545 Coffee St
Mandeville, LA 70448

My autistic child is currently enrolled at Mandeville Elementary. Scenes his enrollment, I have received weekly negative reports about my son. Also, my autistic son has not been able to attend a single field trip. The day before or even the day of a field trip I will get a call from the school that he is being to difficult and has to go home/ stay home. I will also get calls to pick him up, not because he has a fever or he is sick in any way, but becaUse he’s tired. This school is not equipped in anyway shape or form. In fact they believe his stemming is a form of attention seeking.

I'm an alumni, and I can tell you that my experience with the staff was by-and-large was awful. During my senior year, I was in numerous arguments with my guidance counselor about courses I needed/wanted to take. Example: I was a creative writer, and when I asked her if I could join the 6th hour Creative Writing Course, she advised me against it, saying I should just take the final two hours of the last semester off. When I told her that I really wanted to take the course, she kept giving me pushback. Then she said I would need to schedule a 5th hour in order to take the 6th hour course, and that there were no courses she would advise me taking. So I went to the teacher of the Creative Writing course, and asked her what I could do. She told me I could jump in as her assistant for 5th hour, and then could pop into the 6th hour writing course. I got written permission from the teacher, and brought it to the guidance counselor. She was furious. And for what? Because I took initiative and showed interest in my education? At some point, my mother asked to meet with the counselor, to which she told my mother "your son should consider a trade school because he isn't college material." Really. From a faculty member. At that point, when I tried to approach administration to get a new guidance counselor, they weren't helpful or forthcoming with that information. Luckily, my friend's mom was a guidance counselor there, and when my friend (whom was working in the guidance office as an assistant) heard some of the arguments, asked her mother she could be my new counselor. She agreed, and I got to take my creative writing class with no love lost. Flash forward: though I wasn't "college material", I went to college and graduated with a degree in English. And while in college, I made friends and mentors with the faculty and was invited to attend graduate school for free under a Graduate Assistantship, where I received my Master's in (guess what?) Creative Writing. In addition, there were a few teachers who weren't up to snuff, including a math teacher whom would get visibly frustrated when students asked questions because they didn't understand the material. We just stopped asking the teacher questions and instead would ask other students for help. It was ridiculous. I know the ratings for this school are high, but from what I've read, things have become worse. As a parent, I would take an active role in insuring my child was being properly guided at MHS.

Switched from private school and a year of homeschooling. They have made it such a smooth transition for my child. Love the teachers and administration!

Disgusting. Horrible. Teachers teach wrong things, teachers are rude to students who get an answer, and worst of all, bullies don’t get punished, but the kid who gets bullied gets punished for “being scared to report it”, even though the bully has got in fights, and the kid was scared of him.