Call to discuss the state of Hardy 05/15/23

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd like to go back to the PE/Locker issue again. So the boys got to go to PE for 2 weeks but the girls did not? Why was that?

I'd also like to go back to this. Circumstances aside, parents really emailed the super about this? Just...wow.

How are your kids going to handle life? I ask in all seriousness, because this sounds detrimental to their development.

Wait? You seriously think it was wrong for parents to complain about a sexist PE teacher + locked-with-no-explanation locker room meaning their kids got no PE for TWO weeks? And worse yet, had to sit and watch boys do PE? I think that is 100% where *of course* parents have to step in.

It was not the PE teacher, it was a sub.

PP and the person two before that are quintessential DCPS responses. Deflection, failing to take responsibility, and trying to blame parents for abject failure on the part of the school. "How will your kids handle future gross incompetence if you don't accept our gross incompetence? Asking us to minimally do our jobs is harming your kids."

The person DCPS put in place to teach PE did something appallingly bad. The fact that s/he wasn't the "regular" PE teacher is in no way whatsoever an excuse. The fact that anyone thinks it IS an excuse is further evidence of total failure.

I can answer PP's question about how kids will "handle life" if school staff are, gasp, required to actually do their jobs. Those kids will handle it much better than kids taught to accept incompetence, laziness, and failure to take responsibility for falling short. In life, people who make excuses and/or allow blatantly discriminatory stuff to happen often end up getting fired (just like happened at Hardy). I know because I've fired lots of people like this.

Adults who teach kids that it's OK to not do the work you were hired to do, shift blame for failures, and accept discrimination are not doing those kids any favors. They are setting those kids up for failure in life.

You just know zero about hiring or the options of people available to long term sub. Keep blaming everyone and calling us incompetent as much as you want. It's truly water from a stone.

DP: No one that sexist or dismissive should be kept available as a sub, whatever the circumstances.

The pay for subs is ridiculously low and the pool is small. Nonetheless, you seem really jaded and beaten down in your expectations. Hopefully summer break will be restorative for you.

The AP at Mann does an incredible job with maintaining a roster of good, available subs despite the barriers. She has some strategies worth learning.

Mann is one of of the nicest and easiest schools in DC to work at, so that probably helps.

[Anonymous]

I know by posting I'm bumping it to the top, yet again. But I truly wish it could die out. Same back and forth again and again after 54 pages.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd like to go back to the PE/Locker issue again. So the boys got to go to PE for 2 weeks but the girls did not? Why was that?

I'd also like to go back to this. Circumstances aside, parents really emailed the super about this? Just...wow.

How are your kids going to handle life? I ask in all seriousness, because this sounds detrimental to their development.

Wait? You seriously think it was wrong for parents to complain about a sexist PE teacher + locked-with-no-explanation locker room meaning their kids got no PE for TWO weeks? And worse yet, had to sit and watch boys do PE? I think that is 100% where *of course* parents have to step in.

It was not the PE teacher, it was a sub.

PP and the person two before that are quintessential DCPS responses. Deflection, failing to take responsibility, and trying to blame parents for abject failure on the part of the school. "How will your kids handle future gross incompetence if you don't accept our gross incompetence? Asking us to minimally do our jobs is harming your kids."

The person DCPS put in place to teach PE did something appallingly bad. The fact that s/he wasn't the "regular" PE teacher is in no way whatsoever an excuse. The fact that anyone thinks it IS an excuse is further evidence of total failure.

I can answer PP's question about how kids will "handle life" if school staff are, gasp, required to actually do their jobs. Those kids will handle it much better than kids taught to accept incompetence, laziness, and failure to take responsibility for falling short. In life, people who make excuses and/or allow blatantly discriminatory stuff to happen often end up getting fired (just like happened at Hardy). I know because I've fired lots of people like this.

Adults who teach kids that it's OK to not do the work you were hired to do, shift blame for failures, and accept discrimination are not doing those kids any favors. They are setting those kids up for failure in life.

You just know zero about hiring or the options of people available to long term sub. Keep blaming everyone and calling us incompetent as much as you want. It's truly water from a stone.

DP: No one that sexist or dismissive should be kept available as a sub, whatever the circumstances.

The pay for subs is ridiculously low and the pool is small. Nonetheless, you seem really jaded and beaten down in your expectations. Hopefully summer break will be restorative for you.

The AP at Mann does an incredible job with maintaining a roster of good, available subs despite the barriers. She has some strategies worth learning.

Mann is one of of the nicest and easiest schools in DC to work at, so that probably helps.

True, but that's yet another reason that good control over student discipline is important.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd like to go back to the PE/Locker issue again. So the boys got to go to PE for 2 weeks but the girls did not? Why was that?

I'd also like to go back to this. Circumstances aside, parents really emailed the super about this? Just...wow.

How are your kids going to handle life? I ask in all seriousness, because this sounds detrimental to their development.

Wait? You seriously think it was wrong for parents to complain about a sexist PE teacher + locked-with-no-explanation locker room meaning their kids got no PE for TWO weeks? And worse yet, had to sit and watch boys do PE? I think that is 100% where *of course* parents have to step in.

It was not the PE teacher, it was a sub.

Your reply illustrates the disconnect. Parents are expressing concerns about failures of leadership that caused locker rooms to be unavailable and teachers engaging in discriminatory and improper behavior without consequence. From a parent's perspective it was gym class so they reference the "PE teacher". You choose to fixate on the reference to "PE teacher" without a moment's thought or consideration to the impact on the kids. Whether this is a creative deflection/misdirection or you truly don't understand, I don't know. In either case the fact that you care more about the lack of specificity between a PE sub and PE teacher than the impact on the kids is telling.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd like to go back to the PE/Locker issue again. So the boys got to go to PE for 2 weeks but the girls did not? Why was that?

I'd also like to go back to this. Circumstances aside, parents really emailed the super about this? Just...wow.

How are your kids going to handle life? I ask in all seriousness, because this sounds detrimental to their development.

Wait? You seriously think it was wrong for parents to complain about a sexist PE teacher + locked-with-no-explanation locker room meaning their kids got no PE for TWO weeks? And worse yet, had to sit and watch boys do PE? I think that is 100% where *of course* parents have to step in.

It was not the PE teacher, it was a sub.

PP and the person two before that are quintessential DCPS responses. Deflection, failing to take responsibility, and trying to blame parents for abject failure on the part of the school. "How will your kids handle future gross incompetence if you don't accept our gross incompetence? Asking us to minimally do our jobs is harming your kids."

The person DCPS put in place to teach PE did something appallingly bad. The fact that s/he wasn't the "regular" PE teacher is in no way whatsoever an excuse. The fact that anyone thinks it IS an excuse is further evidence of total failure.

I can answer PP's question about how kids will "handle life" if school staff are, gasp, required to actually do their jobs. Those kids will handle it much better than kids taught to accept incompetence, laziness, and failure to take responsibility for falling short. In life, people who make excuses and/or allow blatantly discriminatory stuff to happen often end up getting fired (just like happened at Hardy). I know because I've fired lots of people like this.

Adults who teach kids that it's OK to not do the work you were hired to do, shift blame for failures, and accept discrimination are not doing those kids any favors. They are setting those kids up for failure in life.

You just know zero about hiring or the options of people available to long term sub. Keep blaming everyone and calling us incompetent as much as you want. It's truly water from a stone.

DP: No one that sexist or dismissive should be kept available as a sub, whatever the circumstances.

The pay for subs is ridiculously low and the pool is small. Nonetheless, you seem really jaded and beaten down in your expectations. Hopefully summer break will be restorative for you.

The AP at Mann does an incredible job with maintaining a roster of good, available subs despite the barriers. She has some strategies worth learning.

The vast majority of Mann subs are parents or former parents. Its a great system, but not sure you could roll it up elsewhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd like to go back to the PE/Locker issue again. So the boys got to go to PE for 2 weeks but the girls did not? Why was that?

I'd also like to go back to this. Circumstances aside, parents really emailed the super about this? Just...wow.

How are your kids going to handle life? I ask in all seriousness, because this sounds detrimental to their development.

Wait? You seriously think it was wrong for parents to complain about a sexist PE teacher + locked-with-no-explanation locker room meaning their kids got no PE for TWO weeks? And worse yet, had to sit and watch boys do PE? I think that is 100% where *of course* parents have to step in.

It was not the PE teacher, it was a sub.

Your reply illustrates the disconnect. Parents are expressing concerns about failures of leadership that caused locker rooms to be unavailable and teachers engaging in discriminatory and improper behavior without consequence. From a parent's perspective it was gym class so they reference the "PE teacher". You choose to fixate on the reference to "PE teacher" without a moment's thought or consideration to the impact on the kids. Whether this is a creative deflection/misdirection or you truly don't understand, I don't know. In either case the fact that you care more about the lack of specificity between a PE sub and PE teacher than the impact on the kids is telling.

I am connected enough to DCPS to know that a false accusation is incredibly damaging. So I was just clarifying it was the sub. I wasn’t dismissing parent concerns. So please stop dismissing that it matters who you claim is sexist and denying PE to girls.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have counted six different co workers who have endured harmful, false accusations on this thread that could destroy careers or even their family life using coded language that is easy to identify the intended target. Furthermore, my relationships with Hardy parents have always been beautiful and meaningful for years in and outside of the building prior to this situation. This specific group is dangerous and makes important parent/teacher partnerships uncomfortable. Your demand for IMMEDIATE removal of Principal Johnson was granted… at this point, four days after his firing, you are still out for blood. It is hiring season. Trust me you are scaring qualified candidates off.

If the snowflakes can't handle this thread then they should quit public education. Beyond amusing to watch a bunch of teachers tell parents their kids should endure chaos and actual violence but whine like babies about mean words on DCUM.

[phone]

THIS is the culture of DCPS —- blame the kids, tell them to suck up unsafe and damaging conditions while whining about mean words on an anonymous forum and refusing to accept ANY responsibility for actually doing their job.

I’ve actually talked with a bunch of DCPS HS kids that I coach about how damaging this is. They contrast it to the culture of our team where everyone including me is expected to take responsibility for our shortcomings.

This abject culture of failure and shirking responsibility is so damaging to kids.

[Anonymous]

I used to work for DCPS Central and got the hell out of there. It is an ingrained culture of incompetence like you wouldn’t believe. There are some good people but they generally don’t last long.

[Anonymous]

Somehow I found myself on page 856 of this forum and came across this thread: https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/13943.page

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have counted six different co workers who have endured harmful, false accusations on this thread that could destroy careers or even their family life using coded language that is easy to identify the intended target. Furthermore, my relationships with Hardy parents have always been beautiful and meaningful for years in and outside of the building prior to this situation. This specific group is dangerous and makes important parent/teacher partnerships uncomfortable. Your demand for IMMEDIATE removal of Principal Johnson was granted… at this point, four days after his firing, you are still out for blood. It is hiring season. Trust me you are scaring qualified candidates off.

If the snowflakes can't handle this thread then they should quit public education. Beyond amusing to watch a bunch of teachers tell parents their kids should endure chaos and actual violence but whine like babies about mean words on DCUM.

[phone]

THIS is the culture of DCPS —- blame the kids, tell them to suck up unsafe and damaging conditions while whining about mean words on an anonymous forum and refusing to accept ANY responsibility for actually doing their job.

I’ve actually talked with a bunch of DCPS HS kids that I coach about how damaging this is. They contrast it to the culture of our team where everyone including me is expected to take responsibility for our shortcomings.

This abject culture of failure and shirking responsibility is so damaging to kids.

The fact that you compare a team that you coach in HS, where all students have presumably chosen to be there and are at a level good enough to continue competing into HS with managing 100s of middle school students tells me your bootstrap rhetoric isn't worth much

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The IS and the new principal were outside greeting students as they arrived at the school. Compare that to months and months of no one bothering to be there for the kids when they arrived. The one man assigned to the entrance just played on his phone the entire time, sitting inside.

This is not a big thing. But it is telling. Do I care about my kid being greeted? Yes, but mainly because it is correlated with a lot of other things I really care about but cannot observe as easily.

Honeymoon period

Johnson was asked, time and time again, to have staff greet the students each day to guide them into the school. It is a ritual worth practicing: each student learns "hey, I see you. I'm glad that you're here. Let's go have a good day together." Johnson had no interest. He didn't even bother to make sure Patterson was upstairs, albeit on a chair on his phone.

Likewise, he was instructed time and time again (I can point to personal communications from back in February on this) to have staff out front of Safeway after school. He never bothered to do this until the fight videos started circulating, and even then he didn't do it with any reliability. During the fight two weeks ago, he was standing on the other side of the street, not at the bus stop / safeway as the commotion unfolded. He appears in the background in one of the videos.

Wow

I’ve asked this before and maybe a teacher can answer, do they have a rotation of people to cover transition times (lunch, recess, dismissal)? I work at another school and we have a schedule for those times and we know who covers what. Each person ends up on one, max two supervisions per week. Dismissal is a time that needs to be supervised, not randomly, but consistently.
It’s appealing to hear that no one was out there to greet kids or to dismiss, considering how busy the area is as well. SMH

Dear DCPS Teacher at another school:

People are assigned outside on a regular basis. Please don't comment on situations where you don't know the whole story and instead are responding to misinformation in this thread.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd like to go back to the PE/Locker issue again. So the boys got to go to PE for 2 weeks but the girls did not? Why was that?

I'd also like to go back to this. Circumstances aside, parents really emailed the super about this? Just...wow.

How are your kids going to handle life? I ask in all seriousness, because this sounds detrimental to their development.

I think it's fair enough for parents being concerned about a dismissive, sexist teacher declining to teach their DDs a class he gets paid to teach and that the law requires them to take.

I would be more worried about the life skills of employees who are outraged at the 'customers' because the upper management dismissed a different employee.

There isn't a dismissive, sexist teacher declining to teach children at Hardy. This toxic thought pattern is why no one wants to work at Hardy anymore.

[Anonymous]

I'm a Hardy parent that is new to thread. One of the other parents told me about this site. I have a 7th grader and an 8th grader at Hardy. If there is talk of clearing house with any of the APs, I want a chance to share my opinion. One of them seems to be the voice of everything; and it's not a voice I care to hear anymore. I really don't want my 7th grader to go through what my 8th grader has gone through this year. Has there been any discussion about this AP?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd like to go back to the PE/Locker issue again. So the boys got to go to PE for 2 weeks but the girls did not? Why was that?

I'd also like to go back to this. Circumstances aside, parents really emailed the super about this? Just...wow.

How are your kids going to handle life? I ask in all seriousness, because this sounds detrimental to their development.

I think it's fair enough for parents being concerned about a dismissive, sexist teacher declining to teach their DDs a class he gets paid to teach and that the law requires them to take.

I would be more worried about the life skills of employees who are outraged at the 'customers' because the upper management dismissed a different employee.

There isn't a dismissive, sexist teacher declining to teach children at Hardy. This toxic thought pattern is why no one wants to work at Hardy anymore.

Many of these posts read like an orchestrated campaign to intimidate parents into biting their tongue when they should be holding their school administrators and teachers to account for their abysmal performance. Spare us the “I’ll take my ball and go home” crap. Anyone who by this point still claims they don’t understand why the PTO at al. did what they did doesn’t seem to much interest in the quality of middle school education in this town.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd like to go back to the PE/Locker issue again. So the boys got to go to PE for 2 weeks but the girls did not? Why was that?

I'd also like to go back to this. Circumstances aside, parents really emailed the super about this? Just...wow.

How are your kids going to handle life? I ask in all seriousness, because this sounds detrimental to their development.

I think it's fair enough for parents being concerned about a dismissive, sexist teacher declining to teach their DDs a class he gets paid to teach and that the law requires them to take.

I would be more worried about the life skills of employees who are outraged at the 'customers' because the upper management dismissed a different employee.

There isn't a dismissive, sexist teacher declining to teach children at Hardy. This toxic thought pattern is why no one wants to work at Hardy anymore.

Many of these posts read like an orchestrated campaign to intimidate parents into biting their tongue when they should be holding their school administrators and teachers to account for their abysmal performance. Spare us the “I’ll take my ball and go home” crap. Anyone who by this point still claims they don’t understand why the PTO at al. did what they did doesn’t seem to much interest in the quality of middle school education in this town.

The Hardy teachers *shouid* leave! Go to schools where the parents and students don’t care as much about education, because then what they’re currently doing will be sufficient. It’s time to clean house.