Bully Pulpit

I am sorry, I usually post LOs and freebies on my blog but I am very frustrated and very disturbed and I guess I am using my blog to vent my irritation. Penn, Harris, Madison -- the school system that my kids attend, the one that is supposed to be the best in the state, is ridiculous! We paid a premium to buy property in that school district and we pay a premium in property taxes to be in this district!

From the first day we enrolled in this district, the first principal I met treated me and my kids like we were urchins. Her cold and callous demeaner is something I have tried to live with, but after more than three years and no winter thaw, I guess I am getting associative 'cabin fever'. I mean, do any one of you want to deal with an ice queen on a daily or weekly manner? You might be able to take it for a few months or a year and after a while you would expect the coolness to end. But it never does.

My daughter wanted to take accelerated math, and the counselor actually wanted her to take easier math saying "why work so hard?" Susie is smart enough to know that it is not only good grades that matter but the types of classes you take. Susie always scores above the 94th percentile on the math section of the standardized tests. But they didn't care about that, I had to sign my life away to get her into the advanced class and she got a B the first semester and As since then, I think she can handle it. I have never heard of a school, let alone one that is supposed to be the best in the state, encouraging their students to take easy classes? I was livid!

My daughter Rebecca was bullied last year to the point of depression and I complained at least four times about this and the school system actually told her to seek out her bully and 'talk it out'. She did this only to be bullied MORE. So she tried more to talk it out and got nowhere. All the while, the school did nothing. The law in our state requires all reports of bullying to be taken seriously, this school system actually encouraged my daughter to place herself in harms way rather than doing their job.

Now recently, my kids and I planned to attend a religious event in Chicago. I sent in a note to the school and said in it that if there would be a problem to let me know by the day before the event otherwise we would assume there was no problem. Of course, this principal, the one that had been so cold to us, waited to say anything until we were on the road to the event. A secretary called my cell and told me this 'may' not be excused. I was so upset, chewed the ear off of this poor secterary. Because I was so upset and frankly threatened to call the school district, they backed off!

I have had to deal with teachers that told me bold faced lies where school paperwork clearly showed they were lying and abusive teachers that are frankly cruel to their students (these are the teachers that get ahead in the system). I am exasperated! I finally did complain to the district and I will see what they do about this treatment. We used to homeschool and this type of capricious, cold and callous behavior is completely foreign to me. Is this common in school systems, am I too sensative? My friend who is a teacher in another state is outraged at the way we have been treated, so I do think it is unusual.

Well thank you all for letting me vent and I would love to hear your experiences and thoughts.

Thanks for reading

Carol