Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

As a Hardy parent, I can tell you there is a lot of sensitivity to the way Hardy students are judged based on their behavior out of school. I've seen it firsthand - an exuberant group of AA Hardy students outside of school is judged as being a bunch of thugs; a similarly exuberant group of white students from a different school is viewed completely differently - as a happy group of non-threatening middle schoolers. It happens again and again.

I was exiting the Safeway this morning and witnessed it 1st hand. A bunch of children got off the bus and 2 (or 3) girls started fighting with one another. 3 guys jumped in to break it up.

You may call it exuberant, it is not a school I want for my children.

Sounds like the glass is half full.

Yeah, I'm impressed that the kids jumped in to break it up.

NP here: My children attend Stoddert and ride the bus to Filmore for arts classes. My oldest came home last week and said, " I never want to go to Hardy." DC said that the Hardy children play on the turn field in very aggressive ways and that made DC "scared." DC is 10, so is not that much younger than some of the Hardy students, but it was enough to bring up at home that day. And, DC made no reference whatsoever to race, just to put that out there.

There are fights in every Middle and High School in the USA -- don't single out the Hardy kids for that. Though I WILL say I've observed that a whole lot of them ARE especially loud when they leave the school, as are a lot of the Wilson kids. But just because they are loud outside doesn't mean they are disturbing the learning environment while school is in session. That's the real test of whether the kids as a whole want to learn -- so I'd like to know more about inside-the-school behavior, more than anything else.

Anonymous wrote:I happen by Hardy at dismissal a lot. They behavior is horrible. Do they ever have a crossing guard by the Safeway? Typically my car is surrounded by kids swarming on WI Ave. their behavior isn't horrible but they definitely are disrespectful, loud, aggressive-- typical middle school stuff. Very different from Deal dismissal but Deal isn't right on the road and has crossing guards on Nebraska.

Good one.I was driving on Nebraska avenue when school left out, and was wondering what kind of school is it with bunch of loudmouth kids.

Sometimes it's the girls who are the biggest fighters...

There was a cat fight during recess at Deal the other week. Hell to pay. The 7th grade assistant principal was completely livid with all the kids and made them stand in a line outside while he yelled at them.

I find him smokin' hot, my DC detests him because he is too strict. Oh, it may be love for me!

Yes I rember fights even at my very small, very elite private where we had all be together for years. Hormones at the worst at that age.

PP that posted about the Basis fight here-I am not concerned, especially since this was the first fight I have heard about-I am trying to say that at every school, or at least most schools there will be behavior that sets off alarms but may not give an accurate picture of the climate of the school environment or culture. I am much more concerned about behavior (and how distracting it is) in the classroom than I am what happens in the street when a crowd of hormone-riddled kids are released after a hard day at work.

We have a kid also at BASIS and to the best of DC's knowledge, there have only been two fights since the beginning of the school year - fights have been relatively rare. I certainly remember a fair number of fights when I was in middle school.

To our knowledge I believe there were suspensions involved each time - and the school typically has a process for investigating and escalating. I'm assuming this fight happened Friday (not yesterday) and the school will no doubt try to get to the bottom of it - it's possible (and likely) that one or more will get suspension and if the instigator has a history of doing this previously, I'm sure they will deal with that as well.

But right now it's too early to know, if this just happened - and also bear in mind that schools are typically not at liberty to discuss disciplinary actions, so you might not hear anything directly from the school about how it's being handled if your kid wasn't directly involved.

Exactly. It is about what the adults tolerate and how they respond to incidents.

Anonymous wrote:I agree. Occasional fights and obnoxious behavior are normal for middle school. Happens EVERYWHERE. The real test for me is how the adults at the school handle it. Do they deal with it in a way that discourages the possibility of more outbursts, or in a way that encourages more chaos.

It's a matter of degree. Some schools are clearly better than others at setting expectations of their students.

I've put three kids through middle school at a local private, never heard of a fight. One student threatened another once, and by the next morning was an ex-student. Afternoon dismissal is very calm, the school is required by zoning to have two off-duty police officers directing traffic, nobody tries anything. I can remember one incident when a student made a rude gesture to a driver, the driver snapped a cell phone picture and emailed it to the school, there was hell to pay for the kid.

I agree. Occasional fights and obnoxious behavior are normal for middle school. Happens EVERYWHERE. The real test for me is how the adults at the school handle it. Do they deal with it in a way that discourages the possibility of more outbursts, or in a way that encourages more chaos.