Valley View Christian School

As an alumni of Valley View Christian School, and still a follower of Christ myself, I have experienced significant spiritual trauma after religious abuse from the institution. Before enrolling your child in this school, please consider the following:

1. There are no licensed mental health specialists available. Students with behavioral or mental disorders are not given proper care nor accommodation. There have been instances of rape/molestation (from outside sources, not within the school to my knowledge), student suicide, self-harm, eating disorders, and egregious bullying without proper refuge or combat strategy. While I have personally seen and encountered each of the aforementioned, there is no remedy beyond a figurehead teacher (not necessarily needing to be licensed as an academic instructor) recommending the afflicted "pray about it."

2. This may as well be a behavioral reconstruction facility. Students are treated like prisoners - while the regulations are strict, there is an attitude of "correction" to be noted. The first form of punishment is a red slip with a Scripture indicating that the student has sinned (these are given for talking in class, for not having a late note from a parent as per attendance, for having a portion of the school uniform unchecked). The detention slips are given liberally, in which a student may have to write sentences for an hour post-school hours that state things such as "Heaven and hell are in opposite directions, and no man can go both ways at once."

3. Girls are instructed, at a young age, to render their bodies as a catalyst for the sin of man. Girls have been told to wear men's clothes because they are "blessed", shamed for their bodies and had comments made by teachers in regards to their breasts and hips. Girls have been asked to corral into a room in which (female) teachers have asked them to bend over, squat, etc. during a "casual clothes" field trip to determine if men would be tempted by their "voluptuous" bodies. Middle school girls are told they look like "harlots" (verbatim) for wearing eyeliner on the lower lid. Girls are boys are not allowed to associate, lest she be regarded as his temptress. (Which, please consider we are talking about middle and high school children.)

4. As a child, I had asked a question in "devotions" class. (To clarify jargon - "devotions" is the weekly, gender-segregated, age-segregated mandatory in class which exists as private ministry between teacher and sects of students) The question was childlike in nature - interpreting a Scripture that read "I am the Light of the world" (quote of Christ) as conceit. The teacher's response to a young child was, "Did you just call my Lord 'conceited'?" I had tried to backpedal, even seeing as an Elementary aged child that I had made an error, but was interrupted. "No," she said, "I don't want to hear anything else from you. If you call my Lord conceited you will pay dearly for it." I sunk back into my plastic seat, feeling the scrutinizing eyes of everyone in the room.

Please do note that I am still a practicing Christian. My faith in Christ has not diminished, but my faith in the irascible, iron-fisted tyrant that Valley View Christian School had introduced to me in my childhood and adolescence has taken years to estrange myself from. I have still not fully healed from this, even as an adult almost thirty years of age.

You will be asked to sign a contract upon enrollment, as mentioned in the school's parent handbook, to "give the school the benefit of the doubt" should there be a conflict. But please, if you choose to enroll your children at Valley View Christian School, heed my words. My parents did, and I left this institution before any more repercussions could daunt my faith.