Disillusioned Parent Pulled Daughter from Girls Prep Charter - another hedge funded scam

.....because of their personal guilt over what minorities must endure in order to make it in life in their twisted, unfair system, they think they can go into 'the hood' and save the little poor children. Much often, they alienate themselves from the community and establish schools that fence themselves off from the community, thinking that parents are too poor, uneducated, or tired to deal with their children's progress at school. .....I mentioned "corporal punishment" and they dismissed it as "enforced exercise". ... My daughter and her peers were being "emotionally abused" at the hands of this administration....Girls cannot burp, sneeze, cough, feel sick or lean against their chairs because they will be punished by taking points away (merit system). Girls cannot raise their hands to ask questions - they have special hand signals for bathroom, water, pencil, one on one, tissue, etc.). From the beginning the girls have been put in numbers (like a jail system) and must travel that way or get penalized.--My daughter's education for the last two years was non-existent..... former Girls Prep parent

This was sent to me in Feb. 2012 and I found it in my draft folder. Since I did a piece on Girls Prep charter the other day (picked up by Chalkbeat) where they threatened parents who picked up their kids late that they would drop the kid off at the local precinct and call ACS. So much crap about this charter has been coming in over the last 24 hours I can do a month-long series.

Hi there: My name is ------- and I just saw your video. WOW! I totally agree with you, but there is one thing the public needs to know about the Charter Schools that nobody seems to be addressing at these hearings and it is very important:

I will start by introducing myself. My name is ------ and I am the mother of a wonderful 6th grader, who ATTENDED Girls Prep for 7 years, since the very first day it opened its doors until December 22, 2011. I had to pull my daughter out of that school as it had transformed itself into a "boot camp" with children being trained to be robots. The elementary school has not been affected with this plague, yet.

My daughter and her peers were being "emotionally abused" at the hands of this administration. The principal is a liar who labeled, and in writing (in the girls records) classified almost an entire classroom as "bullies", my daughter being one of them. Bullying is a very serious accusation with many consequences. If my daughter is labeled as a bully just because the principal feels she could do this (no accountability) and I saw the proof, in writing along with some other parents that does not even constitute the "notion" of bullying then my daughter's future is at stake. What if someone asks to see her records? I had voiced this and all they said "it is for GP eyes only" - I don't care, it shouldn't be there. The principal and administration want the girls to feel, and be seen as these horrific kids.

Girls cannot burp, sneeze, cough, feel sick or lean against their chairs because they will be punished by taking points away (merit system). Girls cannot raise their hands to ask questions - they have special hand signals for bathroom, water, pencil, one on one, tissue, etc.). From the beginning the girls have been put in numbers (like a jail system) and must travel that way or get penalized. In the beginning of the year I spoke up about the girls constantly being threatened and made to go up and down the stairs as punishment, carrying all their books with them as they were not given a few minutes to go to their lockers to swap books all day long. I mentioned "corporal punishment" and they dismissed it as "enforced exercise". I fought for this school, tooth and nail, when they were trying to find a home as I BELIEVED that they had my kids best interest at heart; that they would deliver on the elite education in a nurturing environment that was promised, but no they didn't. My daughter's education for the last two years was non-existent. My girl has never done an ESSAY, BOOK REPORT or any other WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT that I remember doing when I was in school and if they did, the teachers never checked/corrected any spelling, grammatical or punctuation errors....to them, it was more important that they see "what they are thinking". In the real society, nobody is going to care what they they if they can't spell correctly, or don't know how to use the grammar and punctuations correctly.
> The teachers are mean and scream in the girls faces, and in my daughter's case were told by the teachers that they "don't care". I have many stories but you can get an idea by reading this article of what goes on: (pay close attention to the comment #5 - I am so sure this was done by a staff member, but in either case it was done from their view - how dare they perceive us like that). http://eastvillage.thelocal.nytimes.com/2011/10/25/amid-headlock-allegations-parents-complain-about-disciplining-at-girls-prep/
> Have you seen the parent reviews: http://www.greatschools.org/school/parentReviews.page?id=8287&state=NY The big kicker is that Eva Moskowitz's husband, Eric Gannis is on the board at GP. This school is spiraling down and out of control. Use it as an example as to what happens when the kids get to middle school, the voices of the parents and students are non-existent. I would not want to subject any kids to this - it is clearly emotional abuse (you should hear the stories). A teacher had already left the school by mid-October, 5 or 6 students had left by the beginning of October and 3 or 4 more pulled out on Dec. 22, 2011. Many of the girls are not allowed to use the bathroom and have had "accidents" in the classroom. They've gone as far as suspending students who scurry out of the classroom because they just cannot hold it anymore while the teacher makes them wait purposely or ignores them. They do not want to soil themselves, out of sheer embarrassment. Parents are not notified when the kids have in-school suspension, and on many occassions haven't been notified when incidents occur within school walls. Incidents that occur are covered up, denied at school meetings, and parents are told it "never occurred". They do this to make the child/parent look wrong, so they can save their own a--.

The list goes on and on, and MANY parents are NOT coming back next year. At one point I whole-heartedly supported charter schools, excited about their new ideas and innovations. Yet, I have been let down. I do not support the disrespect and mistreatment towards our children, and the alienation of all parents. Charter schools are supposed to be unique, "innovators", a different approach towards education. Those qualities went out the window after charter schools started taking on such harsh punishment, and even weaker academics. For some reason, because of their personal guilt over what minorities must endure in order to make it in life in their twisted, unfair system, they think they can go into 'the hood' and save the little poor children. Much often, they alienate themselves from the community and establish schools that fence themselves off from the community, thinking that parents are too poor, uneducated, or tired to deal with their children's progress at school. The 'ambitious' staff works around the clock in order to reform and act like The Saviour. Somewhere, there are good schools in which children can learn and have fun simultaneously. I do believe that there is a way to teach the wild child. I don't like the way some charter school children are treated because adults with power want more power, praise, and money for turning things around. It doesn't seem to be about the children. They gave power to the wrong people. If this could help in your battle to stop these "monsters", please feel free to reach out to me at ------ so we can discuss. I hope that we can stop all these charter schools that are spreading like wild fires, because it has become clearly proven to us that our needs are not their concern. In fact, charter schools have got it twisted...forgetting that they NEED US more than we need them.