Cooper Middle School

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I also have a rising seventh grader who will be attending Cooper coming from private school, where there has definitely been mean girl stuff and way too much personal electronic use, “rich kid” culture, etc but otherwise it’s been pretty tame. Definitely no vaping, or physical fights. Bullying happens, but it’s more under the radar. Is Cooper going to be a rude awakening for her? I would like to know what exactly to prepare her for because private school is no longer an option for us financially so she’s gonna have to endure the next two years ant Cooper even if she hates it.

I expect next year will be better.

Seriously. Was just going to say this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can someone tell me why there are constant daily fights, bullying, sexual harassment, vaping… at Cooper Middle School and the administration is not taking control of it? It’s been going on all year and nothing has improved. The perpetrators are allowed to do what they want without real consequences.

They try, as much as is feasible, to follow restorative justice, or at least equitable discipline.

Far too often in the past, only BIPOC children faced consequences while white kids got second chances.

Doesn’t everyone deserve another chance?

Cooper has so few BIPOC kids that it’s hard to imagine school-wide policies based on consideration of disparities in the treatment of BIPOC students there. More likely it’s White kids at Cooper who end up the beneficiary (or victim) of division-wide policies.

Your hypothetical “more likely” nonsense makes it clear you don’t have kids at Cooper.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can someone tell me why there are constant daily fights, bullying, sexual harassment, vaping… at Cooper Middle School and the administration is not taking control of it? It’s been going on all year and nothing has improved. The perpetrators are allowed to do what they want without real consequences.

Same for all middle schools. Administrators need to be able to discipline but they have no power.

The parents of the problem kids know they have problem kids (for years), and they fight to keep their problem kid in the mainstream. Same parents fight to sue the school and also well practiced at blaming the victim. Entitled behavior is worse in the wealthy areas. If something happens to your kid, get the video tape from the school immediately and hire a lawyer immediately. Police will do nothing. Parents should know their rights.

This is not encouraging.

[Anonymous]

Can you explain why you think it’s going to be better next year?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I also have a rising seventh grader who will be attending Cooper coming from private school, where there has definitely been mean girl stuff and way too much personal electronic use, “rich kid” culture, etc but otherwise it’s been pretty tame. Definitely no vaping, or physical fights. Bullying happens, but it’s more under the radar. Is Cooper going to be a rude awakening for her? I would like to know what exactly to prepare her for because private school is no longer an option for us financially so she’s gonna have to endure the next two years ant Cooper even if she hates it.

Middle school is bad (particularly for girls) no matter where you go — it’s just the nature of tweenhood. All the friend groups break up in middle school, so your DD will probably be able to break into a newly-broken up friend group, though there will still be drama. While many kids have money, there are plenty of families that don’t flaunt it or don’t care about status. My DD has friends like her (from a dual fed family) and friends who are uber wealthy. Just encourage her to get involved in an activity where she can make friends (chorus makes a nice friend group! 😊). Once they get to high school, things settle down!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can someone tell me why there are constant daily fights, bullying, sexual harassment, vaping… at Cooper Middle School and the administration is not taking control of it? It’s been going on all year and nothing has improved. The perpetrators are allowed to do what they want without real consequences.

They try, as much as is feasible, to follow restorative justice, or at least equitable discipline.

Far too often in the past, only BIPOC children faced consequences while white kids got second chances.

Doesn’t everyone deserve another chance?

Cooper has so few BIPOC kids that it’s hard to imagine school-wide policies based on consideration of disparities in the treatment of BIPOC students there. More likely it’s White kids at Cooper who end up the beneficiary (or victim) of division-wide policies.

Your hypothetical “more likely” nonsense makes it clear you don’t have kids at Cooper.

+1

[Anonymous]

My girl is in lots of extracurriculars, dance and soccer, so she will be busy every day after school. Can she just slog through middle school and not have to worry about friendships too much or will she be miserable without a clique? I personally would rather her keep her dance and soccer friends, since she’s been close with them for six years. I don’t want her to be unhappy in middle school, and I also want her to stay out of the drama, so I’m wondering if I should just encourage her not to even try to make friends cause they will be fake and create drama in her life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My girl is in lots of extracurriculars, dance and soccer, so she will be busy every day after school. Can she just slog through middle school and not have to worry about friendships too much or will she be miserable without a clique? I personally would rather her keep her dance and soccer friends, since she’s been close with them for six years. I don’t want her to be unhappy in middle school, and I also want her to stay out of the drama, so I’m wondering if I should just encourage her not to even try to make friends cause they will be fake and create drama in her life.

Let her friendships develop organically. She may find a best friend in art class — you never know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My girl is in lots of extracurriculars, dance and soccer, so she will be busy every day after school. Can she just slog through middle school and not have to worry about friendships too much or will she be miserable without a clique? I personally would rather her keep her dance and soccer friends, since she’s been close with them for six years. I don’t want her to be unhappy in middle school, and I also want her to stay out of the drama, so I’m wondering if I should just encourage her not to even try to make friends cause they will be fake and create drama in her life.

Middle School isn’t all drama. Making friends is important for this age group and this is how they learn to navigate social situations. I can’t imagine encouraging a teen NOT to make a friend just to possibly avoid teen drama. Btw, not all middle school girls are mean!! Shocker.

[Anonymous]

Because Cooper has a low amount of farms less crime and dangers

[Anonymous]

OP, I had two kids go through Cooper and a third kid there right now. My current Cooper student really likes his teachers, and the support staff have been great. Your child will get a good education and learn to navigate the social scene. Don’t put too much thought into it (and certainly don’t discourage your child from making friends!)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, I had two kids go through Cooper and a third kid there right now. My current Cooper student really likes his teachers, and the support staff have been great. Your child will get a good education and learn to navigate the social scene. Don’t put too much thought into it (and certainly don’t discourage your child from making friends!)

Thank you so much for this! Its encouraging.
-OP

[Anonymous]

This thread is so interesting because all the negative comments are so so true. I have a girl graduating top of the class. She is very mature, cool and not one of the studious or nerdy ones. But like her cool, athletic and intelligent peers, as I recently learned, each of them hated their experience at Cooper Middle School as much as she did. They are all so happy it is almost over, counting the days. Nobody wanted to go to any of the end of the year events or spend any more time with anybody at school. Can you imagine most wanted nothing to do with the school dance or the class field trip to the amusement park? Most want to forget, break off forever and move on. As parents we have been so beyond disappointed with the middle school experience for girls and with this school and the current 8th grade. It has left such a bad taste in our mouth to say the least. Though I hear Langley HS will be different as the kids will change, we are too weary and doubtful of that at least for the first year since it’s the same kids from this class. Will the high school be able to instill a better, kinder, friendly, inclusive, and respectful culture if the middle school couldn’t at all? We are going to have to change to a private school just to really avoid the same environment. It has been upsetting seeing the drama and social aspect affect our daughter, who came home sad because she hated every day lunch time, because of the friend groups. The cliques that don’t let you in and your own friend group that is actually mean to you. You will suffer from your friend group that treats you like crap because they are so insecure and when they are not around totally excluded because you are not part of the other groups. You have no control of your schedule and will end up at different lunch than those few friends you truly want to be with. That is supposed to be the most enjoyed time of the day! But it is horrible….We are so disgusted with the incredibly immature, insecure and mean girls, the extremely rude and racist environment among the boys culture. What kind of parents do they have? The dirty mouths of the kids in the hallway, worse than what you see in rated R movies. They do not and cannot control anything. The 3 values you see on the wall of the front office tell you the issues they are trying to solve but are failing badly. Values are something that are actually adopted and in practice and reinforced all the time, and they don’t have any assemblies at all to preach them, so they don’t have these yet as values. Rather they should call them “current problems” we need to solve asap.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This thread is so interesting because all the negative comments are so so true. I have a girl graduating top of the class. She is very mature, cool and not one of the studious or nerdy ones. But like her cool, athletic and intelligent peers, as I recently learned, each of them hated their experience at Cooper Middle School as much as she did. They are all so happy it is almost over, counting the days. Nobody wanted to go to any of the end of the year events or spend any more time with anybody at school. Can you imagine most wanted nothing to do with the school dance or the class field trip to the amusement park? Most want to forget, break off forever and move on. As parents we have been so beyond disappointed with the middle school experience for girls and with this school and the current 8th grade. It has left such a bad taste in our mouth to say the least. Though I hear Langley HS will be different as the kids will change, we are too weary and doubtful of that at least for the first year since it’s the same kids from this class. Will the high school be able to instill a better, kinder, friendly, inclusive, and respectful culture if the middle school couldn’t at all? We are going to have to change to a private school just to really avoid the same environment. It has been upsetting seeing the drama and social aspect affect our daughter, who came home sad because she hated every day lunch time, because of the friend groups. The cliques that don’t let you in and your own friend group that is actually mean to you. You will suffer from your friend group that treats you like crap because they are so insecure and when they are not around totally excluded because you are not part of the other groups. You have no control of your schedule and will end up at different lunch than those few friends you truly want to be with. That is supposed to be the most enjoyed time of the day! But it is horrible….We are so disgusted with the incredibly immature, insecure and mean girls, the extremely rude and racist environment among the boys culture. What kind of parents do they have? The dirty mouths of the kids in the hallway, worse than what you see in rated R movies. They do not and cannot control anything. The 3 values you see on the wall of the front office tell you the issues they are trying to solve but are failing badly. Values are something that are actually adopted and in practice and reinforced all the time, and they don’t have any assemblies at all to preach them, so they don’t have these yet as values. Rather they should call them “current problems” we need to solve asap.

I have a son who is smart and athletic. He went to the dance and had fun I think. He is looking forward to the field trip.

His friends seem to want to be finished with middle school. ds seems to not mind.

[Anonymous]

Like I said, the boys are surviving. It is bad for girls. Boys don’t have friend groups or drama. Boys and girls do not social together nicely either like in elementary schools. The school is not a healthy environment for girls. You are fine if you are a boy attending this school.