Apulia Sta
Apulia sta, NY

Bullying is a big problem. Administrative staff have posters all over the school with "anti-bully posters" but when physical violence is consistently happening in FRONT of staff and nothing is addressed, this is a problem. Communication is quite lacking between teachers and families.

The teachers at Tully are nothing less than spectacular. I cannot stress enough how dedicated a mass majority of them are, regardless of anything. However, there are many problems, such as the feeling that the subject of mental health and anti-bullying campaigns are very disingenuous. There intentions seems good, however executed poorly, but not at the fault of effort put in by teachers or overall staff. It seems more that whoever is putting the ideas together is just glossing over the overlaying problem that many of the students, in all grades, are able to get away with bullying. Many times it isn’t flat out bullying for the older kids (9th and up), but it’s more of a constant feeling of being judged for taking an inch out of normality. However, with the younger kids (7th and 8th), it seems that the bullying is more direct. From what I’ve heard and seen, the younger kids are spoiled kids who have never dealt with someone not letting them do and get away with everything. A lot of the teachers, especially the longer tenured ones, are disappointed immensely and are ready to retire. This is surely a major problem that needs to be addressed by parents and administrators alike. This also ties into the fact that those who are different in any way, whether that be race, sexuality, or even just a strong passion for something seen as ‘odd’ get that one part of them made into their entire persona by kids that aren’t best friends with them. It’s plain out sad that there seems to be a fog of hatred in the school by the students, when the teachers try so hard to create a fun and enjoyable learning experience. Now, with all that said, during some of this I have been talking about students in general, and sometimes about specific groups of students, so this is not all to say everyone at the school are terrible people, but more that there is a small group that have a loud voice because of what they project.