5940 Springfield Rd
Custer, SD 57703

Not so good, a lot of bullying and not much done about it, some good teachers, but also some that should not be teaching. Ineffective administration, I would not recommend this school in it's present state.

Bullying is rampant at Douglas Middle school. They don’t do anything about it and try to sweep it under the rug. My child was attacked by another child and the school officer said it wasn’t “assault”. The current principal told me “our school isn’t nearly as bad as others.” As to suggest bullying is normal and completely bypassed the situation at hand. The previous principal forgot to remove us from an email thread where I was concerned about our child’s safety, and he wrote back, “This should be interesting. I will be in tomorrow. Keep me appraised of how this conversation goes please.” He made it very clear he didn’t care for our child’s safety. Obviously this is a trend with the current principal as well. They don’t have good firewalls on their computers so your child can search ANYTHING and EVERYTHING. Do they correct it? Nope. They just punish the child and go on their merry way. If your child has their computer privileges taken away, they will have an extremely difficult time getting any homework done. We had issues with their phones contacting us and we missed a lot of updates. We checked with our carrier and with the company that made our phones and it was determined it was their phone lines. Again, we were blamed for it and it wasn’t fixed. It’s extremely hard to see what homework is due and where we can find it to help our child. It’s very much “let the parents figure it out”. Our children’s medical info wasn’t properly entered in and we only found out after our child was attacked and we inquired if emergency services were provided for child. They looked at us funny and asked why. They pulled our child’s info and it showed it had no medical information on it but when they pulled our intake form, his medical information was printed neatly for them to copy down into their system. This school is ok (at best) if you have a cookie cutter child. If your child needs any extra help, they don’t help like they should and it doesn’t help your child prepare themselves for high school.

I chose this area to move as a thought a small school near EAFB would be more diverse than other schools, would welcome children moving in and have programs for kids on the spectrum.To be fair there are a couple of teachers that try and do care, but that is where it stops.If there is issues with racism and bullying they blame the child for not feeling safe enough at school to tell school staff immediately. They will not do a thorough investigation and will not find the racism he is experiencing. You know it’s happening because the words he says other kids are using, he would never put together or use on his own. The principal, resource officers and administrators are part of the problem.Since then I have spoken to multiple parents with children of various races other then white and found out they all dealt with racism at this school.School Discipline: When a child stands out on the playground because of his height and color they will notice every thing he does. Rather than dealing with the issue then and there ; They will discipline a child who’s on an IEP for something he does 3 days later when he does not understand or connects the behavior and consequences.Then the IEP process- you will tell the principal and special education department your child’s needs, that they need increased supervision on the playground or increased support during transitions. They will not put it in an IEP, almost at the end of the year if your lucky they may put in a behavioral plan. Your child will get in trouble frequently because of the lack of support and supervision that you expressed the child needs. Your child and you will feel blamed, and bullied by the principal when you are just trying to advocate for your child’s needs.Family Engagement The school does attempt to have activities for families, like bingo. They are expensive for a family on a tight budget. They are played up at school so kids get really excited about them. You save money to go, and it’s really overcrowded, which is overwhelming for a kid on the spectrum so you have to leave before the activity is over.Due to the racism which the principal allows to happen. The bullying of kids who have learning differences that goes unchecked. If you have a choice send your child anywhere but Vandenburg!!!.