3992 Burton Ave, Update, MI 48188

Parents, please think very carefully before sending your children here. Unfortunately, Owen Intermediate has become an environment where failure is tolerated and even enabled by the administration and staff.The level of bullying is staggering, and the principals appear completely uninterested in addressing the incidents, behaviors, and policies in any meaningful way. Instead, you are met with a rehearsed list of excuses pulled from a binder and repeated endlessly. There is no real willingness to engage in honest, productive conversations about bullying or staff accountability.Meanwhile, the students who actually want to learn are paying the price. Classrooms are constantly disrupted by the same group of students whose behavior repeatedly derails lessons. Teachers often cannot even begin or complete a lesson without having to stop and correct the same disruptive behavior over and over again.To make matters worse, there are virtually no meaningful consequences for repeat offenders. The same students fight, disrupt, and bully others, only to receive the same short suspensions—three to five days—again and again. There is no escalation of discipline. After the second or third suspension, expulsion should at least be considered, but that never seems to happen here.Instead, the rest of the student body is forced to continue sharing classrooms and hallways with these same individuals. This exposes them to ongoing bullying, chaos, and stress that no child should have to endure just to get an education. Many students are not learning; they are simply trying to survive the school day.This school used to be known as South Middle School. Growing up in this area, students from North (now McBride) knew South Middle as the place where the “bad kids” ended up. Sadly, it feels like that reputation has never truly changed. The dysfunction has continued from one generation to the next.This entire year has been incredibly disappointing and, frankly, traumatic for our family. We are simply trying to make it through the remainder of the year so we can move on to something better.If you have the option to enroll your child elsewhere, I strongly encourage you to do so. No inconvenience is too great when it comes to protecting your child’s mental health and their love for learning.

Fantastic! The rating on this school is not the greatest and we were nervous to send our child here. She is learning soooo much and is HAPPY.