16 Harding Ave
Toms River, NJ 08753

I graduated from this school in June. I have a lot to say. First off, school councilors. The school councilors here put me through a worse state of depression. I was talking to 1 of them about self-inflicting and she just went on to talk about paper cuts ?? Then she kicked me out of her office. Boom. Second, bullying. I reported SEVERAL cases of bullying, and not surprisingly, I got ignored. Not even the teachers wanted to hear what I had to say. Speaking of the teachers, they don't even teach you!! I was doing better during my first day of 6th grade than I am doing now. I feel like those teachers were picked up from the side of the road and thrown into that school to put on some videos and a lame powerpoint. And can we please not normalize lying to our faces when talking to us? My teacher at the beginning of 8th grade said that we were allowed on our phones, allowed to eat during her class, basic stuff.. and then yelled at us when we did it. Wow. And the office is so rude. I go in there to text my parent because I'm sick and they just started giving me an attitude even when I was polite. They raise their voices for no apparent reason. And the kids here sucked as well. They bully you all time time and give you social anxiety, and no one even cares. My parents even hate this school. That says a lot. And some of the teachers here just act like literal toddlers. My teacher acted like a kid when teaching us. I'm not saying she was acting immature, I mean she was LITERALLY acting like a kid. Mr. G was the best teacher though. Top dog. I am so happy to be out of that school.

I’m leaving south soon due to moving but I do want to say it isn’t a terrible school, sure there is some bullying going around but there’s bullying everywhere, you have to learn to ignore it. They don’t really do much about bullying unless you’re persistent about the topic but besides that the school is to me personally, amazing. One of the best schools I ever went to, you even get to go outside for lunch if you want to, majority of the teachers care about your mental health and your well being even if their personalities are really strong, you just need to speak up and they will listen majority of the time, the teachers I’ve met there really made a difference in my life and I’m sad that I’ll be leaving them soon, the students there, they’re just normal teenage kids, you just have to find your group of people and remember you won’t fit in with everyone. If you are having problems with learning or couldn’t finish an assignment due to personal problems, the teachers encourage you to speak about it to them and probably will even give you an extension depending on the teacher and there’s even tutoring in the school too. Join clubs, you’ll be really happy that you did, I’ll admit the clubs are a little hard to find because you actually have to research them and find where it’s held, I truly do recommend this school.

This school is excellent with academics and early intervention of children with academic challenges. The only downfall is about 75% of the staff is neither culturally competent nor friendly to minority or children of color. This is an epidemic that many public schools in the area need to gain a sense of balance for within the environment.