Ott St
Sumter, SC 29153

Overall, the teachers and staff were very helpful and they show concern about the children's well-being and their education.

Please be advised - DO NOT SEND YOUR CHILDREN to school in this county. My daughter (Hispanic) was continuously treated poorly by administration and when it was pointed out by the parent (myself) the office staff flat out lied and refused to provide proof of what they were telling me her behavior was (recorded phone calls, video surveillance, etc.) As an example, my daughter called me sick with period cramps from the nurse’s office, i could not leave work to pick her up and she had 2 hrs. left of the school day. The nurse said she had no meds (Advil/Tylenol) to provide to help, so I spoke to my daughter and told her she'd have to stay with the nurse & tough it out. My daughter was sent back to her class by the nurse and went to the bathroom because of this, missing class, she was suspended for skipping for 3 days OSS because of this instance, directly affecting her schooling. This has happened MULTIPLE times. On Halloween, the principle asked her to take off cat ears and a tail she was wearing (apparently they do not celebrate) my daughter removed them, and later asked a teacher that complimented them (in her clear backpack) if she could put them on, staff said yes and she did, later the principal saw her and suspended her OSS for 7 days for "being defiant". When I pointed out that my daughter followed all directions of all staff on site, they looked at her and said, "do you not know who the principal is? that they are in charge of everybody?" (insinuating my daughter (12) should intuitively understand and obey unspoken or untaught chain of command, the school dropped her suspension from 7 days to 5, BUT ITS STILL ON HER RECORD - PLEASE KNOW, IF YOU CARE ABOUT THE EMOTIONAL WELLBEING OF YOUR CHILDREN AT ALL, DO NOT REGISTER THEM HERE IN THIS DISTRICT. They don't care about your child, just potential test scores and remaining "title one". Anything and everything you say WILL be twisted and used as a weapon against the parent, so IF you HAVE to have your children here, please for your own safety & that of your families get all interactions in writing or recorded.

I went to this school in 2001-2006. My time there was bad because I was bullied a lot and the teachers never really did anything about it. But once the bully was being bullied themselves. They did something about it. Which is weird because they have a no bully tolerance zone policy. Which was ineffective and they never really followed. I remember my 3rd grade teacher making me stay behind for lunch because I couldn't get the division problems right. I had a learning disability and she wasn't really helping me. We had reported it to the prinicipal and she tried talking to her but the same thing kept happening. In the 4th grade, I had another chance to move after leaving the school in the 4th grade. But I decided once we got back. I wanted to finish out my grade and not have gone to three different elementary schools. So anyways, I came back thinking that the forth grade would be different. But the same thing happened again. I moved the following year in the fifth grade and I decided to go to the same school.I just wished that I would've known better and went to a different elementary school that actually helped.