420 17th St SE, Washington, DC 20003

Our experience at Peabody was frustrating and disappointing, particularly at the height of the pandemic but also in the months that followed. Teachers, staff, and even many of the high-income parents that drive discussion around school policies were dismissive (and often openly rude) about concerns from parents like me (I am a single mother) about how the inconsistent and confusing Covid restrictions were harming those families that couldn't afford nannies and tutors to get them through the constant school closures. Even once the children had returned to in-person learning, school staff had seemingly lost interest in teaching the kids, and staff refused to provide insight into what was going on in the classroom or how my child was progressing once he was back in school. I felt that essentially this was a school community catering to privileged families, pretending to care deeply about doing social good, but utterly failing those of us who didn't have the luxury of seeing things the way they did. Once I moved my child to a different school, his new teachers immediately identified that he had fallen behind his peers significantly and got him the help he needed, even though Peabody teachers never mentioned nor answered questions about how he was struggling academically. That was a lower priority for them than scolding him about pulling his mask down on the playground outside.