters such as racism,

anti-Semitism and brutality coming from all segments of society gives a

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What basis does the DP have for printing such inflammatory and unsupported claims ? It is certainly not helpful in finding Zheng's assailants or preventing such attacks in the future. It is just a global smear, followed up by an equally disturbing comment by Zheng that she wants students to be aware of "the situation outside Penn grounds."

As a commuter student, I regularly came and went from the Penn bubble. I do not think it reflects well on the University community for the DP to print, uncritically, such a careless and sweeping statement about the space beyond Penn's campus. It is otherwise known as the City of Philadelphia . More than a million people live, work, play, and visit here every day.

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