8313 McNeil St
Vienna, VA 22180

During my time at the school, as an African American student, I have faced immense racism from students and from staff as well. Ranging from stereotypes to even the N-Word. Being that the school is around 6% black, if you are a black student I would likely avoid this school at all costs, because the staff will disregard your grievances regardless of the severity. Unsurprisingly, this school has the reputation in northern virginia of being the “racist school,” and even had news coverage on the racist allegations regarding the football team. Furthermore, the IB program at this school is honestly pretty bad, and I would recommend you go to a school with AP instead.

I have been a parent at Stenwood for 3 years. I’ve always found the administrative and teaching staff to be kind, helpful and deeply committed to the care and development of my child.

I feel compelled to write a review after seeing some of the recent comments. My son is now a 9th grader at Oakton but he absolutely loved his time at Thoreau. Did they have issues with vandalism? Absolutely! But so did every middle and high school thanks to a stupid TikTok challenge where kids broke soap dispensers and ceiling tiles and posted evidence on social media. This issue is not the school’s fault. I thought it was a good idea when they started locking bathrooms to ensure more adult supervision in less bathrooms. My son had wonderful teachers both years! My only complaint is that they don’t give enough homework. But he has no homework in 9th grade either so I guess this is the new educational trend. He was very well prepared for high school! Special shout out to Mr. Loht, Mr. Firestein and Ms. Shewmaker. My son talked about them in particular and loved being on their team! They made learning fun. I didn’t have the opportunity to interact with the principal, but her communications to parents were excellent and I always heard my son and his friends say they liked her. She did a lot to show the kids why it is important to celebrate cultural differences. She also met with kids to get their opinions on how to improve the school so I know kids appreciated that she cared. We never had any issues with bullying but again this is the most common complaint of any middle schooler in any school. My kid always knew that if he or his friends had issues, they could see their counselor at any time. They are really nice to the kids and my friend used to rave about Ms. Gallagher and she credited her with helping her daughter deal with anxiety and an eating disorder. I could not imagine working with 13 year olds all day, but it is obvious to me that the staff at Thoreau are skilled at working with this age group. We will always speak very highly of my son’s time at Thoreau. Hope this review gives another perspective