Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We’ve had four years of experience at Longfellow and never heard of a bullying problem. We have a very high opinion of how Ms. Kihm runs the school.

I suspect there is one parent or child who keeps posting these extreme versions of how Longfellow is run.

I also find all these posts saying bullying happens because of the AAP program to be suspect.

x10000

I wonder if the non AAP posters (OP) are looking for trouble where there is none. Watch it, the admin knows who you are, seriously - they didn't just fall off the turnip truck.

We have had kids at both Longfellow and Cooper and have seen no bullying. If you do, then address it with your child, but don't go in to any school anticipating that there will be a problem, or you just might create one.

What a strange post!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What was the bullying involved that administration decided to counsel the "victims."?

In the case that I know of, the victim (a white girl) was singing along with a rap song and a black girl screamed at her, telling her it "wasn't her music." She then proceeded to physically (punch and slap) the victim for about a week afterwards in the hallways.

Did they speak to the counselor together? That would have been ideal. If the rap music had the n word then that is very touchy and it needs to be spelled out that nobody should be using that word, even signing with rap. It would have been helpful for the AAgirl to be able to explain what offended her and for the other girl to explain her intentions. I cannot imagine instead choosing a "victim support group" for intervention.

My kid once was accused of being "racist" by another-a word thrown around way too much in middle school. What the other child didn't know is my kid is 50% the same ethnic group as he was and we saw nothing racist in his use of an accent he hears with his own relatives.

If pp posted a true story, then the school has gone pc nutso. The second poster's reply is pc garbage. I would never use the "n" word, but if the AA community keeps defending their own use of it, then it is still "out" there. As long as the word is present in society, it is open for abuse. As long as people like Whoopi Goldberg do not understand that, it will continue to be used.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What was the bullying involved that administration decided to counsel the "victims."?

In the case that I know of, the victim (a white girl) was singing along with a rap song and a black girl screamed at her, telling her it "wasn't her music." She then proceeded to physically (punch and slap) the victim for about a week afterwards in the hallways.

Did they speak to the counselor together? That would have been ideal. If the rap music had the n word then that is very touchy and it needs to be spelled out that nobody should be using that word, even signing with rap. It would have been helpful for the AAgirl to be able to explain what offended her and for the other girl to explain her intentions. I cannot imagine instead choosing a "victim support group" for intervention.

My kid once was accused of being "racist" by another-a word thrown around way too much in middle school. What the other child didn't know is my kid is 50% the same ethnic group as he was and we saw nothing racist in his use of an accent he hears with his own relatives.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We’ve had four years of experience at Longfellow and never heard of a bullying problem. We have a very high opinion of how Ms. Kihm runs the school.

I suspect there is one parent or child who keeps posting these extreme versions of how Longfellow is run.

I also find all these posts saying bullying happens because of the AAP program to be suspect.

x10000

I wonder if the non AAP posters (OP) are looking for trouble where there is none. Watch it, the admin knows who you are, seriously - they didn't just fall off the turnip truck.

We have had kids at both Longfellow and Cooper and have seen no bullying. If you do, then address it with your child, but don't go in to any school anticipating that there will be a problem, or you just might create one.

Anonymous wrote:We’ve had four years of experience at Longfellow and never heard of a bullying problem. We have a very high opinion of how Ms. Kihm runs the school.

I suspect there is one parent or child who keeps posting these extreme versions of how Longfellow is run.

I also find all these posts saying bullying happens because of the AAP program to be suspect.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What was the bullying involved that administration decided to counsel the "victims."?

In the case that I know of, the victim (a white girl) was singing along with a rap song and a black girl screamed at her, telling her it "wasn't her music." She then proceeded to physically (punch and slap) the victim for about a week afterwards in the hallways.

Did they speak to the counselor together? That would have been ideal. If the rap music had the n word then that is very touchy and it needs to be spelled out that nobody should be using that word, even signing with rap. It would have been helpful for the AAgirl to be able to explain what offended her and for the other girl to explain her intentions. I cannot imagine instead choosing a "victim support group" for intervention.

My kid once was accused of being "racist" by another-a word thrown around way too much in middle school. What the other child didn't know is my kid is 50% the same ethnic group as he was and we saw nothing racist in his use of an accent he hears with his own relatives.

If pp posted a true story, then the school has gone pc nutso. The second poster's reply is pc garbage. I would never use the "n" word, but if the AA community keeps defending their own use of it, then it is still "out" there. As long as the word is present in society, it is open for abuse. As long as people like Whoopi Goldberg do not understand that, it will continue to be used.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What was the bullying involved that administration decided to counsel the "victims."?

In the case that I know of, the victim (a white girl) was singing along with a rap song and a black girl screamed at her, telling her it "wasn't her music." She then proceeded to physically (punch and slap) the victim for about a week afterwards in the hallways.

Did they speak to the counselor together? That would have been ideal. If the rap music had the n word then that is very touchy and it needs to be spelled out that nobody should be using that word, even signing with rap. It would have been helpful for the AAgirl to be able to explain what offended her and for the other girl to explain her intentions. I cannot imagine instead choosing a "victim support group" for intervention.

My kid once was accused of being "racist" by another-a word thrown around way too much in middle school. What the other child didn't know is my kid is 50% the same ethnic group as he was and we saw nothing racist in his use of an accent he hears with his own relatives.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What was the bullying involved that administration decided to counsel the "victims."?

In the case that I know of, the victim (a white girl) was singing along with a rap song and a black girl screamed at her, telling her it "wasn't her music." She then proceeded to physically (punch and slap) the victim for about a week afterwards in the hallways.

Anonymous wrote:What was the bullying involved that administration decided to counsel the "victims."?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agree with the positive statements about Cooper's administration, especially principal Arlene Randall. (Hope she does not retire soon.) Great leader, does not give in to pushy parents or bullies of any kind.

In other ways the school culture strongly emphasizes kindness as a value as well. As you walk through the halls, you see every door has a different quote on the topic.

I expect it was easier for Randall to keep tabs on individual Cooper students than it was for Kihm to keep tabs on individual Longfellow students, when Cooper had 750 kids and Longfellow had 1375 kids, including a lot of AAP kids whose base school was Cooper.

Things will change as the enrollments at Cooper increase and at Longfellow decrease. Kihm is generally very involved, and Longfellow also takes specific steps that emphasize kindness as a value, including recognizing students for generally being kind to their peers. That's actually been a positive change at the school - when our first started there, the only students who seemed to be recognized were AAP students winning Science Olympiad awards or getting named to some top orchestra.

Cooper has had AAP for two years now and it's no different for my daughter than when my son attended Cooper before AAP. My kids have not experienced any kind bullying.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agree with the positive statements about Cooper's administration, especially principal Arlene Randall. (Hope she does not retire soon.) Great leader, does not give in to pushy parents or bullies of any kind.

In other ways the school culture strongly emphasizes kindness as a value as well. As you walk through the halls, you see every door has a different quote on the topic.

I expect it was easier for Randall to keep tabs on individual Cooper students than it was for Kihm to keep tabs on individual Longfellow students, when Cooper had 750 kids and Longfellow had 1375 kids, including a lot of AAP kids whose base school was Cooper.

Things will change as the enrollments at Cooper increase and at Longfellow decrease. Kihm is generally very involved, and Longfellow also takes specific steps that emphasize kindness as a value, including recognizing students for generally being kind to their peers. That's actually been a positive change at the school - when our first started there, the only students who seemed to be recognized were AAP students winning Science Olympiad awards or getting named to some top orchestra.

Anonymous wrote:Agree with the positive statements about Cooper's administration, especially principal Arlene Randall. (Hope she does not retire soon.) Great leader, does not give in to pushy parents or bullies of any kind.

In other ways the school culture strongly emphasizes kindness as a value as well. As you walk through the halls, you see every door has a different quote on the topic.