1319 5th St
Altavista, VA 24517

My 3 daughters attended AES. No school is perfect but I found majority of faculty genuinely concerned with student overall well being as well as education.

My experience at this school was absolutely terrible. My friend had special needs and their mom had explained countless times to officials at the school about their conditions and needs, provided evidence from doctors, therapists and the whole nine yards and they still did the bare minimum. Meaning the help they got was useless. They had all the resources to help them but they chose not to. They don't help their special needs kids to the level they're capable of.The teachers are terrible and some brag about people failing their course. The teachers that have taught at that school for awhile with the exception of few, most just hand out packets and busy work instead of interacting with the kids. A lot of teachers will yell at students and things for little to no reason and it's completely unacceptable.The counselors are rarely where they need to be and aren't very concerned with student well being. They talk with a script and with their tone it's very hard and stressful to talk to them. Punishment is completely biased and despite the "no bullying tolerance" policy they have they often times let the guilty party get away with bullying and harassment. There have been many instances where the victim gets in trouble for defending themselves or standing up for themselves and if someone who isn't involved decides to defend their friend they will get punished for just being involved regardless if the situation was physical or not.There have been instances of verbal foul play that end up in physical violence and it is rare that the bully is invested or punished. The staff look past months of harassment and bullying until there is a physical altercation. If you ask anyone with died hair and a dark style if they've experienced bullying, or know anyone who fits the "typical bully" standard they could give you a list of almost the same people every single time. There are kids who bark at people remotely different from themselves, I've heard white kids pass around the n-word, other slurs be passed at gay kids. Sometimes they physically hurt people. It's always the same people doing it too but they get away with it if they are slightly good at the sports they play considering it's the only thing administration pushes. Every year it's the same thing people pushing sports and defending art programs and the theater department isn't even funded and are lucky if a single microphone works.I don't recommend this school to anyone.