Smith Walker Rd
Floyd, VA 24091

I graduated from this high school a few years ago. I do not personally feel it prepared me for college. I prepared myself. I am diagnosed with a learning disability, which was continuously ignored and badly treated by staff. Multiple staff members had to ask me what my disability meant because they were unfamiliar with the term, and one teacher had no idea what an IEP was. The school is required to test students every year to make sure they go into college with the proper accommodations, but my case worker went two years without testing me, meaning my accommodations expired after only a year into college. I had to decide whether to pay $1,000 to get retested, or to go through my courses without accommodations and risk failing.There were also several issues with staff. I had an experience in which a staff member grabbed me by the shoulders and moved me to the side because I was "loitering in the hallway" (I was waiting for people to get out of my way so I could continue walking). There was also a time I sat in the guidance office for an hour crying, and finally left because no one was getting to me. This isn't inherently the staff's fault; guidance had way more responsibilities than they could take on, for example, and couldn't always handle things on time.Some of it isn't the school's fault, because the funding is so low that it makes it difficult to pay for things. However, if someone is looking for a school with things like a lot of AP opportunities, air conditioning, or a well-funded theatre program, this probably isn't the place.

Mrs. Griffith the principal is not a good hearted person. We appreciate the massive help and understanding with an extremely emotional situation. There is always something that can be done. When people choose kindness instead of "rules". Humanity is failing so hard in these times. Its such a sad world we live in. Here's to a core emotional wound for my daughter caused directly by Mrs. Griffith but I do understand some people just simply lack emotional empathy and she is one of them. She makes them do dangerous things like walking up and down steps with no backpacks and hands full. Lots of falling. Some teachers are nice but most were verbally abusive throughout the semester. My daughter enjoyed the friends she made but not the staff.