8253 Luling Ln
Austin, TX 78729

It sucks you should not go there

LOE has excellent teachers, however their administrative team (the principal and assistant principal) are terrible. They expect the teachers to handle all discipline issues and will not support them when it needs to be escalated. Due to this, the teachers have to spend so much time handling the children who are misbehaving at the children who want to learn expense. They protect the children who are rude and non-compliant. The principal actually stated to me, "I don't believe in punishment...look at the recidivism rate of prisoners". They do not have spelling (this is intentional as they don't want to limit the words children use during free writing) and they do not grade their free writing for grammar or punctuation. Phonics and diagraming of sentences is not taught. Classic literature is not introduced, however, your 5th grader will read an article regarding a transgender girl that you won't be made aware of unless your child tells you after the fact. If you want to meet in person, sorry, that will not happen either. It is diverse (which is wonderful), but is losing amazing families and teachers in droves.

I'm so grateful for the teachers, paraprofessionals, counselors, and administrators that gave their time and energy to helping us succeed. Unfortunately, the student behavior and working environment is so bad that I will not be attending DMS next year. The entire year was...let's say crazy. The bathrooms on the first floor weren't open until around 9:20 am because of constant skipping class, vaping, and smoking. Students had their phones out all of the time, including during class and even hiding on the toilets to watch Tiktok, make calls, and video chat. There were countless violent fistfights ALL throughout the year. The bullying was nonstop, it's really out of control. There was a student that started mid-year but she only stayed for about two weeks because she was bullied so much. I felt really bad for her and for so many others that I saw were bullied. I still can't believe how many people got SUSPENDED this year, and honestly, the consequences were deserved. Some students were sent to The Rock (alternative school). The bad behavior was constant and everyone would end up suffering the consequences, like not being able to go outside, having free time, and using the restroom 10 min before and after the bell. There were so many class disruptions because of student behavior that it made it difficult for the teachers to stay on the lesson. I had a lot of substitutes throughout the year and students were horrible to them. Many of the students don't respect adults. They are disrespectful to substitutes, teachers, and administration. It's been a disappointing first year of middle school. The teachers, paraprofessionals, counselors, and administrators deserve better. They try their hardest to make DMS a great learning environment and they care so much for the students. There are students who want to be there and want to learn, but unfortunately the bad behavior from the majority overtakes the school. I hope things change.