Suspected lottery scammer

[Anonymous]

isn't it possible that the "scammer" simply made a mistake - perhaps one sibling preference at the first of her 6 schools and then mindlessly typed it in for the others? It such an obvious and enourmous anomoly as to stand out immediately making it easy to catch and less than likely that someone did it on purpose.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Not a valid comparison. Horace Mann and HD Cooke are still in the same school district. The property taxes paid in Adams Morgan support the entire District of Columbia. This isn't the equivalent of someone from Ward 9 scamming their way into Watkins. One city, people.

Not quite. Like it or not, DC still has a local school system - kids in the DCPS system go to their local schools uness they get an OOB slot through the lottery. Those slots are only available if there is sufficient room at the school. The (not so) hypothetical woman you're talking about is subverting the system - she's lying to get school slots that should be up for grabs to the general population. Is it as bad as someone from MD sending their kid to a DCPS? No. Is it lying, cheating, unethical, annd fraudulent? Yup.

Yes, and that local school system is called DCPS. You pay DC taxes? Congratulations - you're entitled to DC public schools just as much as anyone else who lives here.

Don't let some angry overly-entitled parent (who's agitated about her perceived Constitutional right to free Pre-Kindergarten) force you to the back of the bus.

[Anonymous]

Well 5504 was 25 on wl for Key and was accepted with oob/sibiling, but there are two oob/ sibiling before 5504. The lottery is a scam!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Not a valid comparison. Horace Mann and HD Cooke are still in the same school district. The property taxes paid in Adams Morgan support the entire District of Columbia. This isn't the equivalent of someone from Ward 9 scamming their way into Watkins. One city, people.

Not quite. Like it or not, DC still has a local school system - kids in the DCPS system go to their local schools uness they get an OOB slot through the lottery. Those slots are only available if there is sufficient room at the school. The (not so) hypothetical woman you're talking about is subverting the system - she's lying to get school slots that should be up for grabs to the general population. Is it as bad as someone from MD sending their kid to a DCPS? No. Is it lying, cheating, unethical, annd fraudulent? Yup.

Howl at the moon all you want, lots of us just are not going to care.

Bottom line: she pays DC taxes, she gets DC schools. I know, I know - you have more money than she does, and therefore you want to keep her out of YOUR school (because privately you're sure you're better than she is and she's stealing your privileges, but publicly you have to frame it all about a MORAL CHEATING ISSUE). Still, most of us see through this elitist bitchery on your part, and do not consider it a legitimate complaint worthy of taxpayer time and attention.

Did you even read the post, you half-wit? It isn’t about in-bounds kids – it’s about all the OTHER OOB KIDS (from all socioeconomic backgrounds, I might add). There are limited slots available, and every one that is fraudulently taken by someone who claims to be IB but isn’t screws the many other OOB kids from all over the city out of a chance at a slot.

Of course, if the woman bumps IB kids off the list pre-K list by lying about where she lives, the principle is the same – people are harmed because another commits fraud.

Finally, if you think telling the truth and following the rules is “elitist bitchery,” I’m really not sure what to say to you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Not a valid comparison. Horace Mann and HD Cooke are still in the same school district. The property taxes paid in Adams Morgan support the entire District of Columbia. This isn't the equivalent of someone from Ward 9 scamming their way into Watkins. One city, people.

Not quite. Like it or not, DC still has a local school system - kids in the DCPS system go to their local schools uness they get an OOB slot through the lottery. Those slots are only available if there is sufficient room at the school. The (not so) hypothetical woman you're talking about is subverting the system - she's lying to get school slots that should be up for grabs to the general population. Is it as bad as someone from MD sending their kid to a DCPS? No. Is it lying, cheating, unethical, annd fraudulent? Yup.

Yes, and that local school system is called DCPS. You pay DC taxes? Congratulations - you're entitled to DC public schools just as much as anyone else who lives here.

Don't let some angry overly-entitled parent (who's agitated about her perceived Constitutional right to free Pre-Kindergarten) force you to the back of the bus.

No – the local school system to which I referred means that kids attend their neighborhood schools unless there are OOB slots available in other schools. Please tell me this isn’t a surprise to you.

I think you’ve got the “entitled” part backwards. To me, someone is entitled when they are so self-important (or aggrieved) that they feel the rules don’t apply to them, and to hell with the hundreds of people who depend on the system being implemented fairly – she’s going to subvert the rules to make sure that she gets what she wants. I know, I’m crazy to think people will play by the rules that’s crazy.

To correct your not-very-well-crafted analogy, the lottery assigns the seats on the bus. If the seat you get through the lottery aren’t in the front, that’s not some nefarious scheme by others – it’s the luck of the draw. If you cheat to get a seat in the front, however, it’s YOU that are pushing others to the back.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A childless couple at my church are adopting, from overseas, a sibling group that are orphans - 5 children under ten. We have been praying for them since hearing the news - can you imagine opening your home to 5 children? Now I am praying this is them, as getting them all into one school is probably important for the kids, who are blessed to be able to stay together as a family, but will uprooted from all they have known. For good, of course, and the prayers of the community will strengthen them.

this is not them, this is a family who claims they currently have 5 kids in 5 different OOB schools.

Wow, this thread is all over the place But to back up, am I wrong that the way the lottery works is if one of your children gets in during the lottery, your other child automatically becomes sibling preference? Even if they're entering the lottery at the same time? It's why twins have a tiny bit of an edge - you have two chances, and if one hits, the other one automatically heads to the top of the waitlist with sibling preference. So, if a large sibling group was moving into DC, and tried lottery for all kids (5 kids with 6 choices each), and each kid hit in one of the lotteries, that's how someone could have sibling preference at 5 different schools. And, it's easier to get into some of these schools at older grades, so the 5th grader got in one place, the 4th grader got in another place, the 3rd grader...etc, til it looks like the prek or K student, or whatever grade most of these parents on here are obsessing over, has this weird outcome. Given how transient DC is, I would not be surprised at all to have a couple of handfuls of siblings groups like this every year (though more than likely 1-2 siblings, not 5).

Wow, can you imagine how difficult coding the computer program for this factor must be? And so I would not be surprised if, through human error, there were odd results on a small percentage from the entire pool of applicants. And I think that's what some posters are arguing - instead of looking at this and saying, wow, that's weird, how can that be, a few people are looking at this and saying obviously cheating, people of low moral character, setting a bad example, etc. Kind of fascinating human nature when you think about it. In our hyper competitive DC world, when you are faced with an error, do you jump all over the person who made the error and accuse them of being a bad person, or do you think, we're all doing the best we can and let's figure this out and see what caused this error before jumping to conclusions? I know I've worked with both types of people before and I vastly prefer working with folks who give you the benefit of the doubt (at first - I mean if you are a cheater or a error-prone idiot you might just deserve a little wrath). This message board may well have uncovered the cheating scandal of the lottery. Or maybe it's gotten all spun up over nothing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A childless couple at my church are adopting, from overseas, a sibling group that are orphans - 5 children under ten. We have been praying for them since hearing the news - can you imagine opening your home to 5 children? Now I am praying this is them, as getting them all into one school is probably important for the kids, who are blessed to be able to stay together as a family, but will uprooted from all they have known. For good, of course, and the prayers of the community will strengthen them.

this is not them, this is a family who claims they currently have 5 kids in 5 different OOB schools.

Wow, this thread is all over the place But to back up, am I wrong that the way the lottery works is if one of your children gets in during the lottery, your other child automatically becomes sibling preference? Even if they're entering the lottery at the same time? It's why twins have a tiny bit of an edge - you have two chances, and if one hits, the other one automatically heads to the top of the waitlist with sibling preference. So, if a large sibling group was moving into DC, and tried lottery for all kids (5 kids with 6 choices each), and each kid hit in one of the lotteries, that's how someone could have sibling preference at 5 different schools. And, it's easier to get into some of these schools at older grades, so the 5th grader got in one place, the 4th grader got in another place, the 3rd grader...etc, til it looks like the prek or K student, or whatever grade most of these parents on here are obsessing over, has this weird outcome. Given how transient DC is, I would not be surprised at all to have a couple of handfuls of siblings groups like this every year (though more than likely 1-2 siblings, not 5).

Wow, can you imagine how difficult coding the computer program for this factor must be? And so I would not be surprised if, through human error, there were odd results on a small percentage from the entire pool of applicants. And I think that's what some posters are arguing - instead of looking at this and saying, wow, that's weird, how can that be, a few people are looking at this and saying obviously cheating, people of low moral character, setting a bad example, etc. Kind of fascinating human nature when you think about it. In our hyper competitive DC world, when you are faced with an error, do you jump all over the person who made the error and accuse them of being a bad person, or do you think, we're all doing the best we can and let's figure this out and see what caused this error before jumping to conclusions? I know I've worked with both types of people before and I vastly prefer working with folks who give you the benefit of the doubt (at first - I mean if you are a cheater or a error-prone idiot you might just deserve a little wrath). This message board may well have uncovered the cheating scandal of the lottery. Or maybe it's gotten all spun up over nothing.

Nice try trying to rationalize this behavior but if this was a sibling set all applying THIS YEAR, the results would read "OOB with sibling accepted", not "OOB with sibling". I actually have twins and that is how it works (read the dcps lottery page!)

I don't understand why some of you (or ONE of you who keeps posting) seems hell-bent on excusing this behavior! The bizarre (and scarily angry) postings about socioeconomic status and how the "poor" have the right to take these spots from the wealthy (apparently by any means necessary) make absolutely no sense. If anything this type of behavior cheats the very people the OOB lottery is hoping to help. It takes away the slim chance that many poor(er) children have of actually (legitimately) getting a spot in one of these desired schools. Who's to say that the cheating parent is not extremely wealthy anyway? You have no idea.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP here: just to clarify, there's this thing called "the DCPS lottery". In fact, it's the subject of this very thread. Now, this "lottery" is a impartial mechanism for choosing who gets a spot OOB or pre-s / pre-k. Understand now?I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt here that you don't understand what this lottery thing is, or what purpose it serves. I certainly wouldn't be uncharitable enough to assume you're too morally obtuse to understand why cheating is wrong here as well.

(Sounds like someone needs a timeout.)

For the umpteenth time, DCPS is not required to educate any child before age 5 or any child outside their assigned boundary/NCLB-mandated alternative. Period.

Regardless of lottery outcomes, principals and the chancellor have the ultimate say on who goes where. Understand now?

PP here. No. Actually, I am clearly having difficulty figuring out what your point is. Is it that the lottery is illegitimate because a principal or the chancellor can make exceptions at their discretion? And that therefore the lottery should be gamed in any way possible? If so, stop beating around the bush, and come out and say it.

If you have some sort of point to make, make it in a clear and concise way, if you can.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Not a valid comparison. Horace Mann and HD Cooke are still in the same school district. The property taxes paid in Adams Morgan support the entire District of Columbia. This isn't the equivalent of someone from Ward 9 scamming their way into Watkins. One city, people.

Not quite. Like it or not, DC still has a local school system - kids in the DCPS system go to their local schools uness they get an OOB slot through the lottery. Those slots are only available if there is sufficient room at the school. The (not so) hypothetical woman you're talking about is subverting the system - she's lying to get school slots that should be up for grabs to the general population. Is it as bad as someone from MD sending their kid to a DCPS? No. Is it lying, cheating, unethical, annd fraudulent? Yup.

Yes, and that local school system is called DCPS. You pay DC taxes? Congratulations - you're entitled to DC public schools just as much as anyone else who lives here.

Don't let some angry overly-entitled parent (who's agitated about her perceived Constitutional right to free Pre-Kindergarten) force you to the back of the bus.

God, you people really are disgusting. If you're going to be a grubby little cheater, at least have the self-respect to be ashamed of it, rather than puffing out your chest with righteous indignation. I'm going to be optimistic, and just chalk it up to the higher than usual percentage of sociopaths we have here on DCUM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Not a valid comparison. Horace Mann and HD Cooke are still in the same school district. The property taxes paid in Adams Morgan support the entire District of Columbia. This isn't the equivalent of someone from Ward 9 scamming their way into Watkins. One city, people.

Not quite. Like it or not, DC still has a local school system - kids in the DCPS system go to their local schools uness they get an OOB slot through the lottery. Those slots are only available if there is sufficient room at the school. The (not so) hypothetical woman you're talking about is subverting the system - she's lying to get school slots that should be up for grabs to the general population. Is it as bad as someone from MD sending their kid to a DCPS? No. Is it lying, cheating, unethical, annd fraudulent? Yup.

Yes, and that local school system is called DCPS. You pay DC taxes? Congratulations - you're entitled to DC public schools just as much as anyone else who lives here.

Don't let some angry overly-entitled parent (who's agitated about her perceived Constitutional right to free Pre-Kindergarten) force you to the back of the bus.

No – the local school system to which I referred means that kids attend their neighborhood schools unless there are OOB slots available in other schools. Please tell me this isn’t a surprise to you.

I think you’ve got the “entitled” part backwards. To me, someone is entitled when they are so self-important (or aggrieved) that they feel the rules don’t apply to them, and to hell with the hundreds of people who depend on the system being implemented fairly – she’s going to subvert the rules to make sure that she gets what she wants. I know, I’m crazy to think people will play by the rules that’s crazy.

To correct your not-very-well-crafted analogy, the lottery assigns the seats on the bus. If the seat you get through the lottery aren’t in the front, that’s not some nefarious scheme by others – it’s the luck of the draw. If you cheat to get a seat in the front, however, it’s YOU that are pushing others to the back.

I think you're wasting your breath. There really are folks out there who have so little moral center that they could punch a 5-year-old in the face, steal their lunch money, and *still* feel victimized. PP is clearly one of them.

[Anonymous]

if a large sibling group was moving into DC, and tried lottery for all kids (5 kids with 6 choices each), and each kid hit in one of the lotteries, that's how someone could have sibling preference at 5 different schools. And, it's easier to get into some of these schools at older grades, so the 5th grader got in one place, the 4th grader got in another place, the 3rd grader...etc, til it looks like the prek or K student, or whatever grade most of these parents on here are obsessing over, has this weird outcome. Given how transient DC is, I would not be surprised at all to have a couple of handfuls of siblings groups like this every year (though more than likely 1-2 siblings, not 5).

This is all possible, of course. Just statistically improbable. And when I say "statistically improbable" I mean vanishingly improbable. It's possible for you to asphixiate in a room if all the oxygen molecules happened to randomly end up in the upper left-hand corner of the room, rather than having a normal distribution. Just very, very, very improbable. Like your example of five kids all going to five different elementary schools.

[Anonymous]

I'd say the odds are about the same that Rhee took her students from the 13th to the 90 percentile.

[Anonymous]

I just think it's all a tempest in a teapot. All this person is really doing is taking up a slot on the waitlist. Once they get the call from the school, the school will say "who is your child's sibling?" If they can't produce a sibling, they'll go to the back of the waitlist. Problem solved. I agree that it's annoying that they're occupying a high waitlist slot, but that's all it is. It's not an actual space in the school yet. So, if you're number 2 for Key's waitlist, congratulations! You are now number 1!

[Anonymous]

I just think it's all a tempest in a teapot. All this person is really doing is taking up a slot on the waitlist. Once they get the call from the school, the school will say "who is your child's sibling?" If they can't produce a sibling, they'll go to the back of the waitlist. Problem solved. I agree that it's annoying that they're occupying a high waitlist slot, but that's all it is. It's not an actual space in the school yet. So, if you're number 2 for Key's waitlist, congratulations! You are now number 1!

look, your totally rational and wise post is ruining a very good bitchfest!

[Anonymous]

I know, right?