446 Cambridge St
Springfield, OR 97477

My granddaughter had an abysmal kindergarten and partial first grade at this school. This was supposed to be a great school due to its bilingual nature. My granddaughter comes from a bilingual family and the prospects of learning more Spanish along with the English she already was comfortable with sounded like a positive choice. The bullying started on the playground in kindergarten with no one coming to her aid and continued throughout the first few months of first grade until my daughter pulled her out of the school. She was ignored and made fun of in class with the first grade teacher not supporting her, kids laughing at her and calling her dumb and stupid and having disgusting things happen to her on the playground. One girl picked up some dog feces on the playground then put her finger to her own lips and then kissed my granddaughter on her lips. No one came to her rescue. The teacher claimed it’s hard to prove anything if she didn’t see it happen. One day my daughter was in the office and an office worker made rude comments about my granddaughter as well. As you might imagine, there wasn’t a whole lot of learning going on in my granddaughter’s world and she hated every day she had to be at that school. Yes, there was a meeting with the principal and no, nothing positive happened. It’s now several months later, I’m homeschooling my granddaughter and we’re still hearing of the injustices done as she recounts them and our hearts break more for the inconsiderate and disgusting behavior of students that were supposedly friends, teachers who were supposed to care, respect and teach and faculty who clearly couldn’t have cared less. No, there wasn’t any parent/teacher discussion about the possibility of being dyslexic or anything else. As my granddaughter puts it “I don’t think my first grade teacher even wanted to be a teacher or even liked kids.” What a sad reflection to the beginning of her formal education. Thankfully, she is doing remarkably well now and becoming an exceptionally bright and capable student with a positive future ahead of her. The light is back in her eyes and her beautiful smile has returned. She’s proud of her progress and looks forward to learning every day. She’s created science and social studies reports she would probably never have been able to do had she remained in this school. She would still like to have more friends, but not the kind of friends who make fun of her and make her life miserable like at this school.