1860 15th Street, Olivehurst, CA 95961

My son was enrolled in the special education department here. His first year experience at school (preschool) was great. I had no complaints with the teacher/paras/principal at the time. During the days when school was not in session, my son would bring me his backpack to let me know he missed it.However, everything dwindled after his team changed the following years which included a new principal. I strongly believe having a good team is crucial. It was one thing after another. From my son falsely being accused of biting a para's hand (which I have written documentation of from that specific para herself stating he did not bite her after she falsely accused him of it), to his hand being bitten after in a separate incident and was told he bit his own hand (the bite mark on his hand was the size of an adult bite mark and my son has no history of self harm), to him crying traumatically over an incident that happened in the bathroom where no paras, specifically the ones who were in the bathroom with him, could explain why and what happened (my son rarely cries), and more. He literally traumatically cried all the way home in the car ride from school when I picked him up early that day from the bathroom incident. My son cannot speak for himself. He cannot tell me what happened to him. It broke my heart to hear and see him cry like that and not be able to tell me what happened. For 6 years of his life, I have never seen him cry like that under my care. He eventually started resisting in going to school. This was his way of communicating with me and telling me he no longer wanted to be there.So I advocated for him. I spoke up. I asked questions. That was when the microaggressions started from the team including the principal. They do not like parents who speak up. It ended up being such a horrible experience after his first year in school there with the new teams/principal. It was stressful. I was always worried after dropping him off. I never had a peace of mind. I considered transferring him to a different school but the experience here was so bad that I decided to take him out and homeschool him. I just want to clarify that this was my experience with the team my son had. I am not speaking about all the teachers/paras in the special ed grade levels. Instead, I am referring to the principal and the teams he had for 2023-2025. I can't emphasize enough the importance of having a good team.