Concerned Cardozo Parent

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:cardozo middle will cease to exist soon -- DCPS is planning to open the new "center city" middle school in 4 years, feeding all the kids from Cardozo's feeders there. Speaking as someone with kids at one of the feeders, there is a lot of interest in the new middle school.

Absolutely no one I know from the upper grades plans to send their kids to Cardozo Middle. Even our admin set up a middle school fair and encourages everyone to lottery out for middle.

I think DCPS as a whole has stopped paying attention to Cardozo Middle as a result.

Teacher at an elementary school here:

Yeah, I tell my kids parents not to send them to Cardozo Middle due to all of the insanity that I’ve heard over there.

They do have great people in place but a pretty useless AP in the Middle school and an even more oblivious principal.

Hopefully the kids, parents, and teachers don’t have to operate under them too much longer and the school can restore its reputation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP: Has there been a message from either the principal or middle school assistant principal about the incident you originally posted about?

OP here:

Sadly, no.

The silence is deafening.

No word from Ms. Fields or Mr. Mola.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow similar issues are happening all over DCPS in the area .We need more parents together in a big platform and open a discussion. Let's change schools bad behavior together.

It also seems much more common to have serious incidents since the pandemic. Are you finding that as well?

Yeah, agreed. The DC Crime Bill may or may not address many of those issues outside of schools but inside they’re still a mess. My husband and I have three kids in DCPS and it’s not as bad as kids ripping apart scissors to try and stab other kids.

Where was the middle school principal! Ouch.

[Anonymous]

Parent here:

Regardless of anything else, this structure and organization of Cardozo’s middle school led to this kind of chaos.

Then, there was no messaging or follow-up afterwards.


The DC Crime Bill is an irrelevant footnote in this conversation

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kids are at Oyster-Adams and we don’t have the same issues with communication.

We get weekly notifications and emails about upcoming events, field trips, etc.

The times where there have been concerning situations, we got messages about them from leadership within 24 hrs.

OP: Does the principal communicate as regularly with parents?

We’ve had no communication about the teacher who allegedly touched a student improperly. The teacher is still teaching at Adams, and the family has gotten a restraining order to protect their child, who is there but in another grade. My child was in the class where the teacher “massaged” their shoulders and backs while checking their work for no reason. A bunch of the kids complained. There was an investigation but the teacher is still there, so he must have agreed to training or something.

[Anonymous]

I’m a DCPS teacher (who “served time” in middle school before moving to high school) and here’s some things that needs to be said:
- Sadly, this is normal in many middle schools. It’s unacceptable and unthinkable that this is normal.
- Parents of all races are upset by this behavior, lack of consequences for the small minority of students who behave like this, and lack of communication from administrators. Schools and Central often reduce the upset parents to thinking they are white Karen’s, and there’s this attitude that the “white kids will be fine no matter what and it’s just a petty white Karen opening her mouth again. :eye roll:” I’ve seen this so many times at multiple DCPS schools. It’s so reductionist and unfair to both the white parents and parents of color.
- I bet your school’s comprehensive school plan seeks to limit suspensions. That’s all fine and good, but suspensions can help cool violence by interrupting a cycle. If a principal blasts an incident out to the parents, then he’s forcing his own hand to suspend and runs up against the school goal of limiting suspensions. So it’s just best if it doesn’t get out. Those school goals will be tied to many things, including admin’s impact scores.

So yup! No help here from my post, I know. But all this to say “yes, common. Here’s how schools look at/assume parent voice. And here’s one reason why they’re intentionally not telling you about these incidents.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids are at Oyster-Adams and we don’t have the same issues with communication.

We get weekly notifications and emails about upcoming events, field trips, etc.

The times where there have been concerning situations, we got messages about them from leadership within 24 hrs.

OP: Does the principal communicate as regularly with parents?

We’ve had no communication about the teacher who allegedly touched a student improperly. The teacher is still teaching at Adams, and the family has gotten a restraining order to protect their child, who is there but in another grade. My child was in the class where the teacher “massaged” their shoulders and backs while checking their work for no reason. A bunch of the kids complained. There was an investigation but the teacher is still there, so he must have agreed to training or something.

Wait. WHAT?!?!?!??!!!!!!

[Anonymous]

Parent here: My kids love Cardozo and the teachers. I have kids in middle and high school.

For the past 5 years that Mola has been there, I have tried to get an appointment to meet with Mr. Mola and Ms. Fields.

I keep getting the runaround and Mr. Mola asks me to join the PTO. No one wants to join his 5-man band where he just talks about XQ.

I want to know if my kids are safe and he wants to talk to about XQ. Shut up!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m a DCPS teacher (who “served time” in middle school before moving to high school) and here’s some things that needs to be said:
- Sadly, this is normal in many middle schools. It’s unacceptable and unthinkable that this is normal.
- Parents of all races are upset by this behavior, lack of consequences for the small minority of students who behave like this, and lack of communication from administrators. Schools and Central often reduce the upset parents to thinking they are white Karen’s, and there’s this attitude that the “white kids will be fine no matter what and it’s just a petty white Karen opening her mouth again. :eye roll:” I’ve seen this so many times at multiple DCPS schools. It’s so reductionist and unfair to both the white parents and parents of color.
- I bet your school’s comprehensive school plan seeks to limit suspensions. That’s all fine and good, but suspensions can help cool violence by interrupting a cycle. If a principal blasts an incident out to the parents, then he’s forcing his own hand to suspend and runs up against the school goal of limiting suspensions. So it’s just best if it doesn’t get out. Those school goals will be tied to many things, including admin’s impact scores.

So yup! No help here from my post, I know. But all this to say “yes, common. Here’s how schools look at/assume parent voice. And here’s one reason why they’re intentionally not telling you about these incidents.”

Thanks Teacher for your perspective.

My child used to go to Cardozo and it was good under AP Davis and even better under AP Ocansey. We unregistered after the first week under AP Fields.

No structure. No onboarding. No parent communication. No community. The fact that she’s allowed to stay and Mr. Mola hasn’t done anything is reflective of how poorly the school has been run into the ground.

We’re at McKinley Tech now and although it’s not perfect, no one’s running around with school supplies trying to stab their classmates. There is a uniform and cell phone policy.

My 8th grader and 10th grader are safe and well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m a DCPS teacher (who “served time” in middle school before moving to high school) and here’s some things that needs to be said:
- Sadly, this is normal in many middle schools. It’s unacceptable and unthinkable that this is normal.
- Parents of all races are upset by this behavior, lack of consequences for the small minority of students who behave like this, and lack of communication from administrators. Schools and Central often reduce the upset parents to thinking they are white Karen’s, and there’s this attitude that the “white kids will be fine no matter what and it’s just a petty white Karen opening her mouth again. :eye roll:” I’ve seen this so many times at multiple DCPS schools. It’s so reductionist and unfair to both the white parents and parents of color.
- I bet your school’s comprehensive school plan seeks to limit suspensions. That’s all fine and good, but suspensions can help cool violence by interrupting a cycle. If a principal blasts an incident out to the parents, then he’s forcing his own hand to suspend and runs up against the school goal of limiting suspensions. So it’s just best if it doesn’t get out. Those school goals will be tied to many things, including admin’s impact scores.

So yup! No help here from my post, I know. But all this to say “yes, common. Here’s how schools look at/assume parent voice. And here’s one reason why they’re intentionally not telling you about these incidents.”

Thanks Teacher for your perspective.

My child used to go to Cardozo and it was good under AP Davis and even better under AP Ocansey. We unregistered after the first week under AP Fields.

No structure. No onboarding. No parent communication. No community. The fact that she’s allowed to stay and Mr. Mola hasn’t done anything is reflective of how poorly the school has been run into the ground.

We’re at McKinley Tech now and although it’s not perfect, no one’s running around with school supplies trying to stab their classmates. There is a uniform and cell phone policy.

My 8th grader and 10th grader are safe and well.

Black Female Progressive Teacher Retired:

What’s sad is that this isn’t a race issue but one of having high standards for all students and communities.

The system is definitely messed up but thinking it’s rigged against everyone and undercutting it by lowering expectations out of fear of “losing” your connection with the student only further gives students the impression that all you have to do is be nice to them and they’ll behave.

This is the worst kind of behavioral management strategy because it just tells the child that you don’t have to work because you’ll be okay so long as you form good peer-to-peer relationships.

The students aren’t your friends and the sooner this principal realizes that he’ll probably realize they don’t respect him either.

Sounds like Cardozo needs a new principal and middle school AP.

[Anonymous]

Principal Mola tries to recruit my students from Marie Reed every year.

I smile politely.

I tell my students’ parents that they should consider other options so long as he’s in charge.

[Anonymous]

This is the kind of stuff parents and students as well as teachers shouldn’t have to worry about.

I’m sorry this happened to your child and all of the kids too.

[Anonymous]

These principals in DCPS are just unprofessional.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:These principals in DCPS are just unprofessional.

Preach! 👏 👏 👏 👏 👏

[Anonymous]

I think there should be a public database of chapter 25 tier 3 incidents that’s publicly searchable by school.