Mamie Towles Elementary School

My son attended a special education pre-K program at this school and it was an absolute nightmare. His teacher honestly did care and did the best that she could, given how it seems that everything else about this school was working against her. She honestly deserves to work for a better school.Unfortunately, for every good thing I could say about his teacher, I have a bad thing to be said about the TA she was stuck with. This person has no business working with children, she actively hated the kids in the class and would routinely insult and debase them. The other teachers would routinely mock the kids in that class (more than once during drop off and pick up, I heard other teachers referring to the classroom as "the stupid kids class"). Bullying was rampant. There was one incident where my son literally had his face shoved into the ground while teachers just watched.Add to that a general refusal of anyone at the school, other than his teacher, to ever reply to an email or return a phone call (we never once got an update on IEP accommodations), and you'll find that this school is perfect for the parent who wants to just drop off their kid and forget that they exist for the rest of the day, but a horrible choice for everyone else.It was so bad that my son, at 4 years old, learned how to force himself to be sick (not just pretend to be sick, he actually made himself sick) to be able to get sent home so he didn't have to spend more time at the school.This school is the reason that I'm so incredibly grateful that my son was one of the lucky people who got selected in a charter school lottery, because if he didn't, we'd be figuring out a way to home school before submitting him to this school, because I honestly consider willingly sending your kid here to be a form of child abuse.

I wish I didn't have to write this review, but after pulling my 4 year old and giving it some time, I felt it's important to do so.My daughter was enrolled at Lion and Lamb for 3 months and we had a great experience with administration and one of her teachers; she felt happy to be dropped off and we felt she was safe. Her favorite teacher moved and we knew she had been there long enough to form a good relationship with the one that stayed.One evening, she came to me crying upset about what I packed in her lunch because it made her sick and I told her I just wouldn't pack it again. She would not stop crying and said she is scared to go back to school and was sobbing telling me she was forced to eat her food. She was so upset, she threw up telling me.When I emailed the next day, I felt the assistant director understood the severity of the issue and assured me she would speak to the teacher, but when she got back to me, she stated the teacher admitted to "being harsh" with my daughter but it was because she always has parents complain about their child not finishing their lunches. She offered me to move my daughter classrooms, which I appreciated, but my daughter said she is scared to see the teacher who forced her to eat.When I emailed to let the Director know my daughter was scared to go back, she simply stated "Thanks for letting us know! We will miss her!"I work in education, specifically trauma-informed education and the teacher who treated my daughter this way needs to be trained about being harsh with children and routines around children and food. I would have appreciated being assured they will address this in the way of education and being sure it won't happen to another child.This is a Christian based preschool and it would be a shame if children view God's love to look this way. Let alone, their view of how adults should treat them should not look this way.A child's first years are so crucial and shape their expectations of the world. I cannot recommend a preschool that overlooks being harsh with children.