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[quote=Anonymous]From virtually the beginning of the school year at Aidan to the very end, we had grave concerns about our five-year old’s social and emotional well being and development, due in large part to the way he was being marginalized and ostracized by a small number of his classmates.  We became even more concerned, however, by the lack of response on the part of school administrators to our concerns.

Over the course of one year, our child endured the following:

1)“Guns”:  Four classmates threatened him with physical harm, the most egregious threat being to come with guns to “light up his house.”  We requested that the parents of these kids be notified of these threats.  Our request was denied.

2)“Stupid”:  The same group repeatedly bullied and taunted him, calling him stupid and smelly.  This taunting continued throughout the school year.

3)“Secret Friends”:  A classmate confided that she would be our son's friend, but only in secret, since, if the rest of the class knew her to be his friend, they would not be friends with her.

4)“Parkland”:  I asked the Head of School if the Parkland School shooting in Florida gave him second thoughts about his lack of response to the gun threat made to our child at Aidan.  His response was to wish our family well at our next school.

5)“Poop”:  The teasing and harassment evolved into 2-3 of the same classmates continuously chanting “Poopie, Poopie, Poopie” at him through the end of the school year, once again to an underwhelming response from school administration.

Were the children 7 years of age or over, the gun threat alone would have been sufficient for DC Police to take a report and investigate.  At age 5 the matter was expected to be handled administratively.  It was not.

We went to great lengths to share and describe our perceptions and feelings when it came to threats involving guns and other violence directed towards our child.  As parents, we were expecting administrators at a school with the stature of Aidan to exhibit the empathy, interest, and ability to put themselves in our position.  We were rudely disappointed by their administrative inaction.

Most distressing of all was the overall attitude, disposition, and conduct where the buck stops daily at AMS, the Head of School, who through inaction:

?	trivialized the emotional impact of bullying of our child
?	demonstrated little empathy or respect for our concerns
?	displayed a temperament and tone towards our family that was arrogant, assertive, abrasive, snide, combative, dismissive, demeaning and unresponsive
?	responded administratively to our issues in an incomplete, insensitive, and disrespectful fashion
?	paid lip service to diversity and inclusion without the personal commitment to implement it
?	quickly wished us good luck (twice) at our next school.

Our family did not find what we were looking for at Aidan, largely due to of the presentation, bearing, and impact of the Head of School who we believe, among other deficiencies, to be inimical and unsuited to the culture and spirit of diversity and inclusion, and ill prepared with the personal traits and skills needed to lead an institution serving the complex, multi-cultural environment which is metropolitan Washington, DC.

With leadership under the present Head of School, Aidan was no place, socially and culturally, for our child.  We did not expect to encounter such regressive attitudes in the classroom or head office at a school with the profile and reputation of Aidan.  We found the values, beliefs, and opinions he represented untenable, and we found ourselves feeling unvalued and unwanted.
 
Our patience, belief, and trust in a respected institution to do the right thing by our child over a seven-month saga was twice met with invitations equivalent to “pound sand,” resonant with the sort of unapologetic rejection of equity and justice that characterizes much of our present social climate.

Our family decided to attend school elsewhere, and the difference in tone and values in our new school community is already night and day.  We know what we require as a family is possible.

I regret that our family’s experience at Aidan this past year was a mixed one which deteriorated as the year went along.  Under the current leadership, Aidan is not a place we would recommend to any family.  Input provided to us, too late unfortunately, over the past year from other Aidan parents, past and present, confirms that we are not alone.
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