North Beach Middle School

This would be a no star rating for the 2021/22 school year if I were just rating the 5th grade, but the first grade teacher was helpful, cared about her students, encouraged parent involvement and outside help, and included everyone so her class rating alone would have been a 4. She was great, our issue was with the unresolved bullying in the 5th grade class.Fifth graders were effectively taught how to bully during a lesson on segregation in which the class was divided into two groups. One group was given treats, while the other group had water bottles and bathroom privileges removed. The first group was told not to stand up for the second group. If they did try to stand up for them then they would have their privileges removed as well (roles were never reversed to ensure both sides felt and understood the true purpose behind the lesson). Unfortunately, this lesson led to some children believing they were better than others and they put their new training to use throughout the rest of the school year. Several times my child was told to give up her lunchroom seat because another child wanted to sit there. Other times she was excluded from group activities, rules were changed mid game so she had no opportunity to win, the children were allowed to call others inappropriate and/or completely incorrect names, and no effort was made to include my child when she opted to work alone on projects rather than in groups with her bullies. During outdoor activities when the same kids were repeatedly picked last for teams no effort was made to correct the issue (there is a simple fix to even the playing field: last kids picked are the next games team captains, but the teacher preferred not to intervene. She stated her opinion, that kids need to figure it out for themselves). When my child was being bullied the teacher just said that she cannot help if she can’t see it when it is happening. She stated that just telling them (the bullies) it’s not ok after it happened, would not work. Essentially telling my child she was going to just permit the bullying. Lunchroom, or playground monitors could have been told there were ongoing issues, the school counselor could have been brought in to work with the bullies, but nothing was done.