Python Noob - a couple questions involving a web app

[Kyle T. Jones]

Been programming for a long time, but just starting out with Python. 
Not a professional programmer, just that guy in one of those 
organizations that won't hire a pro, instead saying "Hey, Kyle knows 
computer stuff - let's have him do this (and that, and the other, etc)".

So, the higher ups want a web app that'll let them enter (from an 
intranet page) a rather simple, but quite lengthy, list - details to be 
stored in a MySQL database... just normal stuff here, entering, editing, 
and deleting entries, sorting, etc.

On the internet side of things, folks get the info served up to them, 
can sort it in a few ways, etc - it's pretty basic stuff.

So, normally, I'd just put something together with Javascript and some 
PHP scripts on the back end - so the Javascript is used to make 
requests, the php stuff makes the calls to the database then returns the 
appropriate info.

I was thinking of doing the backend using Python instead of PHP - more 
just to get some hands-on experience with the language than anything else.

So, first - is that a non-starter? - in other words, is it just 
something that lends itself more to PHP than Python?  That's how I would 
normally do it, just thought this would be a good opportunity to get 
some "practice" with Python.  And I know Python supports MySQL 
interactions, which, other than returning some info, is all that really 
needs to be done server-side.

In a broader sense, any suggestions in terms of what I should be wary of 
on the security side of things - the internet component I mentioned is 
universally accessible... but the database itself can't be accessed that 
way directly (requests have to be sent to the PHP/Python scripts, which 
do have access to the MySQL stuff...)

Any thoughts or suggestions are appreciated!

Cheers.