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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Good evening.

I'm a parent of a 5th grader at Basis and to be honest this post worried me. I ask my DS every evening about bullying, etc but he hadn't reported anything.

I have a family member whose son committed suicide at the age of 12, back in our native Europe, so this is indeed a very very delicate subject to me.

Can Basis parents please share if the incidents are serious and how the administration acts against it?

Thank you so much for your info.[/quote]

I am so sorry for your loss, and I understand your concern.  I was very worried about my son last year in 5th grade because he was our first boy to go to BASIS DC but he experienced virtually no problems.

Just a bit of advice - I would not interrogate your son every day about this particular subject, especially if he knows why you are concerned. Try to talk in general about his day, and see what comes up. One question to ask is "what was the best/worst or most interesting/most boring things that happened today.  If you get into a routine time and way of communicating it will be smoother.

I'm sure they have seen at least one amusing troublemaker by now. Not violence - students mimicking teachers behind their backs etc right now....."testing the limits."  Let him tell you the amusing stories and laugh instead of being shocked, and then if anything comes up with him, he will probably tell you.  The thing to tell him is there is a new principal who wants to stop all of this nonsense immediately, so the more we tell him the better.....

And he is very open to hearing from parents.....

But I did not hear about any bullying last year in my son's 5th grade class.  When my daughter came when the school opened, we had a boy she had a right to be terrified of and nowhere to turn because her friend was afraid of retaliation and we did not know anyone at the school well enough to confide in them.  Fortunately he moved out of state.  But now we would just go to the HOS immediately.  That is how much my attitude and my confidence level has changed.

It may seem chaotic if you see kids switching classes etc, but it is really controlled chaos, and the kids who are "so ghetto" in the older grades have passed a few years of comprehensive exams so most of it is posing (the expensive sneakers are real).  I would not worry unless he tells you something that makes you worry, but the most important thing is to keep the lines of communication open, and to laugh at some of the misbehavior - if you are ever shocked, be careful not to show it on your face so he will keep talking, and then tell him that something is very wrong and you think you should do something about it - even if it concerns another student.

Explain to him that if you do not stop a bully immediately they will escalate because they think they have found an easy victim.  So that even if what happens at first is not a big deal, you need to stop them in their tracks.  The biggest problem at BASIS is theft in my opinion, not violence and not bullying.

Also, a fantastic art teacher and great young person who had just graduated from the Corcoran School the first year she came to teach at BASIS DC, Ms. Jackson, is now an assistant Dean of some kind.  She is a very easy person to talk to so if you have a problem and you don't feel comfortable "bothering" the HOS go to her first.

But I really would not worry that much unless he gives you cause.  As I said, I was much more worried about my boy in 5th last year but he did not see or go through anything like what my girl did when the school opened.

It is a wonderful school.  Make sure he stays on top of his work.[/quote]

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