Discouraging Kids from Opting Out at Washington Middle?
At the Seattle Opt-Out Facebook page, there's this:
WASHINGTON MIDDLE SCHOOL PRINCIPAL SUSAN FOLLMER HARASSING STUDENTS FOR OPTING OUT. FROM A WMS PARENT:Anyone from Washington experiencing this? I sure hope not because no principal should be talking to any student like this. That conversation belongs between a principal and a parent.
"students at WMS are being harassed by the principal for opting out---any advice? Kids are sent to the office during testing --today the principal told my 7th grader that he wasn't being a team player and he should tell his parents to stop opting him out."
Comments
Have not many of the more experienced staff left and in turn she has stacked the deck with more pliable non tenured Teachers who think her "mission" is fantastic?
Back in the day they used to boot those Principals, I recall the Principal at Ingraham being canned, another at Rainier Beach and I think Sealth. This was back in the day now they promote them. I would think its cheaper overall to pay them off like they used to do and let them sink another ship. Oh wait that is how they got Follmer.
- SPS Old Timer
This year, JAMS sent opted out student to the office during SBAC. It was noisy, there was no place to get any actual work done, and, it was not lost on him/her that that is where you send misbehaving kids for bad behavior. In effect, s/he was punished.
So, the school board was alerted, but nothing has been done.
These tests are poorly written, not marked by professionals (hello craigslist!), and results do not inform instruction. And, worst of all, they cost millions.
We opt out because they are of no benefits for our child, or, we believe, any child. But, they do harm kids and cost the system money that could otherwise be put into the classroom.
If everyone opted out, the system would be forced to confront the uselessness of these poorly designed, non-robust tests.
OPT OUT
WMS Parent
The Levy funding should be delinked from test scores. That would take away principals' incentive to behave as mentioned in this post. Students should not be viewed as sources of income. They should be viewed as humans who need an education. Sounds like funding issues hit this principal upside the head and caused her to forget why the school is there in the first place.
-WMS O.O.C.
I just want to them to either do what the district says is their job or change that webpage.
I'd also really like to hear - in detail - exactly what they do.
Deflect & push paper would be my guess.
Does anyone think they actually make a difference in the life of any child? Just curious.
(In hockey, we'd call them 'the enforcers' as best as I can tell)
And yes, I have heard very unsettling first hand reports about WMS since new principal was installed. Including attempted daniel of SpEd services. So the opt-out story lines up with what I know another family endured.
OPT OUT
FNH
Madness
The last time I was there I had never seen anything like it. I knew when I met that woman my first thought was "battle ax" and my other was "out of here" and I left and came back the following year to exactly what I suspected - chaos. And there was was some of that as JAMS and may still be but again that was a new school with a lot of green around the gills teachers. The ones from Hamilton that transferred were not happy there either. But now Hamilton has had what 3 Principals in 3 years too?
WMS is not the school it was and will never be again. I suspect that old rep will go to Meany and talk about a switch on that plate. I recall when that school was a hot mess and the very staff that worked there went to WMS and there they are round two.
- SPS Old Timer
So we'll end this discussion here.