Summer 2014
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TOWER
11
W
henLINDACLIATT-WAYMAN ’83 took over as principal
at StrawberryMansionHigh School in 2012, the students told
her that she wouldn’t last, that she couldn’t change them.To
many people, the situationwould have seemed hopeless.
Their predictions were based in fact: three principals had come and
gone, one per year, bested by the intransigence of the students and prob-
lems – assaults, drug trafficking,weapons, truancy andmore – that beset
StrawberryMansion, infamous for being themost persistently dangerous
school inPhiladelphia.
What they didn’t knowwas thatWayman had something to give them
that would set her apart from the others,make a difference in their lives
and bring the news cameras of ABC into the halls of their school.
Wayman gave them hope.
In 2010,Waymanwas the assistant superintendent for all 52 high
schools inPhiladelphia. It was her job to choose a new principal for
StrawberryMansion.Unfortunately, the task proved very difficult.
Nobodywanted the job, and for good reason.The school district had
closed two rival high schools: Rhodes andThomas FitzSimons, and
planned tomerge them into StrawberryMansion.
“I was a principal at those two schools, and I loved them dearly,” she
said. “But theywere rivals.Everyone thought: ‘there’s noway you’re going
to close that school and that school and put them together.’You really
think somebodywants that job?Noway. I was looking for a principal with
courage. I needed someone whowouldn’t be afraid of the students and
BY: FÉLIX ALFONSO PEÑA
PHOTOGRAPHY BY: DOUGLAS BENEDICT
