"Roll forward to 2012 and there are well over 25 or 30 gangs in the city
Language hasn't been the sole hurdle. The district has struggled to bridge a cultural chasm. For instance, Dominican parents often don't recognize compulsory attendance laws, as there are none where they came from. They also are inclined to leave education to educators.
In the early 1990s, the Hazleton Area School District started a program for children who spoke English as a second language, or ESL. It had one teacher and 100 students.
Today, the district employs 28 teachers for more than 1,300 children identified through testing as English-language learners in need of special help.
Like the general population, the number of students in the system's 10 schools - 10,500 - has barely changed in the last decade. But by other measures, little is the same.
In 2007, the district was 28 percent Hispanic and 69 percent white. By 2014, it was 45 percent Hispanic and 51 percent white.
"In some schools, the minority is the majority," up to 80 percent Hispanic, said Francis Antonelli, the superintendent from 2011 through last year.
Hazleton's unemployment rate stands at 7.5 percent. Pennsylvania's is 4.6 percent; the nation's, 5.
Lovely place....well it WAS...now its a cesspool of crime,non english speakers and unemployment.