Anonymous wrote:End this forum PLEASE!
There is no such thing as bad publicity, but enough is enough.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:After reading that email from the HOS, I think a lot of people need more instruction in English, both in writing and reading comprehension. He does seem to try to mask his inexperience with a lot of jargon.

Can you believe that the author is a former English teacher? Although I do not know that he ever taught at Basis, even their English teachers would not accept this kind of drivel from 8th graders.

He is an illustration of why our children are not learning the nuts and bolts of English at Basis - he never got called on the nuts and bolts. And he must not have taught long there, because the only English Basis teachers are required to teach is grammar and vocabulary.

At the beginning of his incomprehensible email, I did have myself a laugh. I would be hard pressed to believe that an unsophisticated corporation ever engaged in this nonsense. We would not have let them in a situation like this where they were supposedly trying to clarify and reassure. He may have created the verb "messaging," or he may have heard it at some leadership seminar (presumably not catering to 13 year olds), but the poor guy has got to let "messaging" go now, since most parents are not familiar with that language (I am, but not the kind of amateurish employment of it that his email demonstrates), and it is not surprising to me, having dealt with foreign, albeit sophisticated clients, that some parents who do not really speak English did not get the message. It is also not surprising to me that literate well heeled parents whose children had been "adversely affected" by the "incident" were infuriated by such nonsense.

He could have consulted the psychologist they now have on staff (still no school nurse), or requested assistance from real lawyers (which is what to me it sounds like he was trying to be). He presumably has assistance from genuine lawyers because of the IDEA and ADA violations, and there is a fantastic Introduction to Law teacher who would have given him an F for this email were he purporting to be a corporation.

We are much more precise and concise even when trying to avoid all responsibility. And we use English. And any judge would have called us out on the "lab materials" as well, since it is not clear at all from his message that they were something as insignificant, replaceable, and tempting as candy. It is deeply ironic that one of the "leadership failures" here was an inability to communicate in writing. F in English and D in corporate doublespeak and again, F in legalese.

Perhaps he ought to go back to teaching English. He might learn something from the grammar and vocabulary he is required to teach 8th graders. Or they might learn nothing the entire year. That too has happened at Basis.

But a very poor show and a pitiful attempt at damage control. Not surprised it exploded in its face. He need an editor.

Anonymous wrote:After reading that email from the HOS, I think a lot of people need more instruction in English, both in writing and reading comprehension. He does seem to try to mask his inexperience with a lot of jargon.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For people who are so hesitant to want to deal with kids who steal, who are so focused on kids feelings, you sure don't seem to give a damn about everyone else's feelings, you want everyone else publicly shamed, publicly humiliated, publicly punished, and dirty laundry aired over the most trivial of things...

Pretty hypocritical and fraudulent in my humble opinion.

Also, I had a kid read the email from the HOS, who understood it just fine to mean grades wouldn't be hurt. So much for "mumbo jumbo" and "messaging" and "jargon" you keep carrying on about - I think you are insulting our intelligence with that nonsense at this point.

And finally, you'd do well to not keep constantly badmouthing "boosters" - a.) if you presume to be wanting to "help" the school with your criticisms, then that too would makes you a "booster" because there's no formal membership or dues, it's just involved parents b.) if you care at all about your child's teachers, then it doesn't make sense to be demonizing and alienating the people who've been fundraising for ATF and helping with activities and other things. Just because someone pushes back against you or refutes you doesn't mean there's some organized conspiracy of "Boosters" sitting in a DCUM war room with a set of canned talking point. Here it's all just random posters, random parents, and even some posters who aren't even involved in the school, from what I've seen. From the many years I've been on DCUM, I've seen people constantly weighing in on threads about schools that they aren't even involved in, whether on the pro or con side.

Anonymous wrote:For people who are so hesitant to want to deal with kids who steal, who are so focused on kids feelings, you sure don't seem to give a damn about everyone else's feelings, you want everyone else publicly shamed, publicly humiliated, publicly punished

I am not sure where you are sensing any hesitancy to "want to deal with kids who steal" - of course they should be dealt with, and harshly but only if they can be identified. In this case, they were not

if you care at all about your child's teachers, then it doesn't make sense to be demonizing and alienating the people who've been fundraising for ATF

I care a lot about the good teachers my children have. I also care a lot about the bad ones, and unfortunately have had little success during the year - just the confidence that they will be fired at the end, which all of them have been.

I think given the post by the former teacher, the actual distribution of ATF money (and hence its real purpose) has to be further investigated. If all the money raised from parents at Basis DC goes to fulfill contractual obligations Basis signed up for at the beginning of the year, especially if it included a set formula for bonuses, our hard earned money is just being used to pay the teachers salary, pure and simple. That is not what they say when they raise the money, and they may have no clue. Neither do I. But I do think it is important to figure out.

In terms of the rest of the post, I don't quite know what to make of it. No there is no conspiracy of Boosters, but there is a party line, or a few, and until recently I only reproached those whom I thought were being gratuitously and perhaps unfairly cruel - aka your child failed their comps because............ any number of reasons, laziness, stupidity, etc. Nothing to do with BASIS. But the great thing that did happen at that meeting (one of the only ones) was that they have finally perhaps agreed to fund a summer school, for those kids who have not been lazy but failed their comps or classes anyway....... they do exist.

The fact remains that

I am profoundly disappointed and disturbed by what happened during the class itself, and what has happened since then. I am usually accused of being an insufferable BASIS BOOSTER on this forum. And up til this incident, I have never made a single negative statement about BASIS on this forum.

I have always protected our privacy, and there is a lot that has needed to be protected over the last few years. But I did it because I thought that every year things have been getting better, and that we were on the right track. I do not believe that anymore. We are losing students at the bottom and the top, where losing (or not getting in the first place) kids at the bottom puts us at financial risk, while losing at the top, and losing "top students," means we will not be able to send those kids off to college as Basis graduates. And we are mistreating the students who are at the school, virtually guaranteeing that those who have other options after middle school will not stay.

I was never scared for my child's grade, although I will admit that it took a hell of a lot to convince my child that they did not have to be scared for their grade, and they are still scared of the Dean - that is how bad the experience was for said child. I have been trying now for a long time to explain how some of the other parents and other children reacted to the incident and this email. Which from talking to many of them over the last week, I now understand. I admit I never would have understood the depth of the fear and the level of confusion without these conversations. So I can understand why you don't understand. And I guess I can understand why you won't take my word for it.

But the only person who really needed to understand was Cameron Louis. And I will never understand why he did not understand. I will never understand why he ignored at least a couple of parents telling him that there was still a problem. I will never understand why he did not just go in and fix it, because he had the power to do so on Monday morning, just by bringing the Dean in and making him apologize, and explaining to the students that their grades were safe. And those students would have promptly gone home and told their parents. And this would have been over.

Blame the parents for not correctly parsing the email. Blame the children for overreacting.

Typical of the lot of you:

Also, I had a kid read the email from the HOS, who understood it just fine to mean grades wouldn't be hurt. So much for "mumbo jumbo" and "messaging" and "jargon" you keep carrying on about - I think you are insulting our intelligence with that nonsense at this point.

You all sound very familiar, blaming both parents and children, for stupidity. Lack of reading comprehension - read lack of education, or an unforgivable and inexcusable failure to master the English language because no matter where you came from, you live in this country. This is what I hear on this forum about why kids failed their comps. This is what I hear on this forum about why kids can't hack it. Laziness cannot be brought up this time, but if you could you would. So instead you bring up hysteria and stupidity (lack of intelligence), because surely I was not insulting [/b]your intelligence, you are in you post insulting the intelligence of everyone else who did not understand the email.

That is the Basis strategy. And you have learned it well. Blame the victims. Always. No conspiracy required.

But ultimately, as the phrase goes, "it is what it is."
And it is awful. It is a terrifying incident that should never have happened, that this email that your kid so easily understood did nothing to ameliorate - it just dismissed the entire thing and made many more confused.


Blame the parents for not correctly parsing the email. Blame the children for overreacting. But [b] "it is what it is." And what it is, plain and simple, is awful. What happened in that class should never happen at any school, much less Basis DC, and verged on child abuse (thankfully not physical, but verbal and emotional, and I cannot even begin to think about what this man has been doing to students one on one behind closed doors).

And what has happened since his abusive and wrong behavior is incomprehensible. Despite the reassurances of the poor chemistry teacher, 8 days later I was still communicating with parents who were scared, children who were scared, and getting more and more furious at the man who could have done a quick fix and decided not to. Who is it that fiddled while Rome burned? That is what I feel he has been doing. You may disagree, but how close are you to the situation?

So we say goodbye to another group of "top students" in what would have been our third graduating class, where all the BASIS bashers are just waiting to slam us for our college admissions, and I am terribly afraid that they will be able to. And I am not even referring to kids in our element. And I was really hoping that my child would graduate with the solid peer group that has been formed over the last few years. I do not think that will happen now. Thanks to Cameron Louis. No one can ever undo what happened in that classroom. No child who was there will ever forget it. Some children and parents may have not been upset about it, but some were.

And because of the HOS lack of action after the fact, despite being told by parents like me directly that there was still a problem after his unfortunate email, what happened is becoming the biggest thing parents and students think about when they think about Basis. And I will admit I am no longer innocent in this in terms of this forum. I have besmirched the reputation of Basis DC. I cannot help but feel that they did it to themselves first.

Whether or not it should have become a problem, it is a problem. And without some changes in the staff - replacing the HOS, getting rid of the Dean, and the woman who is in charge of the tardies, who is the mother of his child, this problem will just continue to fester. Because the people in charge did nothing to redeem themselves after the fact. Absolutely nothing.

And just wait, the mother of the Dean's child will "forget" that the tardies after this debacle were excused, will not inform a child of which tardies he is being punished for, and since the consequences are imposed immediately, will not afford that child or their parents the opportunity to dispute the validity of the tardies which result in the punishment.

Please understand, until fairly recently, I thought many of the problems at Basis DC had been solved, were being solved, and would be solved appropriately and immediately when they arose. I believed that. I was wrong.

you sure don't seem to give a damn about everyone else's feelings, you want everyone else publicly shamed, publicly humiliated, publicly punished, and dirty laundry aired over the most trivial of things...

Pretty hypocritical and fraudulent in my humble opinion.

Please tell me how trivial you think this is.

We even have a new rule that is making girls who are menstruating hide pads in socks and elsewhere, because the command came down from on high that they were no longer allowed to carry purses, and they are not allowed to carry much between classes, and you cannot hide sanitary napkins in your accordian folder. Certainly those poor girls are tardy sometimes, because permission to go to the bathroom is not always granted, and you do not want blood to seep out of your underwear for all to see. It goes without saying that these girls are losing the extra credit you get for not using bathroom passes. So maybe some of you on the inside and the outside are starting to get a sense of why I am so worried about our future as a school right now. It was not just this incident, although that would have been enough for me, it is other stuff going on.

But if you have such strong felings, negative feeligs, if you hate it so much, why don't you send your kids to a different school? I would, and will, the moment i think BASIS is not a good fit for my child.