BASIS DC shut down/abolished the school list serve

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I actually think smaller grouped list serves work better. Maybe parents could set up list serves by grade or neighborhood. If you have a fifth grader you really don't need or want to be reading emails about prom. Or if you live in Georgetown you don't really want to hear that the bus was late coming from Capitol Hill.

yes but if you want everyone to vote in a contest that could get the school $30k, you now have no way to contact them, and remind them, and some may have been bothered by that as well. I agree with grade specific list serves for homework, but otherwise it seems to me that most of what was posted was kind of a school wide thing....

The Boosters and the school I am pretty sure will be more than happy to post such a thing in their weekly newsletters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So, just curious. Not at Basis but enjoying the circus show here on DCUM.

Does everyone at BASIS know who the OP whack job is? Is it a man or a woman? American, or non native speaker?

What's their true beef? Are they obnoxious like this over everything, or just BASIS? (like, are they a normal-ish person you could chat with before or after school until suddenly you realize they're actually crazy and you back away?) Does every other parent there know OP by sight/name?

My kid's school has one crazy parent who occasionally would post things that were always in lower case with lots of ellipsis, and only semi-complete sentences. Tried to be somewhat mystic about it. Actually I think his kid has moved onto middle school now. But everyone kinda knew and mostly just ignored, except one or two flare ups. I think he was self aware enough to realize he wasn't everyone's cup of tea and so he restrained himself. This person at BASIS seems completely un-self-aware, and incapable of lightening up even a smidge. Since i don't have to deal with him/her, just wondering how a person gets to be this way.

I think they all think they know who they think the whack job is here, and I know they are wrong.

She did write three long posts to our list serve, which were fairly coherent, but she is not the best writer in the world. Conciseness and clarity are her strong points. But we are all adults and after the first one I see no reason for any parent not to have "just ignored," as you say. And she signed her name. And irony of all ironies? She stays away from DCUM because "there is too much drama" and does not post here at all, or read the posts. I am not going to tell her about these ones because I think it would profoundly upset her and she doesn't deserve it.

She did ask the moderator whether she was the reason the list serve was shut down, and was told that they had been thinking about doing it probably since last summer, and that her posts were not a factor at all. The earlier posts about all the stuff going on in San Antonio, the accusations that Basis is racist, those posts were far more offensive than her three long winded essays which did contain 3 mentions of a face book page, and in my opinion those earlier posts might have played a part. Not hers. But she was in her last post trying to get the HOS to get out in front of the whole candy issue, and she did request that he and the Dean go in and apologize. So I can kind of understand the confusion, but not the cruelty of the people who are posting here. And they finally went in, but they did not apologize.

But the thing that upsets me about all of this is she is not a Basis basher - I hear her try to recruit parents for Basis a lot at our ES, and at cocktail parties, and she is coherent, concise, and very proud that her kids go to Basis, and wants more kids from our ES to come. Her kids were respected at our ES and were academically very advanced, and most people knew it. She is also good at explaining what types of kids would succeed at Basis and what types of kids are not likely to. Last Friday I participated in a conversation with her and another mom where she reluctantly concluded that a child who is really focused on art and drama who is not into math or science probably would not like Basis.

Bottom line? Nothing crazy about her. Silly for people to get upset over three long emails to the list serve. Unfair and inaccurate to blame her for being responsible for the shutting it down. And unfair to have assumed that she was posting on the candy thread or here. So next time you see her, try to treat her with a little respect. As another poster said, she had some valid points. She just did not present them in the right way. And she always concluded (but I'm not sure most of us who are not her friends ever got to her conclusions) by saying that she believed in Basis.

So I guess the short answer is there are either many whackadoo Basis parents, or people posing as them. But here, you never know who is doing what. Just felt I needed to defend her. Saw the same thing happen on the other thread, but thought people would figure it out for themselves.

Now of course I may be wrong and all of you may be talking about some other crazy lady instead of my friend, but she did not "flood inboxes" with numerous emails, she sent three. And while they were poorly written, they did not have ellipses or appear mysterious or crazy. And they made some good points. So whack away at these whackadoos all you want, but please do not assume that the same person who wrote the emails has ever written anything on DCUM.
And don't start attacking me about this either. Just trying to clear something up because it is getting out of hand. All Basis parents know who the email person is, they know her kids and her husband, and none of them are crazy. End of subject. Entertain yourselves all you want, but what you are saying verges on slander and you are totally off base.

[Anonymous]

conciseness and clarity are NOT her strong points

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I actually think smaller grouped list serves work better. Maybe parents could set up list serves by grade or neighborhood. If you have a fifth grader you really don't need or want to be reading emails about prom. Or if you live in Georgetown you don't really want to hear that the bus was late coming from Capitol Hill.

yes but if you want everyone to vote in a contest that could get the school $30k, you now have no way to contact them, and remind them, and some may have been bothered by that as well. I agree with grade specific list serves for homework, but otherwise it seems to me that most of what was posted was kind of a school wide thing....

The Boosters and the school I am pretty sure will be more than happy to post such a thing in their weekly newsletters.

Sorry but it was the reminders that got me to vote numerous times. Just saying.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
yes but if you want everyone to vote in a contest that could get the school $30k, you now have no way to contact them, and remind them, and some may have been bothered by that as well. I agree with grade specific list serves for homework, but otherwise it seems to me that most of what was posted was kind of a school wide thing....

The Boosters and the school I am pretty sure will be more than happy to post such a thing in their weekly newsletters.

Sorry for the mix up here, but I think they only send out one weekly newsletter, and that is my point and the point of the "play nice" poster - for all intents and purposes, the Boosters are the school. They represent the school, not the parents. And I bet they don't do anything this serious without the advice, consent, or even perhaps at the request from the school to do it. So I think the administration shut down the list serve. And the Boosters are their tools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not a BASIS parent, but I'd be pretty pissed if our school closed the listserve down.

You're probably the nut that posts personal attacks and other crazy nonsense on our school listserv. Fortunately, most of us ignore you now because we know you'd "be pretty pissed" about just about anything.

This is the kind of stupid venomous nonsense that makes me want to go get my popcorn, but could both of you be a tad more specific here?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:BASIS is doing fine. They need a real board rather than hand-picked people who Michael and Olga liked and who can play with Craig B.

Actually no one was hand picked as you say and I wager most of them have never met the Blocks or at most have only spoken to them for a few minutes at most. Any parent is free to run for the Booster's board and all parents may vote for Booster's board. All of the current members of the Booster's board were elected by parents. Get your facts straight.

Maybe some were "encouraged to run" by these mysterious people? It is not like there were a lot of volunteers. Was any single position a contested election?

[Anonymous]

The lady in question DOES post on DCUM pretty darned often. She started a bunch of threads about people who left BASIS for Walls or other schools, asking why they had done so, etc and she is certainly very obvious when she does post and uses certain words and distinct descriptions of family members and a unique writing style that makes her authorship clear. She is welcome to post, of course, but it's no secret who her emails are written by.
And BTW, 12:44, I bet dollars to doughnuts you are that lady.

[Anonymous]

12:44, I know the monitor for the listserv, and she had no idea they were shutting down the listserv until 10 minutes before they did it, and they have yet to tell the monitor why, so I don't know what you are talking about saying she told you/this woman that said woman was not the reason why, since she still herself hasn't been told. That said, there's no person in charge that has said the lady IS the reason they shut it down either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not a BASIS parent, but I'd be pretty pissed if our school closed the listserve down.

I agree. Our parent listserv (google group platform, btw, and not difficult to set up) has been known to get testy, but by and large there is so much worthwhile information on it that I'd be very upset if anyone tried to shut it down.

Sorry you're getting such heat, OP. Some people hate free speech.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
yes but if you want everyone to vote in a contest that could get the school $30k, you now have no way to contact them, and remind them, and some may have been bothered by that as well. I agree with grade specific list serves for homework, but otherwise it seems to me that most of what was posted was kind of a school wide thing....

The Boosters and the school I am pretty sure will be more than happy to post such a thing in their weekly newsletters.

Sorry for the mix up here, but I think they only send out one weekly newsletter, and that is my point and the point of the "play nice" poster - for all intents and purposes, the Boosters are the school. They represent the school, not the parents. And I bet they don't do anything this serious without the advice, consent, or even perhaps at the request from the school to do it. So I think the administration shut down the list serve. And the Boosters are their tools.

That's not at all how it works. The boosters are self selected, the boosters consist of any engaged parent, any parent can participate and get involved, and it's not at all top down or driven by the school administration.

[Anonymous]

But the boosters board is voted in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:But the boosters board is voted in.

Yes, by parents. Administration doesn't select booster leadership.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So, just curious. Not at Basis but enjoying the circus show here on DCUM.

Does everyone at BASIS know who the OP whack job is? Is it a man or a woman? American, or non native speaker?

What's their true beef? Are they obnoxious like this over everything, or just BASIS? (like, are they a normal-ish person you could chat with before or after school until suddenly you realize they're actually crazy and you back away?) Does every other parent there know OP by sight/name?

My kid's school has one crazy parent who occasionally would post things that were always in lower case with lots of ellipsis, and only semi-complete sentences. Tried to be somewhat mystic about it. Actually I think his kid has moved onto middle school now. But everyone kinda knew and mostly just ignored, except one or two flare ups. I think he was self aware enough to realize he wasn't everyone's cup of tea and so he restrained himself. This person at BASIS seems completely un-self-aware, and incapable of lightening up even a smidge. Since i don't have to deal with him/her, just wondering how a person gets to be this way.

I think they all think they know who they think the whack job is here, and I know they are wrong.

She did write three long posts to our list serve, which were fairly coherent, but she is not the best writer in the world. Conciseness and clarity are her strong points. But we are all adults and after the first one I see no reason for any parent not to have "just ignored," as you say. And she signed her name. And irony of all ironies? She stays away from DCUM because "there is too much drama" and does not post here at all, or read the posts. I am not going to tell her about these ones because I think it would profoundly upset her and she doesn't deserve it.

She did ask the moderator whether she was the reason the list serve was shut down, and was told that they had been thinking about doing it probably since last summer, and that her posts were not a factor at all. The earlier posts about all the stuff going on in San Antonio, the accusations that Basis is racist, those posts were far more offensive than her three long winded essays which did contain 3 mentions of a face book page, and in my opinion those earlier posts might have played a part. Not hers. But she was in her last post trying to get the HOS to get out in front of the whole candy issue, and she did request that he and the Dean go in and apologize. So I can kind of understand the confusion, but not the cruelty of the people who are posting here. And they finally went in, but they did not apologize.

But the thing that upsets me about all of this is she is not a Basis basher - I hear her try to recruit parents for Basis a lot at our ES, and at cocktail parties, and she is coherent, concise, and very proud that her kids go to Basis, and wants more kids from our ES to come. Her kids were respected at our ES and were academically very advanced, and most people knew it. She is also good at explaining what types of kids would succeed at Basis and what types of kids are not likely to. Last Friday I participated in a conversation with her and another mom where she reluctantly concluded that a child who is really focused on art and drama who is not into math or science probably would not like Basis.

Bottom line? Nothing crazy about her. Silly for people to get upset over three long emails to the list serve. Unfair and inaccurate to blame her for being responsible for the shutting it down. And unfair to have assumed that she was posting on the candy thread or here. So next time you see her, try to treat her with a little respect. As another poster said, she had some valid points. She just did not present them in the right way. And she always concluded (but I'm not sure most of us who are not her friends ever got to her conclusions) by saying that she believed in Basis.

So I guess the short answer is there are either many whackadoo Basis parents, or people posing as them. But here, you never know who is doing what. Just felt I needed to defend her. Saw the same thing happen on the other thread, but thought people would figure it out for themselves.

Now of course I may be wrong and all of you may be talking about some other crazy lady instead of my friend, but she did not "flood inboxes" with numerous emails, she sent three. And while they were poorly written, they did not have ellipses or appear mysterious or crazy. And they made some good points. So whack away at these whackadoos all you want, but please do not assume that the same person who wrote the emails has ever written anything on DCUM.
And don't start attacking me about this either. Just trying to clear something up because it is getting out of hand. All Basis parents know who the email person is, they know her kids and her husband, and none of them are crazy. End of subject. Entertain yourselves all you want, but what you are saying verges on slander and you are totally off base.

The length of your post strongly suggests that you are HER

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So, just curious. Not at Basis but enjoying the circus show here on DCUM.

Does everyone at BASIS know who the OP whack job is? Is it a man or a woman? American, or non native speaker?

What's their true beef? Are they obnoxious like this over everything, or just BASIS? (like, are they a normal-ish person you could chat with before or after school until suddenly you realize they're actually crazy and you back away?) Does every other parent there know OP by sight/name?

My kid's school has one crazy parent who occasionally would post things that were always in lower case with lots of ellipsis, and only semi-complete sentences. Tried to be somewhat mystic about it. Actually I think his kid has moved onto middle school now. But everyone kinda knew and mostly just ignored, except one or two flare ups. I think he was self aware enough to realize he wasn't everyone's cup of tea and so he restrained himself. This person at BASIS seems completely un-self-aware, and incapable of lightening up even a smidge. Since i don't have to deal with him/her, just wondering how a person gets to be this way.

I think they all think they know who they think the whack job is here, and I know they are wrong.

She did write three long posts to our list serve, which were fairly coherent, but she is not the best writer in the world. Conciseness and clarity are her strong points. But we are all adults and after the first one I see no reason for any parent not to have "just ignored," as you say. And she signed her name. And irony of all ironies? She stays away from DCUM because "there is too much drama" and does not post here at all, or read the posts. I am not going to tell her about these ones because I think it would profoundly upset her and she doesn't deserve it.

She did ask the moderator whether she was the reason the list serve was shut down, and was told that they had been thinking about doing it probably since last summer, and that her posts were not a factor at all. The earlier posts about all the stuff going on in San Antonio, the accusations that Basis is racist, those posts were far more offensive than her three long winded essays which did contain 3 mentions of a face book page, and in my opinion those earlier posts might have played a part. Not hers. But she was in her last post trying to get the HOS to get out in front of the whole candy issue, and she did request that he and the Dean go in and apologize. So I can kind of understand the confusion, but not the cruelty of the people who are posting here. And they finally went in, but they did not apologize.

But the thing that upsets me about all of this is she is not a Basis basher - I hear her try to recruit parents for Basis a lot at our ES, and at cocktail parties, and she is coherent, concise, and very proud that her kids go to Basis, and wants more kids from our ES to come. Her kids were respected at our ES and were academically very advanced, and most people knew it. She is also good at explaining what types of kids would succeed at Basis and what types of kids are not likely to. Last Friday I participated in a conversation with her and another mom where she reluctantly concluded that a child who is really focused on art and drama who is not into math or science probably would not like Basis.

Bottom line? Nothing crazy about her. Silly for people to get upset over three long emails to the list serve. Unfair and inaccurate to blame her for being responsible for the shutting it down. And unfair to have assumed that she was posting on the candy thread or here. So next time you see her, try to treat her with a little respect. As another poster said, she had some valid points. She just did not present them in the right way. And she always concluded (but I'm not sure most of us who are not her friends ever got to her conclusions) by saying that she believed in Basis.

So I guess the short answer is there are either many whackadoo Basis parents, or people posing as them. But here, you never know who is doing what. Just felt I needed to defend her. Saw the same thing happen on the other thread, but thought people would figure it out for themselves.

Now of course I may be wrong and all of you may be talking about some other crazy lady instead of my friend, but she did not "flood inboxes" with numerous emails, she sent three. And while they were poorly written, they did not have ellipses or appear mysterious or crazy. And they made some good points. So whack away at these whackadoos all you want, but please do not assume that the same person who wrote the emails has ever written anything on DCUM.
And don't start attacking me about this either. Just trying to clear something up because it is getting out of hand. All Basis parents know who the email person is, they know her kids and her husband, and none of them are crazy. End of subject. Entertain yourselves all you want, but what you are saying verges on slander and you are totally off base.

The length of your post strongly suggests that you are HER

I do not think speculating that a person who wrote emails to the list serve and signed their name is responsible for all this crap is responsible or anything except for mean spirited. Are you really Basis parents? Then behave like it. IF you are wrong, you have just made someone feel like absolute crap for no reason. I won't tell her about it. Are you planning to say to her face what you are saying here behind her back? That she was responsible for closing down the list serve, and that she obviously hates Basis so why are her kids still there? I dare you. You won't because you are a bunch of hypocrites engaged in idle speculation at the expense of one particular, identifiable person.