Despite spending $22 million on security this academic year, the School District of Philadelphia presides over schools that are rife with violence that is frequently under-reported or denied altogether by district officials.

This was among the findings contained in a report to be released tomorrow by a state House of Representatives subcommittee.

The product of an 11-month investigation that included seven public hearings and 250 interviews, the report is scathing in its conclusions that the district's discipline practices help increase school violence by lowering the acceptable-behavior standard.

"In too many cases, there is no discernible punishment for perpetrators and victims are victimized again by the perpetrators ending up back in the school," said Rep. John Taylor, R-Philadelphia, subcommittee chairman.

Among the testimony, the story of Brittany Pettey was one of the most shocking. The 11-year-old Leeds Middle School student testified that she had been harassed and threatened by other students for weeks during the 1999-2000 school year.

The assaults culminated in March 1999 when another student attacked her on the way home from school, slashing her cheek with a razor blade. She required 26 stitches to close the wound, and now goes to school in Camden.

"What is shocking is the accumulated callousness toward these stories. It's like the district's administrators have heard them all before and nobody's individual story is shocking to them," said Rep. Alan Butkovitz, D-Philadelphia, a subcommittee member and, with Taylor, catalyst behind the investigation.

The report cites the case of John Henry, a student at Martin Luther King High School, who was injured when another student picked up a desk and struck him in the head, neck and upper back in February 1997, his mother testified.

The school district never apprehended the assailant and maintained he was not enrolled at the school and officials had no idea how he had gotten into the building, the report stated.

John never returned to school, opting to be home-schooled and taught by a tutoring service.

Members of the Urban Affairs Committee's First Class Cities Subcommittee will discuss findings of the 136-page report tomorrow at a City Hall news conference.

Taylor said the subcommittee wants to continue exploring the impact of laws that exempt violent special education students from punishment and compare the school district to other systems in the state and the nation. He will ask the full House for authorization to continue when the new legislative session starts next month, Taylor said.

"We think that it is important to keep the pressure on the issue," he said. "Most committees are one shot, they make a noise and go away. This is not like that."

Security spending for the 210,000-student district rose from $16.3 million in 1995-96 to $22 million this year. Expenses included money for a school police force reaching about 560 officers and the installation of walk-through metal detectors and video cameras at high schools.

But Taylor said the funding increases are being undermined by principals who use "discretion" to down-play crimes to spare their schools' reputations and students who then misbehave in the absence of punishment.

The report compares the district to the much smaller 50,000-student Pittsburgh School District to illustrate the contention that crime is under-reported. In 1998-99, the district reported 859 assaults on students, while Pittsburgh reported 4,020, the report states.

Upon receiving from the Daily News a copy of the committee's findings and recommendations, the district's new boss, Chief Executive Officer Philip Goldsmith, issued a statement on his resolve to make schools safe: "The safety of our students and staff is one of the biggest priorities of the School District of Philadelphia. It is a personal priority of mine. In any system as large as this one, there will be different interpretations of policy. We are working with our staff to clarify these policies and that is an ongoing process. We also look forward to working with the new state-funded safe school advocate on these issues."

Gov. Ridge signed legislation last month creating the advocate position to aide school district victims of violence. Taylor and Butkovitz were among those who introduced the measure.

Officials from the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers recently met with Goldsmith and came away convinced that school safety is one of his top concerns, PFT President Ted Kirsch said.

"I do believe that because he has not grown up with the bureaucracy that he can cut through it. He's not clouded by it," Kirsch said.

But at the present time, the report "essentially hit the target," Kirsch added.

"Now we have to go to the next level. Everybody agrees that there is a problem, let's solve the problem, let's do something about it. We can't stop random acts of violence. But we can control a school. We can't let kids run schools."

Among committee recommendations for the school district:

Notify teachers and other pertinent personnel of a student's prior incarceration and the reason for that incarceration.

Devise and implement a strategy to open up and possibly have overturned formerly agreed upon "consent decrees" which hinder the district's ability to quickly remove violent and disruptive students.

Better utilize existing space for violent and disruptive students at the three alternative placement schools.

Among the subcommittee's recommendations for the state:

Establish uniform reporting requirements with no room for deviation or omission of violent incidents.

Enact a whistle-blower law to protect teachers and administrators who report violence.