NYTimes story - At a Success Academy Charter School, Singling Out Pupils Who Have ‘Got to Go’

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know anything about special ed law but I find it VERY disturbing that the head of Success schools released all that very detailed information about that boy. I really hope they face legal action for that. No one who truly cares about kids would do that/

I didn't see in the article where Success released information about any kids. The information in the article was gathered from the families involved.

Eva Whatsherface posted a long letter on their website detailing all about the child. It was a huge violation of a child's privacy IMO.

[Anonymous]

There are is a fundamental problem of children who do not thrive in academic settings for a lot of reasons:

Environmental Poisoning -lead, booze in the womb

Really messed up home lives

just general issues- ODD, ADHD, bipolar


I have a kid with ADHD and know that she would have never survived a success academy. But I also know most schools public and charter have very little training and people in place to handle kids with these issues, especially when combinations occur like poverty and mental health.

We need a much more honest answer of how we will spend money on these kids because it takes a lot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know anything about special ed law but I find it VERY disturbing that the head of Success schools released all that very detailed information about that boy. I really hope they face legal action for that. No one who truly cares about kids would do that/

I didn't see in the article where Success released information about any kids. The information in the article was gathered from the families involved.

Eva Whatsherface posted a long letter on their website detailing all about the child. It was a huge violation of a child's privacy IMO.

What was posted on the Success Academy website was the email exchange between Success Academy and the reporters regarding dishonest reporting. The student's name was not listed.

The claim being made was that the student was disciplined for stupid nonsense like not having his shirt tucked in - but it turns out it was far far worse:

? throwing another student against the bathroom wall and threatening, “I’m going to use your
head like a soccer ball”
? picking up and throwing his desk and multiple chairs in the direction of his classmates
? lifting his desk above his head and attempting to throw it at other children
? jumping on another scholar
? kicking, scratching, and punching a teacher
? throwing a stapler
? punching a teacher and continuing to do so even after the teacher said “you’re hurting me”
requiring that safety guards be called
? hitting a teacher in the arms and stomach
? reaching for a teacher’s neck and choking her
? kicking and punching the school’s principal and grabbing her necklace, breaking it
? running away from adults on a field trip
? throwing his teachers’ cell phones on the ground and breaking them
? throwing a tantrum on a visit to a museum that caused two museum workers to have to restrain
the student as he kicked and screamed
? repeatedly and forcefully punching the gym wall
? ripping posters off the wall
? throwing and kicking objects in the main office, requiring the assistance of school safety officers
? ripping a bookshelf door off of its hinges
? pushing chairs and desks around the classroom and throwing a book in the classroom, with
other scholars present
? stabbing the walls with pencils

A lot more than shirts not tucked in going on there.. This is a kid with serious behavior problems. How very very dishonest to try and smear the school with lies!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are is a fundamental problem of children who do not thrive in academic settings for a lot of reasons:

Environmental Poisoning -lead, booze in the womb

Really messed up home lives

just general issues- ODD, ADHD, bipolar


I have a kid with ADHD and know that she would have never survived a success academy. But I also know most schools public and charter have very little training and people in place to handle kids with these issues, especially when combinations occur like poverty and mental health.

We need a much more honest answer of how we will spend money on these kids because it takes a lot.

The kids that have those deep issues need specialized help and wraparound services - the main public school district should be the ones to be providing that help as they typically have far more resources and economies of scale for building up centralized capabilities and specialized expertise as opposed to charters who don't have the same staff or budget resources to be able to do it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

A lot more than shirts not tucked in going on there.. This is a kid with serious behavior problems. How very very dishonest to try and smear the school with lies!

So what? FERPA applies regardless.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

A lot more than shirts not tucked in going on there.. This is a kid with serious behavior problems. How very very dishonest to try and smear the school with lies!

So what? FERPA applies regardless.

SO WHAT??? Lies are lies. And in this case they are some pretty huge lies. Do you realize that if this student were an adult, these would be multiple felony assaults? That's very different than "shirt not tucked in" or "she wouldn't keep her hands in her lap" - the LIES that this article is based on.

Confidentiality doesn't apply to anyone else who also discussed the student, including the journalists involved in the article? You are fine with one side out there spilling confidential information in a major news outlet, presuming to tell a story but you have a problem with the other side correcting the record?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

The claim being made was that the student was disciplined for stupid nonsense like not having his shirt tucked in - but it turns out it was far far worse:

? throwing another student against the bathroom wall and threatening, “I’m going to use your
head like a soccer ball”
? picking up and throwing his desk and multiple chairs in the direction of his classmates
? lifting his desk above his head and attempting to throw it at other children
? jumping on another scholar
? kicking, scratching, and punching a teacher
? throwing a stapler
? punching a teacher and continuing to do so even after the teacher said “you’re hurting me”
requiring that safety guards be called
? hitting a teacher in the arms and stomach
? reaching for a teacher’s neck and choking her
? kicking and punching the school’s principal and grabbing her necklace, breaking it
? running away from adults on a field trip
? throwing his teachers’ cell phones on the ground and breaking them
? throwing a tantrum on a visit to a museum that caused two museum workers to have to restrain
the student as he kicked and screamed
? repeatedly and forcefully punching the gym wall
? ripping posters off the wall
? throwing and kicking objects in the main office, requiring the assistance of school safety officers
? ripping a bookshelf door off of its hinges
? pushing chairs and desks around the classroom and throwing a book in the classroom, with
other scholars present
? stabbing the walls with pencils

A lot more than shirts not tucked in going on there.. This is a kid with serious behavior problems. How very very dishonest to try and smear the school with lies!

Got to Go! That kid disrupted the learning of all of his classmates, most who are too poor to pay for private or parochial school. 19 other kids and their parents are thrilled that he is gone.

[Anonymous]

The families involved already spoke to the media about the details of their cases. The confidentiality horse left the barn long before Eva Moskovitz put that letter out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

A lot more than shirts not tucked in going on there.. This is a kid with serious behavior problems. How very very dishonest to try and smear the school with lies!

So what? FERPA applies regardless.

SO WHAT??? Lies are lies. And in this case they are some pretty huge lies. Do you realize that if this student were an adult, these would be multiple felony assaults? That's very different than "shirt not tucked in" or "she wouldn't keep her hands in her lap" - the LIES that this article is based on.

Confidentiality doesn't apply to anyone else who also discussed the student, including the journalists involved in the article? You are fine with one side out there spilling confidential information in a major news outlet, presuming to tell a story but you have a problem with the other side correcting the record?

What I am fine with is people obeying the law. Families talking about their own situations: not breaking the law. Schools talking about their students: breaking the law.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The families involved already spoke to the media about the details of their cases. The confidentiality horse left the barn long before Eva Moskovitz put that letter out.

The FERPA horse hadn't left the barn, though.

http://familypolicy.ed.gov/ferpa-school-officials?src=ferpa

[Anonymous]

FERPA Yet another example of a law designed to protect. This law prevents schools from disclosing incidents to parents. Arrests, violent outbursts, injuries, and crimes can not be disclosed if it is possible that parents can figure out which child was the perpetrator. So the only child who gets protected is the guilty one-I doubt this is what the lawmakers intended.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:FERPA Yet another example of a law designed to protect. This law prevents schools from disclosing incidents to parents. Arrests, violent outbursts, injuries, and crimes can not be disclosed if it is possible that parents can figure out which child was the perpetrator. So the only child who gets protected is the guilty one-I doubt this is what the lawmakers intended.

If you want to fix the law, then work to fix the law. But don't say, "Oh, it doesn't matter that she broke the law, because it's a bad law anyway."

Also, please keep in mind that the "guilty" child in this case is a ten-year-old.

[Anonymous]

I will call my senator first thing tomorrow morning to get started...oh that's right I forgot, I am a second class citizen, who experiences taxation without representation, because I live in Washington, DC.

Get back to me when your child is in middle school and/or high school and a serious situation occurs in your school, but you are not given any information because of FERPA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I will call my senator first thing tomorrow morning to get started...oh that's right I forgot, I am a second class citizen, who experiences taxation without representation, because I live in Washington, DC.

Get back to me when your child is in middle school and/or high school and a serious situation occurs in your school, but you are not given any information because of FERPA.

Yes but this was no average citizen disregarding FERPA - this was a savy charter school leader who has run an impressive grass roots lobbying campaign (that has nothing to do with FERPA or changing rules to allow her to legally weed out behavior problems). Instead she lobbies to be able to take over public school buildings while saddling the public schools with the kids who can't hack it in her program.

[Anonymous]

A child with that many behavioral problems should have an IEP and a lot of support in place. That's expensive and charters don't want to spend the money.

My understanding is that charter schools are supposed to educate the children they get, just like regular public schools. And issue IEPs, provide special ed services, etc. Is that wrong?