Cedarcrest Jr High School

Coming from experience going to this school made me realize how poor teacher’s treat students and don’t care about safety matters or your emotions well being, food was at absolutely disgusting, was overly greased and made a few students nauseous, nor vegetables were added in the menu. In conclusion this school is horrible.

The teachers (Mrs. Harris, Mrs. Perez, Ms. Helland, Ms. Iverson) that my sons have had are amazing. They are always communicating with parents and keeping them up to date. The principal is friendly and constantly engaging with the students. The specialist are interactive and fun to be in class with per my kids. Mr Hurt the gym teacher inspires my kids to go out and have fun and motivates them; One thing I find amazing is that the gym teacher greets my kids every morning by name. It shows me they take extra time to know who my child is, to the staff at Thompson my child is not just a number and a statistic but a person. So far my experience in Thompson has been great.

My autistic/ADHD son was 3 when he was enrolled in this preschool. We had to take him out after 4 months because of regression and behavioral issues caused by improper support and discipline for his special needs. He needed to be in therapy afterwards for 8 months and diagnosed with school-based trauma. It took us almost 9 months to undue the trauma and get him back on the track of progression. When re-enrolled the next school year, he was accepted into the SPED program at a different school and completely excelled there. Looking at the reviews of both places side-by-side, it became clear that he is not the only special education student that was severely let down by Bethel Hope. I spoke to two other parents during our time there that were also experiencing the same trauma-based regression and behavioral issues as my son which only started after enrollment and attendance of Bethel Hope. I do not agree with isolating children for discipline every time their special needs become too difficult for the educators to accommodate. I would have much rather had them tell me that they do not have the resources and educators with experience available for his IEP goals to be met, rather than going AGAINST his IEP in the areas of discipline and social emotional learning. I have my Masters in Education myself and trust me when I say do not send your preschool aged, special needs children here. Pick ANYWHERE else. I hope the two other children who were also isolated and disciplined for their disabilities are doing better today. I think about them often. I also had to practically beg the educators for updates and progress notes on my son, and when I requested daily check-in paperwork be sent home with him it was never once received. When I was able to get updates on how he was doing in class, I only received negative feedback and reports - not a single positive thing to say about my child at all. You cannot say you believe in integration and mixing of SPED and NT students and then completely abandon these special needs children when they need help the most.