Holly Tree Elementary

I still recognize the times of struggling to teach and learn lessons, arguments over less expansive curriculum, severe criticism over slights in getting lessons wrong or not enough right in various classrooms, or children talking over material too much or trying to pretend other kids were in whatever lessons were taught that day just to harass them over it. Better staff and students didn't have much hope in the long run with too many wrong settings there as starting points. They argued over who was special needs, had emotional or processing problems, certain faculty snarled and screamed at kids, took things too personally and figured penalties leaving kids "ashamed" were the "needed" or "normal" response. Even kids went on board with "bad words" and "tantrum" panics, despite their guilt over bullying, fighting, and being possessive in and out of school. The only kids "aloud to" cry or "weren't unruly" either were "hopefuls" for leaving the county when adults, staying to ingrain their efforts, or "didn't know, they're too adorable, fun-loving, and happy", obvious matter of opinion. People didn't know how or when to be kids or grow up, and no one from faculty to even students and parents have much peace or room to mature. I've BEEN on BOTH sides of that situation! In kindergarten, I said a girl "slapped" me because I was traumatized and confused when she screamed at me and was the loudest of us two in an altercation in that same classroom, I recall getting a stain on my shirt, the teacher told me to take my shirt off, then go to the in-class bathroom when no one wanted to see me. In 1st grade, a teacher with a pension for degrading, snarling, and shouting at children lost it most over "misbehavior" and imperfect grades. No one knew I had processing problems due to early-onset psychosis and developmental issues outside of autism, so I cried and got sent outside and then the principal's office. The teacher's assistant briefly joined in, and she still didn't get what went wrong when she apologized. Special ed is treated like all-day "detention" to place curricularly and behavioraly marginalized kids, which I was threatened with once in 4th grade by a primary teacher I was assigned to and the special ed supervisor. As for my guilt, when kids surrounded me and a special needs girl I was friends with, we pretended to be "affectionate" with each other because the kids were chased off. It escalated to children making us pretend to "kiss" and squealing so gleefully even faculty believed it, until it got straightened out down to excessively, painfully guilt-riddled apology letters. I fought a kid who wasn't noticed as special needs, threatened one girl in a screaming fight, unnerved another girl who wanted only girls as friends so she'd grow up, and I took that too personally and insulted her. I made a girl cry from getting her friend to ditch her during storytelling, in the 5th grade. I'm guilty, and people don't care for any perspectives "because it's past" or "because it can't go on forever". Even on buses, kids went from consoling any crying to tattling on and altercating at each other, sometimes physical and crossing personal lines or too rough. I can only imagine funding problems. Even a middle school friend babysat on the playground over a decade ago, and some goons nearly snatched all the kids. People everywhere with dangerous homes, undiagnosed mental and developmental problems and differences, even sleeping poorly or maybe have dependencies they try to keep out of school, but the emotional and social effects drop HERE. That's NO "safe haven", for children and adults alike. So the school had better have improved over the years, and if not, they and parents and children need to be honest and figure everything out down to solutions that keep up a safe environment and hopeful, fully inclusive, cognizant curriculum. The county has a lot of responsibility and involvement, too many people and places do. This is no lone school problem, this is a circumstantial and community problem, everyone needs to put equal improvements in.