How was the meeting with the admin meeting last week at BASIS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When this issue was first brought up last week, I had sympathy for the upset parent, but at this point, and especially after coming back and reading the last several of her posts (particularly after the actual email came to light, and particularly as she dissects and parses it line by line), it's painfully obvious that this is a person who's off the rails and who seems hellbent on ignoring reason and willfully and deliberately distorting, twisting and misrepresenting every. single. thing.

I wish there was a way to ban that deranged woman from this board. She's poisonous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:After reading that email from the HOS, I think a lot of people need more instruction in English, both in writing and reading comprehension. He does seem to try to mask his inexperience with a lot of jargon.

Jargon indeed. Whatever else this is, it is embarrassing.

And inadequate under the circumstances that the children have described.

When there is a crisis, especially when children are involved, what is needed is absolutely crystal clear language from the leadership. This hardly measures up at all:

On Oct 15, 2014 6:59 PM, "Cameron Louis" <[e-mail]> wrote:

Good evening everyone,

I just wanted to take a quick moment to follow up regarding an incident that took place in Ms. Pickett’s Chemistry classroom and our response. Our Dean of Students may have incorrectly messaged to the whole element that their grades might be adversely affected by one student’s decision to steal lab materials. We’ve taken a number of steps to make sure that this messaging was retracted and that the students feel comfortable with what transpired. I don’t want to make this a bigger issue than it was, but I did want to share with you all that no student’s grades will be negatively affected. Thank you and know that we’re constantly reflecting on how to make BASIS the best, student-centered environment possible and on how to be better for all of your students. Thank you all and I hope that you’re having a wonderful week!

The other thing you quickly learn when tweens are involved and there has been a serious incident, and I view the Dean of Students threatening to fail an entire Chemistry class, clearly not in a cool, calm and collected manner, as a serious incident, especially if it indeed was in response to their diligent efforts to find the candy in question,

is that the children will need to be reassured again on Monday, after they have processed the event, by someone who has authority over the Dean, who will come into their class to answer any questions

and their parents may need to be reassured again as well, but usually, when the children calm down, the parents follow soon after, because it is of course the fact that the children are upset, not really why they are upset, or the legitimacy of it, the rationality of it, that is upsetting the parents

I cannot quite imagine how bad this was, but for someone with apparent authority to threaten the academic standing of a group of 13 year olds, just in and of itself, shocks me. They could go a long way toward rehabilitating the reputation of Basis by terminating that Dean's employment as a real consequence for his behavior, and a lesson to all in the community that no one has the right to make that kind of threat this way. That it is absolutely inexcusable and will not be tolerated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ha ha don't get me started about the ATF (aka parents paying teachers so BASIS can free up working capital to expand the bureaucracy or open new campuses). At least when I was there we had a fixed contract at the beginning of the year. The ATF was not a bonus and if you look at the thin information about it they never claim it is a bonus. I presume it was just used to pay the contractual salary (which did have lots of bonuses built in for things like attendance, student performance on APs, etc.).

are you frigging kidding me? I have a Q&A from the HOS that says different.........
contractual eh?
Not what we were told at all

including a statement that there was a "base" bonus for all returning teachers which I guess means your salary?
HELL NO.

In our ES our PTA money goes in part to insure that there is an assistant teacher in every room so that if one kid is disruptive they can be pulled out and talked to without ruining the entire class time............ and every penny appears in an itemized budget created by the administration with parental input, which is why I have never quibbled about handing over my money (although Janney had a 3 kid cap, and our ES does not.............)

so would you have preferred a $100 gift card at Christmas and then at the beginning of the summer?

(from individual parents, dividing it so it adds up evenly per teacher and kid? We fork over 1800 for one kid at ES, and we figure we owe Basis teachers a lot more, but we did not donate to the ATF last year because it sounded off)

Because if this is really what it is, the organization writ large has to step in and fulfill your contracts, including any obligatory bonus based on a stated formula, whether or not they have the money from the parents, which in DC they never will just because of our population........

Sorry about all these questions but you are absolutely blowing my mind and I will wait with bated breath for your response. No joke.

So are you really going to go on the word of an anonymous DCUM poster who may or may not be an actual teacher and make a judgement based on that alone? I know that it is a fact that DC charters get substantially less funding than DCPS schools. I want to help support our teachers and our school. I also know that no other school in DC will provide the great education that my kid is getting now at BASIS.

Well, the brightest thing would be to really push the Boosters on whether it EVER goes to "teacher's salaries," defined as what is in their contracts they sign at the beginning of the year, and see whether the answer indicates that you should give your hard earned money to the BOOSTERS for the ATF or to individual teachers in the form of gift cards because the answer to the question does not satisfy you............

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For crying out loud -- does any ADULT really think that they will fail an entire chemistry class over behavior issues? OP is being as hysterical as an eighth grader. Stop whipping up your child into a frenzy.

The rookie mistake was by the unqualified dean who made a threat he can't deliver on -- I hope he becomes yet one more in a string of supposed male role models who aren't the right fit for this school.

Wow that is a bit harsh and very quick to judge. I have had interactions with the Dean and was quite impressed. Even if he misspoke or was out of line, I really do not think it is fair to call for his dismissal over something like this that is alleged to have occurred at all. I do not know anyone who has not had any hiccups on the road in any new job at all including myself. Geesh

IMO, the best solution would be to force him to say sorry to the section in front of the HOS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There are 25 kids in a class-one they should not result in everyone getting punished. And 8th graders are emotional, irrational and dramatic, so of course they are freaking out.

THANK YOU FOR THAT ASTUTE OBSERVATION. IT IS THE ABSOLUTE TRUTH.

and some of their parents, who care possibly even more deeply about their children's grades than their children, especially those who are not native English speakers, did not get the message from the HOS stupid email that their kids grades would not be affected because it was filled with mumbo jumbo about "messaging their children" and concluded with the inscrutable and inappropriate (given what had happened, given what the email was about) "Have a great week!"

Yes 8th graders are exactly as you describe. That is why he should have popped his head in bright and early Monday morning, made the Dean apologise as a demonstration of his power as HOS, and then explained that at Basis, this is not the way we do things............ Simple enough, and would have calmed emotional irrational kids right down. Why didn't he do this? I have no clue, and am deeply disappointed.... and embarrassed for Basis, where I have two children, and thought things had settled down quite nicely after the chaos of our first year........

[Anonymous]

For people who are so hesitant to want to deal with kids who steal, who are so focused on kids feelings, you sure don't seem to give a damn about everyone else's feelings, you want everyone else publicly shamed, publicly humiliated, publicly punished, and dirty laundry aired over the most trivial of things...

Pretty hypocritical and fraudulent in my humble opinion.

Also, I had a kid read the email from the HOS, who understood it just fine to mean grades wouldn't be hurt. So much for "mumbo jumbo" and "messaging" and "jargon" you keep carrying on about - I think you are insulting our intelligence with that nonsense at this point.

And finally, you'd do well to not keep constantly badmouthing "boosters" - a.) if you presume to be wanting to "help" the school with your criticisms, then that too would makes you a "booster" because there's no formal membership or dues, it's just involved parents b.) if you care at all about your child's teachers, then it doesn't make sense to be demonizing and alienating the people who've been fundraising for ATF and helping with activities and other things. Just because someone pushes back against you or refutes you doesn't mean there's some organized conspiracy of "Boosters" sitting in a DCUM war room with a set of canned talking point. Here it's all just random posters, random parents, and even some posters who aren't even involved in the school, from what I've seen. From the many years I've been on DCUM, I've seen people constantly weighing in on threads about schools that they aren't even involved in, whether on the pro or con side.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For people who are so hesitant to want to deal with kids who steal, who are so focused on kids feelings, you sure don't seem to give a damn about everyone else's feelings, you want everyone else publicly shamed, publicly humiliated, publicly punished, and dirty laundry aired over the most trivial of things...

Pretty hypocritical and fraudulent in my humble opinion.

Also, I had a kid read the email from the HOS, who understood it just fine to mean grades wouldn't be hurt. So much for "mumbo jumbo" and "messaging" and "jargon" you keep carrying on about - I think you are insulting our intelligence with that nonsense at this point.

And finally, you'd do well to not keep constantly badmouthing "boosters" - a.) if you presume to be wanting to "help" the school with your criticisms, then that too would makes you a "booster" because there's no formal membership or dues, it's just involved parents b.) if you care at all about your child's teachers, then it doesn't make sense to be demonizing and alienating the people who've been fundraising for ATF and helping with activities and other things. Just because someone pushes back against you or refutes you doesn't mean there's some organized conspiracy of "Boosters" sitting in a DCUM war room with a set of canned talking point. Here it's all just random posters, random parents, and even some posters who aren't even involved in the school, from what I've seen. From the many years I've been on DCUM, I've seen people constantly weighing in on threads about schools that they aren't even involved in, whether on the pro or con side.

Anonymous wrote:For people who are so hesitant to want to deal with kids who steal, who are so focused on kids feelings, you sure don't seem to give a damn about everyone else's feelings, you want everyone else publicly shamed, publicly humiliated, publicly punished

I am not sure where you are sensing any hesitancy to "want to deal with kids who steal" - of course they should be dealt with, and harshly but only if they can be identified. In this case, they were not

if you care at all about your child's teachers, then it doesn't make sense to be demonizing and alienating the people who've been fundraising for ATF

I care a lot about the good teachers my children have. I also care a lot about the bad ones, and unfortunately have had little success during the year - just the confidence that they will be fired at the end, which all of them have been.

I think given the post by the former teacher, the actual distribution of ATF money (and hence its real purpose) has to be further investigated. If all the money raised from parents at Basis DC goes to fulfill contractual obligations Basis signed up for at the beginning of the year, especially if it included a set formula for bonuses, our hard earned money is just being used to pay the teachers salary, pure and simple. That is not what they say when they raise the money, and they may have no clue. Neither do I. But I do think it is important to figure out.

In terms of the rest of the post, I don't quite know what to make of it. No there is no conspiracy of Boosters, but there is a party line, or a few, and until recently I only reproached those whom I thought were being gratuitously and perhaps unfairly cruel - aka your child failed their comps because............ any number of reasons, laziness, stupidity, etc. Nothing to do with BASIS. But the great thing that did happen at that meeting (one of the only ones) was that they have finally perhaps agreed to fund a summer school, for those kids who have not been lazy but failed their comps or classes anyway....... they do exist.

The fact remains that

I am profoundly disappointed and disturbed by what happened during the class itself, and what has happened since then. I am usually accused of being an insufferable BASIS BOOSTER on this forum. And up til this incident, I have never made a single negative statement about BASIS on this forum.

I have always protected our privacy, and there is a lot that has needed to be protected over the last few years. But I did it because I thought that every year things have been getting better, and that we were on the right track. I do not believe that anymore. We are losing students at the bottom and the top, where losing (or not getting in the first place) kids at the bottom puts us at financial risk, while losing at the top, and losing "top students," means we will not be able to send those kids off to college as Basis graduates. And we are mistreating the students who are at the school, virtually guaranteeing that those who have other options after middle school will not stay.

I was never scared for my child's grade, although I will admit that it took a hell of a lot to convince my child that they did not have to be scared for their grade, and they are still scared of the Dean - that is how bad the experience was for said child. I have been trying now for a long time to explain how some of the other parents and other children reacted to the incident and this email. Which from talking to many of them over the last week, I now understand. I admit I never would have understood the depth of the fear and the level of confusion without these conversations. So I can understand why you don't understand. And I guess I can understand why you won't take my word for it.

But the only person who really needed to understand was Cameron Louis. And I will never understand why he did not understand. I will never understand why he ignored at least a couple of parents telling him that there was still a problem. I will never understand why he did not just go in and fix it, because he had the power to do so on Monday morning, just by bringing the Dean in and making him apologize, and explaining to the students that their grades were safe. And those students would have promptly gone home and told their parents. And this would have been over.

Blame the parents for not correctly parsing the email. Blame the children for overreacting.

Typical of the lot of you:

Also, I had a kid read the email from the HOS, who understood it just fine to mean grades wouldn't be hurt. So much for "mumbo jumbo" and "messaging" and "jargon" you keep carrying on about - I think you are insulting our intelligence with that nonsense at this point.

You all sound very familiar, blaming both parents and children, for stupidity. Lack of reading comprehension - read lack of education, or an unforgivable and inexcusable failure to master the English language because no matter where you came from, you live in this country. This is what I hear on this forum about why kids failed their comps. This is what I hear on this forum about why kids can't hack it. Laziness cannot be brought up this time, but if you could you would. So instead you bring up hysteria and stupidity (lack of intelligence), because surely I was not insulting [/b]your intelligence, you are in you post insulting the intelligence of everyone else who did not understand the email.

That is the Basis strategy. And you have learned it well. Blame the victims. Always. No conspiracy required.

But ultimately, as the phrase goes, "it is what it is."
And it is awful. It is a terrifying incident that should never have happened, that this email that your kid so easily understood did nothing to ameliorate - it just dismissed the entire thing and made many more confused.


Blame the parents for not correctly parsing the email. Blame the children for overreacting. But [b] "it is what it is." And what it is, plain and simple, is awful. What happened in that class should never happen at any school, much less Basis DC, and verged on child abuse (thankfully not physical, but verbal and emotional, and I cannot even begin to think about what this man has been doing to students one on one behind closed doors).

And what has happened since his abusive and wrong behavior is incomprehensible. Despite the reassurances of the poor chemistry teacher, 8 days later I was still communicating with parents who were scared, children who were scared, and getting more and more furious at the man who could have done a quick fix and decided not to. Who is it that fiddled while Rome burned? That is what I feel he has been doing. You may disagree, but how close are you to the situation?

So we say goodbye to another group of "top students" in what would have been our third graduating class, where all the BASIS bashers are just waiting to slam us for our college admissions, and I am terribly afraid that they will be able to. And I am not even referring to kids in our element. And I was really hoping that my child would graduate with the solid peer group that has been formed over the last few years. I do not think that will happen now. Thanks to Cameron Louis. No one can ever undo what happened in that classroom. No child who was there will ever forget it. Some children and parents may have not been upset about it, but some were.

And because of the HOS lack of action after the fact, despite being told by parents like me directly that there was still a problem after his unfortunate email, what happened is becoming the biggest thing parents and students think about when they think about Basis. And I will admit I am no longer innocent in this in terms of this forum. I have besmirched the reputation of Basis DC. I cannot help but feel that they did it to themselves first.

Whether or not it should have become a problem, it is a problem. And without some changes in the staff - replacing the HOS, getting rid of the Dean, and the woman who is in charge of the tardies, who is the mother of his child, this problem will just continue to fester. Because the people in charge did nothing to redeem themselves after the fact. Absolutely nothing.

And just wait, the mother of the Dean's child will "forget" that the tardies after this debacle were excused, will not inform a child of which tardies he is being punished for, and since the consequences are imposed immediately, will not afford that child or their parents the opportunity to dispute the validity of the tardies which result in the punishment.

Please understand, until fairly recently, I thought many of the problems at Basis DC had been solved, were being solved, and would be solved appropriately and immediately when they arose. I believed that. I was wrong.

you sure don't seem to give a damn about everyone else's feelings, you want everyone else publicly shamed, publicly humiliated, publicly punished, and dirty laundry aired over the most trivial of things...

Pretty hypocritical and fraudulent in my humble opinion.

Please tell me how trivial you think this is.

We even have a new rule that is making girls who are menstruating hide pads in socks and elsewhere, because the command came down from on high that they were no longer allowed to carry purses, and they are not allowed to carry much between classes, and you cannot hide sanitary napkins in your accordian folder. Certainly those poor girls are tardy sometimes, because permission to go to the bathroom is not always granted, and you do not want blood to seep out of your underwear for all to see. It goes without saying that these girls are losing the extra credit you get for not using bathroom passes. So maybe some of you on the inside and the outside are starting to get a sense of why I am so worried about our future as a school right now. It was not just this incident, although that would have been enough for me, it is other stuff going on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For people who are so hesitant to want to deal with kids who steal, who are so focused on kids feelings, you sure don't seem to give a damn about everyone else's feelings, you want everyone else publicly shamed, publicly humiliated, publicly punished, and dirty laundry aired over the most trivial of things...

Pretty hypocritical and fraudulent in my humble opinion.

Also, I had a kid read the email from the HOS, who understood it just fine to mean grades wouldn't be hurt. So much for "mumbo jumbo" and "messaging" and "jargon" you keep carrying on about - I think you are insulting our intelligence with that nonsense at this point.

And finally, you'd do well to not keep constantly badmouthing "boosters" - a.) if you presume to be wanting to "help" the school with your criticisms, then that too would makes you a "booster" because there's no formal membership or dues, it's just involved parents b.) if you care at all about your child's teachers, then it doesn't make sense to be demonizing and alienating the people who've been fundraising for ATF and helping with activities and other things. Just because someone pushes back against you or refutes you doesn't mean there's some organized conspiracy of "Boosters" sitting in a DCUM war room with a set of canned talking point. Here it's all just random posters, random parents, and even some posters who aren't even involved in the school, from what I've seen. From the many years I've been on DCUM, I've seen people constantly weighing in on threads about schools that they aren't even involved in, whether on the pro or con side.

Anonymous wrote:For people who are so hesitant to want to deal with kids who steal, who are so focused on kids feelings, you sure don't seem to give a damn about everyone else's feelings, you want everyone else publicly shamed, publicly humiliated, publicly punished

I am not sure where you are sensing any hesitancy to "want to deal with kids who steal" - of course they should be dealt with, and harshly but only if they can be identified. In this case, they were not

if you care at all about your child's teachers, then it doesn't make sense to be demonizing and alienating the people who've been fundraising for ATF

I care a lot about the good teachers my children have. I also care a lot about the bad ones, and unfortunately have had little success during the year - just the confidence that they will be fired at the end, which all of them have been.

I think given the post by the former teacher, the actual distribution of ATF money (and hence its real purpose) has to be further investigated. If all the money raised from parents at Basis DC goes to fulfill contractual obligations Basis signed up for at the beginning of the year, especially if it included a set formula for bonuses, our hard earned money is just being used to pay the teachers salary, pure and simple. That is not what they say when they raise the money, and they may have no clue. Neither do I. But I do think it is important to figure out.

In terms of the rest of the post, I don't quite know what to make of it. No there is no conspiracy of Boosters, but there is a party line, or a few, and until recently I only reproached those whom I thought were being gratuitously and perhaps unfairly cruel - aka your child failed their comps because............ any number of reasons, laziness, stupidity, etc. Nothing to do with BASIS. But the great thing that did happen at that meeting (one of the only ones) was that they have finally perhaps agreed to fund a summer school, for those kids who have not been lazy but failed their comps or classes anyway....... they do exist.

The fact remains that

I am profoundly disappointed and disturbed by what happened during the class itself, and what has happened since then. I am usually accused of being an insufferable BASIS BOOSTER on this forum. And up til this incident, I have never made a single negative statement about BASIS on this forum.

I have always protected our privacy, and there is a lot that has needed to be protected over the last few years. But I did it because I thought that every year things have been getting better, and that we were on the right track. I do not believe that anymore. We are losing students at the bottom and the top, where losing (or not getting in the first place) kids at the bottom puts us at financial risk, while losing at the top, and losing "top students," means we will not be able to send those kids off to college as Basis graduates. And we are mistreating the students who are at the school, virtually guaranteeing that those who have other options after middle school will not stay.

I was never scared for my child's grade, although I will admit that it took a hell of a lot to convince my child that they did not have to be scared for their grade, and they are still scared of the Dean - that is how bad the experience was for said child. I have been trying now for a long time to explain how some of the other parents and other children reacted to the incident and this email. Which from talking to many of them over the last week, I now understand. I admit I never would have understood the depth of the fear and the level of confusion without these conversations. So I can understand why you don't understand. And I guess I can understand why you won't take my word for it.

But the only person who really needed to understand was Cameron Louis. And I will never understand why he did not understand. I will never understand why he ignored at least a couple of parents telling him that there was still a problem. I will never understand why he did not just go in and fix it, because he had the power to do so on Monday morning, just by bringing the Dean in and making him apologize, and explaining to the students that their grades were safe. And those students would have promptly gone home and told their parents. And this would have been over.

Blame the parents for not correctly parsing the email. Blame the children for overreacting.

Typical of the lot of you:

Also, I had a kid read the email from the HOS, who understood it just fine to mean grades wouldn't be hurt. So much for "mumbo jumbo" and "messaging" and "jargon" you keep carrying on about - I think you are insulting our intelligence with that nonsense at this point.

You all sound very familiar, blaming both parents and children, for stupidity. Lack of reading comprehension - read lack of education, or an unforgivable and inexcusable failure to master the English language because no matter where you came from, you live in this country. This is what I hear on this forum about why kids failed their comps. This is what I hear on this forum about why kids can't hack it. Laziness cannot be brought up this time, but if you could you would. So instead you bring up hysteria and stupidity (lack of intelligence), because surely I was not insulting [/b]your intelligence, you are in you post insulting the intelligence of everyone else who did not understand the email.

That is the Basis strategy. And you have learned it well. Blame the victims. Always. No conspiracy required.

But ultimately, as the phrase goes, "it is what it is."
And it is awful. It is a terrifying incident that should never have happened, that this email that your kid so easily understood did nothing to ameliorate - it just dismissed the entire thing and made many more confused.


Blame the parents for not correctly parsing the email. Blame the children for overreacting. But [b] "it is what it is." And what it is, plain and simple, is awful. What happened in that class should never happen at any school, much less Basis DC, and verged on child abuse (thankfully not physical, but verbal and emotional, and I cannot even begin to think about what this man has been doing to students one on one behind closed doors).

And what has happened since his abusive and wrong behavior is incomprehensible. Despite the reassurances of the poor chemistry teacher, 8 days later I was still communicating with parents who were scared, children who were scared, and getting more and more furious at the man who could have done a quick fix and decided not to. Who is it that fiddled while Rome burned? That is what I feel he has been doing. You may disagree, but how close are you to the situation?

So we say goodbye to another group of "top students" in what would have been our third graduating class, where all the BASIS bashers are just waiting to slam us for our college admissions, and I am terribly afraid that they will be able to. And I am not even referring to kids in our element. And I was really hoping that my child would graduate with the solid peer group that has been formed over the last few years. I do not think that will happen now. Thanks to Cameron Louis. No one can ever undo what happened in that classroom. No child who was there will ever forget it. Some children and parents may have not been upset about it, but some were.

And because of the HOS lack of action after the fact, despite being told by parents like me directly that there was still a problem after his unfortunate email, what happened is becoming the biggest thing parents and students think about when they think about Basis. And I will admit I am no longer innocent in this in terms of this forum. I have besmirched the reputation of Basis DC. I cannot help but feel that they did it to themselves first.

Whether or not it should have become a problem, it is a problem. And without some changes in the staff - replacing the HOS, getting rid of the Dean, and the woman who is in charge of the tardies, who is the mother of his child, this problem will just continue to fester. Because the people in charge did nothing to redeem themselves after the fact. Absolutely nothing.

And just wait, the mother of the Dean's child will "forget" that the tardies after this debacle were excused, will not inform a child of which tardies he is being punished for, and since the consequences are imposed immediately, will not afford that child or their parents the opportunity to dispute the validity of the tardies which result in the punishment.

Please understand, until fairly recently, I thought many of the problems at Basis DC had been solved, were being solved, and would be solved appropriately and immediately when they arose. I believed that. I was wrong.

you sure don't seem to give a damn about everyone else's feelings, you want everyone else publicly shamed, publicly humiliated, publicly punished, and dirty laundry aired over the most trivial of things...

Pretty hypocritical and fraudulent in my humble opinion.

Please tell me how trivial you think this is.

We even have a new rule that is making girls who are menstruating hide pads in socks and elsewhere, because the command came down from on high that they were no longer allowed to carry purses, and they are not allowed to carry much between classes, and you cannot hide sanitary napkins in your accordian folder. Certainly those poor girls are tardy sometimes, because permission to go to the bathroom is not always granted, and you do not want blood to seep out of your underwear for all to see. It goes without saying that these girls are losing the extra credit you get for not using bathroom passes. So maybe some of you on the inside and the outside are starting to get a sense of why I am so worried about our future as a school right now. It was not just this incident, although that would have been enough for me, it is other stuff going on.

But if you have such strong felings, negative feeligs, if you hate it so much, why don't you send your kids to a different school? I would, and will, the moment i think BASIS is not a good fit for my child.

[Anonymous]

I'll agree that there is plenty of blame to go around but from where I'm standing, that's a two way street. I've definitely seen numerous posts over the last week which were venting outrage which was based on mistaken information and mistaken assumptions about policies, about course sequences, about staff, about who people thought they were dealing with on this forum, and so on... not to mention distorting and misrepresenting things, not to mention being not acknowledging the correct information, and, worse yet, being deliberately and willfully obtuse and belligerent and accusatory when other posters were trying to explain the correct information.

And all that does is confuse and mislead others, along with sowing a whole lot of resentment.

The single biggest thing right now besmirching the reputation of BASIS is this insistence on blasting out one lengthy, scathing, drawn out grievance after another, on public forums of all places, rather than actually even bothering to discuss them with the staff or in a more appropriate venue, along with making a ton of demands and threats.

All of this has been uncalled for, and it really needs to end.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:After reading that email from the HOS, I think a lot of people need more instruction in English, both in writing and reading comprehension. He does seem to try to mask his inexperience with a lot of jargon.

Can you believe that the author is a former English teacher? Although I do not know that he ever taught at Basis, even their English teachers would not accept this kind of drivel from 8th graders.

He is an illustration of why our children are not learning the nuts and bolts of English at Basis - he never got called on the nuts and bolts. And he must not have taught long there, because the only English Basis teachers are required to teach is grammar and vocabulary.

At the beginning of his incomprehensible email, I did have myself a laugh. I would be hard pressed to believe that an unsophisticated corporation ever engaged in this nonsense. We would not have let them in a situation like this where they were supposedly trying to clarify and reassure. He may have created the verb "messaging," or he may have heard it at some leadership seminar (presumably not catering to 13 year olds), but the poor guy has got to let "messaging" go now, since most parents are not familiar with that language (I am, but not the kind of amateurish employment of it that his email demonstrates), and it is not surprising to me, having dealt with foreign, albeit sophisticated clients, that some parents who do not really speak English did not get the message. It is also not surprising to me that literate well heeled parents whose children had been "adversely affected" by the "incident" were infuriated by such nonsense.

He could have consulted the psychologist they now have on staff (still no school nurse), or requested assistance from real lawyers (which is what to me it sounds like he was trying to be). He presumably has assistance from genuine lawyers because of the IDEA and ADA violations, and there is a fantastic Introduction to Law teacher who would have given him an F for this email were he purporting to be a corporation.

We are much more precise and concise even when trying to avoid all responsibility. And we use English. And any judge would have called us out on the "lab materials" as well, since it is not clear at all from his message that they were something as insignificant, replaceable, and tempting as candy. It is deeply ironic that one of the "leadership failures" here was an inability to communicate in writing. F in English and D in corporate doublespeak and again, F in legalese.

Perhaps he ought to go back to teaching English. He might learn something from the grammar and vocabulary he is required to teach 8th graders. Or they might learn nothing the entire year. That too has happened at Basis.

But a very poor show and a pitiful attempt at damage control. Not surprised it exploded in its face. He need an editor.

[Anonymous]

Lawyers? Psychologists? You act as though a school shooting had happened. You act as though the kids were scarred for life. Ridiculous.

All that happened is that a perhaps overzealous Dean (who, by the way, came from the DCPS system and who's used to how things are done there) tried to get some accountability for the theft, and his statement was IMMEDIATELY WITHDRAWN BY THE HEAD OF SCHOOL.

That's all that happened. End of story.

You keep demonstrating that you are truly out of control and totally lacking any reasonable perspective here, to be blowing things completely out of proportion beyond all reason. Frankly, with the way you've been approaching all of this, I don't think you'd find it possible to survive with ANY school in DC.

[Anonymous]

This is really getting old. The Head of School told everyone their grades were safe back on the 15th, as did the Chemistry teacher. And, that has been consistently repeated many times over at every level by the school since then, and NOBODY from the school has said or suggested anything to the contrary.

If there's any "confusion" and "controversy" is NOT coming from the school, nor from "boosters" or anyone else, the only place it's coming from is the people who keep disregarding what the school has repeatedly stated, who keep repeating wrong information and rumors in some unreasonable attempt to keep stirring up controversy when the matter was clearly already resolved all the way back on the 15th.

Done. Over with. Time to move on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:After reading that email from the HOS, I think a lot of people need more instruction in English, both in writing and reading comprehension. He does seem to try to mask his inexperience with a lot of jargon.

Can you believe that the author is a former English teacher? Although I do not know that he ever taught at Basis, even their English teachers would not accept this kind of drivel from 8th graders.

He is an illustration of why our children are not learning the nuts and bolts of English at Basis - he never got called on the nuts and bolts. And he must not have taught long there, because the only English Basis teachers are required to teach is grammar and vocabulary.

At the beginning of his incomprehensible email, I did have myself a laugh. I would be hard pressed to believe that an unsophisticated corporation ever engaged in this nonsense. We would not have let them in a situation like this where they were supposedly trying to clarify and reassure. He may have created the verb "messaging," or he may have heard it at some leadership seminar (presumably not catering to 13 year olds), but the poor guy has got to let "messaging" go now, since most parents are not familiar with that language (I am, but not the kind of amateurish employment of it that his email demonstrates), and it is not surprising to me, having dealt with foreign, albeit sophisticated clients, that some parents who do not really speak English did not get the message. It is also not surprising to me that literate well heeled parents whose children had been "adversely affected" by the "incident" were infuriated by such nonsense.

He could have consulted the psychologist they now have on staff (still no school nurse), or requested assistance from real lawyers (which is what to me it sounds like he was trying to be). He presumably has assistance from genuine lawyers because of the IDEA and ADA violations, and there is a fantastic Introduction to Law teacher who would have given him an F for this email were he purporting to be a corporation.

We are much more precise and concise even when trying to avoid all responsibility. And we use English. And any judge would have called us out on the "lab materials" as well, since it is not clear at all from his message that they were something as insignificant, replaceable, and tempting as candy. It is deeply ironic that one of the "leadership failures" here was an inability to communicate in writing. F in English and D in corporate doublespeak and again, F in legalese.

Perhaps he ought to go back to teaching English. He might learn something from the grammar and vocabulary he is required to teach 8th graders. Or they might learn nothing the entire year. That too has happened at Basis.

But a very poor show and a pitiful attempt at damage control. Not surprised it exploded in its face. He need an editor.

You've got to go back on your meds, you've lost connection with reality.

[Anonymous]

End this forum PLEASE!
There is no such thing as bad publicity, but enough is enough.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:End this forum PLEASE!
There is no such thing as bad publicity, but enough is enough.

There is actually such a thing as bad publicity, and you are now familiar with it.

And I think for many, revenge is sweet.

It is beyond me why anyone would begin a thread like this in this forum, given that most on DCUM dislike Basis parents and perhaps the school itself.

Basis parents who have been blasting the superiority of their school to the rooftops since before it even opened.

But they have been relying on statistics and track records in Arizona, which makes no sense, because we have a completely different population, and that is the population that is actually at the school.

Or perhaps not so much, anymore. It does seem they are having a problem "keeping the lights on."

And threads like this cannot help.

Even if parents "approve" of silent lunches, no one outside the school until this month had ever heard of them.

The attitude and outrage of some parents over stolen candy, who ranted and raved about the thief calling him names,

while completely ignoring the experienced teachers of 8th graders, who piped up and told them that any teacher worth their salt would not even use salt, flour............. you name it, they eat it.

The publication of an email that the Boosters seized on for dear life:

Aha! HE was clear. Those who did not understand him are STUPID. We are DONE.

I find the lack of sympathy or empathy for anyone who did not understand the email very difficult to stomach.

I find the behavior of the Dean something I would have expected at DCPS, not Basis, where the emphasis is supposed to be on personal responsibility.

And I do not think that either the Dean or the Head have taken responsibility here, for what they have done, and for what they have not done. And I think that is truly unfortunate.

But for all those waiting to take Basis down a notch, I think they got what they wanted.

And I think certainly many parents feel that the most vocal Basis parents on this forum are a tiny minority of well educated people with too much time on their hands whose mission in life is to simply find different ways to say:

If you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen, and you were stupid to come here in the first place.
This is also not taking personal responsibility, it is claiming immunity:

My kid read that letter, and he understood it just fine, so everyone should, if they are even a bit intelligent/educated

Any parent who didn't understand the email is stupid
Any kid who did not understand the situation is stupid
(whether or not they had parents who got the email, and chose to share it with them)

Interestingly, all the lawyer like types who initially said that no one could believe what the kids said happened have moved on to conceding that it did happen, and basically sanctioning the Dean's behavior because, they say, this email made it all better for everyone involved, and again, remember, if you did not understand it or are still living in fear of the Dean, it is your fault.

Typical Basis superiority, which is why one parent referred to the school as two different schools:

Those of the have and the have nots.

The kids are not segregated so much, but the parents are separated by class, race, ethnic origin, and do not seem to have any desire to try to walk a mile in anyone else's shoes.