Redbud Plan in Harvest Meadow by Cook Bros. Homes
Knoxville, TN 37924

The staff here only really care about the success of the very select few who take AP and Honors courses. They praise the kids who don’t have to try to get good grades while the ones who have to stay up late and study are looked down upon and are considered less than. This energy is then instilled into those kids who are in the AP and Honors classes. Basically, if you’re not in AP or Honors, you’re not smart, not a hard worker, and pretty much a waste of space (which is most of the school). The bullying here is horrendous. Racial and homophobic remarks are made with no repercussions. The counselors really don’t take emotional and mental challenges as seriously as they claim they do. I hated the entire time I attended this school. It was like I was in hell for four years.

I recently graduated from this school, and I’m going into 6th grade. I love the teachers here. They are very supportive, and some offer challenges ( which I believe you never learn if you aren’t challenged). Now, for anyone looking for a school where bullying never occurs this probably isn’t the school. In the lower grades ( pre-k through 3rd) bullying is rare and when it occurs it’s always dealt with almost immediately. However, for those older grades bullying happens more and it often doesn’t get dealt with as quickly ( sometimes not at all if minor). Also, most of the students here don’t care about their grades which often results in being more prone to bullying and having an anti social nerd reputation ( which I had but I loved it). For most kids, this is emotionally devastating; however it’s mainly in 4th and 5th grade. So, any grade under that should be fine. The school also uses group punishment rather than focusing on the kids who are genuinely causing problems. This happens in all grades, but mainly in 5th grade. It made me feel bad, but it was fine because it’s often used even more heavily in middle and high school; so now I don’t mind. When it comes to student population, there’s about 100 students per grade so 20 students per teacher. So If you want a small school with 10-15 students per class THIS IS NOT YOUR SCHOOL!!! Otherwise, I think it’s a great school and yes kids can sometimes be mean but it’s normally dealt with and by the end of it no harm is done. Now, I am going to give you a brief description of THE WORST DAY I had. “I walked into school and a girl gave me the L. I was walking to class and I tripped. I was late, so I was still wearing my backpack. When I walked in, the teacher scolded me about being late. Then later in the day, my whole class had to walk laps at recess because 5 kids in my class were bad for all class. Then after recess, my other teacher yelled at us ( I mean really yelled) and told us about respect.”As you can see, this is a generally good school and that happened in 5th grade, so it’s not like physical bullying happens often; I went there for 4 years and I was a anti social nerd who wouldn’t even be friends with most of the girls. And I? I was never physically bullied. Others were, but only those in the social groups that didn’t care about grades and never took accountability AKA: GO RITTA RANGERS!!!

The teachers are mostly kind and welcoming, but they don't care about how kids react with other kids and they don't care about if there is a fight. They just sit there and let it happen.